November 11, 2024 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Annie Oakley was a shooting star. In her personal life she was a sharpshooter as well. She was devoted to her marriage and to her faith. It’s no wonder that Annie Oakley inspired scores of books and movies and the Broadway musical Annie Get Your Gun.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Any Oakley, Where did you go?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I ner got see you in that while were show
knew the Queen of England, the friend of Sinema measure Shop.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
This is Lee Habib And this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Annie Oakley was a shooting star in her personal life, well,
she was a sharpshooter. She was devoted to her marriage
and her faith as well. It's no wonder that Annie
Oakley inspired scores of books and movies and the Broadway
(00:50):
musical Annie Get Your Gun. Here's our American Stories contributor
Faith Buchanan to tell the story of Annie Oakley.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Late in eighteen sixty five, a fierce blizzard swept into
western Ohio. Phoebe and Moses, the fifth surviving child from
a poor Quaker farming family, waited for her beloved father
to walk home from the mill fifteen miles away. It
wasn't until midnight when Jacob Moses finally returned. His hands
(01:26):
were frozen solid, his speech gone. He never recovered and
died a few months later. Phoebe Ann or Annie, was
just five years old. The family soon lost the farm.
Bills piled up. They were destitute. To he's the burden.
(01:47):
Annie's mother, Susan, had to sell the family farm and
pet cow just to pay the medical and funeral bills.
Here's grand niece of Annie Oakley, Bess Edwards.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Annie stepped in and she saved the family they were hungry.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Rather than be hungry, what are you going to do?
If you have a talent.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Like hers, you will make use of it just as
fast as you can, and she did.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
The eight year old Annie took it upon herself to
provide food for her family, who now leased a smaller farm.
She reached for her deceased father's Kentucky rifle hanging above
the fireplace, rested the barrel on the porch railing, and
shot her first small gang a squirrel.
Speaker 5 (02:28):
I was eight years old when I took my first shot,
and I still consider it one of the best shots
I ever made, Annie Oakley.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
In spite of Annie's efforts, her family's financial situation worsened,
forcing her mother to place the children with friends and neighbors.
Ten year old Annie moved into a shelter for the destitute.
Here she learned to sew and embroider, a skill she
would practice for the rest of her life when she
wasn't shooting. Soon she was hired out to work as
(02:59):
a living helper for her family in a neighboring county.
Here's Old West historian Virginia Sharf, Annie Oakley, biographer Shoald Casper,
and Paul Fees, former senior curator at the Buffalo Bill
Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming.
Speaker 6 (03:14):
Everyone thought this was going to be an improvement, but
it turned out to be absolutely nightmarish situation. She never
mentioned their name again, and the rest of her life
she referred to them as the wolves. They locked her
in closets, they worked her half to death.
Speaker 7 (03:35):
One day, the farmer's wife, Missus Wolf, throws her out
in the snow because she fell asleep while she's doing
some darning.
Speaker 8 (03:44):
Suddenly she will struck me across the ears, threw me out.
Speaker 9 (03:47):
Into the deep snow, and locked the door.
Speaker 8 (03:52):
I had no shoes on. I was slowly freezing to death,
so I got down on my knees, looked toward God's
clear se guy and tried to pray, But my lips
were frozen stiff, and there was no sound.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
They told her folks. In fact, they told her mother
that she didn't want to go home, and they told
her that her mother didn't want her back.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
After three miserable years, in eighteen seventy two, twelve year
old Annie Moses could bear it no more. She ran away,
flipping into a crowded railroad car and escaped home to
her mother in Greenville, Ohio. Susan Moses had remarried, but
the family was still desperately poor and a mortgage loomed
(04:40):
over their heads. Instead of going to school, Annie taught
herself to shoot with her father's old cap'n ball rifle.
She headed for the woods to hunt. There, in what
she called the fairy places, she began her life long
love for the great outdoors. Annie preferred moving targets to
city ones. Gave them a fair chance, she'd reasoned, and
(05:02):
made me quick of eye and hand. Soon she was
selling hampers of quail to Katzenberger's General Store in Greenville.
Young Annie was now the family breadwinner, earning a living
with her gun. Here's historian Mary Stang.
Speaker 10 (05:18):
She was a market hunter and turning a very nice profit,
certainly not something that was at all appropriate for a
woman to be doing in that time of place.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Eventually, she saved up enough money to pay off the
two hundred dollars mortgage on the family farm, and her
prowess with a shotgun was becoming known around Greenville. Annie
wasn't just good for a girl, she was good for anybody.
Here's Annie Oakley biographer Glenda Riley.
Speaker 9 (05:48):
Annie was exceptionally good. Her father had given her instructions.
Speaker 11 (05:53):
He was the one that told her always shoot game
through the head so that you didn't spoil the meat.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
By her late teens, Annie had one so many turkey
shoots that she was barred from entering them. In the
eighteen seventies, shooting well was an important skill for a man,
and shooting contests were a favorite spectator sport. Sharp shooters
traveled the country, betting on their ability to perform feats
of marksmanship and challenging all comers. Here's firearms historian R. L. Wilson.
Speaker 12 (06:24):
Shooting was of such immense popularity that there were professionals.
Dark Carver, an evil spirit of the Plains is what
he was called. Captain Bogardis, who eventually had four sons
who traveled with him, and people were flocking to see
shooters like this.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
One such shooter was Frank Butler, an Irish immigrant in
his mid twenties who was starting to make a name
for himself on the vaudeville circuit. He was passing through
Southern Ohio one fall, claiming he could outshoot anyone around.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
And you've been listening to Faith, you can and tell
one heck of a story about Annie Oakley. Her dire
circumstances would lead all They would lead to something positive.
That's suffering would lead to a talent in the discovery
of one. She would have to get home escaping the
wolves to provide for her own by becoming a sharpshooter
in essence and in the end so good that she
(07:18):
was banned from turkey hunts in Southern Ohio when we
come back. More of the anti Oakley story here on
our American Stories. Here at our American Stories, we bring
you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith and love.
Stories from a great and beautiful country that need to
(07:39):
be told. But we can't do it without you. Our
stories are free to listen to, but her not free
to make. If you love our stories in America like
we do, please go to our American Stories dot com
and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot,
help us keep the great American stories coming. That's our
American Stories dot com.
Speaker 13 (08:09):
Five feet tall, she could beat anyone, even Francis Butler.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
She could beat anyone.
Speaker 9 (08:19):
She was born in dark just.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
By the Western Nights.
Speaker 14 (08:24):
She was one of nine after her father died.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
And we returned to our American stories and the story
of Annie Oakley. Frank Butler was a world class shooter.
We'd just heard about him and was passing through southern
Ohio claiming he could outshoot anybody. Let's return to Faith
Buchanan for what Frank Butler soon learns.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Here again is Oakley biographer Cheryl Casper.
Speaker 7 (08:55):
Frank is staying at a hotel in Cincinnati and he
starts talking with a bunch of farmers. The farmers say, hey,
we have someone in our county who's a really good shot,
and we're in a bet one hundred bucks that this
person can beat you.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Here again is R. L. Wilson, Paul Fez, and Virginia Sharf.
