Stumblin' Along 8/4 '24
Wild Wild West
Wild Wild West
- The Wild West
- YouTube Rabbithole
Alright @YouTheReader,
Today’s tune is Will Smith’s Wild Wild West. Chose this tune because I randomly did a bit of research on the movie flop from 1999 on Thursday.
Not only was this song featured in the film, but it’s the outro song to this album Willennium. The album version of this song features Smith asking his son 1-year-old son, Jaden, what song he should finish the album on to which Jaden says Wild Wild West. Now of course Jaden Smith is focused on more important subjects like the political and economic state of the world right now, but back then this was his favorite tune.
Jim West was the fictional character that Will Smith played in the film. In the 1960s TV Show, Robert Conrad portrayed the secret agent who fights crime in the Old West.
Buffalo Soldiers were the nickname that Native Americans gave black cavalry troops. Many African Americans after the Civil War continued to serve in the US Army and although the pay may not have been great ($13 a month then or $256.87 a month now), it was an opportunity. In 1866, the US Congress sent six all-black regiments to the Western Frontier where there were constant conflicts with Native Americans during the Plains Wars. Knowing this now, Bob Marley’s lyric Buffalo Soldier in the Heart of America makes a ton of historical sense. (Source: NPS)
Sidenote: a damsel is a young, unmarried woman. Didn’t know that! Nice vocab word for future use.
The term roughneck comes from Texas and describes rugged, grizzly fellows. Pretty much Cowboys.
Artemus was the fictional character that Kevin Kline played in the film. In the 1960s TV Show, Ross Martin portrayed the witty inventor and master of disguise.
Dammit, it would’ve been cool if Will Smith said stumble instead of stroll. Anyway, I vaguely remember this song being on the radio and indeed it was a worldwide hit.
Will Smith’s Wild Wild West would top the US Billboard Hot 100 charts at #1 and reach inside the top 10 in Ireland, the UK, Spain, Sweden, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Scotland, Hungary, Honduras, Greece, Germany, France, Canada, Finland, Belgium, Austria, and Australia. It even earned Will Smith a nomination for Best Rap Solo Performance at the 42nd Grammy Awards, which he’d lose to Eminem’s My Name Is.
On to some history…
The Wild West or the American West Era occurred from 1865 to 1900. Although it was only about 35 years, there were endless stories from the era that remained a part of American culture for much of the 20th century and beyond. Here are some Famous Cowboys and a Cowgirl from The Wild West…
William Frederick Cody – “Buffalo Bill”
Buffalo Bill was born in Iowa territory in 1846. He began herding cattle and driving wagons at age 11. Growing up in the Great Plains during the Wild West, Cody spent his time fur trapping and gold mining before becoming a scout for the Army. He earned his nickname “Buffalo Bill” because he’d hunt buffalo and provide meat to railroad workers heading westward. He met a novelist by the name of Ned Buntline, who then made him famous thanks to Buntline’s Scouts of the Prairie. In 1872, he started a showbusiness career in Chicago and although he wasn’t a great actor by any means, audiences liked his authenticity. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West was his main showman gig as he’d ride and rope broncos. Essentially he started rodeos, and thanks to his larger-than-life persona built by Buntline, Buffalo Bill’s posters made him one of the most recognizable celebrities of his time. Now most people know the name from Silence of The Lambs, but the real-life Buffalo Bill was a showman of the Wild West.
(Source: Tecovas & Buffalo Bill)
Henry McCarty – “Billy the Kid”
Henry McCarty was born in New York City around 1859, but his parents decided to head west for Indianapolis. In 1873, his father had either passed away or was out of the picture, and his mother, Catherine McCarty, remarried a man named William Antrim in New Mexico. Within one year of the move, his mother passed away and Henry McCarty was an orphan. His first robbery took place at a Chinese laundry operator, where he stole clothes and 2 pistols with one of his buddies. He was arrested and thrown in county jail. 2 days after the arrest he shimmied up a chimney and thus was an outlaw for the rest of his life. From Silver City, New Mexico, McCarty traveled 500 miles in the New Mexican desert alone as his stepfather William Antrim gave him some money and told him to go.
The following spring of 1876, McCarty ends up in Arizona where he works a few jobs on ranches and earns the nickname “Kid” which in those days meant a delinquent. He frequently gambled with money that he did earn and started hanging out with gangs. McCarty gets arrested for stealing horses under the name “Henry Antrim alias Kid,” but manages to again escape because the guards on duty are attending a local dance. In August of 1877, McCarty joins a poker game where he insults Francis “Windy” Cahill a little bit, which leads to a fight, and eventually, the Kid shoots Windy Cahill. The Kid then flees back to New Mexico and joins an organized crime outlaw network known as The Regulators. By the end of 1877, The Kid assumes the name William H. Bonney, thus getting the nickname Billy the Kid. In April of 1878, Billy the Kid and the Regulators opened fire on a Sheriff along with his Deputy. During the shootout, Billy the Kid gets shot in the thigh but survives. This leads to more and more violence over the summer as it gets much bigger than just the Regulators vs local police. President Rutherford B. Hayes got involved, appointing a governor (Lew Wallace) to restore order in the New Mexico territory.
