Courtney
My friend’s and I chose to do Annie Oakley because we thought she was interesting. We made the blog, edited it, and made it really cool, and then the only thing left to do was…write the three pages each. Kayla got on the internet and searched for at least three different things we could research. We found do many interesting things about her that it was hard picking one. We did, though, and I ended up with Annie Oakley’s representations on stage. Cool, I know.
Annie Oakley had many people wanting to be like her, from the time when she was very recent, to just about now. She’s a character that’s fun and easy to portray, thus she’s still a big person today. The earliest film someone put on about her was in 1935, when Barbara Stanwyck played Annie Oakley in the movie…you guessed it, Annie Oakley. There was one main Broadway play about her, Annie Get Your Gun, and that part was played by several ladies: Ethel Merman (1946), Bernadette Peters (1999), Susan Lucci, Cheryl Ladd, Reba McEntire, and Crystal Bernard. (I couldn’t find the years that those other ladies were Annie.)
There have been so many movies and shows and things about Annie Oakley. Let’s start with the movies. Like I said, Barbara Stanwyck played Annie Oakley in the first film ever made about her. I guess that started the whole wave of movies and shows, because I’ve found five movies and six shows that ran for a while on TV.
The first movie made about her was highly fictionalized. The real story is that Annie had three fathers, all of whom died, and so she had to provide meat for her family, which made her a really good shot. Her fame spread throughout the region, and she traveled to her first contest. She won the match against Frank Butler, an already well known marksman of that region, and even ended up marrying him. She got more and more famous, eventually working for Buffalo Bill Cody.
The story that the movie tells is pretty different: A manager of a hotel in Cincinnati holds a sharp shooting match, and he bets on the “man” who has been supplying him with quail. That person then turns out to be a young Annie Oakley. Annie wins that match and is hired to work for Buffalo Bill in ‘Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show’. Along with being a good marksman, Annie has to learn showmanship, something Toby Walker- played by Preston Foster-, a good showman, can easily teach her. But, of course, you know, there has to be something bad happen in the midst of all this good stuff. As Annie keeps winning, professional rivalry is at its highest point. Annie and Toby grow farther and farther apart, because, of course, all movies are about love. The main part is not about her sharp shooting, which is disappointing to me, because that’s who she is. The climax of the movie is heartache and separation. Go figure.
Moving onto the Broadway play, Annie Get Your Gun. It’s a musical, and it was written by Irving Berlin, along with a book by Herbert Fields, and Dorothy Fields, his sister. They did 1,147 performances! That sparked several television series, like I mentioned above. The musical had songs like, “There’s No Business Like Show Business”, “Doin’ What Comes Naturally”, “You Can’t Get A Man With A Gun”, “They Say It’s Wonderful”, and “Anything You Can Do”.
There was a Western television series, Annie Oakley. It was from January 1954 to February 1957.From 1959 to 1960 and from 1964 to 1965 ABC actually showed reruns on Saturday and Sunday. It ran for a total of three seasons, it had 81 episodes, and each episode was 25 minutes long.
Buffalo Girls was actually mostly written about someone named Calamity Jane, it’s mostly about her letters to her mother about her being a drunk, but never actually an outlaw. Her letters are also about her ambitious partners. Where does Annie come in on this? Well, in the book, it talks about Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, which, therein, comes Annie. She tried as hard as she can to make a good life for her in the West, which is really difficult, because the West is filled with fur trappers, cowboys, soldiers, prostitutes, and Indians. These people are all angry, because the continuous flow of people moving West has made their life very complicated. The book portrays her as being desperate for a good life, therefore Annie works for Buffalo Bill, and ends up being exploited and used, defeated at the end.
That’s kind of a sad ending, huh? Well, then, it’s a good thing that it’s just a book. The real Annie Oakley wasn’t exploited at all. In my research, nothing suggested that she was; nothing she said or wrote, or anything. So, in conclusion, I’ve really liked working on this project and I’ve learned a lot about Annie Oakley that I didn’t know. This has been a real learning experience for me, and I’m grateful that I got to do it!