Speaker 12 (09:12):
Frank Butler, this already professional shooterist, shows up for this
match with hundreds of people watching, and who is it
that comes as his opponent but a fifteen year old
girl who was only five feet tall.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Away one hundred pounds.
Speaker 10 (09:29):
I almost dropped dead when a little slim girl in
short dresses stepped out to the mack with me.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
I was a beaten man in the moment she appeared
right then and there.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
I decided, if I could get that girl.
Speaker 15 (09:39):
I would do it.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Frank Butler, nineteen twenty four.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
They shot evenly for twenty five for twenty four birds,
and on the twenty fifth bird he missed. But he
was a very gracious loser. He thanked her for the match,
complimented her on her skill, and then courted her for
a year. He was in his twenties when they met,
(10:08):
she was fifteen, and yet within a year they were married.
Speaker 6 (10:14):
He made himself appear safe to her. He clearly admired her.
He sparked and courted her as few of us have
ever been sparked or courted, and every one of us
would like to be by someone. And she was lucky
to find him, and I think he knew he was
lucky to find her.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
For the next six years, however, while Butler and his
shooting partner John Graham performed on the vaudeville circuit, and
he stayed in the background. That was about to change.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
The story is that Butler's partner, a fellow named Graham,
was ill, and she was called up as a member
of the audience, and was so obviously good at it,
and so charming and such a novelty to the audience
that Graham was never heard of again. At some time
she adopted the name Oakley as a stage name, and
(11:03):
nobody knows why. And Butler and Oakley became a shooting sensation.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
From that day to this I have not competed with
her in public shooting. She outclassed me. Frank Butler nineteen
twenty five, When the shooting team of Butler and Oakley
hit the road, traveling entertainment was in its heyday. Circuses,
theater companies, and vaudeville acts traveled the country, playing venues
(11:31):
from outdoor arenas to smoky saloons. For Frank and Annie,
it was an exhausting life of noisy train rides, cd hotels,
and one night stands. Their shooting act might be sandwiched
in between a body songstress and a scantily clad acrobat.
Here's theater historian Don Wilmoth the right.
Speaker 15 (11:50):
He was a largely male oriented form of entertainment. There
was a great deal of double ontoller. In comedy, there
were suggestive lyrics and and there was a good deal
of semi nudity. The acts could be of tad salacious.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
It was the Victorian age. Annie Oakley, the Christian girl
from Ohio, feared being thought a loose woman. She resolved
to set herself apart, both in manner and in dress.
She began wearing an outfit that completely covered her body,
a kaflink skirt, long sleeves and leggings, and a hat
that sparkled with a silver star. Her look became her
(12:41):
trademark in this costume, though distinctive and eye catching, was
as modest as Annie's attitude towards her talent. Here's Old
West historians Joy Cassen and Roger McGrath.
Speaker 11 (12:55):
She made her own costumes. That was very important to her.
Was part of her desire to control her self presentation.
She could move easily in them, and yet she looked
she looked respectable, she looked childlike.
Speaker 16 (13:10):
Women in the West was just like the men, enterprising, courageous, bold, adventurous,
intelligent whos really selected and filtered people. And the women
had to be all those things the men were in spades,
because they were doing most of the things the men were,
but lacked the same degree of physical prowess. The women
(13:30):
in the West were simply the very best America had
to offer, and what better example of that than Annie Oakley.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Frank soon realized that Annie was the main attraction of
Butler and Oakley. In a remarkable reversal of nineteenth century rules,
Frank Butler became Annie Oakley's assistant.
Speaker 6 (13:52):
I think Frank Butler understood that she had a kind
of star quality that he didn't want to overshadow it.
And Frank Butler didn't have a problem with that. I
think he adored her. I think he also was a
savvy businessman who understood that she was pretty, she was ladylike,
she was petite, she would do what needed to be
done to make that rise to the top, and he
(14:16):
didn't want to get in her way. As a matter
of fact, he understood that for the two of them,
the best thing possible was for to let her take
the lead.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
In eighteen eighty four, Butler and Oakley landed a forty
week job with Sell's brother Circus, one of the biggest
traveling shows in the country. Finally, they had steady work
with a clean, family oriented show, but circus life was
hard and the pay unreliable. When the season ended in
New Orleans that December, it looked as if Frank and
(14:48):
Annie would have to go back to a life of
one night stands and unsavory characters.
Speaker 7 (14:55):
When the circus season is ending the very week that
Buffalo Bill's Wild West comes to New Orleans and it's like, wow,
the circus is ending. We need a job. So they
ask Cody if they can come on with the show.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
To Annie, it was a dream job. Buffalo Bill's Wild
West Show was a lavish historical pageant, part melodrama, part circus,
and part rodeo, and it featured the finest performers in
the country. It offered a taste of the life on
the old Frontier to an America that was rapidly industrializing.
(15:29):
In the crowded urban centers of the East, people flocked
to Buffalo Bill's show, eager for a glimpse of the
Wild West. This spectacle was the forerunner of Western movies
and TV programs.
Speaker 17 (15:43):
The whole world was fascinated with the West. Audiences saw
the real stagecoach, they saw real soldiers, they saw realed
Indians and cowboys.
Speaker 11 (15:56):
There were courses, there were steered, were live buffalo.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
It was into this roiling microcosm of the wild West
that Annie Oakley, the little girl from Ohio, first stepped
in April eighteen eighty five. Cody placed her low on
the bill, but she soon became an audience favorite. Her
ten minute program combined Frank's Faudville experience with her talents
as a sharpshooter, athlete, and actress. The result distinguished her
(16:29):
from other shooters. Annie didn't just aim a gun and fire.
She performed. Here again is Sheryl Casper.
Speaker 7 (16:36):
Miss Annie Oakley. She tripped into the arena, She didn't
walk in.
Speaker 9 (16:44):
She blew kisses, she waved.
Speaker 7 (16:46):
She was like animated a love like this sweet person,
but with this big bang gun.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
And you've been listening to Our American Stories. Contributor Faith
Ukenan and others tell the story of Annie Oaka when
we come back. More of the story of Annie Oakley
on Our American Stories sent to Way.
Speaker 13 (17:10):
When she was very young, she sewed n slang.
Speaker 15 (17:15):
Too.
Speaker 13 (17:15):
She could go back home.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
And do wise.
Speaker 13 (17:18):
Ma married another man. She had no school, She couldn't
spend any.
Speaker 14 (17:28):
Sharpshooter daughter and why she could split cards for eighteen
nine feet beautiful Annie Oakley, little.
Speaker 9 (17:45):
Shore shot of the wild glass.
Speaker 13 (17:49):
Won't you take me?
Speaker 9 (17:52):
Bring you when you go?
Speaker 16 (17:54):
When you go?
Speaker 14 (18:08):
Sharpshooter daughter and wife she could split card from eighty
nine feet.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Beautiful, And we continue with our American stories and our
story about Annie Oakley. When we left off, Annie had
earned her way to top billing for Buffalo Bill's Wild
West Show. Let's continue with this remarkable story.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Here again is Sheryl Casper, R. L. Wilson and Paul Fees.
Speaker 7 (18:46):
She starts off slow, one ball, two balls.
Speaker 12 (18:49):
Glass balls which when they're hit they explode and feathers
fly out.
