Read The Life and Legacy of Annie Oakley Online

Authors: Glenda Riley

Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #Women, #History, #United States, #19th Century, #test

The Life and Legacy of Annie Oakley (13 page)

 

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If Frank and Annie exaggerated her injuries from the train crash, as biographer Shirl Kasper has argued, they may have done so to ease their departure from the Wild West. Using her injuries as an unstated but widely understood excuse for resigning would suggest that Annie left the Wild West out of necessity rather than a desire to desert a troubled ship. The couple also attributed Annie's startling white hair to the accident, but other possible explanations exist as well. Annie's friend Amy Leslie claimed that the change occurred when a careless attendant left Annie for forty minutes in a scalding bath at a celebrated health resort. And one family story suggests that, much like her sisters and brother, Annie was already turning gray-haired before the accident, which simply provided a good reason for her to stop disguising the truth.
Still, when Annie Oakley resumed shooting, she wore a curly brown wig to cover her white hair. Although several observers remarked that she looked young, blithe, and gay, times had definitely changed. On December 24, 1902, Nate Salsbury died at his home near Long Branch, New Jersey, and Cody took Bailey as his new partner. Cody's 1901 poster now seemed like a valedictory to Annie and a return to the Wild West less attractive to her than ever.
Beginning in late 1901 Annie gave exhibitions and shot in matches, starred in several plays, and reportedly rejected an offer from Cody to return to the Wild West. Several years later in 1909, Frank resigned his position with the Union Metallic Cartridge Company, and Annie agreed to make her arena comeback by appearing in Vernon Seavers's Young Buffalo Show between 1911 and 1913. Just as she had with Cody's Wild West, Annie shot, rode, and acted her way into the hearts of several generations of Americans.
During these years Annie and Frank followed their long-established and effective formula. Annie performed, still wearing long-skirted, fringed outfits and still stunning audiences of old and new fans by shooting down glass balls and smashing clay pigeons. Annie also mentored younger shooters; her protégé was Vernon Seavers, Jr., the eight-year-old son of her employer and billed as the "youngest cowboy in the world." And Annie continued her benevolence, including inviting orphans to attend performances as her guests.

 

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At the same time, Frank Butler managed Annie's act and wrote articles and press releases, which promoted the "real" wild West and its star, Annie Oakley. One perceptible difference was that Frank now allowed publicity agents and reporters to call Annie the "world champion" and "one of the highest salaried arenic attractions in the world." Another was that Frank permitted photographs of the young Annie Oakley of the 1880s and 1890s to appear beside the older, plumper Annie, accompanied by somewhat exaggerated tales of Annie's triumphs in the "old days.''
Always the consummate showpeople, Annie and Frank claimed that they were having an "enjoyable" time with the Young Buffalo Show and thought it a splendid representation of the Old West. They smiled their way through the 1911 season, traveling 8,226 miles. They rejoined the Young Buffalo Show again in 1912, despite its merger with the Colonel Fred Cummins Wild West and Indian Congress, which introduced fire-eaters, snake-tamers, and elephants into the arena. In addition to her other feats, Annie now twirled a lariat.
In 1913, Annie received the ultimate praise when the
Greenville Courier
urged every Darke County resident to attend the Young Buffalo Show to display "love" for Annie, one of "Our Own." In a gesture that in a sense brought her own life full circle Annie gave free tickets to occupants of the Darke County Children's Home. In the troupe's final performance on October 4, 1913, in Marion, Illinois, Annie Oakley made her last appearance in the arena. She and Frank intended to build a retirement home in Cambridge, Maryland, and enjoy their hard-won leisure.
It was in 1913, then, that Annie ended her career as a Wild West star and began to take her place in the chronicles of American show business. Between 1885 and 1913 she had carved herself a reputation as a superb performer and a distinguished personality. It was Annie's work in the arena, from Cody's Wild West to the Young Buffalo Show, that brought Annie more exposure and fame than she would gain from any of her other activities. Still, Annie Oakley's activities in the "show" business provide only a partial glimpse into those richly textured years; far more remains of her story than is usually told.

 

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Chapter 3
"The Birds Were First Class"
"I was justly proud of my shooting," Annie Oakley wrote in her autobiography during the mid-1920s. Other comments such as "the birds were first class" and "I thought I should win on the morrow" also pepper her memoir and reveal her obvious relish for competition and sports. Whereas Oakley looked on her activities in the Wild West arena as a job, she viewed match and exhibition shooting with enthusiasm and hunting with passion.
The newspaper clippings she included in her autobiography further indicate her competitive nature. Of the hundreds of clippings in her extensive scrapbooks, she chose to reproduce only three. Each described a match, and each reported that Annie "broke all records." Still other clippings indicate that Oakley triumphed in hundreds of matches during her lifetime. One 1900 report of a Brooklyn match proclaimed that even though the shooters had trouble seeing the white birds against ground blanketed with snow, "Annie Oakley Scored No Misses in Seven-Bird Shoot."
Annie took justifiable pride in such top scores, but in her peak performing years between 1885 and 1913 she also appreciated the additional income from matches and exhibitions. Because she wanted to avoid the poverty she had experienced as a child, she budgeted carefully. Some of her colleagues, annoyed by Annie's frugality, even accused her of drinking Cody's lemonade rather than buying her own. Although the charge remains unproven, it is true that Annie seized opportunities to earn extra money and to supplement her salary from the Wild West. In 1893, for instance, Oakley earned $100 per week with the Wild West, a salary five times that of the cowboys and the highest pay in the troupe; by 1900 the figure had jumped to $150 a week.
Annie declared that the sum "was not as big as most folks think." Of course, Annie received this pay only during the show's

