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 BUFFALO BILL | “‘First Scalp For Custer’”

BUFFALO BILL | “‘First Scalp For Custer’”

Released Wednesday, 27th December 2023
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 BUFFALO BILL | “‘First Scalp For Custer’”

BUFFALO BILL | “‘First Scalp For Custer’”

 BUFFALO BILL | “‘First Scalp For Custer’”

BUFFALO BILL | “‘First Scalp For Custer’”

Wednesday, 27th December 2023
Good episode? Give it some love!
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Episode Transcript

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by NCUA. Buffalo

1:16

Bill's premiere as an actor did not

1:18

go according to the plan or the

1:20

script. After he and

1:22

Texas Jack O'Majundro had met popular

1:25

writer Ned Buntline three years earlier,

1:27

Buntline's dime novels had helped make Bill

1:30

the most famous scout on the prairie.

1:33

One of those dime novels had been adapted

1:35

for the stage with an actor playing the

1:37

role of Buffalo Bill. The

1:39

play was such a hit that the

1:41

theater director wanted Bill to play himself

1:43

on stage. Bill had

1:45

horrible stage fright and was extremely hesitant

1:48

to try his hand at acting. Ned

1:51

Buntline sent letter after letter which

1:53

promised Bill riches if he became

1:55

a stage performer. But

1:57

it was only after Bill's friend, Texas Jack,

4:00

under the influence of quote, fire water.

4:03

Bunline was an actor within an actor. On

4:06

stage, he vehemently preached against

4:09

drinking alcohol. In private,

4:11

he was a notorious drink. That

4:13

night, by the time he finished his speech

4:16

and banged his rifle on the stage boards,

4:18

both Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack had forgotten

4:21

what they were supposed to say. They

4:24

ambled onto the stage and stood there

4:26

in silence. Bunline tried

4:28

to rescue them. He said, Buffalo

4:30

Bill, where you been? Bill

4:33

stared at the audience, trying desperately to

4:35

remember what he was supposed to say.

4:38

Buffalo Bill, Bunline said again, a

4:40

little louder, have you been

4:42

out hunting Buffalo? As

4:44

Bill scanned the audience, he saw a

4:47

familiar face. William

4:49

Milligan was a wealthy Chicago merchant who

4:51

had gone out to Nebraska earlier that

4:53

year to hunt Buffalo with Bill. And

4:56

since Bill couldn't remember his lines, he

4:58

started rambling about his hunt with Milligan.

5:02

He told them how Milligan wanted to prove himself

5:04

in a fight against the Sioux. Right

5:06

up until the moment he actually saw a

5:08

warrior on horseback across the prairie. The

5:11

audience laughed and when the story ended,

5:13

Texas Jack yelled to Bill that he

5:16

had spotted some Indians. Extras

5:18

in loincloths rushed on stage, only

5:20

to fall before the rifles and

5:23

revolvers of Buffalo Bill, Texas Jack

5:25

and Ned Bunline. As

5:28

a whole, the show was over the

5:30

top melodrama. The writing was

5:32

bad and the acting by the scouts was

5:34

worse. Critics warned readers that

5:37

the show was one of the worst they had

5:39

ever seen. One reported,

5:42

there is a well-founded rumor that Ned

5:44

Bunline, who wrote the play in which

5:46

Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack appeared, took

5:48

only four hours to complete the task.

5:51

The question naturally arises, what

5:54

was he doing all that time? Another

5:56

critic said, As an artistic

5:59

success, Scouts of the

6:01

Prairie can hardly be called a

6:03

season's event but for downright phone engine

6:05

till and read Fire and rough and

6:07

Tumble it is a wonder. And

6:10

as Bill and Jack learned, the second

6:12

half of that review was all that

6:14

mattered. The play didn't have

6:17

to be Shakespeare, it just had to be

6:19

entertaining. The next night the

6:21

theater was packed a capacity and Buffalo

6:23

Bill and Texas Jack were on their

6:25

way to stardom. From

6:36

Black their own. This is legends of

6:38

the Old West. I'm your host Chris

6:40

Swimmer and this season were telling the

6:43

story of William F. Cody known as

6:45

Buffalo Bill, the man who turned the

6:47

American Frontier into the Wild West. This

6:50

is episode three First scalp for

6:52

cost. The.

7:02

Show moved on from Chicago to

7:04

every major city in the northeastern

7:06

United States. Playing. For over

7:08

eight weeks in more than thirty locations.

