0:00:01 > 0:00:0420TH CENTURY FOX FANFARE
0:00:14 > 0:00:18THEME MUSIC PLAYS
0:00:18 > 0:00:21I have always been a far-gazer.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24All my interests are with the West,
0:00:24 > 0:00:27the modern West.
0:00:27 > 0:00:32I have met king and commoner, men of might and imagination,
0:00:32 > 0:00:37men without whom the future would be a dark and savage jungle.
0:00:42 > 0:00:44In 1913,
0:00:44 > 0:00:48they wanted to make a film about my life.
0:00:48 > 0:00:53I refused, but it gave me the idea to make one myself
0:00:53 > 0:00:57with, as far as possible, the original cast.
0:00:57 > 0:01:00Who else would know the details
0:01:00 > 0:01:04of the campaigns I had lived through?
0:01:04 > 0:01:07This was going to be my story -
0:01:07 > 0:01:11the story of Buffalo Bill in The Taming Of The West.
0:01:13 > 0:01:17MUSIC: "Star-Spangled Banner"
0:01:38 > 0:01:42Turn him round a bit that way. That's better. >
0:01:42 > 0:01:47- It's gone over a little bit in terms of the...- >
0:01:47 > 0:01:54- No, that's all right. Now the horse has turned, I'm seeing lights in the tree.- He'll be all right.
0:01:54 > 0:01:58- Back into the centre. - You need to move him round. >
0:01:58 > 0:02:01- The first one was all right.- OK. >
0:02:07 > 0:02:10- Good.- Good, all right. Board. >
0:02:35 > 0:02:40NATIVE AMERICAN DRUMMING AND SINGING
0:02:42 > 0:02:48My debut onto the world stage occurred on February 26th, 1846.
0:02:48 > 0:02:53The scene of this first important event in my adventurous career
0:02:53 > 0:02:57began in Scott County in the state of Iowa.
0:02:57 > 0:02:59My parents,
0:02:59 > 0:03:05Isaac and Mary Cody, who were among the first pioneers of Iowa,
0:03:05 > 0:03:09gave me the name of William Frederick.
0:03:09 > 0:03:16I was the fourth child in the family. At the time of my birth, we resided on a large farm.
0:03:16 > 0:03:22When the Californian gold fever broke out, Father gave up the idea of farming
0:03:22 > 0:03:28and moved to Le Claire, Iowa, with plans to head West. He took sick
0:03:28 > 0:03:30and had to abandon the idea.
0:03:38 > 0:03:45As a child, most of my time was spent trapping quails, which were very plentiful. I greatly enjoyed
0:03:45 > 0:03:51studying the habits of little birds and devising traps to take them in.
0:03:51 > 0:03:56Thus I think it was that I acquired my love for hunting.
0:03:59 > 0:04:04I remember a friend of my father's breaking in my first pony.
0:04:04 > 0:04:08He managed the horse by rope alone. When riding,
0:04:08 > 0:04:12he stood straight up on its back,
0:04:12 > 0:04:17then jumped to the ground and threw himself in a complete somersault.
0:04:17 > 0:04:24His horsemanship was the most skilful I had ever witnessed. My ambition
0:04:24 > 0:04:28was to become as good a horseman as he was.
0:04:43 > 0:04:45Good morning, folks.
0:05:12 > 0:05:16Buffalo Bill was one of the few who became legends
0:05:16 > 0:05:19in their own lifetime,
0:05:19 > 0:05:24and were international celebrities while they were still alive.
0:05:26 > 0:05:31President Theodore Roosevelt called Cody "an American of the Americans".
0:05:31 > 0:05:39He embodied those traits of courage, strength and self-reliant hardihood vital to the nation's wellbeing.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47Roosevelt was particularly concerned
0:05:47 > 0:05:52with developing something he called "the national character".
0:05:52 > 0:05:55For him, it has aspects of race.
0:05:55 > 0:06:00His notion was that the Anglo-Saxon, or Anglo-Teuton, as he'd have said,
0:06:00 > 0:06:05has the traits of the conqueror, the administrator, the ruler.
0:06:05 > 0:06:12He liked to celebrate people like Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Kit Carson and Buffalo Bill,
0:06:12 > 0:06:19who represented those dominant racial traits in their purest and most heroic form.
0:06:57 > 0:07:04In the mid-19th century, a quarter of a million Americans crossed what's now the United States
0:07:04 > 0:07:09in a search for land, for wealth to be gained by mining gold,
0:07:09 > 0:07:14for a free and independent life in a new territory.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18They had to cross what was called the Great American Desert,
0:07:18 > 0:07:23a trek that would last months and which, if not completed in time,
0:07:23 > 0:07:28might see them starve to death or cannibalise each other.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43My father was determined to move to some new territory,
0:07:43 > 0:07:46so the family departed for Kansas
0:07:46 > 0:07:49which was still unsettled country.
0:07:59 > 0:08:04The Enabling Act of Kansas Territory was passed in 1854.
0:08:04 > 0:08:11Thousands of people flocked thither, a large number of immigrants coming over from adjoining states.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15Missourians, mostly, were pro-slavery.
0:08:15 > 0:08:20At enthusiastic meetings they expressed their desire
0:08:20 > 0:08:24that Kansas should be a slave state. At one meeting,
0:08:24 > 0:08:29my father, who happened to be there, was called upon to make a speech.
0:08:29 > 0:08:34Whether Kansas should be a free or a slave state...
0:08:34 > 0:08:36He was in favour of keeping Kansas
0:08:36 > 0:08:44a white state, and that negroes, whether free or slave, should never be allowed to locate within it.
0:08:46 > 0:08:53There was a glint of a knife, a plunge downwards, and my father toppled off the improvised platform
0:08:53 > 0:08:58with only the hilt of the knife protruding from his body.
0:09:04 > 0:09:11He never really recovered, and a year or so later, he died after catching a severe winter cold.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15This sad event left my mother and family
0:09:15 > 0:09:18in poor circumstances.
0:09:18 > 0:09:24I determined to follow the plains for a livelihood for them and myself.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28- SINGING TO HIMSELF - I obtained work
0:09:28 > 0:09:32with the government freighters Russell, Majors and Waddell,
0:09:32 > 0:09:37who sent beef cattle and wagons across the plains to the army.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40SINGING
0:09:52 > 0:09:55THUNDER OF HOOVES
0:09:55 > 0:09:59Wake up! Where are they coming from?
0:10:07 > 0:10:13We scattered and made a run for it. I, being the youngest, fell behind.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16I was surprised by a noise
0:10:16 > 0:10:22in the undergrowth. I instantly aimed my gun and fired.
0:10:23 > 0:10:29This, of course, was the first Indian I had ever shot.
0:10:29 > 0:10:35As I was not more than 11 years of age, my exploit created quite a sensation.
