From Wikipedia that I do NOT consider to be the last word on anything, and may in fact have this wrong:
Buffalo Bill's Wild West
It was the age of great showmen and traveling entertainers, like Barnum & Bailey's Circus and the Vaudeville circuits. Cody took the lead from fellow showman 'Pawnee Bill' and put together his own traveling show. In 1883 in Omaha, Nebraska Cody 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. In 1887 he performed in London in celebration of the Jubilee year of Queen Victoria, and toured Europe in 1889. He set up an exhibition near the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 (properly the World's Columbian Exposition), which greatly contributed to his popularity.
As the Wild West toured North America over the next twenty years it became a moving extravaganza, including as many as 1200 performers. 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.
Bill used real working cowboys and real Indians. His best performers were well known in their own right. People like Annie Oakley and Frank Butler put on shooting exhibitions. Sitting Bull and a band of twenty braves appeared in the show at one time.
Other well-known contemporaries such as 'Calamity Jane' (Martha Jane Cannary-Burke) and James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickock toured at one time or another. Buffalo Bill and his performers would re-enact the riding of the Pony Express, Indian attacks on wagon trains, and stagecoach robberies. Cody's performance typically ended with a melodramatic re-enactment of Custer's Last Stand in which Cody himself portrayed General Custer. Many historians claim that, at the turn of the 19th century, Buffalo Bill Cody was the most recognizable celebrity on earth.
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