Julio Iglesias, Jr.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Julio José Iglesias Jr., (born February 25, 1973 in Madrid, Spain), better known as Julio Iglesias Jr., is a Spanish-Filipino pop singer and model.
Personal
Iglesias Jr. is the son of Spanish singer Julio Iglesias and Filipina journalist Isabel Preysler. He is the brother of Chabeli Iglesias and Enrique Iglesias.
After the kidnapping of his grandfather in 1981, Iglesias Jr. and his siblings (on his father's side) relocated from Madrid to Miami. The Iglesias family lived in one of Miami's most famous mansions, and were constantly hounded by paparazzi.
Iglesias Jr. went to college near San Francisco at Menlo College in Atherton, California. He won a chance to participate in NBC's Out of the Blue, and he was contracted by the Travel Channel, where he hosted a "Mosaico" travel show that took him across Latin America.
Career
Modeling
Iglesias Jr. with the help of his friend and manager Darius Jordi Lassus first got into show business as a model. It was his manager that negotiated an exclusive male modeling agreement with Joey Hunter (at the time he was the president of the Male Model division) at the Ford Models Agency in New York. It was thru Joey Hunter, that Julio Jose got spotted by photographer Bruce Weber. He went on to campaign for Versace. Shortly after, Julio signed on with publicity executive Ruben Malaret whom began a press campaign to further gain exposure of Julio to the Anglo market. Some of the accomplishments were notable appearances on Oprah Winfrey's talk show, and was featured in an advertisement for Gap, and he modeled for designer John Bartlett 7 th on Sixth Fashion Show.
Acting
He was offered two soap opera jobs, one at Televisa and one in the ABC soap, All My Children. Iglesias Jr. had also received an offer from the Producers of the Broadway show Grease to star as Danny, but decided to turn those jobs down because he wanted to focus on his music, which he says he has been writing since he was little.
Musical career
Iglesias Jr. signed a recording agreement for an unknown artist with Epic Records, reported to be worth $35 million. He returned to Miami where he began to record his first album, Under My Eyes, with Rodolfo Castillo. Released in 1999, the recording of this album took them to New York and Los Angeles; two songs released from this English language album are "One More Chance" and "Under My Eyes". Among promotional appearances for the album Iglesias performed "One More Chance" at the Miss Universe Pageant and opened for Cher on her tour of North America. The album failed to garner public interest and after several US scheduled release dates were put off by the record company, Julio and Epic parted ways.
Iglesias Jr. second album, Tercera Dimension, was released in 2003 on the Warner Music Latina label and featured Spanish pop-rock songs with the singles "Los Demas" and "Dejame Volar".
Both CDs received a lot of attention from the Hispanic media in the United States but attained neither commercial nor critical success.
Current
For a while it seemed he was an almost regular fixture in Hola Magazine, appearing in several photoshoots at his home in Miami with his girlfriends.
More recently he has taken part in a series in Spain called Club de Flo, in which Spanish politicians and minor celebrities have to present a comedy routine. The show was unsuccessful and cancelled after a handful of episodes.
He has moved back to Spain and is living with his mother Isabel. 1 He appeared on the Spanish version of Dancing with the Stars called "¡Mira quien baila!" but was voted out in the thirteenth week.
He has played the leadrol in a short narrative drama film entitled The Music of You. Directed by Lloyd DeSouza.
Julio is currently in the CMT reality tv talent show Gone Country in which artists from other genres of music live together in a house in Nashville and compete to win a country music contract.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julio_Iglesias%2C_Jr."
Four insurance companies are in competition.
One comes up with the slogan, "Coverage from the cradle to the
grave."
The Second one tries to improve on that with,
"Coverage from the womb to the tomb."
Not to be outdone, the third one comes up with, "From
the sperm to the worm."
The fourth insurance company really thought hard and
almost gave up the race, but finally came up with,
"From the erection to the resurrection."
Victor Hugo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born 26 February 1802 A.D.
Died 22 May 1885 (aged 83)
Occupation poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights campaigner,
Literary movement Romanticism
Debut works Nouvelles Odes et Poésies Diverses (New Odes and Various Poems) (1824)
Influences Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand, Walter Scott, Voltaire
Influenced Louis-Honoré Fréchette, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Irvine Welsh, Albert Camus, Gérard de Nerval, Paul Verlaine, Ayn Rand
Signature
Victor-Marie Hugo (pronounced [viktɔʁ maʁi yˈɡo]) (February 26, 1802 - May 22, 1885) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights campaigner, and perhaps the most influential exponent of the Romantic movement in France.
In France, Hugo's literary reputation rests primarily on his poetic and dramatic output and only secondarily on his novels. Among many volumes of poetry, Les Contemplations and La Légende des siècles stand particularly high in critical esteem, and Hugo is sometimes identified as the greatest French poet. In the English-speaking world his best-known works are often the novels Les Misérables and Notre-Dame de Paris (sometimes translated into English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame).
Though extremely conservative in his youth, Hugo moved to the political left as the decades passed; he became a passionate supporter of republicanism, and his work touches upon most of the political and social issues and artistic trends of his time. He is buried in the Panthéon.