0:10:35 > 0:10:41I was interviewed by a newspaper reporter, and the next morning
0:10:41 > 0:10:47my name was in print as the youngest Indian slayer in the plains.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49GUNFIRE
0:10:49 > 0:10:52My exploit
0:10:52 > 0:10:56was related in a very graphic manner,
0:10:56 > 0:11:01and for a long time afterwards I was a considerable hero.
0:11:01 > 0:11:09The superheroes who inhabit comic books and movies are the folklore and fairy tales of modern society.
0:11:09 > 0:11:14They're models for heroic and moral action in our world.
0:11:14 > 0:11:21But before there were superheroes, American popular culture took its heroes from real life, from history.
0:11:21 > 0:11:29It took figures whose real deeds brought them to public attention and made them the centrepieces of myths.
0:11:32 > 0:11:35# Wait along...
0:11:35 > 0:11:40# I do not know what fate awaits me
0:11:43 > 0:11:46# I only know I must be brave... #
0:11:46 > 0:11:50Only to the white man was nature a wilderness.
0:11:50 > 0:11:56Only to him was the land infested with wild animals and savage people.
0:11:56 > 0:12:03To us, it was tame. Not until the very animals of the forest began fleeing from his approach,
0:12:03 > 0:12:07that then it was for us that the Wild West began.
0:12:26 > 0:12:32I met the agent of the Pony Express and asked for employment as a rider.
0:12:32 > 0:12:39I was so young, he thought I would not be able to withstand the fierce riding required.
0:12:39 > 0:12:45He knew that I had been raised in the saddle and I was confident,
0:12:45 > 0:12:51so he gave me a short route of 45 miles and three changes of horses.
0:12:51 > 0:12:58The Codys moved into Kansas just in time to catch the opening act of the American Civil War.
0:12:58 > 0:13:02It went on in Kansas with murders,
0:13:02 > 0:13:07mob actions, right through from 1854 to 1865. Cody was part of that.
0:13:07 > 0:13:15He even participated in some what are called jayhawker activities and redleg activities.
0:13:15 > 0:13:21These were armed gangs of free state men who fought against the slave state men,
0:13:21 > 0:13:26taking an eye for an eye, a burning for a burning.
0:13:27 > 0:13:33One day I received a letter stating that Mother was seriously ill.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36On November 22nd, 1863,
0:13:36 > 0:13:38she died.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41I loved her above all other persons.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46# We're tenting tonight
0:13:46 > 0:13:49# On the old camp ground
0:13:49 > 0:13:53# Give us a song
0:13:53 > 0:13:56# To cheer
0:13:56 > 0:13:59# Our weary hearts
0:13:59 > 0:14:03# A song of home
0:14:03 > 0:14:09# And friends we love so dear
0:14:09 > 0:14:12# Many are the hearts
0:14:12 > 0:14:16# That are weary tonight
0:14:16 > 0:14:20# Wishing for the war
0:14:20 > 0:14:23# To cease
0:14:23 > 0:14:29# Many are the hearts That are looking to the right
0:14:29 > 0:14:32# To see
0:14:32 > 0:14:36# The dawn of peace
0:14:36 > 0:14:40# Tenting tonight
0:14:40 > 0:14:43# Tenting tonight
0:14:43 > 0:14:50# Tenting on the old camp ground... #
0:14:52 > 0:14:58One day, when the 7th Kansas returned from the Civil War,
0:14:58 > 0:15:06having been under the influence of bad whiskey, I awoke to find myself a soldier in the regiment.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10I did not remember how or when I had enlisted,
0:15:10 > 0:15:15but I saw that I was in for it and it would not do for me to back out.
0:15:15 > 0:15:21In the spring of 1864, the regiment was ordered to Tennessee.
0:15:21 > 0:15:25This kind of fighting was all new to me.
0:15:25 > 0:15:32My talents were soon recognised by the authorities, and I became a non-commissioned officer.
0:15:32 > 0:15:36They put me on detached service as a scout.
0:15:36 > 0:15:43Cody, by the time he joined the 7th Kansas, had probably experienced a lot of illegal violence.
0:15:43 > 0:15:49It's something that he would have wanted to glide over silently,
0:15:49 > 0:15:54because the jayhawkers had a bad name, even among pro-Union people.
0:15:57 > 0:16:02During the winter, while I was at military headquarters in St Louis,
0:16:02 > 0:16:07I became acquainted with a young lady named Louisa Frederici.
0:16:07 > 0:16:13She was refined and elegant, and I made up my mind to capture her heart.
0:16:13 > 0:16:20I was not slow in declaring my sentiments to her, and she agreed to marry me.
0:16:20 > 0:16:26I bought a hotel and tried to settle down with my wife in Salt Creek Valley.
0:16:26 > 0:16:34I made a good landlord, but it was too tame an employment. I sighed for open spaces and the plains.
0:16:34 > 0:16:36# Give me back my saddle
0:16:36 > 0:16:40# Give me back my gun
0:16:40 > 0:16:43# Give me back that bronco
0:16:43 > 0:16:46# That I used to run
0:16:46 > 0:16:49# Let me spread my blanket
0:16:49 > 0:16:53# By a peaceful stream
0:16:53 > 0:16:56# Hear the cowboys singing
0:16:56 > 0:16:59# By the campfire gleam
0:16:59 > 0:17:04- # Oh, carry me back - Yodel-ay-ee-hoo
0:17:04 > 0:17:07- # To the lone prairie - Yodel-ay-ee-hoo
0:17:07 > 0:17:11- # Where the coyotes howl - Yodel-ay-ee-hoo
0:17:11 > 0:17:15- # And the wind blows free - Yodel-ay-ee-hoo
0:17:15 > 0:17:18# And when I die
0:17:18 > 0:17:22# You can bury me
0:17:22 > 0:17:26- # Neath the western sky - Yodel-ay-ee-hoo
0:17:26 > 0:17:30- # On the lone prairie - Yodel-ay-ee-hoo
0:17:30 > 0:17:33# And when I die
0:17:33 > 0:17:36# You can bury me
0:17:36 > 0:17:42# Neath the western sky
0:17:42 > 0:17:45# On the lone...
0:17:45 > 0:17:51# Prairie-i-i-i-i-ie... #
0:17:56 > 0:17:59I sold the hotel
0:17:59 > 0:18:04and sent my wife and new baby daughter Arta to St Louis.
0:18:04 > 0:18:10It was about this time that the Kansas Pacific railway track
0:18:10 > 0:18:12reached buffalo country.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15The company was employing 1,200 men.
0:18:18 > 0:18:25After the Civil War there was a tremendous need for national projects and national heroes
0:18:25 > 0:18:31to find a substitute for the things that divided the nation in the war.
0:18:31 > 0:18:39Settling the West became that national project that could unite North and South. A hero was needed
0:18:39 > 0:18:44to symbolise that new national frontier. The chosen symbol
0:18:44 > 0:18:47turned out to be Buffalo Bill.
