BUFFALO BILL'S FAILURE.
The pecuniary troubles which have overtaken WILLIAM F. CODY (Buffalo Bill) in his old age will touch the heart of the people, who have lately been somewhat neglectful of the veteran showman. The glory of his Wild West Show, of course, was dimmed many years ago. Latterly it had been combined with a Far East Show in which Tartars and Arabs appeared with their Oriental steeds, their elephants and camels, in contrast with the mustangs and the bison, and the survivors of the red Indians of the Western plains. A queer mélange, to be sure, but a good show of its kind, with exhibitions of expert horsemanship and marksmanship in plenty.
A real pioneer and prairie scout in his young manhood, actually of the line of BOONE, CARSON, and CROCKETT, CODY conceived the idea of turning showman forty years ago, and in partnership with E. Z. C. JUDSON, the Ned Buntline of a simpler era, produced a stage play called "The Scouts of the Plains," with which he made a fortune. The drama, however, was not his field, though he often dabbled in theatrical ventures. His prodigious triumph came with the realization of his conception of a Wild West Show epitomizing the border and pioneer life of half a century. This occupied not a stage but a vast arena, in which the Indians encamped, the bandits robbed the Deadwood stage, and the cowboys pursued their vocation. Buffalo Bill reached the highest pinnacle of his fame in his tours of Great Britain in the nineties. There he was accounted by the multitude the greatest of all Americans. Not even Artemus Ward or JOHN PHILIP SOUSA was regarded in England as quite the peer of CODY.
More than a year ago he complained that the rivalry of the moving picture business was hurting his business. Perhaps that was one of the influences which caused his failure; moving pictures have revealed vividly the life of the whole world to the untraveled at a very small cost. But the interest in the perils of pioneering and the picturesque life of the unsettled West is not so keen with the present generation as with its predecessor.
Title: Buffalo Bill's Failure
Periodical: The New York Times
Date: July 30, 1913
Topics: Buffalo Bill on Film
People: Buntline, Ned, 1822 or 1823-1886 Sousa, John Philip, 1854-1932 Ward, Artemus, 1834-1867
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