Victor-Marie Hugo was the third and last son of Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo (1773-1828) and Sophie Trébuchet (1772-1821); his brothers were Abel Joseph Hugo (1798-1855) and Eugène Hugo (1800-1837). He was born in 1802 in Besançon (in the region of Franche-Comté) and lived in France for the majority of his life. However, he was forced into exile during the reign of Napoleon III ?- he lived briefly in Brussels during 1851; in Jersey from 1852 to 1855; and in Guernsey from 1855 to 1870 and again in 1872-1873. There was a general amnesty in 1859; after that, his exile was by choice.
Hugo's early childhood was marked by great events. The century prior to his birth saw the overthrow of the Bourbon Dynasty in the French Revolution, the rise and fall of the First Republic, and the rise of the First French Empire and dictatorship under Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor two years after Hugo's birth, and the Bourbon Monarchy was restored before his eighteenth birthday. The opposing political and religious views of Hugo's parents reflected the forces that would battle for supremacy in France throughout his life: Hugo's father was a high-ranking officer in Napoleon's army, an atheist republican who considered Napoleon a hero; his mother was a staunch Catholic Royalist who is believed to have taken as her lover General Victor Lahorie, who was executed in 1812 for plotting against Napoleon.
Sophie followed her husband to posts in Italy (where Léopold served as a governor of a province near Naples) and Spain (where he took charge of three Spanish provinces). Weary of the constant moving required by military life, and at odds with her unfaithful husband, Sophie separated temporarily from Léopold in 1803 and settled in Paris. Thereafter she dominated Hugo's education and upbringing. As a result, Hugo's early work in poetry and fiction reflect a passionate devotion to both King and Faith. It was only later, during the events leading up to France's 1848 Revolution, that he would begin to rebel against his Catholic Royalist education and instead champion Republicanism and Freethought.
Early poetry and fiction
Like many young writers of his generation, Hugo was profoundly influenced by François-René de Chateaubriand, the famous figure in the literary movement of Romanticism and France's preëminent literary figure during the early 1800s. In his youth, Hugo resolved to be "Chateaubriand or nothing," and his life would come to parallel that of his predecessor's in many ways. Like Chateaubriand, Hugo would further the cause of Romanticism, become involved in politics as a champion of Republicanism, and be forced into exile due to his political stances.
The precocious passion and eloquence of Hugo's early work brought success and fame at an early age. His first collection of poetry (Nouvelles Odes et Poésies Diverses) was published in 1824, when Hugo was only twenty two years old, and earned him a royal pension from Louis XVIII. Though the poems were admired for their spontaneous fervor and fluency, it was the collection that followed two years later in 1826 (Odes et Ballades) that revealed Hugo to be a great poet, a natural master of lyric and creative song.
Against his mother's wishes, young Victor fell in love and became secretly engaged to his childhood friend Adèle Foucher (1803-1868). Unusually close to his mother, it was only after her death in 1821 that he felt free to marry Adèle (in 1822). They had their first child Léopold in 1823, but the boy died in infancy. Hugo's other children were Léopoldine (August 28, 1824), Charles (November 4, 1826), François-Victor (October 28, 1828) and Adèle (August 24, 1830). Hugo published his first novel the following year (Han d'Islande, 1823), and his second three years later (Bug-Jargal, 1826). Between 1829 and 1840 he would publish five more volumes of poetry (Les Orientales, 1829; Les Feuilles d'automne, 1831; Les Chants du crépuscule, 1835; Les Voix intérieures, 1837; and Les Rayons et les ombres, 1840), cementing his reputation as one of the greatest elegiac and lyric poets of his time.
Theatrical work
Hugo did not achieve such quick success with his works for the stage. In 1827, he published the never-staged verse drama Cromwell, which became more famous for the author's project than its own worth (the play's unwieldy length was considered "unfit for acting"). In his introduction to the work, Hugo urged his fellow artists to free themselves from the restrictions imposed by the French classical style of theatre, and thus sparked a fierce debate between French Classicism and Romanticism that would rage for many years. Cromwell was followed in 1828 by the disastrous Amy Robsart, an experimental play from his youth based on the Walter Scott novel Kenilworth, which was produced under the name of his brother-in-law Paul Foucher and managed to survive only one performance before a less-than-appreciative audience.
The first play of Hugo's to be accepted for production under his own name was Marion de Lorme. Though initially banned by the censors for its unflattering portrayal of the French monarchy, it was eventually allowed to premiere uncensored in 1829, but without success. However, the play that Hugo produced the following year ?- Hernani ?- would prove to be one of the most successful and groundbreaking events of nineteenth-century French theatre, the opening night of which became known as the "The Battle of Hernani". Today the work is largely forgotten, except as the basis for the Verdi opera Ernani. However, at the time, performances of the work sparked near-riots between opposing camps of French letters and society: Romantics vs. Classicists, Liberals vs. Conformists, and Republicans vs. Royalists. The play was largely condemned by the press, but played to full houses night after night, and all but crowned Hugo as the preeminent leader of French Romanticism. It also signalled that Hugo's concept of Romanticism was growing increasingly politicized: Hugo believed that just as Liberalism in politics would free the country from the tyranny of monarchy and dictatorship, Romanticism would liberate the arts from the constraints of Classicism.
