A Pair of Shootists

2012-10-11 Biography & Autobiography

Author : Jerry Kuntz
Release : 2012-10-11
Genre : Biography & Autobiography
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 864/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis A Pair of Shootists by : Jerry Kuntz

Download or read book A Pair of Shootists written by Jerry Kuntz. This book was released on 2012-10-11. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1888, Samuel F. Cody, a twenty-one-year-old horse wrangler, met Maud Lee, a sixteen-year-old aspiring circus performer, while touring with the Wild West show cast of Adam Forepaugh's Circus. A quick rapport developed between the girl from Norristown, Pennsylvania, and the cowboy who dazzled audiences with his good looks and fancy pistol shooting. A Pair of Shootists is the exuberant and sometimes heartbreaking story of the elusive S. F. Cody and his first wife, Maud Lee. Recounting their many dramatic exploits, this biography also overturns the frequently romanticized view of Wild West shows. Living the erratic lives of touring performers, S. F. Cody — who changed his name to capitalize on his resemblance to William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody — and Maud Lee first appeared together in vaudeville halls and dime museums. Setbacks in the United States made Cody and Lee eager to try their luck abroad, so they traveled to Great Britain, where they played music halls and acted in burlesques on roller-skates and in extravagant arena exhibitions. When the two performers eventually parted ways, author Jerry Kuntz masterfully splits their stories into two. From there, he follows their individual ups and downs, including Cody's soaring career in pioneer aeronautics and Lee's decline into mental illness and addiction. In an ironic twist, Maud's professional life ended amidst a vast misunderstanding that brought her into conflict with the woman she had been emulating her entire career: Annie Oakley. While other biographies focus mainly on Cody's contribution to aviation, Kuntz uses sources previously unavailable to scholars to paint a more complete picture of Cody's early years and to recover the forgotten — and ultimately tragic — story of Maud Lee.

America's Best Female Sharpshooter

2017-04-27 History

Author : Julia Bricklin
Release : 2017-04-27
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 00X/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis America's Best Female Sharpshooter by : Julia Bricklin

Download or read book America's Best Female Sharpshooter written by Julia Bricklin. This book was released on 2017-04-27. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today, most remember “California Girl” Lillian Frances Smith (1871–1930) as Annie Oakley’s chief competitor in the small world of the Wild West shows’ female shooters. But the two women were quite different: Oakley’s conservative “prairie beauty” persona clashed with Smith’s tendency to wear flashy clothes and keep company with the cowboys and American Indians she performed with. This lively first biography chronicles the Wild West showbiz life that Smith led and explores the talents that made her a star. Drawing on family records, press accounts, interviews, and numerous other sources, historian Julia Bricklin peels away the myths that enshroud Smith’s fifty-year career. Known as “The California Huntress” before she was ten years old, Smith was a professional sharpshooter by the time she reached her teens, shooting targets from the back of a galloping horse in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West. Not only did Cody offer $10,000 to anyone who could beat her, but he gave her top billing, setting the stage for her rivalry with Annie Oakley. Being the best female sharpshooter in the United States was not enough, however, to differentiate Lillian Smith from Oakley and a growing number of ladylike cowgirls. So Smith reinvented herself as “Princess Wenona,” a Sioux with a violent and romantic past. Performing with Cody and other showmen such as Pawnee Bill and the Miller brothers, Smith led a tumultuous private life, eventually taking up the shield of a forged Indian persona. The morals of the time encouraged public criticism of Smith’s lack of Victorian femininity, and the press’s tendency to play up her rivalry with Oakley eventually overshadowed Smith’s own legacy. In the end, as author Julia Bricklin shows, Smith cared more about living her life on her own terms than about her public image. Unlike her competitors who shot to make a living, Lillian Smith lived to shoot.

A Leap from the Clouds

2022-07-26 Transportation

Author : Jerry Kuntz
Release : 2022-07-26
Genre : Transportation
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 429/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis A Leap from the Clouds by : Jerry Kuntz

Download or read book A Leap from the Clouds written by Jerry Kuntz. This book was released on 2022-07-26. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the late nineteenth century, circus aerialists collaborated with show balloonists to perform death-defying stunts, initially by suspending themselves from trapeze bars beneath a balloon, later by jumping from the balloons using fabric parachutes. By the 1890s, these performances became a worldwide craze, remaining in rural fairs and fetes for decades. Many of the original balloon-parachute pioneers went on to play key roles in the creation of airships, test flying the first gliders and airplanes. Based on extensive historical research, this unusual account explores how a nineteenth-century daredevil act united with the desire to achieve human flight. These performers' contributions did not come without a price: dozens, if not hundreds, of people died in horrifying events witnessed by thousands of spectators. This book chronicles the act that had no practical purpose other than entertainment, which eventually evolved into the development of the free-fall parachute pack--a key aviation need--and the foundation of a new activity known as skydiving.

Colonel Cody and the Flying Cathedral

2015-03-10 Biography & Autobiography

Author : Garry Jenkins
Release : 2015-03-10
Genre : Biography & Autobiography
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 064/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Colonel Cody and the Flying Cathedral by : Garry Jenkins

Download or read book Colonel Cody and the Flying Cathedral written by Garry Jenkins. This book was released on 2015-03-10. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Colonel Cody and the Flying Cathedral is the fascinating and bizarre history of Samuel Franklin Cody, who in his early years worked the same cattle trails as Buffalo Bill and played the same Dodge City roulette tables as Wyatt Earp. But later his life took a startling turn. While performing in England, Cody became a passionate kite-builder and flyer, and at the apex of his career, fashioned a vast airplane dubbed "The Flying Cathedral," and with it went on to become the first man to fly in England.

Anecdotes of Archery

1845 Archery

Author : Ely Hargrove
Release : 1845
Genre : Archery
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : /5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Anecdotes of Archery by : Ely Hargrove

Download or read book Anecdotes of Archery written by Ely Hargrove. This book was released on 1845. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

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