0:19:07 > 0:19:12The company said that they would require 12 buffalos a day.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15That would be about 24 hands.
0:19:28 > 0:19:32As this would be dangerous, on account of the Indians,
0:19:32 > 0:19:40they agreed to give me 500 a month. It wasn't long before I received considerable notoriety.
0:19:49 > 0:19:54The end of the Kansas-Pacific track reached Sheridan in May, 1868.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58As my services as a hunter were no longer required,
0:19:58 > 0:20:06I concluded once more to take up my old vocation of scouting and guiding for the army.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10NATIVE AMERICAN DRUMS BEAT
0:20:27 > 0:20:33It became known to General Carr's command
0:20:33 > 0:20:38that Tall Bull's Cheyenne held captive two Swedish women -
0:20:38 > 0:20:43a Mrs Alderdice and a Mrs Weichell.
0:20:43 > 0:20:48The Indians had attacked settlers along the Solomon River,
0:20:48 > 0:20:53carrying off the women after strangling Mrs Alderdice's baby
0:20:53 > 0:20:56and killing Mrs Weichell's husband.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00The command took up the Indian trail.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04On top of a hill, we overlooked the camp
0:21:04 > 0:21:11of the unsuspecting Indians. General Carr called to sound the charge.
0:21:11 > 0:21:18We soon found the two white women. One had just been killed by Tall Bull's wife with a hatchet,
0:21:18 > 0:21:21and the other wounded.
0:21:21 > 0:21:26The Indians were driven off but they soon returned,
0:21:26 > 0:21:34led by Chief Tall Bull, riding a fine-looking horse and entreating his men to fight until they died.
0:21:34 > 0:21:38The horse was extraordinary, fleet as the wind.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42I determined to capture him for myself.
0:21:42 > 0:21:47I was afraid to fire at first, for fear of killing the horse.
0:21:53 > 0:21:59News of our victory rapidly spread across the land, and my reputation
0:21:59 > 0:22:06really began to soar. I later included the event in my Wild West exhibition.
0:22:06 > 0:22:11The audiences marvelled at our depiction of this historic scene.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17Cody picks the Indian off and spares the horse.
0:22:17 > 0:22:22But they rode in shooting left and right, nominally to rescue captives,
0:22:22 > 0:22:28and in at least a couple of cases ended up killing the captives, too.
0:22:28 > 0:22:30Company, prepare to mount!
0:22:30 > 0:22:32Mount!
0:22:37 > 0:22:39Left into line!
0:22:39 > 0:22:47The American Western symbolises the racial struggle, the cultural struggle between Indians and whites
0:22:47 > 0:22:54for possession of the land or of the woman - symbolising white civilisation needing to be rescued.
0:22:54 > 0:23:01So when Sheridan, who was commanding in the district, sent the army out in 1868/69
0:23:01 > 0:23:07one of the motives for supporting the war was to rescue white women.
0:23:07 > 0:23:15But there's a letter that Sheridan wrote saying that they had already suffered a fate worse than death.
0:23:15 > 0:23:22So the army was to shoot everything that moved. If they rescued the women, that would be something.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25That letter was not published at the time.
0:23:28 > 0:23:35One day I accompanied an expedition to catch some Redskins who were creating trouble on the railway.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38The expedition was unusual,
0:23:38 > 0:23:46as I was informed we were to have an important guest with us, a man who was to change my life.
0:23:46 > 0:23:52Colonel EZC Judson, alias Ned Buntline, the famous novelist.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56He was rather stoutly built and wore a blue military coat,
0:23:56 > 0:24:00on the left breast of which were pinned medals and badges
0:24:00 > 0:24:03of secret societies.
0:24:03 > 0:24:08At that time, Buntline was returning from California
0:24:08 > 0:24:13after an unsuccessful tour as a temperance lecturer.
0:24:15 > 0:24:20He was mighty interested in the things I had done,
0:24:20 > 0:24:23and asked me a great many questions.
0:24:23 > 0:24:28His fertile imagination turned my life into pages of adventure.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36Buffalo Bill - six feet and one inch in height,
0:24:36 > 0:24:39straight as an ash,
0:24:39 > 0:24:45broad in shoulder, round and full in chest, slender in the waist,
0:24:45 > 0:24:53swelling out in muscular proportions at hips and thighs, with tapering limbs, small hands and feet,
0:24:53 > 0:24:55his form a study.
0:24:57 > 0:25:04Ned Buntline was one of the leading entrepreneurs in what we have to call a culture industry.
0:25:04 > 0:25:10The dime novel, popular literature business in the United States
0:25:10 > 0:25:15by the mid-century had become a kind of industrial enterprise.
0:25:15 > 0:25:23It's cheap literature on a wide range of subjects from American history to made-up pirate stories,
0:25:23 > 0:25:28what we might call science fiction. Buntline was a pioneer in this area.
0:25:28 > 0:25:33He thrived by finding out what the public wanted and giving it to them
0:25:33 > 0:25:39as cheaply and quickly as possible. In the 1870s there's a tremendous enthusiasm
0:25:39 > 0:25:43for the new country that's being opened up.
0:25:43 > 0:25:49Buntline goes where the action is and comes up with Buffalo Bill.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52CIRCUS MUSIC
0:25:52 > 0:25:56"I don't mean to kill old Jake if I can help it.
0:25:56 > 0:26:04"I want to take him back to the spot where he murdered my father and roast him over a slow fire.
0:26:04 > 0:26:09"Death - a mere man's death - is too good for him.
0:26:09 > 0:26:15"He wants, and shall have, a taste here of what he'll get when he IS dead.
0:26:15 > 0:26:20"I could glory in every pain that wracked his frame.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24"I could see his eyeballs start in agony from his head.
0:26:24 > 0:26:29"The beaded sweat, blood-coloured, oozed from his clammy skin,
0:26:29 > 0:26:36"each nerve and tendon quivering like the strings of a harp struck by a maniac hand."
0:26:36 > 0:26:40One way or another, meeting Buntline
0:26:40 > 0:26:42changed my life.
0:26:42 > 0:26:48After his expedition with me, he wrote the first of four stories about me.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51His attentions alerted others
0:26:51 > 0:26:54to write about my escapades, too.
0:26:54 > 0:26:59I became known to every man, woman and child from East to West Coast.
0:27:08 > 0:27:13"Buffalo Bill's trusty rifle barked, and another Redskin bit the dust.
0:27:13 > 0:27:18"Riding like the wind, he swept from the ground the beautiful girl,
0:27:18 > 0:27:20"last survivor of the wagon train.
0:27:20 > 0:27:28"He spurred his mustang to greater speed, sending leaden messages of death into the ranks of the foe.
0:27:28 > 0:27:33"But the Redskins, with fiendish screams, still pursued him."
