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Authors: Glenda Riley

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

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Page 227
the American West" to audiences at home and abroad. Another stated that audiences flocked to see shows about the American West "by people who had been there." Of course, Annie had spent little time in the West, yet her western image prevailed.
Another 1991 publication, by Tom Tierney for Dover Publications, a cut-out book titled
Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill: Paper Dolls in Full Color
, further demonstrated the importance of Annie's western reputation. In between pages of seventeen costumes for Annie, Tierney stated that Oakley's costumes had "become the prototype for women's Western wear for years to come." During the 1890s, Cody and Oakley had created the western cowgirl. Now they appropriately stood togetherin full coloras the fashion leaders of the Old Westand of the contemporary West as well.
In 1992, a Rabbit Ears Productions cartoon also presented Annie as a western heroine. Riddled with such factual errors as the claim that Cody hired Annie immediately and that Annie always opened Wild West performances, this rendition also misrepresented Annie Oakley as a homely woman with a large nose.
As the 1990s unfold, the fascination with Annie Oakleyboth the woman and the westernercontinues and even grows. Moreover, accounts of Oakley's life and career are more realistic and revisionist than ever. For instance, journalist Shirl Kasper's 1992
Annie Oakley
set a new standard in myth-busting. By using newspaper clippings in a meticulous and thorough fashion, Kasper pinpointed many formerly unclear events of Annie's life and career. Instead of repeating stories, Kasper detailed Oakley's achievements in a way that far exceeded that of any other biographer.
In addition, for those who wish to pursue Annie Oakley's life and career, several organizations have collected and make available to researchers and other visitors Annie's belongings and documents. This bodes well for the future of the Annie Oakley legend, for when authors, television scriptwriters, and movie producers are ready to reject the Oakley myth and pursue the reality, information is available.
One such organization is located in Annie's hometown of Greenville, Ohio. Here residents have worked to preserve Oak-

 

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ley's artifacts and spirit, on some occasions more successfully than others. For instance, although some Greenville citizens hoped a rifle club might purchase Oakley's childhood home when it went on the auction block in 1939, a Fort Recovery man bought the homestead instead. A decade later, however, the Darke County Historical Society initiated a fund-raising campaign to collect one hundred thousand dollars for a statue of Annie Oakley. More recently, in 1966, the Greenville Chamber of Commerce inaugurated Annie Oakley Days, which include a parade, an Annie Oakley shooting contest, an "Olde Time Melodrama," western square dancing, a "National Fast Draw Competition," and other events.
The 1980s saw even more advances. In July 1981, Greenville placed a memorial on the site of Annie's birthplace. In February 1988, after many years of fund-raising, an 840-pound statue of Oakley finally arrived in Greenville. The sculptor, Terry Mimnaugh of Lakeview, Montana, produced a larger-than-life bronze statue of Oakley wearing her skirted shooting dress, with her cowboy-style hat on the back of her head and her rifle in hand.
In addition, the Darke County Historical Society, located in the Garst Museum in Greenville, has a sizable Annie Oakley room. Many of the artifacts displayed here came directly from Annie, who frequently gave or lent out artifacts or curios. In 1907, she and Frank gave the Greenville Library an autographed photo of Annie taken in London and one of Cody. They also lent to the forerunner of the Garst Museum many Sioux Indian artifacts, including a pair of beaded buckskin moccasins supposedly worn by the celebrated Chief Sitting Bull at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, a muslin jacket worn by the Sioux messiah "Short Bull" in his ghost dances, a beaded buckskin arrow pouch worn by Chief Red Cloud, a beaded tobacco pouch carried by Chief White Eagle, and an ornamental headdress worn by Sitting Bull.
Also in Greenville, the Annie Oakley Foundation and its newsletter,
Taking Aim
, work to preserve the facts about Oakley's life and to clear up "the fictions of the 'Annie Oakley legend.'" The foundation disseminates information, offers slide lectures, and holds such Oakley artifacts as silver pieces that Queen Victoria gave Annie, crystal decanters presented to Annie by the German

 