7:11

And just like been, line had promised. Buffalo.

7:14

Bill and Texas Jack were now richer than

7:16

they ever could have imagined. When.

7:19

They got on a train back to

7:21

Nebraska after their dramatic tour ended. A.

7:23

Reporter stop the men to ask if they

7:25

were returning to their old jobs as scouts.

7:28

Bill. Answered. I'm know damned

7:30

Scout now I'm a first class star.

7:34

Buffalo. Bill earned an incredible amount of

7:36

money as an actor. Same account

7:38

said it was thirty thousand dollars on

7:40

his first tour. The. Equivalent of

7:42

seven hundred fifty thousand dollars today

7:44

for six months of work. But.

7:47

He spent as much money as he made. Some.

7:50

Times renting out entire hotel force if

7:52

he thought his neighbors were too loud

7:54

and treating his money like it came

7:56

from a spring that would never go

7:58

dry. so the end

8:00

of that first tour, he was shocked to

8:02

find that he only had about $6,000 to his name.

8:07

Ned Buntline, who was reckless about almost

8:09

everything else in his life, but was

8:11

careful about money, had a

8:13

much more sizable war chest. Bill

8:16

decided that the writer was earning and keeping

8:18

way too much of the profit that his

8:20

show was generating. Bill and

8:22

Jack agreed to part ways with Buntline

8:25

and rewrite the show. And

8:27

while they were hunting in Nebraska, they reunited

8:29

with an old friend who agreed to join

8:31

them for their next tour. By

8:37

all accounts, Wild Bill Hickok was

8:40

a legendary lawman, a fearless scout,

8:42

and an expert pistolier. But

8:44

he wasn't much of an actor. Buffalo

8:46

Bill and Texas Jack didn't know that when

8:49

they invited him to join their show for

8:51

the second tour. Wild Bill

8:53

agreed to meet the two men in New York

8:55

City in the first week of September 1873. Buffalo

9:00

Bill headed to New York, while

9:02

Texas Jack married their former co-star,

9:04

Jessapina Moore Lockie, who agreed to

9:06

rejoin the show. While

9:09

the happy couple was honeymooning, and Wild Bill

9:11

was making his way to the city, Buffalo

9:14

Bill starred in Buffalo Bill, King

9:16

of the Bordermen. It

9:18

was the play that had introduced him to the

9:21

world of big time theater, and he had watched

9:23

an actor play the role of Buffalo Bill. Now

9:26

he would play the role himself and reap

9:28

all the rewards. Soon

9:30

afterward, advertisements for the new show were

9:33

printed up, which had changed the name

9:35

of Buntline's play from the Scouts of

9:37

the Prairie to the Scouts of the

9:39

Plains. It advertised Buffalo

9:42

Bill, Texas Jack, and Wild Bill

9:44

as the scouts, and the

9:46

peerless Moore Lockie, as Jessapina was known,

9:48

in the role of the Indian maiden.

9:51

The Show debuted in New York, and

9:53

it was immediately apparent that Wild Bill

9:55

was somehow an even worse actor than

9:57

his friends. The.

10:01

Plays opening scene was supposed to be

10:04

the three men sitting around a campfire,

10:06

passing a jug of whiskey and telling

10:08

each other and the audience about their

10:10

adventures. Buffalo Bill took a drink and

10:12

told a story about a Buffalo haunt

10:14

on the Nebraska Prairie. He.

10:16

Passed the job to Texas Jack who took

10:19

a swig and told the tale of a

10:21

fight with the Comanche and a cattle stampede

10:23

in Texas. Jack past

10:25

the job to hit Box who turned

10:27

it up, took a long drink, and

10:30

then spits the contents all over the

10:32

stage. You must think I'm

10:34

the worst fool east of the Rockies.

10:36

Her cortisone to his friends that I

10:38

can't tell whiskey from cold t this

10:41

don't count and I can tell a

10:43

story under the temptation unless I get

10:45

real whiskey. The audience

10:47

laughed and someone was sent to find

10:50

a real whiskey so the show could

10:52

continue. but he taught never warmed to

10:54

acting the way his friends did. he

10:57

increasingly felt like the show was a

10:59

farce and that the audience was laughing

11:01

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11:03

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Membership eligibility requirements and other restrictions

