A Great Adventure

Enter now to win a copy of

The Sharpshooter and the Showman: Pawnee Bill, May Lillie, and their Wild West Show

William Shakespeare once wrote, “I would not wish any companion in the world but you.” When writing about the lives of frontiersman, entrepreneur, and performer Major Gordon Lillie, better known as Pawnee Bill, and his courageous, sharpshooting, equestrian wife Mary “May” Manning, it is easy to see how the Bard’s quote applied to the couple.

Married for more than fifty years, the Lillies launched a historic Wild West Show together and traveled the world. They were the subject of Dime Novels and films and, in between performing, built a magnificent home on their Oklahoma buffalo ranch. They shared the thrill of entertaining royals in foreign countries and of watching the construction of their house on Blue Hawk Peak, as well as the disappointment of being betrayed by a business partner and the heartbreaking death of their children.

When May met Gordon in the mid-1800s, becoming part of a Wild West Show wasn’t a consideration. Pawnee Bill was working with Buffalo Bill Cody’s program at that time. Wild West Shows focused on recreating scenes from the American frontier, and they were immensely popular. The cast included cowboys and Indians, trick riders and ropers, wagon trains and stagecoaches, as well as horses and buffalo. It amused and educated audiences primarily in the East, providing them with a look at what the West was like before being civilized.

Within a few years of Pawnee Bill participating in Cody’s show, he had his own on the road, and with him Mrs. Lillie was one of the riders and billed as the “World’s Champion Lady Rider and Rifle Shot.” On the road and on the billboards she was known as Miss May Lillie during her entire show career. The Pawnee Bill Show toured Europe and while over there, May gave private rifle shot exhibitions for many of the nobility. She was known throughout America for her skill with a gun and was one of the chief attractions of their show.

The Lillies were on tour with their Wild West program every season for more than twenty years. The first year of their traveling show wasn’t a financial success, but the pair managed to alter the program to include hundreds of horses, eighty plus Indians, fifty cowboys and Mexican vaqueros, trappers, hunters, scouts, and the famous Annie Oakley.

When Gordon decided to combine Lillies’ show with Buffalo Bill Cody’s, May chose to remain at the ranch and focus her attention on their growing buffalo herd. Both she and Gordon had long been aware of the fast disappearance of the great plains bison and became active conservationists in buffalo preservation on a national level.

In addition to running the ranch, May had an active church and social life and was involved with the betterment of the community, helping to build the first sanitorium in the region. She was known as a charming hostess and when Gordon’s business dealings came to an end and he was home more regularly, they frequently entertained writers, political leaders, and film stars. In the 1930s, the couple expanded their ranch to include a reproduction of an Old West town, consisting of a blacksmith shop, barns, and several other such buildings found in frontier settlements across the West. The addition attracted large crowds to their annual rodeo.

Gordon and May’s home was a continual gathering spot for many well-known people around the world. Built in 1910, the location is now a historic site and museum. Just as they had between 1911 and 1942, visitors still travel to the Lillies’ ranch to admire the grand fourteen-room structure and spend time reminiscing about the pair’s contribution to the show business industry.

Life in the Far West is the story of the Lillies’ five decades of marital endurance, how they met, the creation of the renowned Wild West Show, their devotion to one another during their trials, and their individual endeavors apart from performing. Pawnee Bill and May Lillie are among the West’s great power couples along with duos such as Annie Oakley and Frank Butler, John Fremont and Jessie Benton, and Marshal Bill Tilghman and Zoe Statton. The Lillies were devoted to their work, their home, and most importantly to one another. They were one another’s greatest adventure.

To learn more about the Lillies read The Sharpshooter and the Showman