Did you know that William Frederick Cody, better known by his nickname “Buffalo Bill”, is said to have French origins? What we know for sure, on the other hand, is that this iconic figure of the American West came to Reims in 1905.
Buffalo Bill is said to be a descendent of the Lecaudey or Escaudé family, originally from Monthuchon, in the La Manche area of France. A member of said family apparently emigrated to New England and then to Massachusetts in the 17th century, his name changing to Le Cody and then Cody. Herein lies the first question mark around the story of this legendary character of the Far West. But, “in the West, when the legend becomes fact, print the legend”. The famous line from John Ford’s western, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, comes into its own with William Frederick Cody, born in Scott County, Iowa, on 26th February, 1846.
Because, according to some of his most eminent biographers – including Frenchmen Michel Faucheux and Jacques Portes1 –, the famous William was a master storyteller, quick to transform the banality of his actions and exploits. For certain, he was an expert horseman of the Pony Express2 in his adolescence; did join the Civil War as part of the Union Army; became chief scout in the 5th cavalry regiment; fought the Indians; and, hired by the Kansas Pacific Railway, was contracted to slaughter twelve bison a day to feed the company’s 1,200 tracklayers – that’s around 4,300 animals in nine months, a number considered plausible – which is what earned him the nickname “Buffalo Bill” among the workers. Nothing ‘heroic’, mind you, but a life of adventures nonetheless, which he knew how to play on and skilfully portray, until his own mythology was created, becoming interwoven with that of America itself. If you want something doing, do it yourself.
Reims, 1905
In 1882, he founded his own troupe, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and put on open-air shows depicting the life of the American West pioneers, with buffalo hunts and stagecoach robberies into the bargain, as well as real Indians on the trail.
It was a huge success. He crossed the Atlantic, went to England, and was invited to Paris as part of the Universal Exhibition of 1889. In 1905, during a second European tour, which would see his show performed in more than a hundred French towns, he stopped in Reims on the 11th, 12th and 13th July. He set up his big top on land in Les Coutures, once used for the exercises of the 16th and 22nd dragoons – part of which is now occupied by the Georges Clemenceau School3. No fewer than four special trains and fifty wagons were needed to transport all the equipment so that the troupe – 800 people and 500 horses strong – could set up around a spacious arena and hold performances whose highlight was a re-enactment of the Battle of Little Bighorn.
Back in the United States, poor management and a degree of disinterest from the public led the man who some described as a ‘rockstar before his time’ into bankruptcy, in 1913. Ruined, ill, William Frederick Cody died, the victim of pneumonia, on 10th January 1917, in Denver, Colorado. Buffalo Bill is no more. The legend remains.
1Michel Faucheux, Buffalo Bill, Gallimard, 2017
Jacques Portes, Buffalo Bill, Fayard, 2002
2An express mail delivery service in the United States, in operation between 3rd April 1860 and 24th October 1861.
3Michel Thibault, Reims de A à Z, éditons Alan Sutton, 2005