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12:15

Bill stuck with the show for nearly

12:17

seven months, during which time he often

12:19

entertained himself at the expense of the

12:21

extras in the show. He

12:24

fired hot gunpowder from his pistols at

12:26

the extras legs when he was supposed

12:28

to be firing over their heads. They

12:31

rolled around in agony when they were supposed

12:33

to be playing dead. Buffalo

12:35

Bill had turned some of the profits from

12:37

the first tour into a home in Rochester,

12:39

New York, where he had moved his wife

12:41

and children. When the tour was

12:43

scheduled to play his new hometown on March 10th, 1874,

12:48

Cody was anxious to impress his new

12:50

neighbors and he asked Hickok to take

12:52

the show seriously. Hickok

12:54

ignored his friend and pulled his old

12:56

prank of firing at the exposed legs

12:59

of a stage warrior. Backstage,

13:01

Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill argued,

13:04

with Texas Jack trying to desperately

13:06

calm his friends and keep the

13:08

act together. But it was no

13:10

use. Hickok stormed out of

13:12

the theater and never acted again. When

13:16

the show was over, Buffalo Bill and

13:18

Texas Jack found Hickok at the hotel

13:20

where he told them he had decided

13:22

to return to the West. To

13:25

show Hickok there were no hard feelings, Buffalo

13:27

Bill and Texas Jack paid him the rest

13:29

of his salary with an additional gift of

13:32

$1,000 and a pair

13:34

of Colt revolvers. Wild

13:36

Bill left town, bound for

13:38

Cheyenne and eventually his final fate

13:40

in the gold boom town of

13:42

Deadwood. Wild

13:48

Bill's departure from the troop didn't slow

13:50

their momentum. For four

13:52

more months, theaters were full

13:54

and ticket sales were robust. Buffalo

13:57

Bill was ready to start another tour immediately.

14:01

But Texas Jack had made an arrangement to

14:03

hunt in the Yellowstone with the Earl of

14:05

Dunn Raven, and Jack's wife was

14:07

heading to her Massachusetts farm for the summer.

14:10

In July of 1874, Cody

14:13

returned to Nebraska with Thomas P.

14:15

Medley, a wealthy Londoner who was

14:17

willing to pay $1,000 to have

14:19

Buffalo Bill serve as a guide.