Actress Juliette Drouet, Hugo's mistressIn 1832 Hugo followed the success of Hernani with Le roi s'amuse (The King Takes His Amusement, used by Verdi for Rigoletto). The play was promptly banned by the censors after only one performance, due to its overt mockery of the French nobility, but then went on to be very popular in printed form. Incensed by the ban, Hugo wrote his next play, Lucrèce Borgia (see: Lucrezia Borgia), in only fourteen days. It subsequently appeared on the stage in 1833, to great success. Mademoiselle George (former mistress of Napoleon) was cast in the main role, and an actress named Juliette Drouet played a subordinate part. However, Drouet would go on to play a major role in Hugo's personal life, becoming his life-long mistress. While Hugo had many romantic escapades throughout his life, Drouet was recognized even by his wife to have a unique relationship with the writer, and was treated almost as family. In Hugo's next play (Marie Tudor, 1833), Drouet played Lady Jane Grey to George's Queen Mary. However, she was not considered adequate to the role, and was replaced by another actress after opening night. It would be her last role on the French stage; thereafter she devoted her life to Hugo. Supported by a small pension, she became his unpaid secretary and travelling companion for the next fifty years.
Hugo's Angelo premiered in 1835, to great success. Soon after, the Duke of Orleans (son of King Louis-Philippe, and an admirer of Hugo's work) founded a new theatre to support new plays. Théâtre de la Renaissance opened in November 1838, with the premiere of Ruy Blas. Though considered by many to be Hugo's best drama, at the time it met with only average success; in 1947 Jean Cocteau adapted it for cinema, with Jean Marais in the title role. Hugo did not produce another play until 1843. The Burgraves played for only 33 nights, losing audiences to a competing drama, and it would be his last work written for the theatre. Though he would later write the short verse drama Torquemada in 1869, it was not published until a few years before his death in 1882, and was never intended for the stage. However, Hugo's interest in the theatre continued, and in 1864, he published a well-received essay on William Shakespeare, whose style he tried to emulate in his own dramas.
Mature fiction
Victor Hugo's first mature work of fiction appeared in 1829, and reflected the acute social conscience that would infuse his later work. Le Dernier jour d'un condamné (Last Days of a Condemned Man) would have a profound influence on later writers such as Albert Camus, Charles Dickens, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Claude Gueux, a documentary short story about a real-life murderer who had been executed in France, appeared in 1834, and was later considered by Hugo himself to be a precursor to his great work on social injustice, Les Misérables. But Hugo's first full-length novel would be the enormously successful Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), which was published in 1831 and quickly translated into other languages across Europe. One of the effects of the novel was to shame the City of Paris to undertake a restoration of the much-neglected Cathedral of Notre Dame, which was attracting thousands of tourists who had read the popular novel. The book also inspired a renewed appreciation for pre-renaissance buildings, which thereafter began to be actively preserved.
Hugo began planning a major novel about social misery and injustice as early as the 1830s, but it would take a full 17 years for his most enduringly popular work, Les Misérables, to be realized and finally published in 1862. The author was acutely aware of the quality of the novel and publication of the work went to the highest bidder. The Belgian publishing house Lacroix and Verboeckhoven undertook a marketing campaign unusual for the time, issuing press releases about the work a full six months before the launch. It also initially published only the first part of the novel ("Fantine"), which was launched simultaneously in major cities. Installments of the book sold out within hours, and had enormous impact on French society. The critical establishment was generally hostile to the novel; Taine found it insincere, Barbey d'Aurevilly complained of its vulgarity, Flaubert found within it "neither truth nor greatness," the Goncourts lambasted its artificiality, and Baudelaire - despite giving favorable reviews in newspapers - castigated it in private as "tasteless and inept." Nonetheless, Les Misérables proved popular enough with the masses that the issues it highlighted were soon on the agenda of the French National Assembly. Today the novel remains popular worldwide, adapted for cinema, television and musical stage to an extent equaled by few other works of literature.
The shortest correspondence in history is between Hugo and his publisher Hurst & Blackett in 1862. It is said Hugo was on vacation when Les Misérables (which is over 1200 pages) was published. He telegraphed the single-character message '?' to his publisher, who replied with a single '!'.
Hugo turned away from social/political issues in his next novel, Les Travailleurs de la Mer (Toilers of the Sea), published in 1866. Nonetheless, the book was well received, perhaps due to the previous success of Les Misérables. Dedicated to the channel island of Guernsey where he spent 15 years of exile, Hugo's depiction of Man's battle with the sea and the horrible creatures lurking beneath its depths spawned an unusual fad in Paris: Squids. From squid dishes and exhibitions, to squid hats and parties, Parisiennes became fascinated by these unusual sea creatures, which at the time were still considered by many to be mythical.[citation needed] The Guernsey word used in the book has also been used to refer to the octopus.
Hugo returned to political and social issues in his next novel, L'Homme Qui Rit (The Man Who Laughs), which was published in 1869 and painted a critical picture of the aristocracy. However, the novel was not as successful as his previous efforts, and Hugo himself began to comment on the growing distance between himself and literary contemporaries such as Flaubert and Zola, whose realist and naturalist novels were now exceeding the popularity of his own work. His last novel, Quatrevingt-treize (Ninety-Three), published in 1874, dealt with a subject that Hugo had previously avoided: the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. Though Hugo's popularity was on the decline at the time of its publication, many now consider Ninety-Three to be a work on par with Hugo's more well known novels.