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kaiser; a variety of coins including a commemorative coin from the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, and the 1883 Parker Brothers shotgun that Annie called her first gun of "quality."
Another agency that devotes space to Oakley holdings is the Nutley Historical Society in New Jersey. When, in 1945, Nutley organized a historical society dedicated to collecting "available historic materials," to helping genealogists, and to writing a history of Nutley, Annie's years in Nutley played a prominent role. Today, the society sponsors an annual "birthday party" for Annie every August and displays Oakley's memorabilia, including gadgets, photographs, letters, and the two pistols, one a Colt six-shooter and the other a horse pistol, that Annie gave to John Donaldson, former Nutley station agent.
Besides Greenville and Nutley, the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, holds a sizable and important collection of Oakley correspondence, ephemera, artifacts, and weapons. Among the weapons are a Francotte double-barrel, 12-gauge shotgun, which is a lightweight but expensive Belgian trap gun with elaborate engraving and inlays, and two of Oakley's 1892 Winchester rifles, one an engraved .25.20-caliber rifle that Annie purchased in New York City. Recently, a private collector has donated to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center one of Oakley's Smith & Wesson. .38.44 revolvers with pearl grips, a Colt .38 revolver, two shotguns, and three of the hand-blown glass ballsfilled with red, white, and blue feathersthat Annie blasted into smithereens during her performances.
On exhibit at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center are two Winchester Model #92, lever-action carbines. One is a .44-caliber with a twenty-two-inch octagonal barrel, a checkered stock, and a receiver with floral engravings; the other is a .32-caliber with a twenty-one and three-eighths half-octagonal barrel and animal engravings on the gold-plated receiver. Also on display are a pump-action Remington .22 and a pearl-handled, nickel-plated revolver, as well as Oakley's trunk and other belongings.
Still more Oakley memorabilia is exhibited at Oklahoma's Cowboy Hall of Fame and California's Gene Autry Museum. In addition, family members and individual collectors hold such other items as crystal, china, cabinet photographs, coins, Wild

 

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West programs and artifacts, jewelry, guns, medals, and numerous Native American artifacts that Oakley dispersed before her death or in her will. One of these collectors prizes a .38-caliber semi-fluted Colt conversion six-shooter. An antique weapons collector in San Francisco has purchased three of Annie's guns, engraved gold-plated Smith & Wesson revolvers with pearl handles; according to an 1899 newspaper report, the Smith & Wesson Company made these three guns specially for Annie.
The multitude of books, articles, plays, films, television programs, artifacts, and other information that survived Annie Oakley indicates that she was a woman of success and of substance. But reading about Annie Oakley or visiting museum exhibits is one thing; distilling her essence from them is quite another.
Consequently, Annie''s legacy is controversial, and the real Annie remains somewhat clouded. People continue to confuse Annie with Calamity Jane, and
Annie Get Your Gun
still enjoys frequent revivals. According to Annie's descendant Irene Patterson Black, Annie was such a special person that she simply cannot be described. Perhaps so, but given Oakley's effect on show business, the sport of shooting, American women, and the American West, assessing Annie Oakley remains a worthwhile and instructive endeavor.

 

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Conclusion
Who Was Annie Oakley?
In her own day, the late 1800s and early 1900s, Annie Oakley represented certain virtues and characteristics that many Americans valued yet feared losing: hard work, simplicity, modesty, friendliness, femininity, frugality, ambition, the ability to succeed, and a love of animals and nature. In decades marked by decreasing open spaces in the United States and the prevalence of robber barons, labor union riots, yellow journalism, cooch dancers, a soaring divorce rate, world war, and a host of other ills publicized in the nation's newspapers and foremost in people's minds, Annie Oakley symbolized what many people believed America had been and could again be.
People found it easy to admire and believe in Oakley, who was genuinely a hard-working, generous, friendly, and compassionate person. Although she may have seemed too straitlaced and diligent to some, others respected her moral stance and the hours she spent practicing her craft. While some may have thought her too frugal and particular, others lauded her for being generous with her time, money, and energy. Even though she was sharp-tongued at times, on numerous other occasions she went out of her way to smooth over difficult situations. And in spite of her tendency to guard her privacy so much that we will never understand her real feelings about her childhood or her relationship with Frank, she welcomed children into her tent and gave money, gifts, and her possessions to family members, neighbors, and admirers.
One key to understanding Annie was her integrity. She constantly sought authenticity in the arena and in her personal life. Throughout her career, she demanded honest applause for genuine feats. Oakley seems to have told only one liethat her birth date was 1866 rather than 1860and it is doubtful that she initiated the falsehood. Rather, she perpetuated it, probably for show business reasons rather than personal vanity. In her autobiography, she returned to the truth; she gave her birth date as 1860.