0:27:33 > 0:27:39Whilst away on an expedition the following year, my wife gave birth to a son.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42I named him Kit,
0:27:42 > 0:27:45after the great scout Kit Carson.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54The white man knows how to make everything,
0:27:54 > 0:27:58but he does not know how to distribute it.
0:27:58 > 0:28:02The love of possession is a disease with them.
0:28:02 > 0:28:07They take tithes from the poor and weak to support the rich who rule.
0:28:07 > 0:28:15They claim this mother of ours - the Earth - their own, and fence their neighbours away.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18DRUMMING AND CHANTING
0:28:22 > 0:28:28In 1872 I was asked to visit Spotted Tail, one of the friendly Sioux,
0:28:28 > 0:28:35to induce him and his braves to demonstrate the manner in which they killed buffalo.
0:28:35 > 0:28:42This spectacle was for the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, who was to join us on a big buffalo hunt.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47CHANTING
0:28:47 > 0:28:53The Indians were objects of great curiosity to the Grand Duke,
0:28:53 > 0:28:57who spent a considerable time looking at them.
0:28:57 > 0:29:02That evening, they gave a grand war dance.
0:29:02 > 0:29:09General Custer, one of the hunting party, carried on a mild flirtation with Spotted Tail's daughter.
0:29:09 > 0:29:17It was noticed also that the Grand Duke Alexis paid attention to another handsome redskinned maiden.
0:29:30 > 0:29:38The Grand Duke Alexis tour was set up by the army. Custer and Sheridan accompanied Buffalo Bill on it.
0:29:38 > 0:29:40It was a major media coup.
0:29:40 > 0:29:48It was really part of the army's and the railroads' attempt to promote the expansion of railroads
0:29:48 > 0:29:51into Indian territory.
0:29:51 > 0:29:56Rich men, newspaper editors, political leaders, hunting buffalo.
0:29:56 > 0:30:03They would ride the trains out to where the herds were. Many times they would not even dismount.
0:30:03 > 0:30:08They would just shoot out of the car windows to kill the animals.
0:30:08 > 0:30:13In the evening we had a splendid dinner,
0:30:13 > 0:30:18as will be seen from the following bill of fare.
0:30:18 > 0:30:23Soup - buffalo tail. Fish - cisco, broiled. Fried dace.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26Entrees - salami of prairie dog,
0:30:26 > 0:30:31stewed rabbit, fillet of buffalo or champignons.
0:30:31 > 0:30:36Roast - elk, antelope, black-tailed deer,
0:30:36 > 0:30:38wild turkey.
0:30:38 > 0:30:42Broiled - teal, mallard, antelope chops,
0:30:42 > 0:30:46buffalo calf steaks, young wild turkey.
0:30:46 > 0:30:51Vegetables - sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green peas.
0:30:51 > 0:30:54Desserts - tapioca.
0:30:54 > 0:30:58Wines - champagne frappe, champagne naturel, claret.
0:30:58 > 0:31:00Whiskey, brandy, Bass ale.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03Coffee.
0:31:03 > 0:31:09This I consider to be a pretty square meal for a party of hunters, and everybody
0:31:09 > 0:31:12did ample justice to it.
0:31:39 > 0:31:46Of course, the main thing was to give Alexis the first chance and the best shot at the buffalos.
0:31:46 > 0:31:50GUNSHOT
0:32:01 > 0:32:05Seeing that the animals were bound to escape,
0:32:05 > 0:32:09I gave him my celebrated buffalo hunting gun -
0:32:11 > 0:32:13Lucrezia Borgia.
0:32:55 > 0:32:58GUNSHOT
0:32:58 > 0:33:05The wiping out of the buffalo was not really done by the sport hunters but by the hide hunters.
0:33:05 > 0:33:11They would slaughter huge numbers of buffalo, which are easy to kill,
0:33:11 > 0:33:19and take only the hides, leave the meat to rot, later on go back to collect the bones for fertiliser.
0:33:19 > 0:33:25Buffalo hides were extremely strong, very useful for belting in industrial machinery.
0:33:25 > 0:33:28So there's a direct tie
0:33:28 > 0:33:34between the wiping out of the buffalo and the industrialisation of the American economy.
0:33:43 > 0:33:48I accepted an invitation from gentleman hunters to travel East.
0:33:48 > 0:33:54When I arrived in New York, I spent a few days viewing the sights,
0:33:54 > 0:34:00everything being new and startling, convincing me that as of yet
0:34:00 > 0:34:05I had seen but a small portion of the world.
0:34:05 > 0:34:10I was trotting with the wealthy and quite the best people in town.
0:34:10 > 0:34:17I embarked on a round of swell dinners and parties and attended a number of theatrical events.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36While I was in New York,
0:34:36 > 0:34:43I attended the dramatisation of one of the stories Ned Buntline had written about me.
0:34:43 > 0:34:50I was curious to see how I'd look, represented by an actor appearing in the character of Buffalo Bill.
0:35:15 > 0:35:20That evening, the manager of the theatre offered me 500 a week
0:35:20 > 0:35:25to play the part of Buffalo Bill myself.
0:35:25 > 0:35:30I had to decline, owing to the lack of confidence in myself.
0:35:33 > 0:35:38Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Kit Carson had all been celebrities,
0:35:38 > 0:35:43had all been written up in the day's cheap literature.
0:35:43 > 0:35:48But only Buffalo Bill recognised that money could be made out of it,
0:35:48 > 0:35:53because only Buffalo Bill, I guess, lived in a culture where mass media
0:35:53 > 0:35:56were really available to him.
0:35:56 > 0:35:58Buntline was exploiting his name.
0:35:58 > 0:36:06He came to New York with a vague plan in mind of doing something to take charge of his fame
0:36:06 > 0:36:09and turn it into a commodity.
0:36:10 > 0:36:16Buntline wrote to me enthusiastically about a career on the stage.
0:36:16 > 0:36:21Flattered and intrigued by the idea, I decided to try my luck.
0:36:21 > 0:36:29I set off with Texas Jack, another scout. Together we starred in Buntline's first production -
0:36:29 > 0:36:31Scouts Of The Prairie.
0:36:40 > 0:36:45We were met with enormous success. There was no backing out after that.
0:37:01 > 0:37:04A new way of life began for me.
0:37:04 > 0:37:09Disappointed with my share of the profits, we reorganised -
0:37:09 > 0:37:12without the help of Buntline.
0:37:12 > 0:37:16From fall to spring, we toured theatres.
0:37:16 > 0:37:20The summers were spent guiding hunting parties
0:37:20 > 0:37:22or scouting for the military.
0:37:38 > 0:37:43For years there were rumours that there was gold in the Black Hills.
0:37:43 > 0:37:48In 1874 the army decided to establish that truth.
0:37:48 > 0:37:53It sent General Custer with a large expedition to explore the hills.
