Wild West Presentation

Famous for, died, and interesting facts about Nat Love, aka Deadwood Dick Famous Love was born a slave on the plantation of Robert Love in Davidson County, Tennessee, in June 1854. Despite slavery era statutes that outlawed black literacy, he learned to read and write as a child with the help of his father, Sampson Love. When slavery ended, Sampson attempted to start a family farm to raise tobacco and corn, but he died shortly after the second crop was planted. Nat then took a second job working on a local farm to help make ends meet. After a few years of working odd jobs, he won a horse in a raffle. He sold the horse for one hundred dollars and gave half to his mother, and he used the other half to leave town. He went west to Dodge City, Kansas, to find work as a cowboy. In Dodge City, he joined the cowboys from the Duval Ranch, located in Texas. Because of his excellent horse riding skills, the Duval Ranch cowboys gave Love the nickname "Red River Dick." Once he joined the Duval cowboys he left Dodge City and returned with them to the home ranch in the Texas Panhandle. Facts In 1969, a clothing company in Boston took the name Nat Love to pay homage to this "groovy guy". Nat Love, Inc. introduced hot pantsto the United States at the first National Boutique Show held at the Hotel McAlpin in New York City. "If a man can't go out in the blaze of glory, he can at least go with dignity." Died He died in Los Angeles in 1921 at the age of 67. Bat Masterson a buffalo hunter, U.S. Marshal and Army scout, avid fisherman, gambler, frontier lawman, and sports editor and columnist for the New York Morning Telegraph. • "Every dog, we are told, has his day, unless there are more dogs than days." Bat Masterson lived in the American West during a violent and frequently lawless period. His most recent biographer concludes[citation needed] that, Indian-fighting aside, he used a firearm against a fellow man on just six occasions, far less than some of his contemporaries such as Dallas Stoudenmire, "Wild Bill" Hickok, and Clay Allison. However, the fact that he was so widely known can be ascribed to a practical joke played on a gullible newspaper reporter in August 1881. Seeking copy in Gunnison, Colorado, the reporter asked Dr W.S. Cockrell about mankillers. Dr. Cockrell pointed to a young man nearby and said it was Bat and that he had killed 26 men. Cockrell then regaled the reporter with several lurid tales about Bat's exploits and the reporter wrote them up for the New York Sun. The story was then widely reprinted in papers all over the country and became the basis for many more exaggerated stories told about Bat over the years.[19] Masterson left the West and went to New York City by 1902, where he was arrested for illegal gambling.[20] • Bat Masterson was a U.S. television series loosely based on the historical character. William Barclay "Bat" Masterson was portrayed by actor Gene Barry, who also played a lead role in later television shows The Name of the Game and Burke's Law, among others. Bat Masterson appeared on NBC in 107 episodes from 1958 to 1961 and featured Masterson as a superbly dressed gambler, generally outfitted in a black suit and derby hat, who was more inclined to "bat" crooks over the head with his gold-knobbed cane than shoot them. Hundreds of thousands of plastic derby hats and canes were sold as children's toys during the show's run. Bat Masterson died at age 67 on October 25, 1921, while living and working in New York City. He collapsed at his desk from a heart attack after penning what became his final column Annie Oakley Perhaps Oakley's most famous trick was her ability to repeatedly split a playing card, edge-on, and put several more holes in it before it could touch the ground, while using a.22 caliber rifle, at 90 feet. Traveling show marksman and former dog trainer Francis E. Butler (1850–1926), an Irish immigrant, placed a $100 bet per side (worth $2,126 today) with Cincinnati hotel owner Jack Frost, that he, Butler, could beat any local fancy shooter. The hotelier arranged a shooting match between Butler and the 15-year-old Annie saying, "The last opponent Butler expected was a five-foot-tall 15-year old girl named Annie."[16] After missing on his 25th shot, Butler lost the match and the bet. He soon began courting Annie, and they married on August 23, 1876. They did not have children. She wrote a letter to President William McKinley on April 5, 1898, "offering the government the services of a company of 50 'lady sharpshooters' who would provide their own arms and ammunition should the U.S. go to war with Spain."[21] Throughout her career, it is believed that Oakley taught upwards of 15,000 women how to use a gun. Oakley believed strongly that it was crucial for women to learn how to use a gun, as not only a form of physical and mental exercise, but also to defend themselves.[9]She said: "I would like to see every woman know how to handle guns as naturally as they know how to handle babies." The 1946 Broadway production was a hit, and the musical had long runs in both New York (1,147 performances) and London, spawning revivals, a 1950 film version and television versions. Songs that became hits include "There's No Business Like Show Business", "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly", "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun", "They Say It's Wonderful", and "Anything You Can Do." health declined in 1925 and she died of pernicious anemia in Greenville, Ohio at the age of 66 on November 3, 1926. Wyatt Earp Earp was at different times in his life a city policeman, county sheriff, a teamster, buffalo hunter, bouncer, saloon-keeper, gambler, brothel owner, pimp, miner, and a boxing referee. Earp spent his early life in Iowa. His first wife Urilla