Speaker 17 (18:55):
Frank would toss up one, and then two at a time,
and then three at a time. Then Annie Oakley would
toss them up herself. She'd toss two or three or
four target balls in the air, grab a shotgun, shoot two,
grab another, shoot two more, and she could.
Speaker 12 (19:14):
Hit all three before any one of them would reach
the ground. Then she go to six.
Speaker 7 (19:23):
Her ackets faster and faster and faster and faster, until
you know, it's just like boom boom. Things are just
being broken.
Speaker 12 (19:29):
All around she could shoot with her left hand.
Speaker 7 (19:33):
With her right hand, she like turns her gun upside
down or sideways, or sighting in the mirror.
Speaker 12 (19:40):
One of her favorite tricks was to have Frank hold
a plane card up and she could either shoot through
the heart when it was flat against her, or if
it was held sideways, she could split the card in two,
which is a pretty amazing shot. Occasionally, she'd missed a
(20:02):
shot on purpose and then she'd kind of pout, and
this was part of the act because she could always
hit the target. She was somebody who never missed.
Speaker 7 (20:12):
I think it's an innate skill, she said. You know,
nobody ever taught me to shoot. I think it was
just a love of a gun, was just born in me.
Speaker 12 (20:20):
Was an instinct and a skill and an ability that
only person who have phenomenal vision, have a wonderful sense
of timing, who have hand to eye coordination, who have
good balance, and who are really very athletic, because a
really good shot has to be a really good athlete.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Once Annie's act started getting rave reviews, Buffalo Bill Cody
quickly moved her to the top of the bill that season.
One hundred and fifty thousand people in forty cities across
America saw something entirely new, a woman who could shoot
as well as any man, while conveying a youthful innocence that,
whether Annie realized it or not, was sexy. Here's Old
(21:03):
West historian Elliott West.
Speaker 18 (21:05):
She was this really remarkable, a remarkable shot. But what
makes her especially interesting is that she was able to
combine that with an image, with a kind of a
vision of American womanhood that was provocative but that many
people felt comfortable with.
Speaker 19 (21:25):
She handles a shotgun with an easy familiarity that causes
the men to marvel and the women to assume airs
of contented superiority. Springfield, Massachusetts, Republican, eighteen ninety seven.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
She had some sort of magnetism that can only come
from within. In private, she was quiet and reserved that
in public she could reach the masses.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Annie Oakley celebrity grew when the Wild West spent the
summer of eighteen eighty six in an arena on Staten Island.
Half a million people sailed past the New Stone of Liberty,
then rode on special trains straight to the Wild West.
It was the most popular attraction ever seen in New York,
and Annie was now becoming as famous as Buffalo Bill himself.
(22:13):
Here's historian Donald Fixico.
Speaker 20 (22:17):
When Sitting Bull first saw she had these amazing abilities,
you know, to handle a rifle and her keen eyesight,
then obviously she had some endowed power of some sort
that he recognized immediately. When Indian people look at such
individuals that have been empowered like that, then we have
the greatest respect.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Sitting Bull christened his new daughter, Little shore Shot. For
a time he toured with Annie in Buffalo Bill's show,
but the great Chiefs soon left, saying he had grown
sick of the noises and the multitudes of men. When
Buffalo Bill's Wild West opened in Madison Square Garden in
the fall of eighteen eighty six, Little sure Shot became
(23:00):
the darling of Manhattan. She performed before six thousand people,
many in evening dress. The mistreated, half starved little girl
from Ohio had become an icon of the American West.
Here again is Virginia Sharf.
Speaker 6 (23:16):
There was probably never a woman in the history of
the United States who was better equipped to take up
the challenge of creating a legend, of creating a myth
of the Western woman, and then embodying that myth with
the kind of ladylike demeanor that would make her acceptable.
It is a remarkable creation in American legend.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
In March eighteen eighty seven, Cody's Wild West Troops sailed
from New York Harbor, bound for London to perform at
Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. Their ship was a veritable Noah's ark.
Behold was packed with horses, buffalo l and mules. Dozens
(24:01):
of American Indians huddled together, bracing for the first ocean
voyage of their lives. Clustered in the bow were buffalo
Bill Annie and Frank Butler, but also Cody's new discovery,
fifteen year old Lillian Smith, a sharp shooting sensation from California.
Here again is R. L. Wilson.
Speaker 12 (24:20):
Lillian Smith was an expert with a rifle, so much
so that Cody himself had said he would pay ten
thousand dollars to anybody who beat Lilian Smith at rifle shooting.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
She and Annie couldn't have been more different. Whereas Annie
was modest, ladylike and reserved, Lillian flaunted her ample figure
and liked to brag. Even before they reached London, Lillian
had been boasting, now that I'm with the wild West.
Annie Oakley is done for.
Speaker 12 (24:50):
Lillian Smith tended to speak very coarsely, and she was
a kind of raikish. She liked to hang around with
the cowboys, and she had this bodice that said Champion
Rifle Shot of the World.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
It was clear that the wild West wouldn't be big
enough for the both of them. Here's Paul Fees to
Annie Oakley, life was a battle.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
She uses those terms, the battle of life. It wasn't
something that you skated through easily. It's something you went
out and did constant battle. Just about everything she did,
she felt she had to work harder than anybody to accomplish.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
On May ninth, eighteen eighty seven, when the wild West
show opened in London, Oakley and Smith were given equal billing.
Ten thousand eager spectators clamored to get in in attendance.
We're leading British intellectuals such as playwright Oscar Wilde and
many of the crowned heads of Europe. Here again is
Elliott west.
Speaker 18 (25:59):
The We're fascinated by America as a place where you
could escape the traps of the modern industrial world. They
saw America as a place of a wide open spaces,
a place of the free individual in the wilderness. And
I think Cody's Wild West show and Annie Oakley herself
spoke to that mixed appeal of America to the English.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
And you've been listening to one heck of a story
about Annie Oakley, the real story, the story behind the
story of that character in Annie get your gun, by
the way, go to YouTube and type in Annie Oakley
and glass Balls, and you will see her doing that.
It is miraculous what she did it, but more importantly
how she did it along with Frank Butler, the idea
(26:43):
that she would purposely miss now and then absolutely brilliant.
And then just imagine this show coming to Madison Square
Garden first New York City, where my goodness, all those
fancy city types were longing for, well just a glimpse
into this American West. And then we hear about what
happened in England, Oscar Wilde, the great literary giants, the
(27:07):
great sophisticates longing looking at America as a place of
wide open spaces. So much of this and more Annie
Oakley did, building up that myth and then embodying it.
When we come back, more of the story of Annie Oakley.
Here on our American.
Speaker 9 (27:24):
Stories say.
Speaker 13 (27:40):
When she was very young, she sewed Dan Slang till
she could go back home, and wise.
Speaker 9 (27:48):
Moll married another man.
Speaker 13 (27:52):
She had no school, she couldn't spend any.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
And we continue with our American stories and with the
story of Annie Oakley. We left off the Queen Elizabeth's
golden Jubilee of eighteen eighty seven Oscar Wilde's. There sophisticated
crowd of London was there to get a glimpse at
the American West. Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Here again is Mary Stang and Paul Fees.