0:37:53 > 0:38:00Custer was accompanied by miners and by newspaper reporters, who were to publicise the discoveries
0:38:00 > 0:38:04and create the mood of a public gold rush.
0:38:04 > 0:38:09The Sioux, regarding this justly as a violation of their treaty rights,
0:38:09 > 0:38:13called Custer "the Chief of the Thieves".
0:38:37 > 0:38:44Full-scale war had broken out with the Sioux and the Cheyenne over the Black Hills
0:38:44 > 0:38:47and I was anxious to take part.
0:38:47 > 0:38:49Part of the success
0:38:49 > 0:38:56of Buffalo Bill's theatrical enterprises came from the fact that he was still serving,
0:38:56 > 0:38:59in the summer, as an army scout.
0:38:59 > 0:39:03Although we associate the West with the distant past,
0:39:03 > 0:39:10what Cody was doing was showing Eastern audiences that the West was current events.
0:39:10 > 0:39:15It's that alternation between real events, newspaper events,
0:39:15 > 0:39:23and the almost instant transformation of those events into myth, into metaphor, into melodrama,
0:39:23 > 0:39:28that's his contribution to American culture. It brings him power.
0:39:28 > 0:39:33He brings the authenticity of a man who does the real deeds,
0:39:33 > 0:39:40army dispatch deeds, as his testimonials to the authenticity of the essentially false image
0:39:40 > 0:39:43that he's presenting on the stage.
0:39:43 > 0:39:47APPLAUSE
0:39:47 > 0:39:54One day I was performing in Massachusetts when I received a telegram informing me
0:39:54 > 0:39:59that my little boy Kit was dangerously ill with scarlet fever.
0:40:09 > 0:40:11"To my older sister Julia.
0:40:11 > 0:40:16"You are the first to write after our sad, sad loss.
0:40:16 > 0:40:21"Julia, God has taken from us our only little boy.
0:40:21 > 0:40:25"God wanted him in a better world,
0:40:25 > 0:40:33"so He sent the Angel of Death to take the treasure He had given us five years and five months ago.
0:40:33 > 0:40:39"We clung to him and prayed God not take him from us, but there was no hope.
0:40:39 > 0:40:46"He could not speak, but put his little arms around me as much to say, 'Papa has come.'
0:40:46 > 0:40:49"Goodbye, from brother Will."
0:40:55 > 0:40:58I rejoined the 5th Cavalry.
0:40:58 > 0:41:04The command operated on the south fork of the Cheyenne River for two weeks,
0:41:04 > 0:41:09and we drove the Indians out of that part of the country.
0:41:09 > 0:41:13As we started on our way to Fort Laramie,
0:41:13 > 0:41:20we learned of the massacre of General Custer and his band of heroes on the Little Bighorn
0:41:20 > 0:41:24on 25th June, 1876.
0:41:24 > 0:41:27DRUM BEATS
0:41:32 > 0:41:36The same evening we received news of the massacre,
0:41:36 > 0:41:39a scout arrived bringing a message.
0:41:39 > 0:41:42800 Cheyenne warriors
0:41:42 > 0:41:50had that day left the Red Cloud agency to join Sitting Bull's forces in the Bighorn region.
0:41:55 > 0:42:00We marched to intercept them at War Bonnet Creek.
0:42:11 > 0:42:13Yellow Hand!
0:42:13 > 0:42:16IN NATIVE LANGUAGE
0:42:16 > 0:42:20Take your people back to their own country.
0:42:20 > 0:42:24IN NATIVE LANGUAGE
0:42:39 > 0:42:44Trooper Chris Madsen, Company A, US Cavalry.
0:42:44 > 0:42:48I had an unobstructed view of what happened.
0:42:48 > 0:42:55From the manner which both parties acted, it was certain that both were surprised.
0:42:55 > 0:43:02Cody's bullet went through the Indian's leg and killed his pinto pony.
0:43:02 > 0:43:06Cody's horse stumbled, but was up in a movement.
0:43:17 > 0:43:19There's no doubt about it.
0:43:19 > 0:43:27Buffalo Bill scalped this Indian, who, it turned out, was a Cheyenne sub-chief called Yellow Hand.
0:43:27 > 0:43:29He was a son of Cut-Nose,
0:43:29 > 0:43:32a leading chief of the Cheyenne.
0:43:32 > 0:43:40Some called him Yellow Hair, on account of the blonde woman's scalp he wore from his waistband.
0:43:42 > 0:43:44Cut-Nose
0:43:44 > 0:43:50sent a message to the effect that he would give me four mules
0:43:50 > 0:43:55if I would turn over Yellow Hand's war bonnet and other paraphernalia.
0:43:55 > 0:44:02I sent back word to the old gentleman that it would give me great pleasure to accommodate him,
0:44:02 > 0:44:05but I could not do so at this time.
0:44:05 > 0:44:10Cody displayed the relics of Yellow Hand - his scalp and war bonnet -
0:44:10 > 0:44:14outside the theatres in which he performed.
0:44:14 > 0:44:21Many people, particularly the so-called Friends of the Indian, condemned the display as obscene.
0:44:21 > 0:44:29But they improved Cody's celebrity and the attendance at his show and helped Cody to make his fortune.
0:44:39 > 0:44:44When he prepared for battle - they knew they were fighting Indians -
0:44:44 > 0:44:50he took off his buckskin scout gear and put on his theatrical costume,
0:44:50 > 0:44:54which was a velvet vaquero kind of outfit.
0:44:54 > 0:44:59He didn't know he'd kill Yellow Hand, but something would happen.
0:44:59 > 0:45:04He was preparing for the moment when he would stand on the stage
0:45:04 > 0:45:09and say to the audience that he was actually wearing the garb
0:45:09 > 0:45:15that he had worn when he had taken "the first scalp for Custer".
0:45:28 > 0:45:34I suppose my new life put some strain on my marriage and home life.
0:45:34 > 0:45:40Lulu was used to my absence when my work took me across the plains,
0:45:40 > 0:45:47but now that I had gained celebrity and my travels were to the great cities of the East, we grew apart
0:45:47 > 0:45:51and our good times became less frequent.
0:45:53 > 0:45:57Immense success and comparative wealth
0:45:57 > 0:46:01obtained as a showman stimulated me to greater exertion
0:46:01 > 0:46:06and largely increased my ambition for public favour.
0:46:06 > 0:46:09Accordingly, I conceived an idea.
0:46:09 > 0:46:14ANNOUNCER: Introducing...a congress
0:46:14 > 0:46:22of the world's roughest riders! First, a group of Sioux Indians! Next, Crow Indians!
0:46:22 > 0:46:25Cherokees! Cheyenne!
0:46:25 > 0:46:28Blackfeet! And Arapaho!
0:46:28 > 0:46:32Cowboys from Montana! From Wyoming!