Sutherland Earp died while pregnant less than a year after they married. Within the next two years he was arrested, sued twice, escaped from jail, then was arrested three more times for "keeping and being found in a house of ill-fame". He landed in the cattle boomtown of Wichita, Kansas where he became a deputy city marshal for one year and developed a solid reputation as a lawman. In 1876 he followed his brother James to Dodge City, Kansas where he became an assistant city marshal. In winter 1878, he went to Texas to gamble where he met John Henry "Doc" Holliday whom Earp credited with saving his life. The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a gunfight that took place at about 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, and is generally regarded as the most famous gunfight in the history of theAmerican Old West. The gunfight, believed to have lasted only about thirty seconds, was fought between the outlaw Cowboys Billy Claiborne, Ike andBilly Clanton, and Tom and Frank McLaury, and the opposing town MarshalVirgil Earp and his brothers Assistant Town Marshal Morgan and temporary lawman Wyatt, aided by Doc Holliday designated as a temporary marshal by Virgil. Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne ran from the fight unharmed, but Ike's brother Billy Clanton was killed, along with both McLaurys. Lawmen Virgil and Morgan Earp were wounded. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday came through the fight unharmed. The fight has come to represent a time in American historywhen the frontier was open range for outlaws opposed by law enforcement that was spread thin over vast territories, leaving some areas unprotected. died at home in the Earps' small apartment at 4004 W 17th Street, in Los Angeles, of chronic cystitis (some sources cite prostate cancer) on January 13, 1929 at the age of 80.[102] Will Rogers Known as "Oklahoma's Favorite Son," [1] Rogers was born to a prominent Cherokee Nationfamily in Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma). He traveled around the world three times, made 71 movies (50 silent films and 21 "talkies"),[2] wrote more than 4,000 nationally-syndicated newspaper columns,[3] and became a world-famous figure. By the mid-1930s, Rogers was adored by the American people. He was the leading political wit of theProgressive Era, and was the top-paid Hollywood movie star at the time. Rogers' vaudeville rope act led to success in the Ziegfeld Follies, which in turn led to the first of his many movie contracts. His 1920s syndicated newspaper column and his radio appearances increased his visibility and popularity. Rogers crusaded for aviation expansion, and provided Americans with first-hand accounts of his world travels. His earthy anecdotes and folksy style allowed him to poke fun at gangsters, prohibition, politicians, government programs, and a host of other controversial topics in a way that was readily appreciated by a national audience, with no one offended. His aphorisms, couched in humorous terms, were widely quoted: "I am not a member of an organized political party. I am a Democrat." Another widely quoted Will Rogers comment was "I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts." When I die, my epitaph, or whatever you call those signs on gravestones, is going to read: "I joked about every prominent man of my time, but I never met a man I didn't [sic] like." I am so proud of that, I can hardly wait to die so it can be carved.[5] Lord, the money we do spend on Government and it's not one bit better than the government we got for one-third the money twenty years ago. "The average citizen knows only too well that it makes no difference to him which side wins. He realizes that the Republican elephant and the Democratic donkey have come to resemble each other so closely that it is practically impossible to tell them apart; both of them make the same braying noise, and neither of them ever says anything. The only perceptible difference is that the elephant is somewhat the larger of the two. With the famous aviator Wiley Post, on August 15, 1935 left Fairbanks, Alaska for Point Barrow. They were a few miles from Point Barrow when they became uncertain of their position in bad weather and landed in a lagoon to ask directions. On takeoff, the engine failed at low altitude, and the aircraft, uncontrollably nose-heavy at low speed, plunged into the lagoon, shearing off the right wing, and ended up inverted in the shallow water of the lagoon. Both men died instantly. Billy the Kid According to legend, he killed 21 men,[2] but it is generally believed that he killed between four and nine.[2] He killed his first man in 1877, being from his established though uncertain birthdate then age 17, although he could have been as young as 15.[1][3] He was fluent in Spanish, popular with Latina girls, an accomplished dancer, and well loved in the territory's Hispanic community.[7] "His many Hispanic friends did not view him as a ruthless killer but rather as a defender of the people who was forced to kill in self-defense," Wallis writes. "In the time that the Kid roamed the land he chided Hispanic villagers who were fearful of standing up to the big ranchers who stole their land, water, and way of life." McCarty (or Bonney, the name he used at the height of his notoriety) was 5'8" (173 cm) tall with blue eyes, blond hair or dirty blond hair, and a smooth complexion. He was said to be friendly and personable at times,[4][5] and as lithe as a cat.[4] Contemporaries described him as a "neat" dresser who favored an "unadorned Mexican sombrero".[4][6] These qualities, along with his cunning and celebrated skill with firearms, contributed to his paradoxical image as both a notorious outlaw and a folk hero.[7] Killed in a shoot out with Sheriff Pat Garrett