Today I decided to take a break from court cases, statements, and loss and add the foreword actor Peter Sherayko wrote for the Buffalo Bill Cody book. It lifted my spirits and oh, how I needed that. Here it is…”I’ve got a good woman-what’s the matter with me?
What make me want to love every woman I see?” Hank Williams, Jr. In 1883, a remote cow town in Nebraska was treated to the grand opening of a show that would reign as America’s favorite for thirty years. It was Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. Kelsey Grammar holds the TV record for playing Frasier for 21 years, followed by themselves in film and TV for over 25 years, outstanding in today’s world. Yet Bill Cody was Buffalo Bill professionally for over 40 years, a role which is doubtful will ever be topped. In 1900 the Who, What and Where book was published featuring photos and biographies of kings, presidents and world leaders in business, literally hundreds of bios of the world’s most famous. Buffalo Bill is the only personality from America’s Western frontier. No Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett, Jesse James, General Custer, Billy the Kid or Wild Bill Hickok, just W.F. Cody – Buffalo Bill. His fame was so wide that he ranked with the most powerful men of all time. Virtually every American knew of Buffalo Bill: how he earned his nickname, his rides for the Pony Express, fought and befriends Indians, scouts for the U.S. Army in both the Civil and Indian Wars, performed for 10 seasons as a professional actor and all before the age of 40. When he created his “Wild West Exhibition”, Cody gave his audience their money’s worth: wild Indians, fancy roping and deadeye marksmanship, Bill himself topping them all with rifle from horseback at a full gallop, breaking dozens of glass balls thrown in the air. The crowd loved it, so did the press and dime novelists with writers like Mark Twain praising the show. In short, he out-Barnum’d Barnum. The exhibition set attendance records throughout America and Europe. Over a hundred books and articles have been written about Cody the frontiersman and entertainer. What more could be said? Well, Chris Enss has uncovered another notch in the Shakespearean life of Bill Cody. “The Many Loves of Buffalo Bill Cody.” Yes, Cody was a showman, a frontiersman, a man whose life started during the Mexican/American War and ended just as America entered the war to end all wars, World War I. Yet he was a man, a man in the truest sense of the word, one who cut his own trail and followed his own spirit guide. As a boy, he marveled at men like Kit Carson who taught him how to shoot from horseback and Jim Bridger who taught him Indian sign language. As a 10 year old he dreamed of becoming one of his buckskinned clad heroes and, by golly by gum, he did. But he was tainted with the sins of man. An eye for beauty and strength, an admirer of courage and adventure and in some circles a weakness for cigars, whiskey and women. In his own words, “Yeah, I like my cigars and whiskey and I sure do love those women.” Chris Enss gives us the stories behind many of the beauties who captivated Buffalo Bill. She gives us a clearer insight into a simple yet complicated man, a showman, Buffalo Bill and a man, Bill Cody, who became one. Yet for all of his fame, money and problems, Chris Enss gives us some clues and answers to this complex hero. It’s great how writers and researchers uncover questions that so many of we curious followers of American history have. My hat’s always doffed and a glass is raised to the hero of the west, Buffalo Bill, and now thanks to Chris, a glass is raised to her. Chris Enss is truly a woman of the West. Her previous books, mostly about women of the frontier west were enjoyable and informative. We met several years ago a mutual book signing in Tombstone, Arizona. I was impressed not only by her charm and style, but by her incredible knowledge and passion for, as Buffalo Bill said, “God’s biggest playground.” We are indeed lucky today that a whole new breed of people are influencing, educating and entertaining those of us who are interested in American History. Chris Enss is truly one who has blessed us with her knowledge and passion for stories of the West that haven’t, but need to be told.
Ride hard and shoot straight,
Peter Sherayko”