0:46:32 > 0:46:37From Oklahoma Territory! From Colorado! From Dakota!
0:46:37 > 0:46:43Mexicans from old Mexico! Russian Cossacks from the Steppes of Russia!
0:46:43 > 0:46:46And the South American gauchos!
0:46:46 > 0:46:51And a troop of the United States Cavalry!
0:46:51 > 0:46:55CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:46:57 > 0:47:00And now, introducing...
0:47:00 > 0:47:04Colonel WF Cody -
0:47:04 > 0:47:06Buffalo Bill!
0:47:06 > 0:47:09CHEERING
0:47:21 > 0:47:26To accomplish this purpose, which in many respects
0:47:26 > 0:47:33was a Herculean undertaking, I engaged Indians from several different tribes
0:47:33 > 0:47:40and then set about the difficult enterprise of capturing a herd of buffalos.
0:47:40 > 0:47:46After several months I secured the services of nearly 50 cowboys and Mexicans,
0:47:46 > 0:47:51and several buffalos, elk and mountain sheep were obtained.
0:47:51 > 0:47:56The expense of such a show as I had determined to give was so great
0:47:56 > 0:48:04that a very large crowd must be drawn to every exhibition or financial failure would be certain.
0:48:06 > 0:48:12Thus was born my Great Wild West Exhibition. I sank everything into the project,
0:48:12 > 0:48:20determined to make it the most impressive and realistic entertainment ever, a demonstration
0:48:20 > 0:48:24of how the Great West was settled and civilised.
0:48:26 > 0:48:31Buffalo Bill was really serious about making his show realistic
0:48:31 > 0:48:36and authentic. He always insisted that it was not a show.
0:48:36 > 0:48:42He always called it the Wild West. He spoke of it as an exhibition, a recreation,
0:48:42 > 0:48:45a monument to historical reality.
0:48:45 > 0:48:53Despite the fact that he clearly had to fictionalise, there was an attempt to get at some poetic truth
0:48:53 > 0:48:57about the reality of Western life. To these scenes,
0:48:57 > 0:49:00he also mixed re-enactments
0:49:00 > 0:49:08of genuine historical events like the killing of Tall Bull at Summit Springs and, most significantly,
0:49:08 > 0:49:11re-enactment of Custer's last stand.
0:49:11 > 0:49:18But he was very serious about realism and historicity and about it being a patriotic pageant.
0:49:18 > 0:49:24He would attach testimonials from educators saying that Buffalo Bill
0:49:24 > 0:49:29was teaching a very important lesson in national history.
0:49:29 > 0:49:35Sitting Bull was persuaded to perform one season.
0:49:35 > 0:49:44He had returned from exile back in 1881, only to be confined to the Standing Rock reservation.
0:49:44 > 0:49:51He signed a contract for 50 a week, with sole right to sell his photographs and autographs.
0:49:51 > 0:49:56He was cast as a villain and was often hissed as he paraded.
0:49:56 > 0:50:01He was credited as masterminding the Custer massacre.
0:50:01 > 0:50:05There was much curiosity to see him, nonetheless.
0:50:07 > 0:50:14The immortal bard has well said, "Ambition grows with what it feeds on."
0:50:14 > 0:50:19Our unexampled success throughout America with the Wild West Show
0:50:19 > 0:50:25excited our ambition to conquer other nations than our own.
0:50:29 > 0:50:34We chartered the steamship State of Nebraska,
0:50:34 > 0:50:37and on March 31st, 1887,
0:50:37 > 0:50:41we set sail for a country I had long wished to visit -
0:50:41 > 0:50:44the motherland.
0:50:48 > 0:50:50The cowboy band played
0:50:50 > 0:50:53The Girl I Left Behind Me,
0:50:53 > 0:50:56and we were out upon the deep
0:50:56 > 0:50:59for the first time in my life.
0:51:02 > 0:51:07On the day after our departure the Indians began to grow weary
0:51:07 > 0:51:12and their stomachs, like my own, became treacherous and rebellious.
0:51:12 > 0:51:17They believed that soon after he attempted to cross an ocean,
0:51:17 > 0:51:21a red man would be seized by a malady
0:51:21 > 0:51:26that would prostrate the victim and then slowly consume his flesh
0:51:26 > 0:51:30until the skin itself would drop from his bones.
0:51:30 > 0:51:34The seal of hopelessness
0:51:34 > 0:51:38stamped across the faces of the Indians aroused my pity.
0:51:38 > 0:51:45Though sick as a cow with hollow horn myself, I used my utmost endeavours to cheer them up
0:51:45 > 0:51:48and relieve their foreboding.
0:51:52 > 0:51:55Cody, in his publicity for the show,
0:51:55 > 0:52:02always spoke of the Indian as "former foe", "present friend", "the American".
0:52:02 > 0:52:05He was offering them a livelihood,
0:52:05 > 0:52:10a chance to at least ceremonially re-enact their old lifestyle,
0:52:10 > 0:52:15their old ways of hunting and dancing and so on.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18# Westward, roll the wagons Westward, roll
0:52:18 > 0:52:21# Westward, roll the wagons
0:52:21 > 0:52:24- # For Oregon's our goal... # - We reached London,
0:52:24 > 0:52:31where a special performance was to be given by the Wild West for Her Majesty, the Queen.
0:52:33 > 0:52:35I welcomed her
0:52:35 > 0:52:38to the Wild West of America.
0:52:38 > 0:52:42Ladies and gentlemen,
0:52:42 > 0:52:45permit me to introduce to you
0:52:45 > 0:52:49a congress of the roughest riders of the world.
0:52:51 > 0:52:59An influential London paper described the scene in a highly complimentary manner, then added:
0:52:59 > 0:53:06"It is not a circus. Nor, indeed, is it acting at all in a theatrical sense,
0:53:06 > 0:53:12"but an exact reproduction of daily scenes of frontier life.
0:53:12 > 0:53:18"The Redskins, we believe, are pretty well confined nowadays to the Indian territory
0:53:18 > 0:53:23"and are reduced to at least an outward friendliness."
0:53:25 > 0:53:27A feeling of pride came over me
0:53:27 > 0:53:34when I thought of our troupe from the once unsettled territory of the Central West
0:53:34 > 0:53:41combined in an exhibition intended to prove to the centre of the old world civilisation
0:53:41 > 0:53:48that the vast region of the United States was finally and effectively settled
0:53:48 > 0:53:51by the English-speaking race.
0:53:54 > 0:54:01Buffalo Bill's appearance in Europe was taken by Americans as a kind of validation of American culture
0:54:01 > 0:54:04and what America had to offer.
0:54:04 > 0:54:12His celebrity with people like Queen Victoria gives him a cultural power that he didn't have before.
0:54:13 > 0:54:21The Wild West approach to empire is one in which gunplay - violence - has to play a central role.