"Aim at a high mark and you will hit it. No, not the first time, nor the second and maybe not the third. But keep on aiming and keep on shooting for only practice will make you perfect. Finally, you'll hit the Bull's-Eye of Success."
-Annie Oakley
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Annie Oakley's Early Life
Kayla
I choose to write about Annie Oakley’s early life because it seemed pretty interesting to me. Actually when I first started looking her up she really seem that fascinating. But as I researched more and found more information her life became more interesting, especially her early life.
Her life started off on August 13, 1860 in a small cabin just near the border of Ohio. It is now called Darke County but back then it was known as Woodland. The village were the cabin was located is about five miles east of Northstar. The village now has a plaque telling were she was born. It was mounted one hundred and twenty one years after her birth. But the funny thing is that the committee that made the plaque incorrectly spelled her name! Obviously they did not do much research.
Her parents were Quakers in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania which is in Blair County. Their names were Susan Wise and Jacob Mosey and they were married in 1848, twelve years before she was born. A fire burned down their house so they rented a farm. That move was sometime in between Annie’s sisters Sarah Ellen and Phoebe Ann’s birth. The farm was located in the Patterson Township in Darke County. Jacob soon died though during the War of 1812 from overexposure to freezing weather and pneumonia. Her mother soon remarried to Daniel Brumbaugh they had one child together then he died too. Then Annie was sent to live with a superintendent poor on a farm. There she learned how to take care of a home. She spent some of her time with a local family were she was mentally and physically abused. She used to refer to that family as “the wolves”. Finally she went back home to find that her mother had remarried a third time to a man named Joseph Shaw.
Since her family was so poor, Annie did not attend school much after the death of her father. Later she got a little education about spelling and other disciplines. She began hunting at nine so she could help support her family. She would teach the locals how to hunt for extra money. Eventually, she had enough money saved up to pay off the mortgage of her mother’s house. This benefited her family a lot thanks to her.
At this time Annie went to town and signed up for a shooting match. She her opponent was a man named Frank E. Butler. Then a few years later Annie and Frank end up getting married. He then became her manager and they both get hired by Buffalo Bill to be in his Wild West Show. They were hired in the year 1885 and were the stars of that show for seventeen more. Thanks to the help of her publicist Nate Salsbury and of course Annie’s wonderful shooting eye. Annie was in a train wreck in 1901 that paralyzed her for quite sometime.
Annie Oakley developed a very strong character through her early life. So she was obviously really strong mentally and physically to have overcome some of the hardships that she had. This is because to have a powerful character is a hard thing to obtain.
She got a lot of her mental strength from her abuse as a child. I have never been abused but I can only imagine what a tough time that was for her. Her mother sent her away as if she did not even want her. She was all alone with this family that she had never even met. Then that family both physically and mentally abused her. That was one of the hardest times in her life. Because she was alone and felt unwanted.
She got a lot of her physical strength probably from sharp shooting of course. She had to learn how to do this so she could support her family during their time of poverty and need. So she most likely felt a huge burden on her back of having to bring food to the table for her seven brothers and sisters and of course her mother and one of her husbands.
That is all of Annie Oakley’s early life. I hope you enjoyed it!
I choose to write about Annie Oakley’s early life because it seemed pretty interesting to me. Actually when I first started looking her up she really seem that fascinating. But as I researched more and found more information her life became more interesting, especially her early life.
Her life started off on August 13, 1860 in a small cabin just near the border of Ohio. It is now called Darke County but back then it was known as Woodland. The village were the cabin was located is about five miles east of Northstar. The village now has a plaque telling were she was born. It was mounted one hundred and twenty one years after her birth. But the funny thing is that the committee that made the plaque incorrectly spelled her name! Obviously they did not do much research.