 

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season. Also, her appearances with the Wild West entailed numerous expenses, which she and Frank tried to meet in a timely fashion with something left over for their savings. Sometimes they provided their own housing and food, sometimes not. Also, when arranging shooting matches, they had to put up guarantees, often of $100 or more, which they sometimes forfeited if Annie lost a match. And, even when Annie failed to win, the expenses entailed remained the same, including costumes, guns, ammunition, publicity, transportation, charities, and gifts to relatives and friends.
Annie admitted that compared with the average worker, who earned less than $500 a year during the 1890s, she had made "a good deal of money" in her time. In addition, Frank contributed financially by participating in shooting matches and working as a sales representative for Union Metallic Cartridge Company between 1901 and 1909. According to Annie, she and Frank did not squander their income in "selfish, extravagant living." Instead, they believed in "simple living," supporting charities, and sharing their wealth with family members and friends. Retirement also had a central place in their budget. Because Annie and Frank had no pension plan, they had to provide for themselves.
Thus, Annie Oakley and Frank Butler turned to matches and exhibitions to supplement their other earnings. With glee, Annie recalled an 1889 match. "I won two fine prizes here and a full purse of money was sent to my New York bank." Besides winning purses, Annie also frequently reaped return from the side bets Frank placed on her.
Still, money was not the Butlers' driving force. Around 1889, during a match Annie shot on a guarantee basis with shooter Fred Kell, Annie and Frank revealed that they also had empathy for other people's problems. When Frank discovered that the match was draining the last resources of Kell's backer, he called it off. Annie said that later, when Frank asked her if he "had done right," she reached out her hand in "warm approval."
Legend has it that Annie participated in her first shooting matches as a girl living in Ohio and that because she shot so well and won so often, local competitions increasingly barred her

 

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participation. Then, Annie's win over Frank Butler must have convinced her of the benefits of competitive shooting; she won the purse and a husband as well.
Once Oakley gained prominence on the vaudeville stage and with the Wild West, invitations poured in. No matter whom Annie worked for, from Tony Pastor to Buffalo Bill Cody, she secured permission to shoot matches in between shows or during her time off. For instance, when the Wild West played in London in 1887, the elite Notting Hill Gun Club issued her an invitation. Also that summer, Edward, prince of Wales, invited her to shoot against the grand duke of Russia. The following year, a club in Newton, New Jersey, offered her 75 percent of the gate receipt to compete against English shooter William Graham. In 1889, when the Wild West played Paris, the Circle des Pitineau often invited her to shoot with its members, as did the Marseille Gun Club.
During the London summer of 1887, Oakley beat some of the top shooters in the world and proved herself in a society where shooting was the country's dominant sport. In June, for example, she defeated Michael, grand duke of Russia, after Edward, prince of Wales, wrote to Colonel William F. Cody: "Will the little girl, Annie Oakley, who shoots so cleverly in your show, object to shooting a friendly match with the Grand Duke Michael of Russia? We will arrive at Earl's Court at 10:30 this morning." He signed it simply "Edward."
Annie recalled that "on the minute," four carriages rolled in through the Wild West's private gate. Edward's entourage included sixteen members of the royal family and, of course, the grand duke himself, accompanied by his retinue. According to Annie, she and Michael shot at fifty targets; she scored forty-seven against his thirty-six. Many people expressed their delight because Michael reportedly sought Princess Victoria as his royal wife, a match most English citizens disapproved. As a consequence, Annie received what she called "the most amazing and unexpected publicity" she ever experienced, whereas the grand duke returned home defeated by Annie and rebuffed by Victoria.
By July 4, 1887, Annie had competed in a total of thirty-one matches and won twenty-five prizes. She also displayed her shooting ability later that month in the infamous meet involving

 

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Lillian Smith at Wimbledon. On this occasion, Prince Edward pushed his way through the crowd of excited onlookers to congratulate Oakley.
The following year, back in the United States, Annie kept up the hectic pace. She defeated top shooter Phil Daly, Jr., at a tournament he organized in Long Branch, New Jersey, and state champion Miles Johnson on his own Jersey soil. When, in that match, Oakley missed her forty-seventh bird, ''a blue twister," she asked Johnson if he had brought the bird from England, where the pigeons flew, she thought, like "greased lightning." He smiled. "No, I trained that fellow in order to get in one miss on you."
Beside her regular wins, Annie also took great satisfaction in providing a role model for women shooters. As she matured, Annie increasingly realized the barriers confronting women, especially those who wished to participate in shooting sports. She would never have described herself as a political person, but in a modern sense she was indeed political: Annie Oakley consciously worked to open competitive shooting matches to other women.
Oakley especially tried to set a good example in both her conduct and her performance. In 1893,
American Field
paid her the ultimate compliment: she could "successfully compete with any man." The article continued, "Many of her sex are experts when firing at hearts, but I question if there is another woman in this fair land who can pierce the heart aimed at four times out of five, especially if they will keep twelve paces away from the object of their aim."
In time, more women shooters joined Oakley on the circuit. In 1899, a Mrs. M. F. Lindsley, who shot under the name of Wanda, competed with Annie in a match in White Plains, New York. Lindsley fell behind Annie, who tied one of the male shooters for first place. In 1901, four women competed in a New York match. The newspaper account of the match, titled "Ladies at the Traps," referred to all four women by their married names. The only one mentioned by both her own and her husband's name was Annie Oakley, or Mrs. Frank Butler.
In subsequent years, women continued to join the ranks of gun clubs and to enter matches. In 1902, even Anna Held, a popular actress and the wife of Florenz Ziegfeld, revealed her shooting

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