0:54:21 > 0:54:27The re-enactments of battles like San Juan Hill or the Boxer Rebellion,
0:54:27 > 0:54:32are ones in which the whites have to impose their regime by force.
0:54:32 > 0:54:38The notion that the whites, a race representing civilisation,
0:54:38 > 0:54:45had the right to take over and supervise and educate and uplift the non-whites, the savage peoples.
0:54:45 > 0:54:50"The rifle," Cody said, "is an instrument of civilisation."
0:54:50 > 0:54:54Violence is the necessary instrument
0:54:54 > 0:54:59for progress. That, he says, is the lesson of American history,
0:54:59 > 0:55:03one that he applies on a world stage.
0:55:09 > 0:55:13DRUMMING AND CHANTING
0:55:17 > 0:55:19"Colonel Cody,
0:55:19 > 0:55:24"you are hereby authorised to secure the person of Sitting Bull
0:55:24 > 0:55:29"and deliver him to the nearest commanding officer of US troops,
0:55:29 > 0:55:36"taking receipt and reporting your action. Nelson A Miles, Major General."
0:55:37 > 0:55:44Sitting Bull's Sioux had become easy victims of the Ghost Dance religion.
0:55:45 > 0:55:50The Indians believed a coming messiah would return to Earth
0:55:50 > 0:55:56and restore everything to the idealistic condition of former years,
0:55:56 > 0:56:01crushing the whites and restocking the ranges with game.
0:56:03 > 0:56:07Buffalo Bill was brought in to talk to Sitting Bull
0:56:07 > 0:56:11because he'd established good relations with the chief
0:56:11 > 0:56:16and because he had good relations with the Sioux in general.
0:56:16 > 0:56:23The arrest of Sitting Bull was conducted by the Indian police, and it did not go smoothly.
0:56:23 > 0:56:29In a scuffle, Sitting Bull was shot. At the outburst of firing,
0:56:29 > 0:56:36the horse which Cody had given to Sitting Bull after his time in the show frightened everyone there
0:56:36 > 0:56:43by running through his repertoire of tricks - scraping his hoof, bowing, performing.
0:56:49 > 0:56:54Thus ended the life of the great red chief of the Hunkapapa Sioux,
0:56:54 > 0:56:57Sitting Bull.
0:56:57 > 0:57:05The rest of the Indians fled south and were surrounded at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota.
0:57:05 > 0:57:12After agreeing to surrender, artillery men acting without orders from an officer opened fire,
0:57:12 > 0:57:16killing 200 men, women and children alike.
0:57:16 > 0:57:20The messianic movement had ended, and with it,
0:57:20 > 0:57:24the last possible struggle of the red man.
0:57:26 > 0:57:29Thus, in the beginning of 1891,
0:57:29 > 0:57:33America no longer had a frontier.
0:57:37 > 0:57:43General Miles gave us permission to hire 100 of the ghost dancers,
0:57:43 > 0:57:47and Sitting Bull's horse was added to the outfit.
0:57:47 > 0:57:50Over the next few years,
0:57:50 > 0:57:56six million people across Europe and America saw my Wild West Exhibition.
0:57:56 > 0:58:00We spent months away from home. The weather in Europe
0:58:00 > 0:58:03disagreed with me greatly.
0:58:03 > 0:58:09I worried a great deal and became worn out with the relentless routine.
0:58:09 > 0:58:14I suffered from the grippe and went off my feed.
0:58:14 > 0:58:18The life was a continual strain, and my married life
0:58:18 > 0:58:21grew more unbearable every year.
0:58:21 > 0:58:26Lulu liked to be boss. She loves to be the whole thing.
0:58:26 > 0:58:31Divorces are not looked down on now as they used to be.
0:58:31 > 0:58:39People are more enlightened. Some of the best people in the world are getting divorced every day.
0:58:54 > 0:58:58I began investing heavily in a number of projects,
0:58:58 > 0:59:02which included a mine in Arizona and the purchase
0:59:02 > 0:59:07of a large tract of land in the Bighorn country of Wyoming,
0:59:07 > 0:59:12which would be a feasible eastern entrance to Yellowstone.
0:59:12 > 0:59:16I invested millions of dollars into the area,
0:59:16 > 0:59:21building irrigation canals and founding the new town of Cody.
0:59:21 > 0:59:25There were only a handful of settlers there.
0:59:25 > 0:59:30With investment, I was convinced the area would prosper.
0:59:32 > 0:59:38I established a newspaper, and a grand hotel was built which I called the Irma,
0:59:38 > 0:59:41after one of my precious daughters.
0:59:41 > 0:59:45No expense would be spared. I furnished it fine and costly,
0:59:45 > 0:59:49and ran it on the European plan.
0:59:49 > 0:59:54Prices were so high that the toughs could not afford to hang around.
1:00:42 > 1:00:47Relations with Lulu came to an all-time low.
1:00:47 > 1:00:52She made a surprise visit to my hotel in Chicago,
1:00:52 > 1:00:56only to be shown to the suite of "Mr and Mrs Cody".
1:01:06 > 1:01:09In exchange for a quiet divorce,
1:01:09 > 1:01:17I agreed to hand over all my properties in North Platte and several in Cody. It was not to be.
1:01:17 > 1:01:24She refused to go through with it AFTER I had turned everything over to her.
1:01:24 > 1:01:27"My dear sister,
1:01:27 > 1:01:31"business is bad and we are losing our audiences.
1:01:31 > 1:01:37"I look forward to a big summer and then will quit show business.
1:01:37 > 1:01:43"We have got a mine. When we build a mill, we will have a steady income.
1:01:43 > 1:01:50"What kind of millionaire am I? Busted. How would you like to be a busted millionaire?
1:01:50 > 1:01:57"Wouldn't it jar you? Never mind. We will be all right. With love, Brother."
1:01:57 > 1:02:04Towards the end of his life, Cody felt trapped by the role that he'd created for himself.
1:02:04 > 1:02:08On the one hand he's a man who is from the past,
1:02:08 > 1:02:15who made his reputation on the frontier and who now is making his living in the nostalgia business,
1:02:15 > 1:02:20putting himself close to the Indians, to things pre-industrial.
1:02:20 > 1:02:26On the other hand, he loves progress. He helped build the railroads.
1:02:26 > 1:02:31Audiences want you to keep doing the things you've always done,
1:02:31 > 1:02:35to keep killing Yellow Hand and Tall Bull over and over again.
1:02:35 > 1:02:41When your enthusiasm for bloodshed and your simple-minded belief
1:02:41 > 1:02:48in the rightness of wiping out the Indian has passed, you still have to keep acting out
1:02:48 > 1:02:51that role again and again and again.
1:02:55 > 1:03:03For over 30 years I have hammered one spot until the spot has grown too sore to stand it any longer.
1:03:03 > 1:03:07I am nervous and oh, so tired.
