Читать книгу The Lost Diary of Annie Oakley’s Wild West Stagehand - Clive Dickinson - Страница 8

I ain’t never been to Chicago, so I can’t wait till the train pulls in tomorrow! Chicago has a special place in the story of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, because that’s where Buffalo Bill got his first taste of stardom, back in December 1872.

At that time he wasn’t called Buffalo Bill. He was plain William F. Cody, buffalo hunter, army scout, hero of the Indian wars and soon-to-be actor. He’d never acted in a theatre before and everyone could tell the only stage he’d ever been on was the overland stage out west.

But I guess the truth is, he didn’t need to be an actor. He was the real thing from the time he started working as a rider, carrying mail for the Pony Express, when he was just fourteen years old. Then the Kansas Pacific Railroad offered him $500 a month to supply twelve buffalo a day, to feed the 1,200 men laying the new railroad track across the Kansas prairie. In eight months, Cody killed 4,280 buffalo and got the name Buffalo Bill.

It wasn’t just buffalo he killed. In July 1876, when he was an army scout, he fought an Indian warrior called Yellow Hair single-handed, shot him dead and took his scalp. On top of all this, Buffalo Bill could shoot anything that moved. No wonder he was a showbiz hit from day one.

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West has been going since July 1883, and this summer, folks can’t get enough of it. Here’s hoping they like it as much in Chicago.