American experience (Television program) Buffalo Bill

William ?Buffalo Bill? Cody's legendary exploits helped create the myth of the American West that still endures today. Born in an Iowa log cabin in 1846, he fought Indians, worked as a Pony Express rider, and earned his nickname while hunting buffalo to feed the construction crews of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. After the Civil War he scouted for the U.S. Army along America's vast western frontier. In 1883, just as that frontier was disappearing, he transformed himself into a master showman, creating and starring in a world-famous traveling show that brought the ?real? Wild West to life. Part circus, part history, ?Buffalo Bill's Wild West? toured for three decades, playing to enthusiastic crowds across the United States and Europe. Though Cody made a fortune from the show's success, he was nearly bankrupt when he died 1817. This AMERICAN EXPERIENCE production will draw upon rich archival materials of the period to explore the man behind the legend, revealing the complexity of Buffalo Bill's extraordinary life.

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"This film presents a portrait of the man who made the American West into the American story. For most Americans in the mid 1800s, the Wild West existed only in dime novels, but a young man from Kansas who had roamed the prairies in the war with the Plains Indians came to embody the picaresque frontier hero. As the frontier was rapidly disappearing, he realized he could market his life as entertainment, and millions around the world would pay for a taste of his Wild West. Tall, handsome, confident, and charismatic, he blurred the line between truth and entertainment, history and myth. Thus was a mere plainsman turned into an international celebrity and frontier hero, his meteoric rise to fame made possible by his genius and hucksterism. His name was William Cody, but the world remembers him as Buffalo Bill."
"William ?Buffalo Bill? Cody's legendary exploits helped create the myth of the American West that still endures today. Born in an Iowa log cabin in 1846, he fought Indians, worked as a Pony Express rider, and earned his nickname while hunting buffalo to feed the construction crews of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. After the Civil War he scouted for the U.S. Army along America's vast western frontier. In 1883, just as that frontier was disappearing, he transformed himself into a master showman, creating and starring in a world-famous traveling show that brought the ?real? Wild West to life. Part circus, part history, ?Buffalo Bill's Wild West? toured for three decades, playing to enthusiastic crowds across the United States and Europe. Though Cody made a fortune from the show's success, he was nearly bankrupt when he died 1817. This AMERICAN EXPERIENCE production will draw upon rich archival materials of the period to explore the man behind the legend, revealing the complexity of Buffalo Bill's extraordinary life."@en
""Born in an Iowa log cabin in 1846, he fought Indians and earned his nickname while hunting buffalo to feed the construction crews of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. After the Civil War he scouted for the U.S. Army along America's vast western frontier"--Container."
"Explores the life of William "Buffalo Bill" Cody's."@en
"This film presents a portrait of the man who made the American West into the American story. For most Americans in the mid-1800s, the Wild West existed only in dime novels, but a young man from Kansas who had roamed the prairies in the war with the Plains Indians came to embody the picaresque frontier hero. As the frontier was rapidly disappearing, he realized he could market his life as entertainment, and millions around the world would pay for a taste of his Wild West. Tall, handsome, confident, and charismatic, he blurred the line between truth and entertainment, history and myth. Thus was a mere plainsman turned into an international celebrity and frontier hero, his meteoric rise to fame made possible by his genius and hucksterism. His name was William Cody, but the world remembers him as Buffalo Bill."
""In 1886, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show played to over one million people in New York City. It was one of the most elaborate shows on earth. There were cowboys and Indians, sharp shooters including the famed Annie Oakley, hundreds of horses, buffalo, elk and donkeys, with more than two hundred cast members, all moving about in a sweeping western landscape of mountains and plains. Soon after the show's stunning success in New York, it would go on to dazzle crowds in London, Paris, Rome and Barcelona, cementing the legend of the Wild West in the minds of people around the globe. Behind the extravaganza was one man -- a meager plainsman turned international celebrity and frontier hero, whose meteoric rise to fame was made possible only by his genius, and his hucksterism. His name was William Cody, better known to the world as Buffalo Bill."--Container."@en