Speaker 10 (28:23):
Annie particularly was a figure that Europeans welcomed because on
the one hand she represented the wild Western girl, but
at the same time she was a Victorian woman who
was there, after all, to meet the woman who created
the Victorian era.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
All of the performers of the Wild West were invited
to give a special performance for the Queen of England.
The performers were presented to the Prince Prince Edward and
his wife, Princess Alexandra, and Annie Oakley marched up and
shook Alexandra's hand instead of walking up and curtseying to
the King to be she shook Alexandra's hand.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
You'll have to excuse me, please, because I'm an American,
and in America, ladies come first. Annie Oakley to the
Prince of Wales. Eighteen eighty seven.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
The most important shooting event in England was the annual
rifle competition at Wimbledon, and the big name American shooters
were invited to compete. Lillian Smith was the first to arrive.
She shot poorly and left in a huff. The next
day Annie Oakley appeared. Here again is Sheryl Casper.
Speaker 7 (29:36):
Annie does great, and she does it with the rifle.
And Lillian's supposed to be the rifle expert. Annie's the
shotgun shooter, so she has upstaged Lillian Smith, kind of
beating her at her own game. Annie becomes the toast
of London. Some papers even said she was more popular
than Cody.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
When a distinguished sports at a they're in attendance praise
Annie's lady like bearing above her shooting. She considered it
the best compliment he ever received, whether it was over
Lillian or Annie's rocky relationship with Buffalo Bill. In late October,
the London evening news printed a stunning announcement. Annie Oakley
(30:18):
would sever her connection with the Wild West voluntarily following
their final London performance that very evening. Two years passed. Then,
in February eighteen eighty nine, much to Annie's surprise, Buffalo
Bill was planning a trip to Paris and wanted her back.
Here again is Sheryl Casper.
Speaker 7 (30:38):
They needed her, They needed her more than they thought
they needed her, and so whatever rift there was is mended.
And interestingly, Lillian Smith does not go to Paris. I mean,
we don't know, but it would make sense that maybe
that was part of the bargain. I'll come back if
Lillian goes.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Over thirty million people came to the Paris Exposition of
eighteen eighty nine, Within sight of the newly erected Eiffel Tower.
Buffalo Bill's Wild West played to overflow crowds night after night.
Annie Oakley was soon the talk of Paris. The French
President offered her a commission in the army. When a
(31:19):
French duke proposed marriage, Annie literally shot him down, putting
a bullet through his portrait. Prince Wilhelm of Prussia was
so impressed by Annie's skill that he insisted on participating
in her act. He lit a cigarette from thirty paces.
Annie shouted away. If my aim had been poor, she
later said, I might have averted the Great War, and
(31:43):
the King of Senegal tried to buy her for one
hundred thousand francs. To destroy the vicious lines that devastate
my country's villages, he said. In nineteen eighty three, the
World's Fair opened in Chicago and glowed with a new
Marvel electric light and showcased another Thomas Edison's kinetoscope, a
(32:04):
primitive device for viewing movies. In eighteen ninety four, Edison
invited Annie and Frank to his New Jersey studio for
a test of his movie camera. In dim, smoky images,
Edison's camera managed to capture Annie's performance. Ironically, the invention
also signaled the end of the Wild West shows. By
(32:27):
the early nineteen hundred, z movies would become the main
source of Western entertainment, But for the rest of the
eighteen nineties, Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill were as popular
as ever. Then, at forty two years of age and
from out of nowhere. On August eleventh, nineteen oh three,
headlines screamed of her downfall. William Randolph Hearst newspapers reported
(32:53):
that Oakley had stolen a pair of men's pants to
buy cocaine.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
Here's Paul Fetes, Well, of course it wasn't true. She
was so outraged it so went contrary to her character
that she sued against every newspaper that had run that story,
and she won in virtually all of them.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
But Annie Oakley never left the public eye. She used
her celebrity to encourage women to be physically fit and
taught thousands to shoot. Throughout her career. She appeared at
gun clubs, defeating male opponents who doubted her skill, ben
taught their wives how to shoot. It was her personal crusade.
Speaker 21 (33:36):
I want to see women rise superior to that old
fashioned terror of firearms. I would like to see every
woman know how to handle them as naturally as they
know how to handle babies.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Here again is Mary Stang and Cheryl Casper.
Speaker 10 (33:53):
She was a very early advocate of women's use of
firearms for self defense. She believed that it was thoroughly
appropriate for one woman to have a gun at her bedside,
and she also argued that women, especially if they had
to be out and about alone, ought to think seriously
about carrying firearms for self protection.
Speaker 7 (34:17):
This is when she starts sounding like a feminist. You know,
I think women should have the right to protect themselves
and carry a gun. And she even appears in the
Cincinnati newspaper articles showing how to hide your gun under
an umbrella so no one will know you haven't and
then if someone attacks you, you can call it out.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Annie never asked for a cent from her fifteen thousand
plus pupils. She would be repaid. She said if the
women became shooting enthusiasts, they did one a proper Bostonian
coolly held a robber at bay until the police came
to arrest him. She credited Annie for her success. Here
(34:55):
again is Paul these.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
She felt it was very important for women to be
able to conduct themselves without fear in a man's world,
and she took steps to teach.
Speaker 5 (35:05):
Them as I have taught over fifteen thousand women how
to shoot. I modestly feel that I have some right
to speak with assurance on this subject individual for individual,
women shoot as well as men.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Annie Oakley in nineteen twenty thik. Annie had once offered
to lead a company of fifty lady sharpshooters to fight
in World War One, but for the most part, she
left politics to men. Annie Oakley didn't even think women
should be allowed.
Speaker 10 (35:36):
To vote, although she did not espouse women's suffrage, and
she didn't talk about all of the issues that were
important to the so called new women of her time. Arguably,
Annie was living a lot of the values that her
feminist sisters were arguing for. Perhaps she didn't see herself
(35:58):
as needing feminism to achieve what she had been able
to achieve.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Then, on November third, nineteen twenty six, Annie Oakley died
at her home in her sleep. She was sixty six
years old. Eighteen days later, Frank Butler too was gone.
They were buried beside each other in Greenville, Ohio, not
far from the fairy places she had roamed as a
little girl with rifle in hand. Will Rogers, who had
(36:28):
visited Annie just months before her death, penned a newspaper
story about his fellow Western performer that could have served
as her eulogy. She's a greater character than she was
a rifle shot. Annie Oakley's name, her lovable traits, her
thoughtful consideration of others will live as a mark for
any woman to shoot at. Here again is Virginia Sharf.
(36:53):
There's never been anybody like Annie Oakley.
Speaker 6 (36:55):
There's never been somebody who had both the power of
the gun and this power of a kind of sweetness
and purity that makes her safe even though she's.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Holding that gun in her hands. From movies, musicals, and
television shows to women's self defense classes, the legend of
Annie Oakley in the Life of Phoebe and Moses reflect
the qualities that best define the American character.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
And a terrific job on the production editing and storytelling
by her own Greg Hangler and contributor Faith Buchanan. And
what a story you heard, indeed, and of course how
things ended well where they started in southern Ohio. She
died on November third, nineteen twenty six, in her sleep.
(37:44):
Her husband, Frank Butler, died a mere eighteen days later.
The story of Annie Oakley here on our American stories.
Speaker 13 (37:54):
Anniekley, where did you go?
