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AMUSEMENTS.
ROBERTS OPERA HOUSE
Wednesday and Thursday, December 23 and 24.
ATTRACTION EXTRAORDINARY.
BUFFALO BILL!
(Hon. W. F. Cody)
Who has just returned from the Big Horn Expedition, will appear in the frontier Drama of
SCOUTS OF THE PLAIN,
Supported by a full Dramatic Corps of
METROPOLITAN ARTISTS
Prices same as usual.
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Buffalo Bill's Company.
The Buffalo Bill troupe had a fair audience at the Opera House last night, and gave an entertainment which aroused considerable enthusiasm. What with the exciting portrayals of western frontier life and the fun of the Irish comedian, the play possesses unflagging interest, and those who like tragedy and comedy combined can laugh and cry in the same breath. The company will appear again tonight and deserve a full house.
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Buffalo Bill In Taunton
In 1874 Buffalo Bill Cody was a famous man. Trail scout, Indian fighter, and pioneer of the West were just a few of his occupations.
At the same time, Wild Bill Hickok was equally well known. This giant of the Old West was a gunslinger, the man who had signle-handedly cleaned out the town of Abilene, Kansas. He was a cool customer whose tricks with a six gun were legendary.
Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok had more in common than their love of the West. Both of them were great fakers, and both appeared in Tauton in 1874. Buffalo Bill, under the unfluence of a character named Ned Buntline, had allowed himself to be placed in the leading role of a Wild West show which was to tour the East. Buntline, who had written the show, had promised Cody a fortune if it was successful. Buntline, incidentally, was a sometime temperance lecturer whose devotion to the bottle did not hinder him in any way, in fact, he sometimes delivered his best lectures while horribly intoxicated.
Buffalo Bill had persuaded two of his best friends to join him in the show. They were Texas Jack, known to his mother and close friends as J. R. Omohundro, a fairly well known western figure of those days, and none other than Wild Bill Hickok, the hero of many of the worst of the dime novels. The other leading roles were to be assumed by a Mile. Morlacchi, a comely Italian girl of dubious acting ability, and Frank Mordaunt, a mediocre actor who was badly out of place with these people.
The show was entitled "Scouts of the Plains," and it was terri-
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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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that actually contained cold tea. When Wild Bill tasted of it, he threw the bottle offstage and bellowed, "...I can't tell my story unless I get real whiskey!" A mortified Buffalo Bill led the search for the fire water. Wild Bill would often get bored during the performance. When this happened he would draw his gun and fire real bullets at the legs of the extras hired as Indians. Thus when the time came for these savages to die, they would often be found hopping and dancing around, terribly afraid to drop down and play dead for fear that Wild Bill would plug them for real.
It was this group, then, that came to Taunton on January 20, 1874. Their advertisement in the Taunton Daily Gazette called them "astounding attractions," a description which was more accurate possibly than the Gazette figured. These heroes of the West were called "Links Between Civilization and Savage!"
The show was to be seen at White's Music Hall, which was located on the corner of Franklin and Cohannet Streets, just a few yards away from the site of the present day Y.M.C.A. Thsi theater was the largest in the city, and many world famous acts crossed its stage. The theater held over 1,500 people, and its stage was just large enough for a Wild West show.
On the day of the performance the Gazette reminded its readers that the Buffalo Bill Cody Show presented genuine plainsmen, specimens of the Far West which wvery boy hankers for.
Taunton audiences reacted to Buffalo Bill Cody in the same way that other audiences throughout the East reacted to him--with resounding applause. His show, a critically acclaimed disaster, was loved by the people who saw it. "Scouts of the Plains" played to a packed house in Taunton. The people absolutely loved Hickok and Mor