Her parents were Quakers in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania which is in Blair County. Their names were Susan Wise and Jacob Mosey and they were married in 1848, twelve years before she was born. A fire burned down their house so they rented a farm. That move was sometime in between Annie’s sisters Sarah Ellen and Phoebe Ann’s birth. The farm was located in the Patterson Township in Darke County. Jacob soon died though during the War of 1812 from overexposure to freezing weather and pneumonia. Her mother soon remarried to Daniel Brumbaugh they had one child together then he died too. Then Annie was sent to live with a superintendent poor on a farm. There she learned how to take care of a home. She spent some of her time with a local family were she was mentally and physically abused. She used to refer to that family as “the wolves”. Finally she went back home to find that her mother had remarried a third time to a man named Joseph Shaw.
Since her family was so poor, Annie did not attend school much after the death of her father. Later she got a little education about spelling and other disciplines. She began hunting at nine so she could help support her family. She would teach the locals how to hunt for extra money. Eventually, she had enough money saved up to pay off the mortgage of her mother’s house. This benefited her family a lot thanks to her.
At this time Annie went to town and signed up for a shooting match. She her opponent was a man named Frank E. Butler. Then a few years later Annie and Frank end up getting married. He then became her manager and they both get hired by Buffalo Bill to be in his Wild West Show. They were hired in the year 1885 and were the stars of that show for seventeen more. Thanks to the help of her publicist Nate Salsbury and of course Annie’s wonderful shooting eye. Annie was in a train wreck in 1901 that paralyzed her for quite sometime.
Annie Oakley developed a very strong character through her early life. So she was obviously really strong mentally and physically to have overcome some of the hardships that she had. This is because to have a powerful character is a hard thing to obtain.
She got a lot of her mental strength from her abuse as a child. I have never been abused but I can only imagine what a tough time that was for her. Her mother sent her away as if she did not even want her. She was all alone with this family that she had never even met. Then that family both physically and mentally abused her. That was one of the hardest times in her life. Because she was alone and felt unwanted.
She got a lot of her physical strength probably from sharp shooting of course. She had to learn how to do this so she could support her family during their time of poverty and need. So she most likely felt a huge burden on her back of having to bring food to the table for her seven brothers and sisters and of course her mother and one of her husbands.
That is all of Annie Oakley’s early life. I hope you enjoyed it!
Annie Oakley Career And Touring
Lyndsey
Out of my group of three people we have decided to talk about Annie Oakley. I decided to talk about her career and touring. So first I am going to talk about where she lived and who she lived with.
She was married to a man named Frank E. Butler. When Annie was growing up and before her actual career started she lived in Cincinnati. So that is of course where she met her husband Frank.
They ended up meeting when at first Annie was actually Frank’s assistant when he would be traveling and when he had his own shows. Then it ended up that Frank realized that Annie was a very talented young lady, so he actually became her assistant and business manager. As they grew in their friendship and business relationship they got closer in many ways it was more than a century.
Then both Annie and Frank both had joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show which took place in 1885. When she performed, Sitting Bull had seen her and then gave her the nickname of Watanya Cicilla.
When the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show first started and people liked the entertainment that Annie was giving they loved it. Annie then had experienced a lot of professional rivalry with Lillian Smith the rifle sharpshooter. She was just like Annie except younger but she also was doing the same thing that Annie was. Lillian was younger than Annie so then she thought that she would be able to beat her and win. After all of that happened, Annie just temporarily left then came back to the Buffalo Bill’s show and then waited to return after Lillian had left.
Annie was mad that Lillian had made a big deal about her age difference, so Annie decided that she was going to remove six years from her age. She couldn’t take out any more years because then it would seem that she was born without her parents even getting married. Then her father had died then it would make it seem like that rumor was true. After she changed her age it messed everything up since people couldn’t really figure out her biographical events and when things in her life happened. Also in 1881 with the spring shooting match that was with Frank. That had actually only really occurred when Annie was only twenty-one years old. So after she changed her age it just kind of messed everything up and was confusing for her and everyone around her. Then people had made comments that a teen romance with Frank had happened before they were together.