 

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Annie's integrity also had its difficult side. Like so many admirable human qualities, Annie's honesty sometimes led her to take actions she might otherwise have disdained. For instance, she occasionally made public sport of reporters who embroidered their stories. In addition, according to neighbor Lela Border Hollinger, Annie hated itinerant "gypsies," whom she judged insincere and even dishonest. Clearly, Annie had little tolerance for those who failed to adhere to the same standards in which she believed.
A second insight comes from an examination of Oakley's generosity. Rather than providing herself with an abundance of luxuries, she spent a great deal of money on others. Poor in her youth, as an adult she preferred to lavish things on others rather than on herself. Her grandniece Bess Lindsey Wacholz remarked that even "the last days of her life were spent in wrapping packages for friends all over the world . . . she forgot no one."
On the negative side, however, Annie was what one relative called "particular" and a "stickler," even concerning her generosity. As a case in point, Dorothy Stone described Annie as ''a bit austere in some matters," especially because Annie once gave a Victrola to a children's hospital and, hearing nothing more about it, proceeded to investigate. When Annie discovered the Victrola in the nurses' office, she seized it and took it home. She wanted her gift to be used for the young patients and was not above rescinding it when someone disobeyed her instructions.
A third clue to Oakley's personality lay in her inability to understand the extent of her historical significance, or perhaps to diminish and deny it. Even though Americans were beginning to laud some women as significant and influential, Oakley failed to put herself in that category. Instead, Annie saw herself as a skilled wage-earner and a reasonably good stage performer. According to Annie's descendant Beatrice Blakeley Hunt, Annie and Frank never spoke of her fame to family members or acted like she had achieved more than the others. Although Annie wanted to leave an unsullied reputation behind her, she rejected conceit and an enlarged notion of her own impact on the world. Oakley would, I believe, be surprised at the number of plays, films, books, statues, and organizations perpetuating her life story.

 

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The unfortunate side to this character trait was that Annie seemed unable to enjoy retirement as a reward for a job well done but was anxious to add more items to her list of credits. Moreover, she failed to keep a diary or journal, preserve her correspondence, or save any memorabilia other than several scrapbooks of newspaper clippings. She put off writing an autobiography until near death and dispersed her possessions with little thought to the historical record. In September 1926, for example, she sent a friend a packet of photographs and an Indian sketchbook drawn by the man Sioux Indians believed to be the messiah. Annie even melted down most of her medals for charity. As a result, it is impossible to grasp the essence of the "real" and inner Annie Oakley.
We can, however, assess Oakley's contributions. Although her death in November 1926 ended her immediate influence, her legend grew to proportions she would never have imagined. The story of Annie Oakleythe dazzling entertainer, exceptional athlete, true lady, and model western womanlives on in articles, books, movies, and television shows. Her impact appears in everything from free passes called "Annie Oakleys" to women's sports participation, from Annie Oakley celebrations and shooting contests to children's books, statues, and museum exhibits.
Many of the above reveal Oakley's importance in helping widen society's images and expectations of women. What Buffalo Bill Cody did for Wild West shows and rodeos, Annie Oakley did for women performers, athletes, and sports enthusiasts. But, by refusing to act like a "new woman," Annie maintained universal appeal. In addition, unlike Cody and others, Oakley was a successful, significant performer who remained happily married, sober, and solvent. For women, Annie provided the Horatio Alger story of the day.
Yet perhaps her most significant contribution was the integral role she played in the world's great love affair with the American West. She represented the best of the West: she was "just folks" who came from humble beginnings and dressed and acted simply throughout her life. Like a "true" westerner, she shot and rode with great skill. And like a "good" western woman, she asserted herself without sacrificing virtue, sweetness, and domesticity.
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