JK GILLON

BUFFALO BILL'S WILD WEST EXHIBITION AND CONGRESS OF ROUGH RIDERS

Colonel William F Cody, alias Buffalo Bill, brought his 'Wild West Exhibition and Congress of Rough Riders of the World' to Scotland in August, 1904. The week of performances in Edinburgh was staged on a large area of open ground at Gorgie Road and special trains were provided to the nearby Gorgie Station. In Glasgow, the drill ground at Cathcart Road was the venue.

The show was billed as the 'crowning equestrian spectacle of the ages' and involved performers from all over the world; but retained a 'predominant flavour of the picturesque and adventurous life of the Wild West'. The sheer size of the show was overwhelming; the company included 800 men and women with 500 horses and required three trains for transportation. The cast included anyone who wanted to work for Cody: Mexicans, Native Americans, Cowboys, women, and children, along with special performers with expertise in shooting, lassoing, and riding.

The two hour performances commenced with an 'imposing review' of Buffalo Bill's Rough Riders: a hundred Red Indians, 'Red men, chiefs, warriors, squaws and papooses with feather head-dresses, long spears, bead jackets and uttering discordant war cries', British Lancers U S Cavalry, Cossacks, Bedouin Arabs, Gauchos from Argentina, Mexican Vaqueros, Japanese Mounted Troops and American Cowboys. They were all dressed in their national costumes or uniforms and gave exhibitions of various methods of skilful horse riding. Finally Buffalo Bill appeared and was greeted with rapturous applause, 'a tribute to his fame and daring as a skilful frontier scout and his success as organiser of the night's entertainment'.


The show continued with an exhibition of drills by the US Cavalry and British Lancers; acrobatics, wire-walking and juggling by Arab and Japanese performers; a war-dance by a large troupe of Indians and 'feats of equestrian skill' by the Cossacks.

Cody's elaborate melodrama of the American West required the participation of hundreds in order to stage the showstopping scenes. A large section of the company re-enacted 'Wild West Incidents' such as the Battle of the little Big Horn, a Bison Hunt a stage-coach hold-up, a cattle round-up, riding bucking broncos and attacks on a wagon train and settler's hut. The 'raiding Indians and defending cowboys did their work with abundant noise and bustle, and with spirit and energy which made the scenes intensely realistic'.


Buffalo Bill demonstrated his shooting skills by hitting small balls thrown in the air while he was riding on horseback, and Johnny Baker, a young American marksman, 'even when standing on his head brought down clay pigeons with his rifle'.

The most sensational act was reported as being the 'wonderful bicycle leap' performed by George C Davis, the 'Cowboy Cyclist', who 'mid breathless excitement, mounted his machine, rode down a long inclined plank, jumped a space of 56 feet and disappeared triumphantly out of the arena.'

A 'capital cowboy band' provided background music and the show was considered as being 'well worth a visit as it left the spectators with the impression that they had witnessed some of the most daring feats of horsemanship that it would be possible to imagine.'