Entertainment in the Old West: Theater, Music, Circuses, Medicine Shows, Prizefighting and Other Popular Amusements

244 Pages·2011·3.8 MB·English

by  Jeremy Agnew

Entertainment
in the Old West
ALSO BY JEREMY AGNEW
AND FROM MCFARLAND
Medicine in the Old West:
A History, 1850–1900 (2010)
Entertainment
in the Old West
Theater, Music, Circuses,
Medicine Shows, Prizefighting
and Other Popular Amusements
J A
EREMY GNEW
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Agnew, Jeremy.
Entertainment in the Old West : theater, music, circuses,
medicine shows, prizefighting and other popular amusements /
Jeremy Agnew.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-6280-3
softcover : 50# alkaline paper
1. Theater—West (U.S.)—History—19th century.
2. Performing arts—West (U.S.)—History—19th century.
3. Amusements—United States—History—19th century.
I. Title.
PN2273.W4A36 2011
791.0978'09041—dc22
2011013292
BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE
© 2011Jeremy Agnew. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
On the cover: Details from 19th and early 20th century circus
poster art (Library of Congress). Front cover by TG Design
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
For Gage,
who has entertained me
far more than he knows
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Entertainment Milestones viii
Preface 1
ONE. On with the Show 3
TWO. Entertainment for Everyone 23
THREE. Women as Actresses 43
FOUR. Strutting Their Stuff 55
FIVE. Bright Lights of the Pacific Coast 76
SIX. Theaters Across the Old West 95
SEVEN. A Few of the Famous 119
EIGHT. The Amateurs 143
NINE. Medicine Shows 161
TEN. Motley Pleasures 175
ELEVEN. The Wild West Shows 192
Afterword: The Stage Lights Dim 209
Chapter Notes 215
Bibliography 225
Index 229
vii
Entertainment Milestones
1841 First pioneers journey to the Northwest along the Oregon Trail.
1847 Several “living picture” shows that simulate classical paintings and sculp-
tures appear in New York.
1848 First news of the gold strike at Sutter’s Mill in California; end of the war
with Mexico adds large areas of Texas and California to the United States;
first known theater presentation in California at Monterey.
1849 Transcontinental gold rush of Forty-Niners to the California gold camps
opens opportunity for traveling entertainers; the first professional produc-
tion in California, The Bandit Chief, is given in Sacramento; first circus
in the West performs in San Francisco; first professional theater production
staged in California at Sacramento.
1850 San Francisco booms as a center for theatrical entertainment in the western
United States.
1852 Publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the first theater adaptation of this
long-lasting, popular play.
1853 Founding of the San Francisco Minstrels.
1854 The Grattan Massacre in Wyoming initiates war with the Plains Indians
for the next 36 years; publication of Ten Nights in a Bar-room.
1859 Major gold rushes to Central City, Colorado, and Bannack, Montana.
1860 First transcontinental mail deliveries via the Pony Express.
1861 Start of the Civil War between the Union and the Confederates; comple-
tion of the transcontinental telegraph ends the era of the Pony Express;
Adah Menken debuts as Mazeppa in Albany, New York.
1865 Defeat of the Confederacy and the end of the Civil War; the San Francisco
Minstrels begin a 19-year stay in New York.
1866 The first of many herds of cattle are driven from Texas to the railheads in
Kansas; New York opening of The Black Crook, the forerunner of musical
comedy and burlesque shows.
viii
Entertainment Milestones ix
1868 Lydia Thompson and her British Blondes present Ixion, the forerunner of
“leg shows.”
1869 Meeting of the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific at Promontory, Utah,
completes the transcontinental railroad from the East to California;
Michael Leavitt creates Mme. Rentz’s Female Minstrels, the first American
burlesque show.
1870 Beginning of the worst years of Indian warfare between the U.S. Army
and the Plains tribes.
1872 William F. Cody appears in the stage play The Scouts of the Prairie.
1876 General George Armstrong Custer and his troops are annihilated at the
Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana; Deadwood emerges to become
the center of a gold rush to the Black Hills.
1877 Discovery of silver in southern New Mexico Territory (later south-central
Arizona) creates a rush that results in Tombstone.
1880 Leadville booms with silver mining to become the largest city in Colorado
after Denver.
1881 The bloody Gunfight at the OK Corral takes place in Tombstone, A rizona.
1882 W.F. Cody organizes the Old Glory BlowoutFourth of July celebration in
North Platte, Nebraska.
1883 W.F. Cody organizes Buffalo Bill’s Wild Westto commemorate the passing
of the Old West.
1885 The end of the cattle drives from Texas and decline of the Kansas cattle
towns.
1890 The end of the Indian Wars after the battle at Wounded Knee, South
Dakota, between the U.S. Army and the Sioux Indians; gold strikes on
the back side of Pikes Peak in central Colorado results in the boomtown
of Cripple Creek.
1893 The silver crash and subsequent depression closes many Western theaters;
“Little Egypt” introduces the belly dance at the World’s Columbian Expo-
sition in Chicago.
1895 The first public showings in Europe of movies of short subjects.
1897 Start of the Klondike Gold Rush, the last of the great gold rushes, and the
boom of mining in Dawson, in the Yukon Territory, in the frozen far north.
1900 The rise of movies in the nickelodeons.
1903 The Great Train Robbery, the first sophisticated western, is filmed in New
Jersey by the Edison Company.
1917 W.F. Cody dies in Denver, Colorado.