Political life and exile
After three unsuccessful attempts, Hugo was finally elected to the Académie française in 1841, solidifying his position in the world of French arts and letters. Thereafter he became increasingly involved in French politics as a supporter of the Republic form of government. He was elevated to the peerage by King Louis-Philippe in 1841 and entered the Higher Chamber as a pair de France, where he spoke against the death penalty and social injustice, and in favour of freedom of the press and self-government for Poland. He was later elected to the Legislative Assembly and the Constitutional Assembly, following the 1848 Revolution and the formation of the Second Republic.
When Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III) seized complete power in 1851, establishing an anti-parliamentary constitution, Hugo openly declared him a traitor of France. He fled to Brussels, then Jersey, and finally settled with his family on the channel island of Guernsey at Hauteville House, where he would live in exile until 1870.
While in exile, Hugo published his famous political pamphlets against Napoleon III, Napoléon le Petit and Histoire d'un crime. The pamphlets were banned in France, but nonetheless had a strong impact there. He also composed some of his best work during his period in Guernsey, including Les Misérables, and three widely praised collections of poetry (Les Châtiments, 1853; Les Contemplations, 1856; and La Légende des siècles, 1859).
He convinced the government of Queen Victoria to spare the lives of six Irish people convicted of terrorist activities and his influence was credited in the removal of the death penalty from the constitutions of Geneva, Portugal and Colombia.[1]
Although Napoleon III granted an amnesty to all political exiles in 1859, Hugo declined, as it meant he would have to curtail his criticisms of the government. It was only after Napoleon III fell from power and the Third Republic was proclaimed that Hugo finally returned to his homeland in 1870, where he was promptly elected to the National Assembly and the Senate.
He was in Paris during the siege by the Prussian army in 1870, famously eating animals given him by the Paris zoo. As the siege continued, and food became ever more scarce, he wrote in his diary that they were now reduced to eating things even though he was not at all sure what it was: "we are eating the unknown," he wrote.
Because of his concern for the rights of artists and copyright, he was a founding member of the Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale, which led to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.
Religious views
Hugo's religious views changed radically over the course of his life. In his youth, he identified as a Catholic and professed respect for Church hierarchy and authority. From there he evolved into a non-practicing Catholic, and expressed increasingly violent anti-papist and anti-clerical views. He dabbled in Spiritualism during his exile (where he participated also in seances), and in later years settled into a Rationalist Deism similar to that espoused by Voltaire. When a census-taker asked Hugo in 1872 if he was a Catholic, he replied, "No. A Freethinker".
Hugo never lost his antipathy towards the Roman Catholic Church, due largely to what he saw as the Church's indifference to the plight of the working class under the oppression of the monarchy; and perhaps also due to the frequency with which Hugo's work appeared on the Pope's list of "proscribed books" (Hugo counted 740 attacks on Les Misérables in the Catholic press). On the deaths of his sons Charles and François-Victor, he insisted that they be buried without crucifix or priest, and in his will made the same stipulation about his own death and funeral. However, although Hugo believed Catholic dogma to be outdated and dying, he never directly attacked the institution itself. He also remained a deeply religious man who strongly believed in the power and necessity of prayer.
Hugo's Rationalism can be found in poems such as Torquemada (1869, about religious fanaticism), The Pope (1878, violently anti-clerical), Religions and Religion (1880, denying the usefulness of churches) and, published posthumously, The End of Satan and God (1886 and 1891 respectively, in which he represents Christianity as a griffin and Rationalism as an angel).
"Religions pass away, but God remains", Hugo declared. Christianity would eventually disappear, he predicted, but people would still believe in "God, Soul, and the Power."
Declining years and death
When Hugo returned to Paris in 1870, the country hailed him as a national hero. Despite his popularity Hugo lost his bid for reelection to the National Assembly in 1872. Within a brief period, he suffered a mild stroke, his daughter Adèle's internment in an insane asylum, and the death of his two sons. (His other daughter, Léopoldine, had drowned in a boating accident in 1843, and his wife Adèle had died in 1868. His faithful mistress, Juliette Drouet, died in 1883, only two years before his own death.) Despite his personal loss, Hugo remained committed to the cause of political change. On 30 January 1876 Hugo was elected to the newly created Senate. His last phase in his political career is considered a failure. Hugo took on a stubborn role and got little done in the Senate.
In February of 1881 Hugo celebrated his 79th birthday. To honor the fact that he was entering his eightieth year, one of the greatest tributes to a living writer was held. The celebrations began on the 25th when Hugo was presented with a Sèvres vase, the traditional gift for sovereigns. On the 27th one of the largest parades in French history was held. Marchers stretched from Avenue d'Eylau, down the Champs-Elysees, and all the way to the center of Paris. The paraders marched for six hours to pass Hugo as he sat in the window at his house. Every inch and detail of the event was for Hugo; the official guides even wore cornflowers as an allusion to Cosette's song in Les Misérables.
