The American Buffalo

Man: Buffalo Bill was a good fellow, and while he was no great shakes as a scout as he made the Eastern people believe, still we all liked him, and we had to hand it to him, because he was the only one that had brains enough to make that Wild West stuff pay money.

Teddy Blue Abbott.

Narrator: By 1889, Buffalo Bill Cody was the most famous American in the world.

To millions of people, he had become the dashing embodiment of a mythic West of bygone times.

As a young man, he had worked as a buffalo hunter for the railroads and a scout for the army during the Indian wars.

His exploits had been publicized-- and greatly exaggerated-- in scores of dime novels, some of which he turned into theatrical performances, always featuring Cody himself in the starring role.

The stage eventually proved too confining and he launched "Buffalo Bill's Wild West," an outdoor show that promised "a year's visit West in 3 hours."

It was, Buffalo Bill said, "a noisy, rattling, gunpowder entertainment," featuring real cowboys and real Indians, Pony Express riders and Mexican vaqueros, and a series of vignettes supposedly demonstrating the history of the West-- and Cody's glorified role in it.

The Deadwood Stagecoach was attacked-- and saved by Buffalo Bill.

A wagon train was raided and saved by Buffalo Bill.

A settler's cabin was surrounded by Indians and saved by Buffalo Bill.

A re-enactment of the Battle of the Little Bighorn-- "Custer's Last Stand"-- ended with Buffalo Bill showing up while the words "TOO LATE" were displayed.

Each performance also included a stampede of buffalo and a mock hunt with Cody and his compatriots firing blank cartridges at the animals.

The crowds couldn't get enough of it.

O'Brien: People loved these buffalo.

And he became the Great Plains' first roadside hustler.

Narrator: A million people attended his shows on Staten Island one summer.

Another million paid to see him that winter at Madison Square Garden, where 20 of Cody's bison perished from pneumonia.

He managed to replenish them from his ranch in Nebraska and, later, with 7 he bought from Molly and Charles Goodnight's growing herd.

Rinella: It's amazing how these transitions were so abrupt that a guy that kills 4,000 then becomes a guy, within a decade or two, becomes a guy who's trying desperately to find a couple in order to take them on the road to teach people about what they lost, "they" being him... the other day, right?

It's astounding.

Narrator: In 1887, during a triumphant tour of Europe, Cody took his show to England for the celebration of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, bringing along 97 Native Americans and 18 buffalo.

Woman: "The Birmingham Gazette," November 4th, 1887.

Additional interest is attached to the buffaloes by the fact that they are almost the only survivors of what is nearly an extinct species.

According to Colonel Cody, there are not so many buffaloes on the whole American continent as there are in the exhibition.

Narrator: The Deadwood Stagecoach carried the kings of Denmark, Greece, Belgium, and Saxony, along with the Prince of Wales, while Cody himself drove the stage during a simulated Indian attack.

"I've held 4 kings," Buffalo Bill told a reporter, "but 4 kings and the Prince of Wales makes a royal flush such as no man ever held before."

He became so famous that he would put up posters that showed some buffalo running.

In an oval cutout, in the center of the most prominent buffalo, was just his face.

And it would say, in bold letters, "I am coming."

He even had those in French.

Most Americans had never been to the Great Plains, of course.

That's still true.

But most Americans got their buffalo from Wild West or from Hornaday's glass box at the Smithsonian.

These played an incalculably large media role, public relations role, in building a constituency in the country to do something to save this creature from extinction.