After about a year of more bloodshed, Billy the Kid agrees to appear before a grand jury where he is told he will be let go of all wrongdoings scot-free with a pardon if he agrees to testify as a witness to one of the Regulators’ murders. He agrees and when he shows up for court, Governor Wallace notices how popular Billy the Kid is amongst the public. In the summer of 1879, Billy the Kid arrives in Las Vegas, dining with another outlaw, Jesse James. In 1880, he takes the awkward photo you see above, it’s the only known photo he ever took in his life, and just days later he shoots a local drunk in another argument at a saloon. That following December, the Las Vegas Gazette publishes an article with the first reference to “Billy the Kid” and it further boosts his reputation as an outlaw of the West. This irates Governor Wallace who then puts a $500 Bounty Reward on anyone who can capture Billy The Kid. Sheriff Pat Garrett sees this and gets on the case. Garrett and his men are finally able to capture Billy the Kid on December 23, 1880. Billy the Kid is brought to Las Vegas and receives a hero’s welcome as the Las Vegas Gazette interviews him in jail. In their published work he states, “What's the use of looking on the gloomy side of everything? The laugh's on me this time.”
In April of 1881, Billy the Kid is found guilty of murder and sentenced to die. 2 weeks before his execution date, Billy the Kid asks his guard to take him to the toilet. He manages to gain possession of the guard’s gun, kills him, and steals another horse. Billy the Kid’s escape gets published everywhere around the world and his infamous urban legend further grows. He flees to his damsel named Paulita Maxwell. At the Maxwell house on July 14, 1881, Sheriff Garrett kills Billy the Kid at 21 years of age.
(Source: PBS)
Pat Garrett
Pat Garrett was born in Chambers County, AL, in 1850. He left for Texas at 17 years old to become a cowboy and buffalo hunter. In 1879, he became a deputy and then quickly a sheriff. Sheriff Garrett is most famous for killing Billy the Kid. He got plenty of acclaim for completing the task and co-authored a book, The Authenticity Life of Billy the Kid. Garrett would end up having 8 children while holding titles such as Texas Rangers captain, El Paso Collector of Customs, and by far the coolest a “White House Gunfighter”, which President Teddy Roosevelt coined. Unfortunately for Sheriff Garrett, he too would be shot and killed by an unidentified person on Leap Day of 1908. It was said to be over disputed land.
(Source: Tecovas)
Robert Leroy Parker – “Butch Cassidy”
Robert Leroy Parker was born in Beaver, Utah, in 1866. He fled his hometown as a teenager for Rock Springs, Wyoming, where he worked as a butcher’s apprentice. That’s where he got the nickname “Butch.” He also found work on several dairy ranches, where he met cattle thief Mike Cassidy. Butch decided he’d take up Cassidy’s last name as an alias. Butch Cassidy formed the Wild Bunch which was an outlaw gang in Wyoming. They robbed banks and trains. After about a decade of crimes, Butch Cassidy escaped all the way to New York City and then ended up in South America. Down there Butch Cassidy and one of his Wild Bunch members, Sundance Kid, couldn’t help themselves but rob more trains, banks, and mine stations until 1908. That’s when the Bolivian army is said to have killed Sundance and rumors are Butch too. Another rumor is that he made his way to Mercedes, Uruguay, where in December 1911 he was killed by soldiers at yet another bank heist. Butch Cassidy has to be Zach Bryan’s great-great grandad - their resemblance is uncanny - let’s get that rumor going.
(Source: Tecovas)
John Henry “Doc” Holliday
John Henry Holliday was born in 1851 at Griffin, Georgia. He was he son of a mayor and very well-educated, becoming a dentist in his day. Whe he was 15, he contracted tuberculosis from his ailing mother. She passed away and so when Holliday was 21 he left for the warmer weather west on account of it might help him with his symptoms. The cowboy lifestyle would catch up to Doc Holliday as it led him to gambling and gunfights. Some say he killed more than 12 men, but the substantiating evidence pegs him more at 1 to 3. After multiple run-ins with the law, Doc Holliday passed away at the age of 36 from tuberculosis. Growing up, whenever I heard Doc Halladay it was the nickname of Blue Jays and Phillies ace starting pitcher, Roy Halladay. Great pitcher RIP.
(Source: Tecovas)
Phoebe Ann Mosey – Annie Oakley
Phoebe Ann Moses was called Annie by her family. She was born in 1860 at Darke County, Ohio. When Annie was just 6 years of age, her father passed away from pneumonia, leaving her mother as a widow to tend to 6 children. Her mother, Susan Wise Moses, remarried and had another kid only for her 2nd husband to pass away soon after. When Annie was just 9 years old, she went to live at the Darke County Infirmary which housed the elderly, orphaned, and mentally ill. She was able to receive an education for helping out other children in the area. Annie would learn to sew and lived at the Darke County Infirmary until she was about 14 years old when she returned to her family home. As a teenager, she hunted small games using her father’s old Kentucky rifle. Annie was so successful as a shooter that her hunting skills helped pay off her mother’s $200 mortgage by the time she was 15. Her precision with her rifle earned her an invitation to participate in a shooting contest with a well-known marksman, Frank E. Butler. This gentleman would go around towns in the Midwest and challenge locals. Annie defeated Butler in the shooting contest as she hit 25 of 25 attempts. Butler was so enthralled by Annie’s shot that the two would eventually marry when she was 16. I don’t even want to know how old he was, it was 1876 folks.