Drawings
Many are not aware that Hugo was almost as prolific in the visual arts as he was in literature, producing more than 4,000 drawings in his lifetime. (Some reproductions can be viewed on the internet at ArtNet and on the website of artist Misha Bittleston).
Originally pursued as a casual hobby, drawing became more important to Hugo shortly before his exile, when he made the decision to stop writing in order to devote himself to politics. Drawing became his exclusive creative outlet during the period 1848-1851.
Hugo worked only on paper, and on a small scale; usually in dark brown or black pen-and-ink wash, sometimes with touches of white, and rarely with color. The surviving drawings are surprisingly accomplished and "modern" in their style and execution, foreshadowing the experimental techniques of Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism.
He would not hesitate to use his children's stencils, ink blots, puddles and stains, lace impressions, "pliage" or folding (i.e. Rorschach blots), "grattage" or rubbing, often using the charcoal from match sticks or his fingers instead of pen or brush. Sometimes he would even toss in coffee or soot to get the effects he wanted. It is reported that Hugo often drew with his left hand or without looking at the page, or during Spiritualist séances, in order to access his unconscious mind, a concept only later popularized by Sigmund Freud.
Hugo kept his artwork out of the public eye, fearing it would overshadow his literary work. However, he enjoyed sharing his drawings with his family and friends, often in the form of ornately handmade calling cards, many of which were given as gifts to visitors when he was in political exile. Some of his work was shown to, and appreciated by, contemporary artists such as Van Gogh and Delacroix; the latter expressed the opinion that if Hugo had decided to become a painter instead of a writer, he would have outshone the artists of their century.
Memorials
The people of Guernsey erected a statue in Candie Gardens to commemorate his stay in the islands.
The City of Paris has preserved his residences Hauteville House, Guernsey and 6, Place des Vosges, Paris as museums. The house where he stayed in Vianden, Luxembourg, in 1871 has also become a commemorative museum.
Hugo is venerated as a saint in the Vietnamese religion of Cao Dai.[2]
The Avenue Victor-Hugo in the XVIème arrondissement of Paris bears Hugo's name, and links the Place de l'Étoile to the vicinity of the Bois de Boulogne by way of the Place Victor-Hugo. This square is served by a Paris Métro stop also named in his honor. A number of streets and avenues throughout France are likewise named after him.
The school Lycée Victor Hugo in his town of birth, Besançon in France.
Avenue Victor-Hugo, located in Shawinigan, Quebec, Canada, was named to honor him.
In the city of Avellino, Italy, Victor Hugo lived briefly stayed in what is now known as Il Palazzo Culturale, when reuniting with his father, Leopold Sigisbert Hugo, in 1808. Victor would later write about his brief stay here quoting "C'était un palais de marbre...".
Buffalo Bill
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born February 26, 1846
near Le Claire, Iowa, United States
Died January 10, 1917 (aged 70)
Denver, Colorado, United States
Resting place Lookout Mountain, Golden, Colorado
Spouse Louisa Frederici (1843-1921)
Children Four children, two of whom died young: Kit died of scarlet fever in April, 1876, and his daughter Orra died in 1880
William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody (February 26, 1846 - January 10, 1917) was an American soldier, bison hunter and showman. He was born in the Iowa Territory (now the American state of Iowa), near Le Claire. He was one of the most colorful figures of the Old West, and mostly famous for the shows he organized with cowboy themes. Buffalo Bill received the Medal of Honor.
Nickname and work life
William Frederick ("Buffalo Bill") Cody got his nickname after he undertook a contract[1] to supply Kansas Pacific Railroad workers with bison meat . The nickname originally referred to Bill Comstock. Cody earned the nickname by killing 4,280 buffaloes[2] in eighteen months (1867-68)[3].
In addition to his documented service as a soldier during the Civil War and as Chief of Scouts for the Third Cavalry during the Plains Wars, Cody claimed to have worked many jobs, including as a trapper, bullwhacker, "Fifty-Niner" in Colorado, a Pony Express rider in 1860, wagonmaster, stagecoach driver, and even a hotel manager, but it's unclear which claims were factual and which were fabricated for purposes of publicity. He became world famous for his Wild West show.
Early years
William Frederick Cody was born at his family's farmhouse in Scott County, Iowa, on February 26, 1846, to Isaac Cody and wife Mary Ann Bonsell Laycock, daughter of Samuel Laycock and wife Hannah Taylor. When Cody was 7, his older brother, Samuel, was killed by a fall from a horse. His death so affected Mary Cody's health that a change of scene was advised and the family relocated to Kansas, moving into a large log cabin on land that they had staked there.
Cody's father believed that Kansas should be a free state, but many of the other settlers in the area were pro-slavery (see Bleeding Kansas). While giving an anti-slavery speech at the local trading post, he so inflamed the supporters of slavery in the audience that they formed a mob and one of them stabbed him. Cody helped to drag his father to safety, although he never fully recovered from his injuries. The family was constantly persecuted by the supporters of slavery, forcing Isaac Cody to spend much of his time away from home. His enemies learned of a planned visit to his family and plotted to kill him on the way. Cody, despite his youth and the fact that he was ill, rode 30 miles (48 km) to warn his father. Cody's father died in 1857 from complications from his stabbing
After his father's death, the Cody family suffered financial difficulties, and Cody, aged only 11, took a job with freight carrier as a "boy extra," riding up and down the length of a wagon train, delivering messages. From here, he joined Johnston's Army as an unofficial member of the scouts assigned to guide the Army to Utah to put down a falsely-reported rebellion by the Mormon population of Salt Lake City. According to Cody's account in Buffalo Bill's Own Story, the Utah War was where he first began his career as an "Indian fighter".
