Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show

[DeborahJRushworth]

My great grandmother said she saw Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show in Colne when she was a little girl. Does anybody have anything on this? I've googled and it seems he was in Keighley in 1887 so perhaps it was part of the same tour? I think his show came to the North West again in 1904 and stayed in Salford for five months?!

[Whyperion]

Wikipedia mentions

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Tours Europe

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West toured Europe eight times, the first four tours were between 1887 and 1892, and the last four were from 1902 to 1906.

The Wild West first came to London in 1887 as part of the American Exhibition that coincided with the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. The Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, requested a private preview of the Wild West performance, he was impressed enough to arrange a command performance for Queen Victoria. The Queen enjoyed the show and meeting the performers, setting the stage for another command performance on June 20, 1887 for her Jubilee guests. Royalty from all over Europe attended, including the future Kaiser Wilhelm II and future King George V, these royal encounters provided Buffalo Bill’s Wild West an endorsement and publicity that ensured its success. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West closed its successful London run in October 1887 after over 300 performances and more than two and a half million tickets sold. The tour made stops in Birmingham and Manchester before returning to the U.S. in May 1888 for a short summer tour.

See the link for the later tours. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bill

And there are bits at the National Fairground Archive at University of Sheffield http://www.nfa.dept.shef.ac.uk/history/ ... dwest.html

Colne and Keighley don't get specific mentions on those sites and the site google refers to seems dead , but archived in Google cache at

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=ca ... EIfny1A_7w

being a list of towns and dates visited.

There might be some old playbills in Bradford Libraries collections.

[Stanley]

Debbie, I knew he'd toured round here but have no direct evidence.

[Wendyf]

I will see what I can find in Colne Library Debbie, but I'm sure I would have already heard about it, or seen photographs, if the Wild West Show had visited Colne.
I had a look at the online 19thC newspaper database last night and followed Buffalo Bill's progress around the country on the 1887/8 tour. This (and the following tour in 1891) were huge exhibitions and only seem to have visited large cities where there were suitable venues.
Throughout the period of the first tour there were ongoing court proceedings in which The Hon. Colonel William (Buffalo Bill) Cody was attempting to prevent George Sanger of "Sanger's World Famous Circus" using the names "Buffalo Bill" and "Wild West Show" in his circus act. This circus was touring the provinces at the same time, and were in Leeds in October 1887, and Huddersfield a little later, advertising Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show as part of their entertainment. This was however Buffalo Bill Wainer, an Englishman. I think this may be the Buffalo Bill your Great Grandmother saw in Colne. I could be wrong though and will certainly check it out at the library!

[Wendyf]

After a bit more googling I have found this list of towns visited by Buffalo Bill Cody. He was in Keighley in 1903, Burnley & Skipton in 1904, but not Colne.

[Wendyf]

Our history society member & authoress Stephanie Carter helped to edit a book called "Growing Up in Old Skipton" which is based on the memoirs of a lady called Joyce Murgatroyd who was born in 1892 and grew up in Skipton. She describes the excitement of watching Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show arriving in Skipton onboard three special trains. Her house overlooked the station yard and she describes how it took 8 hours to unload the trains, with lights, noise and exotic sounds going on way into the night.
Looking at the schedule Debbie it's interesting to see that the Skipton show was two days after the one in Burnley. The three special trains loaded with over 700 performers, horses, buffalo and elk would have passed through Colne.....that would have been a show in itself!

[DeborahJRushworth]

That's a remarkable amount of information - thank you everyone. I guess my great gran could have easily caught the train into Skipton or Burnley so we probably got it wrong about him coming to Colne. It must have been such a spectacle at the time - it would still be worth seeing I think! It must have been marvellous to watch the trains loading and unloading and so exotic to see real cowboys and "indians" . As you say, just watching them at the stations must have been amazing. I'm surprised no photos seem to have survived anywhere. Thanks for all the links, I'll do some reading!

[Whyperion]

Some photo's might exist in the archives of 'The World's Fair' (trade paper) or poss in Sutton Publishings . (Try ordering from library ) This was one of the books I have bought in and sold in the last 18 months , but I never read or skimmed through it.

[Stanley]

Bumped

[hbw]

My great grandfather, George Henry Baldwin, was a general carrier in Colne. According to my mother, he was involved in moving some of the Wild West Show's gear and, when something went missing, Buffalo Bill came to the house to see about it.

[Stanley]

Thanks for that! And welcome to the site, don't be afraid of joining in, we love new members!

[DeborahJRushworth]

That's a good bit of family history hbw. Did your Gt Grandfather live in Colne? Perhaps my Gt Grandmother did see some of the stuff come through Colne after all. Sorry for the late response. This site is blocked at my workplace - they must think Barlickers are a bit dangerous!

[Stanley]

They are! They tend to tell the truth....

[Stewozowski]

Hello all..new visitor here.

Came across your page whilst carrying out an internet search on Buffalo Bill.

It is entirely possible that he did bring his show to Colne. It seems that during the tour of 1887 along with the large open air shows that are recorded, he also played smaller theatre venues in towns that are not recorded in the widely available archives . I know for instance that during the tour of 1887 he played at the Hippodrome Theatre in Stalybridge Gtr Manchester. He enjoyed an overnight stay at my Great-Great-Grandmothers boarding house. This story was passed down by my Grandfather and I found confirmation of his story in the Stalybridge Reporter archives some thirty years ago. I have long lost the copy of the article but have recently made contact with a local historian who is currently researching this again.

Thought this may be of interest

Regards

Steve

[Stanley]

Thanks for that Steve...... Nice when someone takes the trouble to help.

[DeborahJRushworth]

Thank you for that Steve. Very interesting. I would go and see the show if he came round again!