1:03:07 > 1:03:10Every cloud in the sky,
1:03:10 > 1:03:17every time the wind flaps my tent or shakes the big top gets on my nerves.
1:03:17 > 1:03:22I have just got to break away from this strain, or die.
1:03:33 > 1:03:38I went in with other showmen and toured with Pawnee Bill Lillie.
1:03:41 > 1:03:47We experimented with motion pictures and re-enacted the West on film.
1:03:47 > 1:03:54At 66 years of age, Colonel Cody is taking a riding holiday on the plains,
1:03:54 > 1:03:58revisiting places he knew in his youth.
1:03:58 > 1:04:01He dismounts and prepares to rest.
1:04:01 > 1:04:07He will dream of his momentous fight with the Cheyenne, Yellow Hand.
1:04:45 > 1:04:50I had an idea to make a series of historical films
1:04:50 > 1:04:55depicting events in my life in the Old West as they really happened,
1:04:55 > 1:04:58using the original cast.
1:05:07 > 1:05:12General Miles, now retired, offered to take part.
1:05:12 > 1:05:16The government permitted use of agency Indians.
1:05:16 > 1:05:23In 1913 we set up at Pine Ridge reservation and the Battle of Wounded Knee was staged again.
1:05:23 > 1:05:29# Their horns are black and shiny And their hot breath he could feel
1:05:29 > 1:05:35# A bolt of fear went through him As they thundered through the sky
1:05:35 > 1:05:38# He saw the riders coming hard... #
1:05:38 > 1:05:45The Indians were difficult at first. Some of them wanted to use real bullets instead of blank cartridges,
1:05:45 > 1:05:53to make a real slaughter in belated revenge for what the white soldiers had done there a generation ago.
1:05:55 > 1:05:58General Miles was difficult, too.
1:05:58 > 1:06:04He insisted that since 11,000 troops took part in his 1890 campaign,
1:06:04 > 1:06:07all must be shown.
1:06:07 > 1:06:12So the 300 cavalrymen present marched past the camera 40 times.
1:06:12 > 1:06:17He was not informed that after a few repeats
1:06:17 > 1:06:19the lens was closed.
1:06:22 > 1:06:27Buffalo Bill's last exercise in making history and myth
1:06:27 > 1:06:33was to be an epic film called The Indian Wars. He made the film.
1:06:33 > 1:06:40It was so realistic that many in the audience were praying during the action sequences.
1:06:40 > 1:06:48Some scenes were so graphic that government officials are said to have confiscated many of the reels.
1:06:48 > 1:06:54Certainly, reels are lost. Buffalo Bill's last and greatest exercise
1:06:54 > 1:06:57in myth-making is beyond recovery.
1:06:57 > 1:07:00# The ghost riders
1:07:00 > 1:07:05# In the sky...
1:07:05 > 1:07:07# Yippee-i-ay
1:07:07 > 1:07:11# Yippee-i-oh... #
1:07:11 > 1:07:14I have always been a far-gazer.
1:07:14 > 1:07:20All my interests are with the West, the modern West,
1:07:20 > 1:07:25with its waving grain-fields, fenced flocks and splendid cities
1:07:25 > 1:07:29drawing upon the mountains for water to make it fertile,
1:07:29 > 1:07:34and upon the whole world for men to make it rich.
1:07:34 > 1:07:39I have met king and commoner, men of might and imagination,
1:07:39 > 1:07:44men without whom the future would be a dark and savage jungle.
1:07:44 > 1:07:51Men like Thomas Edison, who I visited in the year of the Great War in Europe.
1:07:51 > 1:07:53He recorded my voice for posterity.
1:07:53 > 1:07:59CODY'S VOICE: Today, in the cold of the eventful year of 1914,
1:07:59 > 1:08:06my visit to Thomas Edison at his great works in Orange, New Jersey,
1:08:06 > 1:08:12is one of the most enjoyable and instructive of my life.
1:08:12 > 1:08:15It is a great pleasure and privilege
1:08:15 > 1:08:20to know one of the greatest men
1:08:20 > 1:08:24that has ever lived.
1:08:24 > 1:08:30It is also most gratifying to know that he is still exploring
1:08:30 > 1:08:35into the dark mysteries of the unknown,
1:08:35 > 1:08:38and developing and unfolding
1:08:38 > 1:08:41scientific fact
1:08:41 > 1:08:45that is to enlighten and benefit
1:08:45 > 1:08:49the human family through the ages.
1:08:59 > 1:09:01The Indian of today,
1:09:01 > 1:09:06tamed, educated and inspired, with a taste for white collars
1:09:06 > 1:09:12and moving pictures, is as numerous as ever, but not so picturesque.
1:09:14 > 1:09:17They were the inheritors
1:09:17 > 1:09:22of the land we live in. They owned it when the white man came,
1:09:22 > 1:09:26and the white man took it away from them.
1:09:30 > 1:09:37I don't want to die and have people say, "There goes another old showman."
1:09:37 > 1:09:41When I die, I want people to say,
1:09:41 > 1:09:45"This man opened up Wyoming to the best of civilisation."
1:09:45 > 1:09:48America is an artificial nation,
1:09:48 > 1:09:56the creation of European immigrants who had to build a country in unprecedented circumstances.
1:09:56 > 1:10:01It's critical for the United States to define a historical mythology.
1:10:01 > 1:10:06Since the frontier, the movement of civilisation into the wilderness,
1:10:06 > 1:10:11was the most distinctive thing about American civilisation,
1:10:11 > 1:10:18it was quite natural for us to take our earliest heroes from those who had advanced the frontier.
1:10:18 > 1:10:20When America looked at its new West,
1:10:20 > 1:10:25it mourned the passing of the wild, the surrender of a pre-modern age,
1:10:25 > 1:10:30while celebrating the progress that brought civilisation.
1:10:30 > 1:10:37This combination of a love of progress and a nostalgia for what was being lost to progress
1:10:37 > 1:10:44is part of each of the legends of Boone, of Crockett, of Carson and of Buffalo Bill.
1:10:44 > 1:10:49The difference is that Buffalo Bill's frontier was the last.
1:10:49 > 1:10:54After the great plains, there would be no more American Wests.
1:11:06 > 1:11:11I have now come to the end of my story. It is a story
1:11:11 > 1:11:17of the great West that was, the West that is gone for ever.
1:11:17 > 1:11:19The West, the old times,
1:11:19 > 1:11:22its stern battles
1:11:22 > 1:11:29and its tremendous stretches of loneliness can never be blotted from my mind. Nor can it, I hope,
1:11:29 > 1:11:34be blotted from the memory of the American people,
1:11:34 > 1:11:39to whom it has become a priceless possession.
1:12:21 > 1:12:26Subtitles by John Macdonald, Subtext for BBC Subtitling - 2001
1:12:26 > 1:12:30e-mail us at subtitling@bbc.co.uk