Presently the moon rose, dead ahead of me; and painted boldly across its face was the figure of an Indian. He wore the war-bonnet of the Sioux, at his shoulder was a rifle pointed at someone in the river-bottom 30 feet (9 m) below; in another second he would drop one of my friends. I raised my old muzzle-loader and fired. The figure collapsed, tumbled down the bank and landed with a splash in the water. 'What is it?' called McCarthy, as he hurried back. 'It's over there in the water,' I answered. McCarthy ran over to the dark figure. 'Hi!' he cried. 'Little Billy's killed an Indian all by himself!' So began my career as an Indian fighter.
At the age of 14, Cody was struck by gold fever, but on his way to the gold fields, he met an agent for the Pony Express. He signed with them and after building several way stations and corrals was given a job as rider, which he kept until he was called home to his sick mother's bedside.
His mother recovered, and Cody, who wished to enlist as a soldier, but was refused for his age, began working with a United States freight caravan which delivered supplies to Fort Laramie.
Civil War soldier and marriage
Shortly after the death of his mother in 1863, Cody enlisted in the 7th Kansas Cavalry Regiment and fought with them on the Union side for the rest of the Civil War.
While stationed at military camp in St. Louis, Bill met Louisa Frederici (1843-1921). He returned after his discharge and they married on March 6, 1866. Their marriage was not a happy one, and Bill unsuccessfully attempted to divorce Louisa. They had four children, two of whom died young: his beloved son, Kit died of scarlet fever in April, 1876, and his daughter Orra died in 1880.
His early experience as an Army scout led him again to scouting. From 1868 until 1872 Cody was employed as a scout by the United States Army. Part of this time he spent scouting for Indians, and the remainder was spent gathering and killing bison for them and the Kansas Pacific Railroad.
Medal of Honor
He received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for "gallantry in action" while serving as a civilian scout for the 3rd Cavalry Regiment. This medal was revoked on February 5, 1917, 24 days after his death, because he was a civilian and therefore was ineligible for the award under new guidelines for the award in 1917. The medal was restored to him by the army in 1989.
Buffalo Bill's Wild West
After being a frontiersman, Buffalo Bill entered show business. He formed a touring company called the Buffalo Bill Combination which put on plays (such as "Scouts of the Prairie", "Scouts of the Plain") based loosely on his Western adventures, initially with Texas Jack Omohundro, and for one season (1873) with Wild Bill Hickok. The troupe toured for ten years and his part typically included an 1876 incident at the Warbonnet Creek where he claimed to have scalped a Cheyenne warrior, purportedly in revenge for the death of George Armstrong Custer. [1] [2]
It was the age of great showmen and traveling entertainers, like the Barnum and Bailey Circus and the Vaudeville circuits. Cody put together a new traveling show based on both of those forms of entertainment. In 1883 in the area of North Platte, Nebraska he founded "Buffalo Bill's Wild West," (despite popular misconception, the word "show" was not a part of the title) a circus-like attraction that toured annually.
As the Wild West toured North America over the next twenty years, it became a moving extravaganza, including as many as 1200 performers. In 1893 the title was changed to "Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World". The show began with a parade on horseback, with participants from horse-culture groups that included US and other military, American Indians, and performers from all over the world in their best attire. There were Turks, Gauchos, Arabs, Mongols and Cossacks, among others, each showing their own distinctive horses and colorful costumes. Visitors to this spectacle could see main events, feats of skill, staged races, and sideshows. Many authentic western personalities were part of the show. For example Sitting Bull and a band of twenty braves appeared. Cody's headline performers were well known in their own right. People like Annie Oakley and her husband Frank Butler put on shooting exhibitions along with the likes of Gabriel Dumont. Buffalo Bill and his performers would re-enact the riding of the Pony Express, Indian attacks on wagon trains, and stagecoach robberies. The show typically ended with a melodramatic re-enactment of Custer's Last Stand in which Cody himself portrayed General Custer.
The profits from his show enabled him to purchase a 4,000-acre (16 km²) ranch near North Platte, Nebraska in 1886. Scout's Rest Ranch included an eighteen-room mansion and a large barn for winter storage of the show's livestock.
In 1887 he performed in London in celebration of the Jubilee year of Queen Victoria, and toured Europe in 1889. In 1890 he met Pope Leo XIII. He set up an exhibition near the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, which greatly contributed to his popularity, and also vexed the promoters of the fair. As noted in The Devil in the White City, he had been rebuffed in his request to be part of the fair, so he set up shop just to the west of the fairgrounds, drawing many patrons away from the fair. Since his show was not part of the fair, he was not obligated to pay the fair any royalties, which they could have used to temper the financial struggles of the fair.