In her lifetime she did some performances for a lot of famous people. For example, she performed for Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and other dignitaries. When other people watched her performance they loved her and wanted her to come perform for them. The Prince of Prussia the future Kaiser Wilhelm wanted her to come and perform. She went and had the Prince hold a cigarette in his hand. Do you know what happened? She knocked the ashes off it. Can you believe it? Some people didn’t agree with her doing that because many believed that she would have shot Kaiser instead of the cigarette. So Annie had to be very careful with what she was doing to make sure that did not hit him under any circumstances. Many of the people that were against this were being sarcastic towards the Annie Oakley Foundation. So that is why more people were against it since they believed the sarcastic people.
Another thing that Annie decided to do, was to write a letter to President William McKinley on April 5, 1898 to try to promote the service of woman in combat operations for the United States armed forces. When she wrote the letter she was offering the government of the service of these women, who said that they would be able to provide their own ammunition and weapons. They wanted to be able to go to war with Spain but they ended up not accepting Annie’s offer with the Spanish-American War.
After her injury she left the Buffalo Bill Wild Show and decided to begin a quieter acting career in a play, “The Western Girl” that was made just so she would be able to be the main star. In the 1960’s more people were hearing about her, so more of them loved her and she then became a legend to people from her shooting experiences. All throughout the 60’s, her career kept on going great and strong.
Out of my group of three people we have decided to talk about Annie Oakley. I decided to talk about her career and touring. So first I am going to talk about where she lived and who she lived with.
She was married to a man named Frank E. Butler. When Annie was growing up and before her actual career started she lived in Cincinnati. So that is of course where she met her husband Frank.
They ended up meeting when at first Annie was actually Frank’s assistant when he would be traveling and when he had his own shows. Then it ended up that Frank realized that Annie was a very talented young lady, so he actually became her assistant and business manager. As they grew in their friendship and business relationship they got closer in many ways it was more than a century.
Then both Annie and Frank both had joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show which took place in 1885. When she performed, Sitting Bull had seen her and then gave her the nickname of Watanya Cicilla.
When the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show first started and people liked the entertainment that Annie was giving they loved it. Annie then had experienced a lot of professional rivalry with Lillian Smith the rifle sharpshooter. She was just like Annie except younger but she also was doing the same thing that Annie was. Lillian was younger than Annie so then she thought that she would be able to beat her and win. After all of that happened, Annie just temporarily left then came back to the Buffalo Bill’s show and then waited to return after Lillian had left.
Annie was mad that Lillian had made a big deal about her age difference, so Annie decided that she was going to remove six years from her age. She couldn’t take out any more years because then it would seem that she was born without her parents even getting married. Then her father had died then it would make it seem like that rumor was true. After she changed her age it messed everything up since people couldn’t really figure out her biographical events and when things in her life happened. Also in 1881 with the spring shooting match that was with Frank. That had actually only really occurred when Annie was only twenty-one years old. So after she changed her age it just kind of messed everything up and was confusing for her and everyone around her. Then people had made comments that a teen romance with Frank had happened before they were together.
In her lifetime she did some performances for a lot of famous people. For example, she performed for Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and other dignitaries. When other people watched her performance they loved her and wanted her to come perform for them. The Prince of Prussia the future Kaiser Wilhelm wanted her to come and perform. She went and had the Prince hold a cigarette in his hand. Do you know what happened? She knocked the ashes off it. Can you believe it? Some people didn’t agree with her doing that because many believed that she would have shot Kaiser instead of the cigarette. So Annie had to be very careful with what she was doing to make sure that did not hit him under any circumstances. Many of the people that were against this were being sarcastic towards the Annie Oakley Foundation. So that is why more people were against it since they believed the sarcastic people.
Another thing that Annie decided to do, was to write a letter to President William McKinley on April 5, 1898 to try to promote the service of woman in combat operations for the United States armed forces. When she wrote the letter she was offering the government of the service of these women, who said that they would be able to provide their own ammunition and weapons. They wanted to be able to go to war with Spain but they ended up not accepting Annie’s offer with the Spanish-American War.
After her injury she left the Buffalo Bill Wild Show and decided to begin a quieter acting career in a play, “The Western Girl” that was made just so she would be able to be the main star. In the 1960’s more people were hearing about her, so more of them loved her and she then became a legend to people from her shooting experiences. All throughout the 60’s, her career kept on going great and strong.
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