14:22

The North Platte dentist turned sharpshooter named

14:24

Dr. William F. Carver joined them for

14:27

the hunt. When it

14:29

ended, Cody was hired by Captain

14:31

Anson Mills of the 3rd Cavalry

14:33

to scout for an expedition into

14:35

Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains. Earlier

14:37

in the summer, 1,200 soldiers

14:40

under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George

14:42

Armstrong Custer had set off for the

14:44

Black Hills to confirm reports of gold

14:47

in the area. Captain

14:49

Mills and his group were supposed to

14:51

intercept any Sioux warriors en route to

14:53

the hills. Bill wrote

14:55

home to tell his family, we are

14:58

directly in the stronghold of the Indians, and

15:00

I anticipate a lively time. I

15:03

will not get east for some time. But

15:06

the expedition lasted less than two months

15:08

and never encountered any Sioux. While

15:11

Bill waited for Texas Jack to finish his

15:14

trek through the Yellowstone, Cody hired

15:16

a new company and started a tour on

15:18

his own. Between shows,

15:20

he talked to reporters about his recent

15:22

scouting trip with the army and

15:24

what he saw as the inevitable fight over

15:27

gold in the Black Hills. He

15:29

said, the Indians do not care for the

15:32

march of United States troops through their country,

15:34

but when they see a miner with a pick

15:37

and spade, they know he comes to stay, and

15:39

they will scalp him if possible. Buffalo

15:43

Bill wrapped his solo tour in June of

15:45

1875 and returned to

15:47

his home in Rochester, New York, where

15:50

he spent the summer with his wife and children for

15:52

the first time in years. By

15:54

late August, Texas Jack was done

15:56

with his long hunt, and he

15:58

and his wife joined Bill for what

16:01

would be their last tour together. By

16:03

now, Bill and Jack were

16:05

seasoned actors with several successful tours

16:08

under their belts, and this

16:10

was their most ambitious tour yet. They

16:13

ventured into the Deep South with

16:15

visits to Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah,

16:17

Georgia, and Montgomery, Alabama before heading

16:20

into Texas. From

16:22

there, they turned north, eventually making

16:24

their way to Ontario, Canada. By

16:27

April of 1876, they had been on the

16:30

road for eight months and played more than

16:32

80 cities. But

16:34

with the end in sight, Buffalo Bill

16:36

would suffer a tragedy out of nowhere,

16:39

though it was one that would seem terribly

16:41

familiar. Cody

16:47

was summoned home by an urgent telegram

16:49

from his wife. He

16:51

was in Springfield, Massachusetts, and rushed out

16:53

after the first act of the show

16:55

to catch a train to Rochester. He

16:58

arrived just in time to hold his

17:00

son, Kit Carson Cody, for the

17:02

final hour of his life. When

17:05

five-year-old Kit died of scarlet fever on April

17:07

20th, 1876, it took the wind out of

17:12

Buffalo Bill's sails. He

17:14

sent a telegram to Texas Jack that said, My

17:16

only darling boy is dead. When

17:20

Bill rejoined the traveling show a few days

17:22

later, he told Jack that he had made

17:24

a decision. He would give

17:26

up the career he had built as an actor

17:28

over the last four years and return west, where

17:30

he hoped he could take up his old job

17:33

as a scout. Bill

17:35

said he would keep the show together until the

17:37

tour was done in six weeks, but after

17:39

that, he didn't expect to return

17:41

to the stage ever again. On

17:44

June 3rd, 1876, Buffalo

17:47

Bill, Texas Jack, and

17:49

Jessapine Amor-Locky played their final

17:51

show together. Heard

17:53

another tour booked or a Buffalo hunt to lead?

17:56

Bill headed to Philadelphia to join Texas Jack

17:58

to see the show. celebrate the nation's

18:01

centennial. In

18:07

the summer of 1876, citizens

18:10

from across the country streamed into

18:12

Philadelphia to celebrate the 100th

18:14

anniversary of the nation's founding. While

18:17

waiting for the festivities to begin, Bill

18:20

received a message from Captain Anson Mills

18:22

of the 3rd Cavalry, saying

18:24

tensions between settlers, Sioux and the Army

18:26

in the Black Hills were at an

18:28

all-time high. The captain

18:31

asked Bill to return to service as a

18:33

scout. Little did Bill

18:35

know that this would be nothing like the

18:37

previous uneventful expedition with Mills in 1874. Three

18:42

weeks after Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack's

18:44

last show together, five of

18:46

the 12 companies of the 7th

18:48

Cavalry, along with their commanding officer,

18:51

Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, were

18:53

wiped out in an encounter on the Little

18:56

Bighorn River in Montana. One

18:58

of the largest Native American forces

19:01

in recorded history, led by legendary

19:03

warriors Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gall,

19:05

American Horse and many others, dealt

19:08

the 7th Cavalry and the U.S. Army

19:10

as a whole a shocking blow. In

19:14

the aftermath of Custer's defeat, the Army

19:16

devoted a sizable force to tracking down

19:18

and defeating Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse

19:20

and the men who had followed them.

19:23

Cody signed on as Chief of Scouts

19:25

for Colonel Wesley Merritt and the 5th

19:28

Cavalry. At the end

19:30

of June, they learned that 800

19:32

Cheyenne warriors in Morning Stars Band

19:34

were headed to reinforce Crazy Horse

19:36

in the Powder River Country. The

19:39

5th rode out of Fort Laramie, Wyoming

19:41

to intercept. After dawn on

19:43

the morning of July 17, 1876, in

19:47

northwestern Nebraska, Cody

19:49

and his fellow scouts spotted a small

19:51

band of Cheyenne warriors riding in advance

19:54

of the main force. Cody's

19:56

detachment was worried that the warriors were

19:58

scouts who would give away the cavalry's

20:01

position. Cody and his men

20:03

hurried ahead to cut them off. The

20:06

army scouts descended into a ravine

20:08

on Warbonnet Creek. The

20:10

skirmish that followed was relatively small, but

20:13

would prove to be one of the most pivotal

20:15

moments in Buffalo Bill's life. Buffalo

20:17

Bill's version of the story is that

20:19

two army messengers were in danger of

20:22

being overtaken by the Cheyenne, and

20:24

that he and a few scouts dashed forward

20:26

to save them. The scouts

20:28

and the Cheyenne fought for a few

20:31

minutes, leaving three warriors dead. And

20:33

then Bill saw a handsomely decorated

20:35

war chief who shouted at him

20:37

in the Cheyenne language. Bill

20:40

said the two rode toward each other. Bill

20:42

fired his rifle to take out the

20:45

warrior's horse as his own steed tripped

20:47

in a hole and sent him tumbling.

