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Bill's Death-Deal or The Wandering Jew of the West, 1898 Prentiss Ingraham, 1843-1904 Beadle's Dime Library RC2006.068.4.01221 |
On December 23, 1869 the media-driven mythification of Cody to Buffalo Bill began with the publication of the serialized story Buffalo Bill, the King of the Border Men in Street & Smith's New York Weekly. Its author was the popular romance writer Ned Buntline (nee Edward Zane Carroll Judson) who had met Cody earlier in Fort McPherson, Nebraska. It would be the first of more than 1700 stories about Buffalo Bill. Although newspaper stories credit Buntline with the great majority, it was Colonel Prentiss Ingraham who wrote the most Cody novels between 1882 and 1904. Ingraham staged a highly successful play about Buffalo Bill, called Knight of the Plains, or Buffalo Bill's Best Trail for the tour of 1879. By 1884 he also served Cody as an advance agent for the Wild West Show. It is obvious that Ingraham's Buffalo Bill stories served dual purposes of providing entertainment that fueled the imagination and of advertising and promoting Cody's Wild West show.
The year 1872 was an eventful one for Cody. In January he guided the hunting party of the Grand Duke Alexis, a member of the Russian royal family. The party included Texas Jack Omohundro, General Sheridan, and General George Armstrong Custer. In April he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for gallantry in action at Platte River, Nebraska (the 1869 Battle of Summit Springs). Finally, Ned Buntline persuaded Cody to assume the romanticized role of Buffalo Bill on stage by starring in his play, The Scouts of the Plains, which opened in Chicago on December 17, 1872 and co-starred Texas Jack. In 1873 Wild Bill Hickok joined Texas Jack and Buffalo Bill on stage. The traveling theatrical troupe called the Buffalo Bill Combination was formed. Despite a falling out with Buntline, Cody remained an actor for eleven seasons.
Shortly after Custer was killed at Little Big Horn on July 17, 1876, Cody with the Fifth Cavalry encountered Indians near Hat Creek a short distance from War Bonnet Creek (the erroneously designated site of the battle) in northwest Nebraska. Cody killed Yellow Hair, a Cheyenne chief and supposedly scalped him, held the scalp up, and declared, "The first scalp for Custer." For a time, the scalp was employed as an advertising display item for Cody's Wild West Show.
In 1877 Cody established a ranch near North Platte, Nebraska and named it Scouts Rest Home. In 1882, to celebrate the Fourth of July, Cody put on the "Old Glory Blowout" at his ranch. It is heralded as the beginning of rodeo and considered a trial run for his Wild West Show.
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