Speaker 9 (37:59):
You can leave me here, Lone
Speaker 14 (38:04):
Wait for me, Father, Wait for me.
Any Oakley, Where did you go?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I ner got see you in that while were show
knew the Queen of England, the friend of Sinema measure Shop.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
This is Lee Habib And this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Annie Oakley was a shooting star in her personal life, well,
she was a sharpshooter. She was devoted to her marriage
and her faith as well. It's no wonder that Annie
Oakley inspired scores of books and movies and the Broadway
(00:50):
musical Annie Get Your Gun. Here's our American Stories contributor
Faith Buchanan to tell the story of Annie Oakley.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Late in eighteen sixty five, a fierce blizzard swept into
western Ohio. Phoebe and Moses, the fifth surviving child from
a poor Quaker farming family, waited for her beloved father
to walk home from the mill fifteen miles away. It
wasn't until midnight when Jacob Moses finally returned. His hands
(01:26):
were frozen solid, his speech gone. He never recovered and
died a few months later. Phoebe Ann or Annie, was
just five years old. The family soon lost the farm.
Bills piled up. They were destitute. To he's the burden.
(01:47):
Annie's mother, Susan, had to sell the family farm and
pet cow just to pay the medical and funeral bills.
Here's grand niece of Annie Oakley, Bess Edwards.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Annie stepped in and she saved the family they were hungry.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Rather than be hungry, what are you going to do?
If you have a talent.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Like hers, you will make use of it just as
fast as you can, and she did.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
The eight year old Annie took it upon herself to
provide food for her family, who now leased a smaller farm.
She reached for her deceased father's Kentucky rifle hanging above
the fireplace, rested the barrel on the porch railing, and
shot her first small gang a squirrel.
Speaker 5 (02:28):
I was eight years old when I took my first shot,
and I still consider it one of the best shots
I ever made, Annie Oakley.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
In spite of Annie's efforts, her family's financial situation worsened,
forcing her mother to place the children with friends and neighbors.
Ten year old Annie moved into a shelter for the destitute.
Here she learned to sew and embroider, a skill she
would practice for the rest of her life when she
wasn't shooting. Soon she was hired out to work as
(02:59):
a living helper for her family in a neighboring county.
Here's Old West historian Virginia Sharf, Annie Oakley, biographer Shoald Casper,
and Paul Fees, former senior curator at the Buffalo Bill
Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming.
Speaker 6 (03:14):
Everyone thought this was going to be an improvement, but
it turned out to be absolutely nightmarish situation. She never
mentioned their name again, and the rest of her life
she referred to them as the wolves. They locked her
in closets, they worked her half to death.
Speaker 7 (03:35):
One day, the farmer's wife, Missus Wolf, throws her out
in the snow because she fell asleep while she's doing
some darning.
Speaker 8 (03:44):
Suddenly she will struck me across the ears, threw me out.
Speaker 9 (03:47):
Into the deep snow, and locked the door.
Speaker 8 (03:52):
I had no shoes on. I was slowly freezing to death,
so I got down on my knees, looked toward God's
clear se guy and tried to pray, But my lips
were frozen stiff, and there was no sound.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
They told her folks. In fact, they told her mother
that she didn't want to go home, and they told
her that her mother didn't want her back.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
After three miserable years, in eighteen seventy two, twelve year
old Annie Moses could bear it no more. She ran away,
flipping into a crowded railroad car and escaped home to
her mother in Greenville, Ohio. Susan Moses had remarried, but
the family was still desperately poor and a mortgage loomed
(04:40):
over their heads. Instead of going to school, Annie taught
herself to shoot with her father's old cap'n ball rifle.
She headed for the woods to hunt. There, in what
she called the fairy places, she began her life long
love for the great outdoors. Annie preferred moving targets to
city ones. Gave them a fair chance, she'd reasoned, and
(05:02):
made me quick of eye and hand. Soon she was
selling hampers of quail to Katzenberger's General Store in Greenville.
Young Annie was now the family breadwinner, earning a living
with her gun. Here's historian Mary Stang.
Speaker 10 (05:18):
She was a market hunter and turning a very nice profit,
certainly not something that was at all appropriate for a
woman to be doing in that time of place.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Eventually, she saved up enough money to pay off the
two hundred dollars mortgage on the family farm, and her
prowess with a shotgun was becoming known around Greenville. Annie
wasn't just good for a girl, she was good for anybody.
Here's Annie Oakley biographer Glenda Riley.
Speaker 9 (05:48):
Annie was exceptionally good. Her father had given her instructions.
Speaker 11 (05:53):
He was the one that told her always shoot game
through the head so that you didn't spoil the meat.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
By her late teens, Annie had one so many turkey
shoots that she was barred from entering them. In the
eighteen seventies, shooting well was an important skill for a man,
and shooting contests were a favorite spectator sport. Sharp shooters
traveled the country, betting on their ability to perform feats
of marksmanship and challenging all comers. Here's firearms historian R. L. Wilson.
Speaker 12 (06:24):
Shooting was of such immense popularity that there were professionals.
Dark Carver, an evil spirit of the Plains is what
he was called. Captain Bogardis, who eventually had four sons
who traveled with him, and people were flocking to see
shooters like this.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
One such shooter was Frank Butler, an Irish immigrant in
his mid twenties who was starting to make a name
for himself on the vaudeville circuit. He was passing through
Southern Ohio one fall, claiming he could outshoot anyone around.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
And you've been listening to Faith, you can and tell
one heck of a story about Annie Oakley. Her dire
circumstances would lead all They would lead to something positive.
That's suffering would lead to a talent in the discovery
of one. She would have to get home escaping the
wolves to provide for her own by becoming a sharpshooter
in essence and in the end so good that she
(07:18):
was banned from turkey hunts in Southern Ohio when we
come back. More of the anti Oakley story here on
our American Stories. Here at our American Stories, we bring
you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith and love.
Stories from a great and beautiful country that need to
(07:39):
be told. But we can't do it without you. Our
stories are free to listen to, but her not free
to make. If you love our stories in America like
we do, please go to our American Stories dot com
and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot,
help us keep the great American stories coming. That's our
American Stories dot com.
Speaker 13 (08:09):
Five feet tall, she could beat anyone, even Francis Butler.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
She could beat anyone.
Speaker 9 (08:19):
She was born in dark just.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
By the Western Nights.
Speaker 14 (08:24):
She was one of nine after her father died.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
And we returned to our American stories and the story
of Annie Oakley. Frank Butler was a world class shooter.
We'd just heard about him and was passing through southern
Ohio claiming he could outshoot anybody. Let's return to Faith
Buchanan for what Frank Butler soon learns.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Here again is Oakley biographer Cheryl Casper.
Speaker 7 (08:55):
Frank is staying at a hotel in Cincinnati and he
starts talking with a bunch of farmers. The farmers say, hey,
we have someone in our county who's a really good shot,
and we're in a bet one hundred bucks that this
person can beat you.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Here again is R. L. Wilson, Paul Fez, and Virginia Sharf.
Speaker 12 (09:12):
Frank Butler, this already professional shooterist, shows up for this
match with hundreds of people watching, and who is it
that comes as his opponent but a fifteen year old
girl who was only five feet tall.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Away one hundred pounds.
