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Buffalo Gals: Women of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.
Dancer Loie Fuller stepped onto the Olympic Theatre stage in Chicago and slowly walked toward Buffalo Bill Cody. He was an imposing figure dressed in buckskin. His personality so filled the auditorium that the nineteen-year-old Loie was somewhat intimidated to approach him. Cody turned his handsome face to her, flashed a pleasant smile, and introduced himself. From that moment she was at ease. After welcoming her to the cast of his Wild West program, he escorted her to the wings of the stage and handed her a script.
The year was 1881, and this was the first real performing job the teenager had been given since beginning her theatrical career in 1866. Thrilled with the opportunity to work with the famous frontier scout and war veteran, she found she was too star struck at the onset to review her lines. Loie’s association with Cody would span more than three decades.
“Throughout that time,” she admitted in her journal, “I never lost my fascination for the showman.”
To learn more about Loie Fuller and the other women who performed with Cody read Buffalo Gals: Women of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.