20:49

Both men recovered and ran toward

20:51

one another. Both raised

20:54

their weapons and fired, but

20:56

the warrior's bullet missed its mark while

20:58

Buffalo Bill's aim was true. In

21:01

Bill's words, before he had

21:03

fairly touched the ground, I was

21:05

upon him, knife in hand, and had

21:08

driven the keen-edged weapon to its hilt

21:10

in his heart. Jerking

21:12

his war bonnet off, I

21:14

scientifically scalped him in about five

21:16

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24:00

wilderness, followed by a dramatic

24:02

tour of his own. The

24:04

men shook hands and parted as friends,

24:07

and they never performed together on stage again.

24:10

No one knows precisely what Buffalo Bill

24:12

and Texas Jack talked about when they

24:14

agreed to dissolve their partnership, but

24:17

it's safe to assume that one of

24:19

the topics was their mutual friend and

24:21

former stage partner, Wild Bill Hickok. That

24:24

summer, the summer of 1876, while

24:27

Bill and Jack were scouting for the army, Hickok

24:30

was seeking his fortune in the gold

24:32

mining camp of Deadwood, deep in the

24:34

Black Hills. Hickok

24:36

had recently married a famous circus

24:39

owner and performer named Agnes Thatcher

24:41

Lake. Hickok had spent

24:43

the money he had made as an unhappy actor, but

24:45

he was unable to return to his career

24:47

as a lawman because of his failing eyesight.

24:51

He partnered with his old friend, Colorado

24:53

Charlie Utter in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and headed

24:55

to the Black Hills. His

24:58

wife's circus was successful, and she was

25:00

a relatively wealthy woman, but Wild

25:02

Bill wanted to bring his own money to the marriage.

25:05

Deadwood was his last-ditch attempt to

25:07

earn a fortune before settling down

25:09

for good. Buffalo

25:12

Bill later said, I met

25:14

him on his way to the Black Hills, just

25:16

before he was killed. He said

25:18

he did not expect to come out again alive.