Conservation activities
Larry McMurtry, along with some historians, asserts[citation needed] that at the turn of the 20th century Buffalo Bill Cody was the most recognizable celebrity on earth. And yet, despite all of the recognition and appreciation Cody's show brought for the Western and American Indian cultures, Buffalo Bill saw the American West change dramatically during his tumultuous life. Bison herds, which had once numbered in the millions, were now threatened with extinction. Railroads crossed the plains, barbed wire, and other types of fences divided the land for farmers and ranchers, and the once-threatening Indian tribes were now almost completely confined to reservations. Wyoming's resources of coal, oil and natural gas were beginning to be exploited towards the end of his life.
Even the Shoshone River was dammed for hydroelectric power as well as for irrigation. In 1897 and 1899 Cody and his associates acquired from the State of Wyoming the right to take water from the Shoshone River to irrigate about 169,000 acres (680 km²) of land in the Big Horn Basin. They began developing a canal to carry water diverted from the river, but their plans did not include a water storage reservoir. Cody and his associates were unable to raise sufficient capital to complete their plan. Early in 1903 they joined with the Wyoming Board of Land Commissioners in urging the federal government to step in and help with irrigation development in the valley.
The Shoshone Project became one of the first federal water development projects undertaken by the newly formed Reclamation Service, later to become known as the Bureau of Reclamation. After Reclamation took over the project in 1903, investigating engineers recommended constructing a dam on the Shoshone River in the canyon west of Cody.
Construction of the Shoshone Dam started in 1905, a year after the Shoshone Project was authorized. Almost three decades after its construction, the name of the dam and reservoir was changed to Buffalo Bill Dam by an act of Congress to honor Cody.
Life in Cody, Wyoming
In 1895, William Cody was instrumental in founding Cody, Wyoming. Cody passed through the region in the 1870s. He was so impressed by the development possibilities from irrigation, rich soil, grand scenery, hunting, and proximity to Yellowstone Park that he returned in the mid-1890s to start a town. He brought with him men whose names are still on street signs in Cody's downtown area - Beck, Alger, Rumsey, Bleistein and Salsbury. The town was incorporated in 1901.
In 1902, Cody built the Irma Hotel in downtown Cody. The hotel is named after his daughter, Irma. He also had lodging along the North Fork of the Shoshone River, which is a route to the east entrance of Yellowstone National Park that included the Wapiti Inn and Pahaska Teepee. Up the south fork of the Shoshone was his ranch, the TE.
When Cody acquired the TE property, he ordered the movement of Nebraska and South Dakota cattle to Wyoming. This new herd carried the TE brand. The late 1890s were relatively prosperous years for Buffalo Bill's Wild West and he used some of the profits to accumulate lands which were added to the TE holdings. Eventually Cody held around eight thousand acres (32 km²) of private land for grazing operations and ran about a thousand head of cattle. He also operated a dude ranch, pack horse camping trips, and big game hunting business at and from the TE Ranch. In his spacious and comfortable ranch house he entertained notable guests from Europe and America.
Death
Cody died of kidney failure on January 10, 1917, surrounded by family and friends at his sister's house in Denver. On his death bed William F. Cody was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church the day before his death January 9, 1917, by Father Christopher Walsh of the Denver Cathedral. Upon the news of his death he received tributes from the King of Britain, the German Kaiser, and President Woodrow Wilson. [4] His funeral was in Denver at the Elks Lodge Hall. Wyoming Governor John B. Kendrick, a friend of Cody's, led the funeral procession to the Elks Lodge.
Contrary to popular belief Cody was not destitute, but his once great fortune had dwindled to under $100,000. Despite his request to be buried in Cody, Wyoming, in an early will, it was superseded by a later will which left his burial arrangements up to his wife Louisa. To this day there is controversy as to where Cody should have been buried. According to the writer Larry McMurtry, Harry Tammen and Frederick Gilmer Bonfils of the Denver Post, who had strong-armed Cody into appearing in their Sells-Floto Circus, either "bullied or bamboozled the grieving Louisa" and had Cody buried in Colorado.[5] This is consistent with an account by Gene Fowler, who wrote Cody's obituary for the Post under direction from Tammen and Bonfils.
On June 3, 1917, Cody was buried on Colorado's Lookout Mountain, in Golden, Colorado, west of the city of Denver, located on the edge of the Rocky Mountains and overlooking the Great Plains. In 1948 the Cody branch of the American Legion offered a reward for the 'return' of the body, so the Denver branch mounted a guard over the grave until a deeper shaft could be blasted into the rock. [6]
Legacy
In contrast to his image and stereotype as a rough-hewn outdoorsman, Buffalo Bill pushed for the rights of American Indians and women. In addition, despite his history of killing bison, he supported their conservation by speaking out against hide-hunting and pushing for a hunting season.
Buffalo Bill became so well known and his exploits so well entrenched in American culture that his character has appeared in many literary works, as well as television shows and movies. Westerns were very popular in the 1950s and 60s, and Buffalo Bill would make an appearance in many of them. As a character, he is in the very popular Broadway musical Annie Get Your Gun, which was very successful both with Ethel Merman and more recently with Bernadette Peters in the lead role. On television, his character has appeared on shows such as Bat Masterson and even Bonanza. His persona has been portrayed as anything from an elder statesman to a flamboyant, self-serving exhibitionist.
