Wild West Shows were so big during the late 1800's and early 1900's that they staged performances in Madison Square Garden and around the world.



People back East and in Europe were fascinated with the wild, untamed west, envisioning that cowboys still staged gunfights with savage natives, that people regularly lost their scalps, and that life in general was risky at best. Though they wanted no part of this uncivilized lifestyle, Easterners and Europeans nonetheless had a morbid curiosity about it.

And no one exploited and capitalized on that more than one entrepreneur from Pawnee, Oklahoma named Gordon Lillie but better known as Pawnee Bill!(In fact, he became so successful that he later became one of Oklahoma's early governors).

When the people wanted to see Indians, Pawnee Bill rounded up a few young bucks off the reservation, painted them with war paint, placed a war bonnet on their head and he and his other traveling pals staged a shoot-out while the Indians had to settle for bows and arrows because that was the image the Easterners had of the Indian. Many of thise "fights occurred under the huge row of tents where Pawnee Bill held many of his performances.

The famous Apache warrior chief, Geronimo, even toured with the show but only after cooling his heals in the Ft. Sill Stockade for five years.

Many a famous western movie hero got his start in Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show, of whom most were native Oklahomans. Such future stars as Tom Mix, Gene Autry, Will Rogers, "Hopalong Cassidy", William Boyd, Sunset Carson, and Tim Holt all toured with Paynee Bill in their youth.".Another Oklahoma Wild West Show that enjoyed success was Mulhall's Wild West. In 1905, Mulhall took his show to Madison Square Garden. At that time, Tom Mix and Will Rogers were working Mulhall's show. A steer jumped into the New York audience. Mix missed with his rope, but Rogers caught the steer. The story garnered nationwide attention, leading to the movie careers of Tom Mix and Will Rogers.(

Meanwhile, in 1889, Thomas Edison invented the Kinetescope, which led to "The Great Train Robbery," an eleven-minute documentary film produced in 1903. That in turn gave rise to the popularity of Western movies.


Tom Mix was the biggest Western star of silent films, and his popularity continued for many years in "talkies. (To Be Continued)