BUFFALO BILL – WILD WEST SHOW
TRANSPORTATION BY RAIL AN ENORMOUS PRODUCTION OF CAST, LIVESTOCK AND EQUIPMENT
When Buffalo Bill’s touring Wild West extravaganza visited England in August 1903, its itinerary included
Brighton, Guildford, Tunbridge Wells, Eastbourne, Hastings and on to Ashford and more of Kent.
For one day only, at each town stop, performed “twice daily, come rain or shine”, before dismantling and moving on to the next location.
The local press advertisements declared Col. W. F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) would utilise four special trains to convey 500 horses and 800 people. Offering “thrilling episodes, struggles, escapes, adventures, marksmanship,
and unique pastimes of Border life. 100 Redskin Braves, including the famous Warriors of the Sioux, Ogallallas, Brules, Uncapappas, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe tribes in Indian pastimes and Dances…. Cowboys and Cowgirls in true pictures of the Western Plains…. [a reenactment of] The Attack upon the Deadwood Stage Coach… and The Battle of San Juan Hill. All the exciting events of actual warfare and battle… Intense and vivid in its actuality.
Buffalo Bill, the master exponent of horseback marksmanship, in his wonderful exhibition of shooting while riding a galloping horse.” Sideshows included snake charming and the “human ostrich, who partook of repeated doses of indigestible articles”. When the Congress of Rough Riders of the World pitched their tents in Buckshole Field, Hastings on 20 Aug 1903, for example, “the weather in the evening was of the hurricane character but the performance was gone through all the same”.
Research and imagery:
Danny Coope / Street of Blue Plaques
http://streetofblueplaques.co.uk/