Speaker 10 (09:29):
I almost dropped dead when a little slim girl in
short dresses stepped out to the mack with me.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
I was a beaten man in the moment she appeared
right then and there.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
I decided, if I could get that girl.
Speaker 15 (09:39):
I would do it.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Frank Butler, nineteen twenty four.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
They shot evenly for twenty five for twenty four birds,
and on the twenty fifth bird he missed. But he
was a very gracious loser. He thanked her for the match,
complimented her on her skill, and then courted her for
a year. He was in his twenties when they met,
(10:08):
she was fifteen, and yet within a year they were married.
Speaker 6 (10:14):
He made himself appear safe to her. He clearly admired her.
He sparked and courted her as few of us have
ever been sparked or courted, and every one of us
would like to be by someone. And she was lucky
to find him, and I think he knew he was
lucky to find her.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
For the next six years, however, while Butler and his
shooting partner John Graham performed on the vaudeville circuit, and
he stayed in the background. That was about to change.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
The story is that Butler's partner, a fellow named Graham,
was ill, and she was called up as a member
of the audience, and was so obviously good at it,
and so charming and such a novelty to the audience
that Graham was never heard of again. At some time
she adopted the name Oakley as a stage name, and
(11:03):
nobody knows why. And Butler and Oakley became a shooting sensation.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
From that day to this I have not competed with
her in public shooting. She outclassed me. Frank Butler nineteen
twenty five, When the shooting team of Butler and Oakley
hit the road, traveling entertainment was in its heyday. Circuses,
theater companies, and vaudeville acts traveled the country, playing venues
(11:31):
from outdoor arenas to smoky saloons. For Frank and Annie,
it was an exhausting life of noisy train rides, cd hotels,
and one night stands. Their shooting act might be sandwiched
in between a body songstress and a scantily clad acrobat.
Here's theater historian Don Wilmoth the right.
Speaker 15 (11:50):
He was a largely male oriented form of entertainment. There
was a great deal of double ontoller. In comedy, there
were suggestive lyrics and and there was a good deal
of semi nudity. The acts could be of tad salacious.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
It was the Victorian age. Annie Oakley, the Christian girl
from Ohio, feared being thought a loose woman. She resolved
to set herself apart, both in manner and in dress.
She began wearing an outfit that completely covered her body,
a kaflink skirt, long sleeves and leggings, and a hat
that sparkled with a silver star. Her look became her
(12:41):
trademark in this costume, though distinctive and eye catching, was
as modest as Annie's attitude towards her talent. Here's Old
West historians Joy Cassen and Roger McGrath.
Speaker 11 (12:55):
She made her own costumes. That was very important to her.
Was part of her desire to control her self presentation.
She could move easily in them, and yet she looked
she looked respectable, she looked childlike.
Speaker 16 (13:10):
Women in the West was just like the men, enterprising, courageous, bold, adventurous,
intelligent whos really selected and filtered people. And the women
had to be all those things the men were in spades,
because they were doing most of the things the men were,
but lacked the same degree of physical prowess. The women
(13:30):
in the West were simply the very best America had
to offer, and what better example of that than Annie Oakley.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Frank soon realized that Annie was the main attraction of
Butler and Oakley. In a remarkable reversal of nineteenth century rules,
Frank Butler became Annie Oakley's assistant.
Speaker 6 (13:52):
I think Frank Butler understood that she had a kind
of star quality that he didn't want to overshadow it.
And Frank Butler didn't have a problem with that. I
think he adored her. I think he also was a
savvy businessman who understood that she was pretty, she was ladylike,
she was petite, she would do what needed to be
done to make that rise to the top, and he
(14:16):
didn't want to get in her way. As a matter
of fact, he understood that for the two of them,
the best thing possible was for to let her take
the lead.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
In eighteen eighty four, Butler and Oakley landed a forty
week job with Sell's brother Circus, one of the biggest
traveling shows in the country. Finally, they had steady work
with a clean, family oriented show, but circus life was
hard and the pay unreliable. When the season ended in
New Orleans that December, it looked as if Frank and
(14:48):
Annie would have to go back to a life of
one night stands and unsavory characters.
Speaker 7 (14:55):
When the circus season is ending the very week that
Buffalo Bill's Wild West comes to New Orleans and it's like, wow,
the circus is ending. We need a job. So they
ask Cody if they can come on with the show.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
To Annie, it was a dream job. Buffalo Bill's Wild
West Show was a lavish historical pageant, part melodrama, part circus,
and part rodeo, and it featured the finest performers in
the country. It offered a taste of the life on
the old Frontier to an America that was rapidly industrializing.
(15:29):
In the crowded urban centers of the East, people flocked
to Buffalo Bill's show, eager for a glimpse of the
Wild West. This spectacle was the forerunner of Western movies
and TV programs.
Speaker 17 (15:43):
The whole world was fascinated with the West. Audiences saw
the real stagecoach, they saw real soldiers, they saw realed
Indians and cowboys.
Speaker 11 (15:56):
There were courses, there were steered, were live buffalo.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
It was into this roiling microcosm of the wild West
that Annie Oakley, the little girl from Ohio, first stepped
in April eighteen eighty five. Cody placed her low on
the bill, but she soon became an audience favorite. Her
ten minute program combined Frank's Faudville experience with her talents
as a sharpshooter, athlete, and actress. The result distinguished her
(16:29):
from other shooters. Annie didn't just aim a gun and fire.
She performed. Here again is Sheryl Casper.
Speaker 7 (16:36):
Miss Annie Oakley. She tripped into the arena, She didn't
walk in.
Speaker 9 (16:44):
She blew kisses, she waved.
Speaker 7 (16:46):
She was like animated a love like this sweet person,
but with this big bang gun.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
And you've been listening to Our American Stories. Contributor Faith
Ukenan and others tell the story of Annie Oaka when
we come back. More of the story of Annie Oakley
on Our American Stories sent to Way.
Speaker 13 (17:10):
When she was very young, she sewed n slang.
Speaker 15 (17:15):
Too.
Speaker 13 (17:15):
She could go back home.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
And do wise.
Speaker 13 (17:18):
Ma married another man. She had no school, She couldn't
spend any.
Speaker 14 (17:28):
Sharpshooter daughter and why she could split cards for eighteen
nine feet beautiful Annie Oakley, little.
Speaker 9 (17:45):
Shore shot of the wild glass.
Speaker 13 (17:49):
Won't you take me?
Speaker 9 (17:52):
Bring you when you go?
Speaker 16 (17:54):
When you go?
Speaker 14 (18:08):
Sharpshooter daughter and wife she could split card from eighty
nine feet.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Beautiful, And we continue with our American stories and our
story about Annie Oakley. When we left off, Annie had
earned her way to top billing for Buffalo Bill's Wild
West Show. Let's continue with this remarkable story.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Here again is Sheryl Casper, R. L. Wilson and Paul Fees.
Speaker 7 (18:46):
She starts off slow, one ball, two balls.
Speaker 12 (18:49):
Glass balls which when they're hit they explode and feathers
fly out.
Speaker 17 (18:55):
Frank would toss up one, and then two at a time,
and then three at a time. Then Annie Oakley would
toss them up herself. She'd toss two or three or
four target balls in the air, grab a shotgun, shoot two,
grab another, shoot two more, and she could.
