Wild West Shows
From the 1870s and until the end of the 1920s, traveling vaudeville groups marketed as Wild West Shows were popular throughout the United States, and some of the groups also traveled abroad.
The earliest shows were theatrical stage productions, and from these open-air shows evolved. The Wild West Shows depicted a romanticized version of frontier life, with cowboys, army scouts, Native Americans, outlaws, etc. Some shows also included animals.
For many spectators, the Wild West shows were their main exposure to the idea of the Wild West.
| Show Name | Operator / Founder | Active Years | Notable Performers | Distinctive Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buffalo Bill’s Wild West | William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody & Nate Salsbury | 1883–1913 | Annie Oakley Sitting Bull Chief Joseph Gabriel Dumont Lillian Smith | The benchmark of the genre; toured Europe and North America with arena-scale stagecoach ambushes and historical battle reenactments. |
| Pawnee Bill’s Historic Wild West | Gordon William “Pawnee Bill” Lillie | 1888–1908 | May Lillie Geronimo Pawnee Scouts | Emphasized Native American cultural heritage and trick riding; merged with Cody in 1908 as the combined “Two Bills” show. |
| 101 Ranch Real Wild West | The Miller Brothers (George, Joe & Zack) | 1905–1931 | Bill Pickett Will Rogers Tom Mix Yakima Canutt | Originating from an active 110,000-acre Oklahoma ranch; Bill Pickett invented steer wrestling (bulldogging) here. |
| Col. Zack Mulhall’s Wild West Show | Col. Zack Mulhall | 1899–1910s | Lucille Mulhall Will Rogers Tom Mix | Headlined Madison Square Garden in 1905; launched Lucille Mulhall as “America’s First Cowgirl” and elevated competitive roping. |
| Dr. Carver’s Wild West Show | Dr. William Frank Carver | 1883–1890s | W.F. Carver Lillian Smith Diving Horses | Founded by Cody’s original 1883 co-partner after an early split; heavily featured extreme precision marksmanship and diving horses. |
| Buck Taylor’s Wild West | William Levi “Buck” Taylor | 1890s | Buck Taylor | Led by Cody’s original arena star, whose real-life exploits established the romantic “King of the Cowboys” archetype in dime novels. |
| Cummins’ Indian Congress | Col. Frederick T. Cummins | 1890s–1910s | Red Cloud Tribal Delegations | Focused on multi-tribal encampments and formal assemblies at international World’s Fairs (such as the 1898 Omaha Expo). |
| Jones Bros. & Wilson Wild West | J. Augustus Jones | 1900s–1910s | Bronc Riders Trick Ropers | Integrated railroad circus infrastructure with authentic frontier arena acts to tour secondary North American markets. |
History
After the end of the American Civil War in 1865, dime novels depicting frontier life in the American West became a popular feature in stores throughout the country. These little books were cheap to buy and could therefore reach a big audience. Stories about “the wild west” would also appear in magazines – sometimes as serialised stories that would span multiple issues.
These stories helped propel mainstream interest in the wild west, paving the way for the early Wild West Shows. One novel in particular – one written by Ned Buntline and published in 1868 – would come to have a huge impact. This was a novel about a bison hunter, army scout and guide named William Frederick Cody – more well known under his nickname Buffalo Bill. Buffalo Bill wasn’t a pure figment of Buntlines active imagination; he wrote the novel “Buffalo Bill, the King of Border Men” after meeting the real William Cody on a train from California to Nebraska.
In 1872, the theatrical production “The Scouts of the Prairie” debuted in Chicago, a show based on Buntlines novel. The show featured Cody, Buntline, John Baker Omohundro (“Texas Jack”) and the ballerina Giuseppina Morlacchi. The show toured the American theater circuit for two years.
In 1874, when Buntline had already left the group, Cody founded the Buffalo Bill Combination. Soon, James Butler Hickok (“Wild Bill Hickok”) joined the group to headline a new play named “Scouts of the Plains”, but he never adapted well to being on the stage and was released from his contract a few months later after shooting out a spotlight that focused on him during a performance.
In various configurations, western-themed performance groups headed by Buffalo Bill continued to tour the country, bringing wild west performances to cities, towns and villages near and far. In 1883, he founded the famous Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, an outdoor attraction that toured annually and contained trick performances, shooting displays, rodeo events, theatrical reenactments of battle scenes, captive-kept wild animals from western USA, and various stock characters from frontier life.
Today, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West – which last until 1915 – is hailed as the archetypal Wild West Show.
Beyond the Wild West show
Even though the travelling vaudeville Wild West show largely fell out of favour with the public towards the end of the 1920s, the interest in frontier life that it had helped propel remained and was channelled into western movies, modern rodeos, circuses and similar types of entertainment. Eventually, western-themed TV-shows also appeared.