Wild West in New York
Staten Island | Madison Square Garden | Brooklyn
Staten Island
Buffalo Bill Cody kicked off a summer 1886 season at Erastina in Staten Island with an elaborate parade through Manhattan on June 26. The show began the following day at a new amphitheater constructed by the Staten Island Amusement Company. Steamboats and trains transported thousands of visitors to the spectacle every day. Annie Oakley was sick during the kick-off parade and missed the first few days of the show's season. Lillian Smith, a 15-year-old sharp-shooting rival, garnered press in Oakley's absence.
The New York Herald, June 26, 1886
THE WILD WEST -- ITS HEROES ON STATEN ISLAND
Buffalo Bill's Wild West show was let loose down on the south shore at Erastina, and it just "whooped things up" in a way that made good its name...
MANY HAPPY PEOPLE
How they did swarm in! Train after train packed full of sweltering humanity. The stream poured in over the new platform between the clean, high fences, and pretty soon the two big stands were black... On three sides were rolling hills clothed in fresh greenness and walled with dark woods. In front was the shimmer of the sea. There are fifty acres in the grounds devoted to the exhibition arena and the camp. Everything is on a big scale. The arena is like a monster circus ring. Around it the long rows of seats rise high one above another. Gleaming in a grove at one side are the white tents of the Indians, painted over with fantastic designs.
MUSIC AND REVOLVERS
A band composed of cowboys tightened their belts, cocked their six-shooters and struck up some cowboy music. Mr. Frank Richmond strode in front of the grand stand, doffed his white sombrero and said it was to be an exhibition of skill, tact and endurance by men who had gained their livelihood on the plains. Then way back from the further end of the ground, where was stretched some lava bed scenery, trooped forth in single file a procession that was very Western -- Indians, cowboys, Mexicans and scouts. Into a trot, a canter and a run they broke; forming platoons and squares; sometimes in the saddle and sometimes out, they flew by like the wind. With a sudden halt they drew up in line in front of the grand stand. With a flourish of trumpets, "Buffalo Bill," the chief scout of the United States Army and the avenger of [Gen. George] Custer, dashed down in front.
"Are you ready? Go!" he shouted, and in an instant the field looked like an animated crazy quilt. Indians in their war paint, with feathers flying, riding full tilt at gaudily attired Mexicans. Shouts, warwhoops, barking of revolvers and cracking of carbines. It made the blood tingle, the faces of ladies in the audience blanch and the children hide their heads...
VERY WESTERN
An old stage coach, drawn by six mules, rattled out. It was the Deadwood mail. An ambuscade of yelling redskins pounced down upon it, and for half a mile it ran the gantlet of their fire. Then, with a cheer and a clatter came the cowboys to the rescue, chasing the savages away and leaving the dead and wounded on the field. It went ahead of any dime novel that ever spoiled a boy for commonplace life.
The New York Herald, June 27, 1886
WAR PAINT ON FIFTH AVENUE
The invaders had come up from their camp on Staten Island in unromantic ferryboats instead of birch canoes, and landing at Twenty-third street and proceeding to Forty-second street, swept down the length of Manhattan Island to the Battery, a lurid line of copper-colored complexions and long-haired ponies. It was the Wild West showing the mild East what glories there are in life pure and simple. Men held onto their scalps, ladies blushed because the Indians were painted clear down to their waists, the small boy yearned to follow the tomahawk and car drivers swore.
At the head rode "Buffalo Bill," and for the time he owned the town. At least, he looked so. Then came cowboys in woolen shirts and a general trimming of revolvers, Mexicans with broad brimmed sombreros and fringe down their trousers, and Indians carrying spears and looking very bloodthirsty. In the procession were buffalo, dogs and an Italian with a monkey and a hand organ, who got in there by mistake. Then there were canoes, the Deadwood mail coach, the pony express and other western historical bric-a-brac. The long procession passed by, floated away to its island home and the city was left unscalped and unburned.
The New York Herald, June 29, 1886
THE BUFFALO BILL SHOW
FIRST PUBLIC PERFORMANCE YESTERDAY -- MR. BERGH ON THE INDIANS AND THEIR ANIMALS.
The Indian and cowboy riding and shooting and the wild buffalo chase elicited great applause. The attack on the Deadwood mail coach brought the vast audience to their feet with cheers. Mr. Henry Bergh, of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, was on the grounds with several of his officers, and after the performance he said:--"I am very much pleased. The performance is very interesting and instructive. I have no fault to find with it in any way. I never saw so many real Indians together in my life, and they ride with great spirit, and are very careful of their horses and other animals." During the evening another performance was given, the arena being illuminated by electric lights. Another immense audience greeted the equestrians and marksmen, the flashing of the revolvers and rifles adding increased interest to the weird scenes. The Indian camp under the lofty trees of the grove formed a striking picture.
The New York Times, June 29, 1886
BUFFALO BILL'S BONANZA
The show was a decided success, and the sham fights between the cowboys and the red men and the scalping of the fallen Indians were events that filled the dime novel boy's heart with delight and elicited from him yells that drowned even those of the Comanche and other Indian performers. In the race between a Mexican cowboy and an Indian the latter met with an accident that, but for the tough material out of which Indians are made, might have ended fatally. While at full gallop the Indian's horse stumbled, turned a somersault, and rolled over the Indian. When the horse got up his rider remained stretched on the ground. Several Indians and cowboys ran to his assistance, and after helping him to his feet, set him on another horse and he galloped around the field again. Miss Lillian Smith, the champion girl shot, hit the bull's eye every time she fired at it, and broke some 20 glass balls that were arranged on a swinging target without missing one ball. The bucking mustangs, the trick mule, and the high-kicking bulls made the boys roar with laughter, and the representation of an attack upon a white settlement by Indians and their rout by cowboys, which ended the entertainment, pleased both young and old.
The Brooklyn Eagle, July 4, 1886
BUFFALO BILL AND THE WILD WEST
The breezy sail to Staten Island and the fine realistic exhibition of "a town of the frontier" at Erastina Woods, Mariners' Harbor, constitute an entertainment that can be best appreciated by a trial. Buffalo Bill's Wild West presents a view of life beyond the prairies which cannot be obtained short of a journey across the continent.
The Brooklyn Eagle, July 27, 1886
There is not the slightest diminution in the crowds which flock to Staten Island to view the wonders of the West as they find solution by the performances of the real Indians, real buffaloes and real everything. The passion for the realistic cannot be gratified more fully anywhere than at this extraordinary show. The incidents of frontier and Far West life are brought out vividly...
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