25:22

Hickok had good reason for his paranoia. He

25:25

knew that plenty of men either carried a

25:27

vendetta or had a longing to go down

25:29

in history as the man who gunned down

25:31

Wild Bill. On

25:33

August 1, 1876, Hickok was

25:35

gambling at Nutall and Mann's

25:37

Saloon No. 10 when a

25:39

no-account drifter named Jack McCall

25:41

walked into the saloon, lingered

25:44

by the bar for a few minutes, and

25:46

then, without warning, pulled a pistol

25:48

and shot Wild Bill in the head. Hickok

25:52

died instantly and was buried in a cemetery

25:54

on the edge of town by his friend

25:56

Charlie Utter. It was one

25:58

of the saddest endings for a genuine

26:00

legend of the old west and

26:02

it hit Buffalo Bill hard. Cody

26:09

had looked up to Wild Bill Hickok more

26:11

than perhaps any man he'd ever known. In

26:14

some ways, Hickok was a combination of the

26:17

older brother Buffalo Bill had lost when he

26:19

was seven and the father he had lost

26:21

when he was eleven. Cody

26:23

had grown his hair long and wore fringe

26:26

buckskins in order to look more like Wild

26:28

Bill. His entire life

26:30

as a scout was modeled after Hickok,

26:33

as were the performative nature and

26:35

self-promotional aspects of his persona. As

26:39

Buffalo Bill left Dakota territory to return

26:41

to the stage, he must have

26:43

been acutely aware that whatever happened next

26:45

would be completely different than what had

26:47

come before. His son

26:49

was gone, and even though his

26:51

adventures in the Black Hills had been a welcome

26:53

distraction, they did little to ease the

26:56

pain of his loss. Now

26:58

his old friend and mentor Wild Bill was

27:00

dead. His best friend

27:02

and partner, Texas Jack, wouldn't be on

27:04

stage with him. And worse,

27:07

Jack would be directly competing against

27:09

Buffalo Bill. And when

27:11

Jack went his own way, he took the star

27:13

power and talent of his wife with him, along

27:16

with the show's co-star and promotional

27:18

manager John Burke. Between

27:21

April and August of 1876,

27:23

so many things Bill relied

27:25

on had vanished. He

27:27

would have to start over and find a way

27:29

to rely mostly on himself in the next phase

27:32

of his life. Buffalo

27:37

Bill might be the star of his new show,

27:39

but he knew he couldn't do it alone. He

27:42

wrote to another scout named Captain Jack Crawford,

27:45

whom he'd met during his time in the

27:47

Black Hills. The new

27:49

play was loosely based on Bill's fight with yellow

27:51

hair. Bill played himself,

27:53

and Crawford played yellow hair. Starting

27:56

off in early October of 1876, in Bill's house. Bill's

28:00

adopted hometown of Rochester, the

28:02

show played for nine months. It

28:05

moved west for three weeks of

28:07

shows in San Francisco before playing

28:10

across California and winding up with

28:12

performances in Virginia City and Carson

28:14

City, Nevada. Cody

28:16

and Crawford made it to nearly the end

28:19

of the run without any major trouble, but

28:21

the luck didn't hold. On

28:24

June 28, 1877,

28:26

three shows before the end of the tour, Buffalo

28:29

Bill and Captain Jack were on stage

28:31

for the show's big finale, the duel

28:33

between the Great Scout and the Cheyenne

28:35

Warrior. Captain

28:37

Jack, as yellow hair, cocked his

28:39

pistol, placed it in his holster,

28:41

and mounted his horse to start the scene.

28:44

But as he drew the revolver,

28:47

it snagged and discharged prematurely. It

28:50

fired a blank cartridge into Jack's groin.

28:53

Crawford fell from his horse. Blood

28:55

soaked his leather breeches, but he struggled through

28:57

his fight with Buffalo Bill and the end

29:00

of the show. Afterward,

29:02

Crawford blamed Bill for the accident,

29:04

for some reason. The

29:06

two men fought and never reconciled over the

29:08

course of the next 40 years. For

29:12

the rest of Jack Crawford's life,

29:14

he publicly railed against Buffalo Bill,

29:16

and later Bill's Wild West shows.

29:19

Bill's first tour as both leading man

29:22

and show manager could be considered a

29:24

success overall, but it certainly didn't

29:26

end well. Nevertheless,

29:29

two months later, Buffalo Bill

29:31

was ready to start another tour. Rutherford

29:34

B. Hayes had become president in March of

29:36

1877, and the new administration brought

29:40

in a new Secretary of the Interior. The

29:43

Secretary brought new rules which allowed Bill,

29:46

for the first time, to recruit Sue

29:48

from the Red Cloud Agency to join

29:50

his show. The

29:52

new play, called May Cody, or

29:54

Lost in One, was based on

29:56

the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre

29:59

in the Bay. in Utah, in which a

30:01

Mormon militia and their Paiute allies killed

30:04

140 non-Mormon immigrants who

30:07

were bound for California. On

30:09

most days of the nine-month tour, the show cost

30:11

around $200 per show to produce and brought in

30:15

around $400. The

30:18

Sioux played Buffalo Bill's allies and proved

30:20

to be a huge attraction. Bill

30:23

was finding his way as a leading man

30:25

and a tour manager, and he made enough

30:27

money to make a major purchase. During

30:30

that tour, Bill bought cattle and

30:32

a ranch on Nebraska's Dismal River.

30:35

And despite his recent successes, he

30:37

started telling reporters that he was

30:39

planning on retiring from acting. In

30:42

reality, Bill was just getting started.

30:45

He would spend the next five years performing

30:47

in different kinds of shows. Each

30:50

one acted as a stepping stone toward

30:52

his crowning achievement, the spectacle

30:54

that would make him a world-famous showman.

31:02

Next time on Legends of the Old West, Buffalo

31:04

Bill does a couple more traditional

31:06

stage tours, then launches into a

31:08

series of shooting exhibitions with a

31:10

marksman named Doc Carver. That

31:13

show evolved directly into the legendary

31:15

Wild West show. Though, as

31:17

always, Bill experienced professional

31:20

success but continued to suffer

31:22

personal hardship and tragedy. That's

31:25

next week on Legends of the Old West.

31:29

Members of our Black Barrel Plus program

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don't have to wait week to week

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to receive new episodes. They receive the

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entire series to binge all at once

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with no commercials, and they also receive

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exclusive bonus episodes. Sign

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up now through the link in the

31:45

show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com.

31:48

Memberships are just $5 per month. This

31:51

series was researched and written by Matthew

31:53

Kearns. Original music by

31:55

Rob Valier. I'm your host and

31:58

producer, Chris Wimmer. Have you enjoyed the show?

32:00

So please leave us a rating and

32:02

a review on Apple podcasts or wherever you're

32:04

listening. Check out our website,

32:06

blackbarrelmedia.com for more details and join

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us on social media. We're

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at Old West podcast on

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all of our episodes are available on YouTube.

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