Show Indians
Encyclopedia
Show Indians were Native American
performers hired by Wild West Shows
, most notably in Buffalo Bill
's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders. The Show Indians were primarily Lakota from the Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota
. Performers took part in reenacting historic battles
, demonstrations of equestrianism
, and performing ceremonial dances for audiences.
. The shaping of the western myth was aided in part through the Wild West Shows
of William Frederick Cody
, whose show toured the United States
and Europe
between 1883 and 1917. Native Americans were hired from the earliest stages of the show, first drawn from Pawnee and then Lakota. For many Indians who chose to offer their services to the show, the performances were a method of preserving cultural practices in a time when the Office of Indian Affairs
was intent on promoting Native assimilation
.
, just across the South Dakota
-Nebraska
border from Pine Ridge Agency. Indians were central to the Wild West show from the very beginning. The first 1883 show in Omaha, Nebraska
, six of the twelve performances, including the opening parade, had Indian performances. The earliest performers were Pawnee from Indian Territory
and were used in the show between 1883 and 1885.
Cody shifted his hiring to Pine Ridge in 1885 after hiring the famous Hunkpapa
Lakota Sioux
, Sitting Bull
. Sitting Bull carried a reputation as the killer of George Armstrong Custer
at Little Big Horn and as the last Native American to surrender to the government during the Indian Wars
. He joined the show in Buffalo, New York
, on June 12, 1885. Although he only toured for one season, Sitting Bull set the course for all subsequent Show Indian employment. His employment represented a shift to Lakota as the preferred Show Indian. The reputation of the Sioux as warriors confirmed the image of Indians held in American and European minds. The use of Native performers in the Wild West Shows as opposed to surrogates reflected the broad interest in Native peoples within American culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
between 1885 and 1898 and would also reenact Wounded Knee
after the tragedy in 1890. The performances provided Native Americans an avenue to continue participating in cultural practices deemed illegal on Indian reservations. Vine Deloria notes that Buffalo Bill and the first generation of Show Indians spent their time "playing" Indian as a form of refusal to abandon their culture. "Perhaps they realized in the deepest sense, that even a caricature of their youth was preferable to a complete surrender to the homogenization that was overtaking American society," he wrote. The Wild West shows provided a space to be Indian and remain free of harassment from missionaries, teachers, agents, humanitarians, and politicians over the course of fifty years.
as well as the Bureau of Indian Affairs criticized the hiring of Native American performers on several grounds. Advocacy groups argued that a horrifying number of Indians died while employed by shows and alleged mistreatment and exploitation on the behalf of Wild West Show promoters. Reformers insisted that the supposed savagery of Native Americans needed to undergo the effects of civilization through land ownership, education, and industry. The logic of the reformers insisted that once Indians adopted new lifestyles they would progress to a level approximating civilization.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs, on the other hand, worried about the shows' effect on its assimilation policies. The battles between the government and Show promoters was over whose image of American Indians would prevail. In 1886, the BIA begins regulating the hiring of Native American performers in the shows and by 1889 required Indians to sign individual contracts with the shows under the supervision of Indian agents. Only after fulfilling the new stipulations of the BIA would the Indian commissioner grant Indians permission to leave the reservation. The employment of Indians to unauthorized shows was particularly worrisome for the BIA, who feared having Indians under the employ of a show without the guarantee of care and protection that could lead to degrading employee health and morals.
The BIA under Thomas Jefferson Morgan, who became commissioner in the summer of 1889, was especially critical of Indian employment in Wild West shows. Although he could do little about the contracts already signed, he attacked in public and in print the seeming failures of the shows to meet the obligations of the contracts. When reviewing contracts he often turned them down or stipulated provisions shows could not meet, in effect preventing Indians from joining shows. Morgan also threatened aspiring Indian performers by withholding land allotments, annuities, and tribal status and also threatened show promoters with the loss of their bonds if they neglected to uphold their contractual obligations. The only acceptable outcome for Morgan was for Indians to quit the shows.