Having been a frontier scout who respected the natives, he was a staunch supporter of their rights. He employed many more natives than just Sitting Bull, feeling his show offered them a better life, calling them "the former foe, present friend, the American", and once said,
"Every Indian outbreak that I have ever known has resulted from broken promises and broken treaties by the government."
Buffalo Bill Cody in 1903While in his shows the Indians were usually the "bad guys", attacking stagecoaches and wagon trains in order to be driven off by "heroic" cowboys and soldiers, Bill also had the wives and children of his Indian performers set up camp as they would in the homelands as part of the show, so that the paying public could see the human side of the "fierce warriors", that they were families like any other, just part of a different culture.
The city of Cody, Wyoming was founded in 1896 by Cody and some investors, and is named for him. It is the home of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. Fifty miles from Yellowstone National Park, it became a tourist magnet with many dignitaries and political leaders coming to hunt. Bill did indeed spend a great amount of time in Wyoming at his home in Cody. However, he also had a house in the town of North Platte, Nebraska and later built the Scout's Rest Ranch there where he came to be with his family between shows. This western Nebraska town is still home to "Nebraskaland Days," an annual festival including concerts and a large rodeo. The Scout's Rest Ranch in North Platte is both a museum, and a tourist destination for thousands of people every year.
Buffalo Bill became a hero of the Bills, a Congolese youth subculture of the late 1950s who idolized Western movies.
In film and television
Buffalo Bill has been portrayed in the movies by:
Himself (1898 and 1912)
George Waggner (1924)
John Fox, Jr. (1924)
Jack Hoxie (1926)
Roy Stewart (1926)
William Fairbanks (1928)
Tom Tyler (1931)
Douglass Dumbrille (1933)
Earl Dwire (1935)
Moroni Olsen (1935)
Ted Adams (1936)
James Ellison (1936)
Carlyle Moore (1938)
Jack Rutherford (1938)
George Reeves (1940)
Roy Rogers (1940)
Joel McCrea (1944)
Richard Arlen (1947)
Enzo Fiermonte (1949)
Monte Hale (1949)
Louis Calhern (1950)
Tex Cooper (1951)
Clayton Moore (1952)
Rodd Redwing (1952)
Charlton Heston (1953)
William O'Neal (1957)
Malcolm Atterbury (1958)
James McMullan (1963)
Gordon Scott (1964)
Guy Stockwell (1966)
Rufus Smith (1967)
Matt Clark (1974)
Michel Piccoli (1974)
Paul Newman (1976)
Buff Brady (1979)
R. L. Tolbert (1979)
Ted Flicker (1981)
Ken Kercheval (1984)
Jeffrey Jones (1987)
Stephen Baldwin (1989)
Brian Keith (1993)
Dennis Weaver (1994)
Keith Carradine (1995)
Peter Coyote (1995)
J. K. Simmons (2004)
Frank Conniff (2005)
Buffalo Bill's / defunct
A famous free verse poem on mortality by E. E. Cummings uses Buffalo Bill as an image of life and vibrancy. The poem is generally untitled, and commonly known by its first two lines: "Buffalo Bill's / defunct", however some books such as Poetry edited by J. Hunter uses the name "portrait". The poem uses expressive phrases to describe Buffalo Bill's showmanship, referring to his "watersmooth-silver / stallion", and using a staccato beat to describe his rapid shooting of a series of clay pigeons. The poem which featured this character caused great controversy. Buffalo Bill was actually in debt at the time of his death[citation needed] which is why the word "defunct" used in the second verse is so affective. The fusion of words such as "onetwothreefour" interprets the impression in which Buffalo Bill left on his audiences.
Other Buffalo Bills
Buffalo Bill is also the name of a fictional character from Thomas Harris's The Silence of the Lambs, who was also parodied in the movie Joe Dirt under the name Buffalo Bob.
Two television series, Buffalo Bill, Jr. (1955-6) starring Dickie Jones and Buffalo Bill (1983-4) starring Dabney Coleman, had nothing to do with the historic person.
The Buffalo Bills, an NFL team based in Buffalo, New York, were named after Buffalo Bill. Prior to that team's existence, other early football teams (such as Buffalo Bills (AAFC)) used the nickname, solely due to name recognition, as Bill Cody had no special connection with the city.
The Buffalo Bills are a barbershop-quartet singing group consisting of Vern Reed, Al Shea, Bill Spangenberg, and Wayne Ward. They appeared in the original Broadway cast of The Music Man (opened 1957) and in the 1962 motion-picture version of that play.
Buffalo Bill is the title of a song by the jam band Phish.
Buffalo Bill is the name of a bluegrass band in Wisconsin
Samuel Cowdery, buffalo hunter, "wild west" showman and aviation pioneer changed his surname to "Cody" and was often taken for the original "Buffalo Bill" in his touring show Captain Cody King of the Cowboys.
William Wilson "Buffalo Bill" Quinn: Retired Lieutenant General and Silver Star recipient. He served in World War II as a colonel and became a full colonel in Korea; and at the end of Korea became a Brigadier General.
, Jim Backus; Gert (Goldfinger) Frobe and Julio Iglesias, Jr.
