This lot is closed. Bidding ended on 12/10/2001.
Millions of Americans learned about the Old West from the gun-slinging, bronco-busting, doggie-roping shows staged by "Buffalo Bill" Cody in the late 1800s and early 1900s. A cattle-herder as a child, Cody was later a Pony Express rider and U.S. Army scout during the Civil War, and won his nickname for the hunting exploits that were chronicled in dime-store novels of the day. Cashing in on his fame, Cody in 1872 staged the first of his "Wild West" shows that would tour the world and keep him performing his shooting and roping tricks right up until his death in 1917. This exceedingly rare, giant-sized poster from around 1910 was for a 3-reel movie made of the Buffalo Bill show entitled "The Life of Buffalo Bill," after he merged his show with Pawnee Bill's Far East Show, and it demonstrates Cody's sympathy for the plight of Indians displaced in the Old West. In it, a silver-maned and goateed Bill sits on his white horse atop a boulder protectively looking out for a family of Indians below as a Chief smokes a peace pipe. The full-color images are set against a bright yellow background. (Cody also was a believer in womens' rights, and gave Annie Oakley her first job in his show.) The poster is in remarkably fine condition. It measures 27" x 44" and is mounted under glass in a larger wood frame with a gold, brown and blue interior border.