Speaker 12 (19:14):
Hit all three before any one of them would reach
the ground. Then she go to six.
Speaker 7 (19:23):
Her ackets faster and faster and faster and faster, until
you know, it's just like boom boom. Things are just
being broken.
Speaker 12 (19:29):
All around she could shoot with her left hand.
Speaker 7 (19:33):
With her right hand, she like turns her gun upside
down or sideways, or sighting in the mirror.
Speaker 12 (19:40):
One of her favorite tricks was to have Frank hold
a plane card up and she could either shoot through
the heart when it was flat against her, or if
it was held sideways, she could split the card in two,
which is a pretty amazing shot. Occasionally, she'd missed a
(20:02):
shot on purpose and then she'd kind of pout, and
this was part of the act because she could always
hit the target. She was somebody who never missed.
Speaker 7 (20:12):
I think it's an innate skill, she said. You know,
nobody ever taught me to shoot. I think it was
just a love of a gun, was just born in me.
Speaker 12 (20:20):
Was an instinct and a skill and an ability that
only person who have phenomenal vision, have a wonderful sense
of timing, who have hand to eye coordination, who have
good balance, and who are really very athletic, because a
really good shot has to be a really good athlete.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Once Annie's act started getting rave reviews, Buffalo Bill Cody
quickly moved her to the top of the bill that season.
One hundred and fifty thousand people in forty cities across
America saw something entirely new, a woman who could shoot
as well as any man, while conveying a youthful innocence that,
whether Annie realized it or not, was sexy. Here's Old
(21:03):
West historian Elliott West.
Speaker 18 (21:05):
She was this really remarkable, a remarkable shot. But what
makes her especially interesting is that she was able to
combine that with an image, with a kind of a
vision of American womanhood that was provocative but that many
people felt comfortable with.
Speaker 19 (21:25):
She handles a shotgun with an easy familiarity that causes
the men to marvel and the women to assume airs
of contented superiority. Springfield, Massachusetts, Republican, eighteen ninety seven.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
She had some sort of magnetism that can only come
from within. In private, she was quiet and reserved that
in public she could reach the masses.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Annie Oakley celebrity grew when the Wild West spent the
summer of eighteen eighty six in an arena on Staten Island.
Half a million people sailed past the New Stone of Liberty,
then rode on special trains straight to the Wild West.
It was the most popular attraction ever seen in New York,
and Annie was now becoming as famous as Buffalo Bill himself.
(22:13):
Here's historian Donald Fixico.
Speaker 20 (22:17):
When Sitting Bull first saw she had these amazing abilities,
you know, to handle a rifle and her keen eyesight,
then obviously she had some endowed power of some sort
that he recognized immediately. When Indian people look at such
individuals that have been empowered like that, then we have
the greatest respect.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Sitting Bull christened his new daughter, Little shore Shot. For
a time he toured with Annie in Buffalo Bill's show,
but the great Chiefs soon left, saying he had grown
sick of the noises and the multitudes of men. When
Buffalo Bill's Wild West opened in Madison Square Garden in
the fall of eighteen eighty six, Little sure Shot became
(23:00):
the darling of Manhattan. She performed before six thousand people,
many in evening dress. The mistreated, half starved little girl
from Ohio had become an icon of the American West.
Here again is Virginia Sharf.
Speaker 6 (23:16):
There was probably never a woman in the history of
the United States who was better equipped to take up
the challenge of creating a legend, of creating a myth
of the Western woman, and then embodying that myth with
the kind of ladylike demeanor that would make her acceptable.
It is a remarkable creation in American legend.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
In March eighteen eighty seven, Cody's Wild West Troops sailed
from New York Harbor, bound for London to perform at
Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. Their ship was a veritable Noah's ark.
Behold was packed with horses, buffalo l and mules. Dozens
(24:01):
of American Indians huddled together, bracing for the first ocean
voyage of their lives. Clustered in the bow were buffalo
Bill Annie and Frank Butler, but also Cody's new discovery,
fifteen year old Lillian Smith, a sharp shooting sensation from California.
Here again is R. L. Wilson.
Speaker 12 (24:20):
Lillian Smith was an expert with a rifle, so much
so that Cody himself had said he would pay ten
thousand dollars to anybody who beat Lilian Smith at rifle shooting.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
She and Annie couldn't have been more different. Whereas Annie
was modest, ladylike and reserved, Lillian flaunted her ample figure
and liked to brag. Even before they reached London, Lillian
had been boasting, now that I'm with the wild West.
Annie Oakley is done for.
Speaker 12 (24:50):
Lillian Smith tended to speak very coarsely, and she was
a kind of raikish. She liked to hang around with
the cowboys, and she had this bodice that said Champion
Rifle Shot of the World.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
It was clear that the wild West wouldn't be big
enough for the both of them. Here's Paul Fees to
Annie Oakley, life was a battle.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
She uses those terms, the battle of life. It wasn't
something that you skated through easily. It's something you went
out and did constant battle. Just about everything she did,
she felt she had to work harder than anybody to accomplish.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
On May ninth, eighteen eighty seven, when the wild West
show opened in London, Oakley and Smith were given equal billing.
Ten thousand eager spectators clamored to get in in attendance.
We're leading British intellectuals such as playwright Oscar Wilde and
many of the crowned heads of Europe. Here again is
Elliott west.
Speaker 18 (25:59):
The We're fascinated by America as a place where you
could escape the traps of the modern industrial world. They
saw America as a place of a wide open spaces,
a place of the free individual in the wilderness. And
I think Cody's Wild West show and Annie Oakley herself
spoke to that mixed appeal of America to the English.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
And you've been listening to one heck of a story
about Annie Oakley, the real story, the story behind the
story of that character in Annie get your gun, by
the way, go to YouTube and type in Annie Oakley
and glass Balls, and you will see her doing that.
It is miraculous what she did it, but more importantly
how she did it along with Frank Butler, the idea
(26:43):
that she would purposely miss now and then absolutely brilliant.
And then just imagine this show coming to Madison Square
Garden first New York City, where my goodness, all those
fancy city types were longing for, well just a glimpse
into this American West. And then we hear about what
happened in England, Oscar Wilde, the great literary giants, the
(27:07):
great sophisticates longing looking at America as a place of
wide open spaces. So much of this and more Annie
Oakley did, building up that myth and then embodying it.
When we come back, more of the story of Annie Oakley.
Here on our American.
Speaker 9 (27:24):
Stories say.
Speaker 13 (27:40):
When she was very young, she sewed Dan Slang till
she could go back home, and wise.
Speaker 9 (27:48):
Moll married another man.
Speaker 13 (27:52):
She had no school, she couldn't spend any.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
And we continue with our American stories and with the
story of Annie Oakley. We left off the Queen Elizabeth's
golden Jubilee of eighteen eighty seven Oscar Wilde's. There sophisticated
crowd of London was there to get a glimpse at
the American West. Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Here again is Mary Stang and Paul Fees.
Speaker 10 (28:23):
Annie particularly was a figure that Europeans welcomed because on
the one hand she represented the wild Western girl, but
at the same time she was a Victorian woman who
was there, after all, to meet the woman who created
the Victorian era.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
All of the performers of the Wild West were invited
to give a special performance for the Queen of England.
