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The first Wild West Shows with Wild Bill Hickock and Texas Jack Omohundro was held at the Niagara Falls Museum on August 28 th and 30 th , 1872. Sydney Barnett the museum owners son, originally met with Buffalo Bill Cody in 1869 asking for help in staging a Buffalo Hunt and Wild West Show at Niagara Falls. Buffalo Bill agreed to do the show and Sydney began telling the public that the famous Buffalo Bill was coming to orchestrate this great event.
Money was requested and sent to Buffalo Bill a number of times. A couple of years past and it appeared Bill was not to keen in catching live buffalo since he had only killed them and was not to interested in doing the show. The Frank North of the famous North Brothers wrote to Barnett telling him to forget about Buffalo Bill as he was never going to come good on their deal. North then put Barnett in touch with Hickock and James Butler Hickock agreed to be the master of ceremonies and capture live Buffalo . To ensure the success of his new partner Sydney headed south and participated in rounding up three buffalos.
The Wild West Show finally opened on August 28 th 1872 . Approximately 3000 people filled the 50,000 seats that were made available. Sac and Fox Natives appeared in full war customs, along with Texas Jack and a Mexican Vaguero Troupe to perform a buffalo hunt. The show also included war nuances, lassoing of cattle and a group of Cayuga and Tuscarora Native Americans playing a game of lacrosse. Reviews of the show were mixed and Barnett lost $20,000.00 with the cost of the show and monies that Buffalo Bill had received from the museum.
The Barnett's and museum never recovered only to go bankrupt in 1878 and the museum was auctioned. The museum collection did however stay in tack till it closed its doors a few years ago. Buffalo Bill went on to make a success out of the Wild West Show but many believe it was the idea of Sydney Barnett.
Article
Moon, Peter. "Buffalo Bill Blew It, and Wild Bill Hickok didn't do much better". The Canadian, Sept. 12, 1970. Buffalo Bill Blew It,
and Wild Bill Hickok didn't do much better
Event Poster from 1872. |
Imagine it: it's 1872 and a herd of buffalo is thundering by the front of the grandstand at Niagara Falls, Ont. The Indians, in war bonnets and war paint, are whooping and shouting as they gallop past. The Mexican cowboys are whirling their lariats and firing their rifles into the air. And masterminding the whole spectacular affair is Wild Bill Hickok, a six-gun strapped on each hip and his shoulder length hair blowing in the wind.
With such an exciting spectacle, Canadian promoter Sidney Barnett had it all figured out - he just had to attract 50,000 or even more spectators and make a handsome profit.
But he didn't. In fact, he lost about $ 20,000.
The man who owns this rare poster is Gauthier dit Landreville, owner of Winnipeg's Author's Shop, and he claims has unearthed the story behind the poster after reading through a collection of old letters he found in Niagara Falls, Ont.
The way Landreville pieces the story together, Sidney Barnett got taken, by Buffalo Bill Cody. And the man who tried to save Barnett from financial disaster was Wild Bill Hickok, the famous Western lawman.
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 They were involved in the first Wild West show: from left, Wild Bill Hickok, Texas Jack Omohundro, Buffalo Bill Cody.
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"Although Barnett called it a Grand Buffalo Hunt," dit Landreville says, "it was really a Wild West Show. Barnett staged his show in 1872 and Buffalo Bill didn't start his highly successful Wild West Show until 1883. There's little doubt in my mind that Buffalo Bill got the whole idea from Barnett. This was a Canadian first. From it came Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, and the whole idea of the rodeo."
This is how dit Landreville interprets the contents of the letters in his collection:
In 1869, Buffalo Bill was a top Indian Scout for the
U.S. Army in Nebraska. Probably attracted by Buffalo Bill's reputation, Barnett wrote to him, seeking his help in capturing some buffalo for a Grand Buffalo Hunt he was planning to hold in Niagara Falls. Buffalo Bill answered Barnett on March 29, 1869. In the letter, Buffalo Bill agreed to get the buffalo and said: "It is a big job but it can be done...Money will do anything."
But Buffalo Bill didn't seem to have been in any hurry. In May, 1872, Barnett himself traveled to Nebraska to try and expedite the capture of his herd of buffalo. Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack had undertaken to capture them at $1000 a head and get them by rail to Niagara Falls. But they never did and Barnett had twice been forced to cancel his Grand Buffalo Hunt.
Somehow, Barnett, who by now was desperate, contacted Wild Bill Hickok, a more reliable man than Buffalo Bill. Finally, after three years, on Aug. 28, 1872, the world's first Wild West show took place. Next day, both the Toronto Globe and the Toronto Mail panned it on their front pages.
The Globe's headline read: "The Buffalo Hunt, The Whole Thing A Farce." Said the Mail: " In consequence of this wide spread advertisement, about 1500 people were present on the grounds... But they were doomed to be disappointed. At two o'clock about 100 Indians came on the ground and amused themselves playing lacrosse until a few minutes after three o'clock, when seven Mexicans, headed by 'Wild Bill', entered the enclosure and commenced chasing a poor steer which was quietly browsing, and having succeeded in getting it to trot, it was lassoed and quickly thrown to the ground....:
But the biggest disappointment was the performance of the buffalo which, according to various newspaper accounts, ranged in number from two to three. The beasts simply stood still while the Indians fired blunt arrows at them. The crowd jeered and shouted protests and the whole affair was a disaster.
The show broke Barnett financially and he finished his life as a traveling book salesman in South America. |
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