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Grant Shanle at Apr 14, 2020 09:40 AM

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ble beyond belief. It had no plot, it merely featured Cody, Hickok, and Texas Jack sitting around a mock campfire telling stories of their adventures out in the untamed West. When the actors ran out of memories, there would come a terrible screeching and the cowboys would be "attacked" by scores of phony Indians. If the Indians did not attack on cue, the cowboys attacked each other until the Indians arrived. After dispatching every one of the red devils, there would be an intermission while the players regrouped. Shortly the curtain would go up for Act Two, consisting of a dramatic skit in which Cody was called upon to rescue Mile. Morlacchi from some of the mysteriously resurrected Indians. This done the Italian maiden would then sing a song or two, and the show would end, amid the shooting of six guns.

Each one of the actors was blasted by drama critics. Ned Buntline , who had written himself into the script, was described by one critic as, ". . .a human nightmare," and by another as ". . .maundering imbecility." The best that one critic could say about Buffalo Bill was that he "was a beautiful blonde." Mile. Morlacchi, who was to play the Indian princess, Dove Eye, was criticized as having, "an Italian accent and a weakness for scouts."

Hickok was something else again. If he never deserved the name Wild Bill, he earned it on this tour. He hated the stage anyway, and had only gone along on the circuit because Cody had promised him $100 a week. His mental powers are left open to suspicion, and he quickly grew bored. He found it almost impossible to behave himself, and some of his tricks greatly embarassed Buffalo Bill. At one performance, when the cowboys were sitting around the campfire, they were passing a bottle around which supposedly contained "red eye," but

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ble beyond belief. It had no plot, it merely featured Cody, Hickok, and Texas Jack sitting around a mock campfire telling stories of their adventures out in the untamed West. When the actors ran out of memories, there would come a terrible screeching and the cowboys would be "attacked" by scores of phony Indians. If the Indians did not attack on cue, the cowboys attacked each other until the Indians arrived. After dispatching every one of the red devils, there would be an intermission while the players regrouped. Shortly the curtain would go up for Act Two, consisting of a dramatic skit in which Cody was called upon to rescue Mile. Morlacchi from some of the mysteriously resurrected Indians. This done the Italian maiden would then sing a song or two, and the show would end, amid the shooting of six guns.

Each one of the actors was blasted by drama critics. Ned Buntline , who had written himself into the script, was described by one critic as, ". . .a human nightmare," and by another as ". . .maundering imbecility." The best that one critic could say about Buffalo Bill was that he "was a beautiful blonde." Mile. Morlacchi, who was to play the Indian princess, Dove Eye, was criticized as having, "an Italian accent and a weakness for scouts."

Hickok was something else again. If he never deserved the name Wild Bill, he earned it on this tour. He hated the stage anyway, and had only gone along on the circuit because Cody had promised him $100 a week. His mental powers are left open to suspicion, and he quickly grew bored. He found it almost impossible to behave himself, and some of his tricks greatly embarassed Buffalo Bill. At one performance, when the cowboys were sitting around the campfire, they were passing a bottle around which supposedly contained "red eye," but