The performers were presented to the Prince Prince Edward and
his wife, Princess Alexandra, and Annie Oakley marched up and
shook Alexandra's hand instead of walking up and curtseying to
the King to be she shook Alexandra's hand.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
You'll have to excuse me, please, because I'm an American,
and in America, ladies come first. Annie Oakley to the
Prince of Wales. Eighteen eighty seven.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
The most important shooting event in England was the annual
rifle competition at Wimbledon, and the big name American shooters
were invited to compete. Lillian Smith was the first to arrive.
She shot poorly and left in a huff. The next
day Annie Oakley appeared. Here again is Sheryl Casper.
Speaker 7 (29:36):
Annie does great, and she does it with the rifle.
And Lillian's supposed to be the rifle expert. Annie's the
shotgun shooter, so she has upstaged Lillian Smith, kind of
beating her at her own game. Annie becomes the toast
of London. Some papers even said she was more popular
than Cody.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
When a distinguished sports at a they're in attendance praise
Annie's lady like bearing above her shooting. She considered it
the best compliment he ever received, whether it was over
Lillian or Annie's rocky relationship with Buffalo Bill. In late October,
the London evening news printed a stunning announcement. Annie Oakley
(30:18):
would sever her connection with the Wild West voluntarily following
their final London performance that very evening. Two years passed. Then,
in February eighteen eighty nine, much to Annie's surprise, Buffalo
Bill was planning a trip to Paris and wanted her back.
Here again is Sheryl Casper.
Speaker 7 (30:38):
They needed her, They needed her more than they thought
they needed her, and so whatever rift there was is mended.
And interestingly, Lillian Smith does not go to Paris. I mean,
we don't know, but it would make sense that maybe
that was part of the bargain. I'll come back if
Lillian goes.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Over thirty million people came to the Paris Exposition of
eighteen eighty nine, Within sight of the newly erected Eiffel Tower.
Buffalo Bill's Wild West played to overflow crowds night after night.
Annie Oakley was soon the talk of Paris. The French
President offered her a commission in the army. When a
(31:19):
French duke proposed marriage, Annie literally shot him down, putting
a bullet through his portrait. Prince Wilhelm of Prussia was
so impressed by Annie's skill that he insisted on participating
in her act. He lit a cigarette from thirty paces.
Annie shouted away. If my aim had been poor, she
later said, I might have averted the Great War, and
(31:43):
the King of Senegal tried to buy her for one
hundred thousand francs. To destroy the vicious lines that devastate
my country's villages, he said. In nineteen eighty three, the
World's Fair opened in Chicago and glowed with a new
Marvel electric light and showcased another Thomas Edison's kinetoscope, a
(32:04):
primitive device for viewing movies. In eighteen ninety four, Edison
invited Annie and Frank to his New Jersey studio for
a test of his movie camera. In dim, smoky images,
Edison's camera managed to capture Annie's performance. Ironically, the invention
also signaled the end of the Wild West shows. By
(32:27):
the early nineteen hundred, z movies would become the main
source of Western entertainment, But for the rest of the
eighteen nineties, Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill were as popular
as ever. Then, at forty two years of age and
from out of nowhere. On August eleventh, nineteen oh three,
headlines screamed of her downfall. William Randolph Hearst newspapers reported
(32:53):
that Oakley had stolen a pair of men's pants to
buy cocaine.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
Here's Paul Fetes, Well, of course it wasn't true. She
was so outraged it so went contrary to her character
that she sued against every newspaper that had run that story,
and she won in virtually all of them.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
But Annie Oakley never left the public eye. She used
her celebrity to encourage women to be physically fit and
taught thousands to shoot. Throughout her career. She appeared at
gun clubs, defeating male opponents who doubted her skill, ben
taught their wives how to shoot. It was her personal crusade.
Speaker 21 (33:36):
I want to see women rise superior to that old
fashioned terror of firearms. I would like to see every
woman know how to handle them as naturally as they
know how to handle babies.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Here again is Mary Stang and Cheryl Casper.
Speaker 10 (33:53):
She was a very early advocate of women's use of
firearms for self defense. She believed that it was thoroughly
appropriate for one woman to have a gun at her bedside,
and she also argued that women, especially if they had
to be out and about alone, ought to think seriously
about carrying firearms for self protection.
Speaker 7 (34:17):
This is when she starts sounding like a feminist. You know,
I think women should have the right to protect themselves
and carry a gun. And she even appears in the
Cincinnati newspaper articles showing how to hide your gun under
an umbrella so no one will know you haven't and
then if someone attacks you, you can call it out.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Annie never asked for a cent from her fifteen thousand
plus pupils. She would be repaid. She said if the
women became shooting enthusiasts, they did one a proper Bostonian
coolly held a robber at bay until the police came
to arrest him. She credited Annie for her success. Here
(34:55):
again is Paul these.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
She felt it was very important for women to be
able to conduct themselves without fear in a man's world,
and she took steps to teach.
Speaker 5 (35:05):
Them as I have taught over fifteen thousand women how
to shoot. I modestly feel that I have some right
to speak with assurance on this subject individual for individual,
women shoot as well as men.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Annie Oakley in nineteen twenty thik. Annie had once offered
to lead a company of fifty lady sharpshooters to fight
in World War One, but for the most part, she
left politics to men. Annie Oakley didn't even think women
should be allowed.
Speaker 10 (35:36):
To vote, although she did not espouse women's suffrage, and
she didn't talk about all of the issues that were
important to the so called new women of her time. Arguably,
Annie was living a lot of the values that her
feminist sisters were arguing for. Perhaps she didn't see herself
(35:58):
as needing feminism to achieve what she had been able
to achieve.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Then, on November third, nineteen twenty six, Annie Oakley died
at her home in her sleep. She was sixty six
years old. Eighteen days later, Frank Butler too was gone.
They were buried beside each other in Greenville, Ohio, not
far from the fairy places she had roamed as a
little girl with rifle in hand. Will Rogers, who had
(36:28):
visited Annie just months before her death, penned a newspaper
story about his fellow Western performer that could have served
as her eulogy. She's a greater character than she was
a rifle shot. Annie Oakley's name, her lovable traits, her
thoughtful consideration of others will live as a mark for
any woman to shoot at. Here again is Virginia Sharf.
(36:53):
There's never been anybody like Annie Oakley.
Speaker 6 (36:55):
There's never been somebody who had both the power of
the gun and this power of a kind of sweetness
and purity that makes her safe even though she's.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Holding that gun in her hands. From movies, musicals, and
television shows to women's self defense classes, the legend of
Annie Oakley in the Life of Phoebe and Moses reflect
the qualities that best define the American character.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
And a terrific job on the production editing and storytelling
by her own Greg Hangler and contributor Faith Buchanan. And
what a story you heard, indeed, and of course how
things ended well where they started in southern Ohio. She
died on November third, nineteen twenty six, in her sleep.
(37:44):
Her husband, Frank Butler, died a mere eighteen days later.
The story of Annie Oakley here on our American stories.
Speaker 13 (37:54):
Anniekley, where did you go?
Speaker 9 (37:59):
You can leave me here, Lone
Speaker 14 (38:04):
Wait for me, Father, Wait for me.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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