Annie and Butler first appeared in a shooting show together in 1882, where she adopted her stage name, Oakley. In March of 1884, she met Sitting Bull, the Lakota tribe leader who defeated George Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn. Sitting Bull and Annie Oakley became friends as he gave her the nickname of “Little Sure Shot.” In 1885, Annie and Butler joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West production and she became a star. The married couple would remain an integral part of the act for 17 years. When the Wild West toured across the pond in England, Annie Oakley performed in front of Queen Victoria. Annie Oakley was particularly a fan favorite for women at Buffalo Bill’s Wild West because it proved she could hold her own against men. During the Spanish-American War and World War I, Annie Oakley offered to raise a regiment of women volunteers to fight. Both times the US military declined her proposal.
Nonetheless, Annie Oakley still volunteered to teach troops marksmanship. She dedicated her time to the National War Council of the Young Men’s Christian Association, War Camp Community Service, and the Red Cross. She and Frank Butler had a dog named Dave, who became the “Red Cross Dog” during WWI. Dave, Annie, and Frank were able to raise over $1,600 for the benefit of wounded soldiers. Dave the dog knew many tricks, one included allowing Annie to shoot an apple off his head. Frank Butler would write a book about the doggo called The Life of Dave, published in 1923. Aside from raising a badass war dog, Phoebe Ann Moses was a strong supporter of women’s rights and by the time of her passing had left much of her fortune to charity.
(Source: Tecovas, Center of the West, & Garst Museum)
Bass Reeves
Born in 1838 in Arkansas, Bass Reeves was born into slavery. During the Civil War, Bass was forced to enlist alongside his owner George R. Reeves with the Confederate Army in Texas. At some point during the war, he escaped and left for the Indian Territory to live with the Cherokee, Creeks, and Seminoles. Once the 13th Amendment was passed with slavery abolished, Bass Reeves returned to Arkansas to be a farmer. With this experience in the Indian Territory, he would be appointed as a federal judge and thus become a part of American law enforcement. Bass Reeves served as the first black deputy US Marshal west of the Mississippi River.
The Indian Territory at this time was made up of Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole. The Five Tribes each had their own governments, courts, and police, but in those days were outlawed from arresting black or white men who were not citizens of the tribes. That’s where Bass Reeves as a US Marshal was needed. Reeves was said to be an expert with his pistol and rifle while possessing superhuman strength at 6’2”. He was known to work undercover in disguise and that was needed because in those days over 120 federal officers were killed in the Oklahoma territory before it became a state in 1907.
In an interview with the Territorial Newspaper, Bass Reeves claims to have arrested over 3,000 men and women who broke federal laws in the region. He worked as a deputy for 32 years so that comes to about 100 arrests per year. Bass Reeves was involved in many shootouts but was never wounded and he escaped multiple assassination attempts despite being the most feared deputy in the area. Despite being illiterate, Bass Reeves memorized all his warrants and writs. Married twice, Reeves was the father of 11 children. In 1907, he retired from his federal service and was hired as the city policeman in Muskogee, Oklahoma. When he passed away from Bright’s Disease in 1910, it was reported that not one crime was reported in his 3 years as chief of police. Bass Reeves was considered one of the greatest lawmen of the Western frontier and was inducted into the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum’s Hall of Great Westerners in 1992.
(Source: Tecovas & National Parks Service)
John Hughes
In 1855, John Hughes was born in Cambridge, Illinois. At 14 years old, he left his home state to pursue a career as a cowboy. After finding a job as a rancher in Kansas, John Hughes continued heading further west into Indian territory where he learned the ways of the Choctaw, Osage, and Comanche tribes. At 25 years old in 1880, Hughes headed down south to Liberty Hill, Texas, and got involved in the business of horses.
In May of 1886, thieves stole Hughes’ and his neighbors’ horses. John Hughes used the skills he learned as a trapper from the Choctaw, Osage, and Comanche tribes to follow the band of thieves into New Mexico. When he finally caught up to them, he killed 2, captured the rest, and returned to Texas with all the horses. When word spread that he had single-handedly and successfully retrieved the stolen horses, Hughes’ story became widely celebrated without his knowing. In the summer of 1887, John Hughes was recruited by a Texas Ranger named Ira Aten to join him in the pursuit of an outlaw named Judd Roberts. When Hughes and Aten found the man wanted for murder, a gunfight broke out, which resulted in the death of Roberts. Later that summer, Aten had John Hughes sworn in as a Texas Ranger.
