First this PBS HOME VIDEO:
I had no idea that the show went on for decades or that the troop toured Europe, with American's cowboys and Indians (i.e. Native Americans, not just people acting as) there to do dramatic renditions of American History, such as Custors Last Stand, or how well regarded William F. Cody was.
To Europeans America was considered quite strange. Though in the shows the White man usually won over the Native Americans, the Indian Horse Riders and others who toured with Buffalo Bill liked him.
After being entertained, ticket holders could go visit them in their show-side encampments, which brought them a little closer to understanding Native Americans as people.
Bill's personal life was in shambles but in the end he retired with the original wife he had married in his youth, a woman who still loved him though she'd threatened divorce since he had been so rarely at home. In his later years Bill wasn't much interested in show business but his years of being Buffalo Bill was so much part of his life and fame and reputation, he could never really separate himself.
PBS : BUFFALO BILL - WILLIAM F. CODY Read more about him.
AUTRY MUSEUM of THE AMERICAN WEST A great place to learn more about our American Western Heritage, Native Americans, and showman like Bill. (Artifacts from his shows in a gallery.)
