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COWBOY UP: EVOLUTION OF THE FRONTIER HERO IN AMERICAN THEATER, 1872 – 1903 by KATO M. T. BUSS A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of Theater Arts and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2012 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Kato M. T. Buss Title: Cowboy Up: Evolution of the Frontier Hero in American Theater, 1872 – 1903 This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of Theater Arts by: Dr. John Schmor Co-Chair Dr. Jennifer Schlueter Co-Chair Dr. John Watson Member Dr. Linda Fuller Outside Member and Kimberly Andrews Espy Vice President for Research & Innovation/Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded March 2012 ii © 2012 Kato M. T. Buss iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Kato M. T. Buss Doctor of Philosophy Department of Theater Arts March 2012 Title: Cowboy Up: Evolution of the Frontier Hero in American Theater, 1872 – 1903 On the border between Beadle & Adam’s dime novel and Edwin Porter’s ground- breaking film, The Great Train Robbery, this dissertation returns to a period in American theater history when the legendary cowboy came to life. On the stage of late nineteenth century frontier melodrama, three actors blazed a trail for the cowboy to pass from man to myth. Frank Mayo’s Davy Crockett, William Cody’s Buffalo Bill, and James Wallick’s Jesse James represent a theatrical bloodline in the genealogy of frontier heroes. As such, the backwoodsman, the scout, and the outlaw are forbearers of the cowboy in American popular entertainment. Caught in a territory between print and film, this study explores a landscape of blood-and-thunder melodrama, where the unwritten Code of the West was embodied on stage. At a cultural crossroads, the need for an authentic, American hero spurred the cowboy to legend; theater taught him how to walk, talk, and act like a man. iv CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Kato M. T. Buss GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon Humboldt State University, Arcata, California University of South Dakota, Vermillion, South Dakota Black Hills State University, Spearfish, South Dakota DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, Theater Studies, 2012, University of Oregon Master of Arts, Theater Performance, 2007, Humboldt State University Bachelor of Fine Arts, Theater - Acting, 1995, University of South Dakota PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Teaching Fellowship. University of Oregon. 2007-2012. Graduate Teaching Assistantship. Humboldt State University. 2005-2007. FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS, AND HONORS: Margaret McBride Lehrman Fellowship. University of Oregon. 2011. Risa Palm Graduate Fellowship. University of Oregon. 2010. Glen Starling Research Fellowship. University of Oregon. 2009. William Randolph Hearst Research Grant. Humboldt State University. 2007. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS With deep gratitude, I acknowledge the guidance of my dissertation committee, Professors Jack Watson, Linda Fuller, and especially Co-Chairs: Professors John Schmor and Jennifer Schlueter, whose knowledge, faith, and spirit roam throughout these pages. I extend appreciation and thanks to the University of Oregon, the Graduate School, the College of Arts and Sciences, and Department of Theater Arts for their integral support. The archival work of this study would not have been possible without the Billy Rose Theatre Collection at the New York Public Library, the McCracken Research Library at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, and the University of Oregon Knight Library. Finally, I acknowledge the love and strength of my family, my wife Mary, and my dearest Olivia, who restored my belief in a true hero. vi For a little boy in Nebraska. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 History, Fact, and the Frontier Thesis ................................................................ 5 Mythology, Fiction, and the Code of the West ................................................... 18 Frontier Melodrama: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly ...................................... 27 Notes ................................................................................................................. 32 II. FRANK MAYO – DAVY CROCKETT ............................................................. 37 Go West, Young Man ........................................................................................ 37 Will Shakespeare and the Wild West ................................................................. 42 Actor, Audience, and Theater on the Frontier..................................................... 47 Davy Crockett; or, Be Sure You’re Right, Then Go Ahead ................................. 54 King of the Wild Frontier .................................................................................. 65 Notes ................................................................................................................. 74 III. WILLIAM CODY – BUFFALO BILL .............................................................. 80 Seeing is Believing ............................................................................................ 80 King of the Border Men ..................................................................................... 86 Scouts of the Prairie and Life on the Border ...................................................... 95 The Red Right Hand; or, Buffalo Bill’s First Scalp for Custer ............................ 103 Notes ................................................................................................................. 112 IV. JAMES WALLICK – JESSE JAMES ............................................................... 117 Ain’t Gonna Hang No Picture ............................................................................ 117 Wanted: James Wallick a.k.a. Wallack .............................................................. 122 viii Chapter Page Origins of the Outlaw Hero ................................................................................ 130 Don’t Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth ............................................................... 135 Jesse James, The Bandit King ............................................................................ 139 It Comes at a Cost.............................................................................................. 149 Notes ................................................................................................................. 155 V. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 163 When You Call Me That Smile .......................................................................... 163 Notes ................................................................................................................. 184 APPENDICES ........................................................................................................ 187 A. INNER COWBOY ....................................................................................... 187 B. ARCHIVES .................................................................................................. 188 REFERENCES CITED ........................................................................................... 192 ix CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In April 1831 at the Park Theatre in New York an American hero hit the stage. Wearing a coonskin cap, fringed buckskins, and carrying a flintlock rifle, James Hackett performed the role of Nimrod Wildfire in James Kirke Paulding’s The Lion off the West. Like Edwin Forrest’s commission of Metamora (1829), Paulding’s play was written for cash. Hackett (1800 – 1871) offered three hundred dollars for an original play “whereof an American should be the leading character.”1 Paulding won the money, but Hackett struck gold. Nimrod Wildfire became “the first theatrical representation of an American frontier hero.”2 His entrance on stage changed the landscape of American popular entertainment, and inevitably, American culture.3 Paulding based Wildfire on Colonel David Crockett (1786 – 1836). In 1831, Crockett served the state of Tennessee in the United States House of Representatives. As a frontiersman, solider, and ramrod politician, Crockett was both man and myth. His legend grew in story and song, but it was Hackett’s performance in Lion of the West that presented the “first well authenticated anecdote of the Wild Colonel from Kentucky.”4 The theatrical representation of a frontiersman based upon an actual frontier hero struck the audience as authentic. Crockett himself was well aware of the power in performance; he quickly grasped the significance of Wildfire’s contribution to the Crockett legend and invited The Lion of the West to Washington, D. C., for a command performance.5 At the curtain call, Crockett took the stage and stood next to Wildfire. Then the actor and acted, real and performed, bowed for a cheering audience. 1 Crockett was the inspiration for the character, but on stage Wildfire was the hero. As the dominant figure of the play, the man who was “half horse, half alligator, and a touch of the airthquake,” thrilled the audience with his tall-talk: WILDFIRE: Mister, says I, I’m the best man – if I ain’t, I wish I may be tetotaciously exflunctified! I can whip