WOULD THE REAL WILLIAM CODY PLEASE STAND UP?

Bram Stoker's Dracula (as played by Gary Oldman)












Bill Cody

My blog entry title is in reference to a televised game show that was on when I was young. In the show, three people all claimed to be a person responsible for some type of special achievement. One was really that person, and the other two would pretend to be. A panel of celebrities (B & C list as I recall) would get to ask a series of questions from each of the three contestants before guessing which one was the real McCoy. After making their choices, the host would ask the real person to please stand up and reveal themselves.

In Memory & Myth at the Buffalo Bill Museum, authors Dickinson, Ott, & Aoki examine the museum, located in Cody, Wyoming, as a reflection and perpetuation of the myth of the American Frontier. They suggest that by omitting so much of the real American Frontier story from the museum, the real William Cody does not stand up. While accepting the Buffalo Bill version of Western Expansion, we as a nation fail to stand up. In sensationalizing select events from our push westward, featuring William Cody aka Buffalo Bill as the leading man, meaningful facts evaporates from our historical recount. Sadly, we were more than happy to substitute myth or partial truths over whole truths. –And why not? The Buffalo Bill version is fun. It’s certainly easier to digest. It allows us to feel good about ourselves as we relate with the admirable characteristics like ruggedness, determination, and self-sufficiency. Once we add the characteristics like “land thieves”, or “Indian & buffalo slaughterers”, it’s a little more palatable to claim self defense and go back to focusing on the good stuff. To me, the most distasteful part of it all: We justified our actions through Manifest Destiny, and portrayed ourselves as victims at the hands of savages, fighting to do God’s will.

It’s really not hard to figure out why we choose to accept the myth of the American Frontier, but how did a few historical events evolve into Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, playing to cheering crowds home & abroad? Secondly, how has the myth been perpetuated so long? Hell, most of us admire Indians now, and wish to feel a spiritual connection to the earth we inhabit.
We’ll start with how the myth was built. William Cody “had the goods” on which to build a legend. He was on the front line of western expansion. He left home in 1857 at age 11 and herded cattle in Kansas. My 12 year old son can’t even keep his room clean. Later, he was a driver on wagon trains and crossed the Great Plains several times. He became Cody The scout, Cody The Hunter (earning his name Buffalo Bill), Cody The Hunting Guide, Cody The Pony Express Rider, even Cody The Avenger (remember the drawing of Cody triumphantly holding the scalp of Yellow Hand?). Today, platinum record selling pop starts who can’t sing well, write well, or play an instrument are created through a stream of presented images. Cody, thru the help of dime store novelist Ned Buntling, and thru his own self promotion, was a star ready to rise. Through Buntling’s effort’s and Cody’s eager willingness, “more dime store novels were written about Buffalo Bill than any other western character”. Evidently, Buntling was so enthralled with Buffalo Bill that he helped create and perform in Buffalo Bill’s first theatrical show – before Buffalo Bill’s Wild West was launched. Maybe Buntling had a little “man crush” going on.

In addition to the many men Cody was throughout his life, how about this one: Cody the Vampire? I came across an interesting article titled “Did Buffalo Bill inspire Dracula” that appears in the Casper Star-Tribune online out of Casper Wyoming. www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2003/07/13/news/wyoming/7613bdfc83189dd4cb15d85ba1f0a2ff.txt
The article suggests that Bram Stoker was not as enthralled with Cody as was his English countrymen. To Stoker, “Cody…symbolized the transformative power of the frontier, the way that going west and conquering could make Americans something more free and powerful. According to Louis Warren, a professor at the University of California, “The vampire was Bram Stoker’s dark vision of the same frontier transformation, the shifting of self into other, the loss of will and restraint before a new self that was soulless, consuming, irresistible….The ghost of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West haunts this greatest work of vampire fiction.”

In 1883, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West was launched. Of great importance in the paper by Dickinson et al., “Cody never referred to his Wild West as a show”. Cody looked the part, played the part, & was a superb storyteller….A true ringmaster, much like P.T. Barnum. He had the characters and props to entertain all. Hey ladies, tired of being portrayed as a helpless victim? I give you Annie Oakley. Oakley before joining Buffalo Bill’s Wild West in 1885, the same year as Sitting Bull, travelled with the circus and teamed with fellow sharp shooter named Baughman as the “Champion rifle dead-shots of the world.

BBWW became so popular in America; the performers packed up and played in front of huge British crowds. According to the BB Museum & Grave web site, this tour was credited for improving British & American relations. Cody, now known by all as Buffalo Bill, continued capitalized on his growing fame, and a legend was born.

Cody the man, who indeed lived much of the rugged life portrayed at the museum & in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, probably would have been remembered regionally for a few generations. Buffalo Bill, the legend lives on even today, and with it, the myth of the American Frontier. The dime store novels have long since faded. It’s been a century since the last Wild West show. So how, exactly, is the myth so strongly perpetuated? According to the Dickinson et al. paper, we need to look no farther than the Buffalo Bill Museum. Are you ready for the first piece of irony? The museum was funded in part by William Robertson Coe, an Englishman. This guy really liked playing Cowboys & Indians! Dickinson et al. write “…Coe believed that Americans took their traditions for granted…He saw the Buffalo Bill Museum as a powerful site for this pedagogy (legitimate education).” The authors of the paper use the term pedagogy several times and take great pains to warn us that the Buffalo Bill Museum should not be viewed as a Mecca for those seeking an education on the American Frontier.

In closing, William Cody was many things. Was he a hero or a villain? The complicated answer to this seemingly easy question, is yes.