The William F. Cody Archive: Documenting the life and times of Buffalo Bill

 

Buffalo Bill to Live Over His Daring Feats and Indian Battles for Movies

Idol of West Will Enact Scenes for Essanay Company.

Films to Be Greatest Ever Shown, Is Promise of G. K. Spoor.

The last stand of the Cheyennes, the battles of Wounded Knee, the Little Big Horn, the Mission and all other big engagements of the pioneer days of the West, in which William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) took part, are to be featured in all parts of the world in moving picture films. The battles are to be fought over again for the Essanay Film Manufacturing company of Chicago.

Not only will Buffalo Bill be the stellar attraction in the great battles between the soldiers and Indians, but his whole life and service to the West will be shown from his boyhood days. He is to be pictured as the buffalo hunter, the Indian scout, the pacifier of the reds, the greatest factor in the settlement of the plains, the real pathfinder and trail blazer, one to whom the West owes a debt of everlasting gratitude.

The contract was closed Wednesday night for the production of the Buffalo Bill films by one of the greatest moving picture organizations in the world. Buffalo Bill, Indians, cowboys and all the other characters are to fight all over again the terrific battles of plain and canon on the exact spots where the original engagements took place. They are expected to be the most realistic pictures ever produced, with none of the true-to-life details lacking.

EXPENSE NOT CONSIDERED, DISTANCE OBLITERATED

Expense is not to be considered and time and distance are to be obliterated. The great film company's motive is to produce, for the benefit of the world, the thrilling adventures of Buffalo Bill, the idol of the youth and the grown-ups of many nations.

The films are designed not only to be of surpassing interest from the standpoint of the thriller, but of inestimable value as an educator both to young and old. The Essanay company leads all others in its efforts to keep in advance in educational lines and is the pioneer in that line.

Can the imaginative mind bring to view a more pleasing bit of entertainment than to sit for an hour or two and watch the nation's beloved hero of the plains, Buffalo Bill, fight again the awful battles with the savage red men; watch him leading the blue coated soldiers to victory over the Indians at the battle of the Little Big Horn, or his bravery and daring at Pine Ridge and a hundred other bloody battle grounds? It will be Buffalo Bill in real life, and many of the self-same Indians who aimed the deadly arrows at his waving locks.

START TO WAR GROUNDS TO BE MADE OCTOBER 1

The movie outfit and Buffalo Bill will start on October 1 for the old battle and hunting grounds. The arrangements are to be completed by George K. Spoor, president; Charles F. Stark, commercial manager and general manager, and V. R. Day of the Essanay Film company. They have been here a week. They pledge the reputation of their firm that the movies of Buffalo Bill and the battles will be nearer historically correct than any other attempt of theirs.

On this same jaunt they are to show the progress of the Indian from his most savage state when a blanket and a rifle or bows and arrows were his only companions, to his present civilized and progressive state, including his schools and colleges, his farms and modern homes and his handiwork in a thousand ways.

The Essanay company, which was the very first to depict the Western cowboy as he really lived and had his being, is looking into the question of mines of Colorado with a view of showing mining scenes in its great educational campaign. The mines of the olden days are to be shown in comparison with those of modern times. The scenes are all to be laid in this state.

ESSANAY FILM PIONEER IN EDUCATIONAL LINE.

Just as George K. Spoor, president of this great concern, with its offices in Paris, Berlin, London and other cities of the old world, is one of the original moving picture men of America, so is his company the pioneer along educational lines by means of films.

Spoor did not tell what he would do by [illustration] GEORGE K. SPOOR, President of the Essanay Film Company, Who Is Completing Arrangements for Taking the Greatest Series of Moving Pictures Ever Exhibited in the Country. "Buffalo Bill" Will Be Shown in the Famous Battles When He Helped Win the West for the White Man. way of introducing the movie into the schools and colleges of the land, but went ahead and made the arrangements to have it done. The film is to be the first aid in the mechanical engineering courses in college. The United States Steel corporation is using it to show its salesmen how to sell its goods, show how its product is being made and how to carry on work with safety to employe and employer alike.

The Essanay people are the first to introduce the "safety first" movement via the film route. They are showing railroad men how to get on and off cars, just as the steel corporation shows its men how to operate safely in its mills.

PRESIDENT SPOOR BORN MOVING PICTURE MAN.

President Spoor comes from a railroad family, but is a born movie man. His plants are in Chicago, Niles, Cal., and Ithaca, N. Y. Efficiency and truthfulness are the keynotes. Every approved method is used and some that are not known to say other moving pictures makers are daily in use in the big plants.

President Spoor made some of the first pictures in America fiften yars [sic] ago. He was the first manufacturer to invade Europe. His mind is a daily moving picture film, for he is constantly devising some new method better to please the public, and is always inspired by the highest ideals. He taboos the vulgar and the cheap grade of pictures, and leans to the educational, the patriotic and true to life.

President Spoor is taking more personal interest in the proposed Buffalo Bill viws [sic] than in any other series ever undertaken by his company. He is a lifelong admirer of the great scout and Indian fighter, hunter and trapper, and says that it is his firm belief that Buffalo Bill had more to do with the remarkable progress and development of the West than any other person.

Banner image: Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming, U.S.A.; Original Buffalo Bill Museum Collection, P.69.118