. The first international trip was to London, England, on March 31, 1887. On the steam ship State of Nebraska, the show's entourage included eighty-three saloon passengers, thirty-eight steerage passengers, ninety-seven Indians, eighteen buffaloes, two deer, ten elk, ten mules, five Texas steers, four donkeys, and one-hundred and eight horses. The show was part of the celebration of the Golden Jubilee
of Queen Victoria and toured through Birmingham
, Salford
, and London
for five months. The show returned to Europe in 1889-1890 where it visited England, France
, Italy
, and Germany
.
in Chicago, William F. Cody and other Wild West show promoters brought their show to the fair. The Indian Bureau agreed to sponsor and supervise the Columbian Exposition's American Indian exhibit, which included a model Indian school and an Indian encampment. Financial difficulties, however, led the Indian Office to withdraw its sponsorship and left the ethnological exhibit under the directorship of Frederick W. Putnam of Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
. Despite being denied a place in the World's Fair, William F. Cody established a fourteen-acre swath of land near the main entrance of the fair for "Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World," where he erected stands around an arena large enough to seat eighteen thousand spectators. Seventy-four Indians from Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, who had recently returned from a tour of Europe, were contracted to perform in the show. Cody brought in an additional one hundred Sioux from Pine Ridge, Standing Rock, and Rosebud
reservations, who visited the fair at his expense and participated in the opening ceremonies. Over two million patrons saw Buffalo Bill's show in Chicago, often mistaking the show as an integral part to the World's Fair.
serving as the principal source of Indian performers. The popular perception of the Sioux as the distinctive American Indian first emerged with early dime novel
writers, then the Wild West Shows maintained that image and its persistence through film, radio, and television westerns. Historian Robert F. Berkhofer Jr. called the Wild West shows "dime novels come alive."
The Wild West Shows intended to celebrate American progress and technology by demonstrating the superiority of American history and society. The American West served as a formative characteristic in American exceptionalism
. The frontier, according to Frederick Jackson Turner
's famous thesis
, was "breaking the average bond of custom, offering new experiences, [and] calling out new institutions and activities" that forged a unique American character rooted in individualism, self-sufficiency, and democratic institutions. Nate Salsbury, Cody's partner in the Wild West Show, argued that the performances were accurate reflections of frontier life and viewed the show as a national narrative that represented the "true" West. Joy Kasson notes that "in a manner that has become familiar in the age of electronic popular culture, an entertainment spectacle was taken for 'the real thing,' and showmanship became inextricably entwined with its ostensible subject. Buffalo Bill's Wild West became America's Wild West." In Cody's story of the West, Native Americans played a central role.
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
performers hired by Wild West Shows
Wild West Shows
Wild West Shows were traveling vaudeville performances in the United States and Europe. The first and prototypical wild west show was Buffalo Bill's, formed in 1883 and lasting until 1913...
, most notably in Buffalo Bill
Buffalo Bill
William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was a United States soldier, bison hunter and showman. He was born in the Iowa Territory , in LeClaire but lived several years in Canada before his family moved to the Kansas Territory. Buffalo Bill received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for service to the US...
's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders. The Show Indians were primarily Lakota from the Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
. Performers took part in reenacting historic battles
Historical reenactment
Historical reenactment is an educational activity in which participants attempt torecreate some aspects of a historical event or period. This may be as narrow as a specific moment from a battle, such as the reenactment of Pickett's Charge at the Great Reunion of 1913, or as broad as an entire...
, demonstrations of equestrianism
Equestrianism
Equestrianism more often known as riding, horseback riding or horse riding refers to the skill of riding, driving, or vaulting with horses...
, and performing ceremonial dances for audiences.
Introduction
Often central to the popular image of the American West are American Indians, specifically northern Plains tribes popularly characterized as dwelling in tipis, skilled in horseback riding, and hunters of bisonBison
Members of the genus Bison are large, even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and four extinct species are recognized...
. The shaping of the western myth was aided in part through the Wild West Shows
Wild West Shows
Wild West Shows were traveling vaudeville performances in the United States and Europe. The first and prototypical wild west show was Buffalo Bill's, formed in 1883 and lasting until 1913...
of William Frederick Cody
Buffalo Bill
William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was a United States soldier, bison hunter and showman. He was born in the Iowa Territory , in LeClaire but lived several years in Canada before his family moved to the Kansas Territory. Buffalo Bill received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for service to the US...
, whose show toured the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
between 1883 and 1917. Native Americans were hired from the earliest stages of the show, first drawn from Pawnee and then Lakota. For many Indians who chose to offer their services to the show, the performances were a method of preserving cultural practices in a time when the Office of Indian Affairs
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American...
was intent on promoting Native assimilation
Americanization (of Native Americans)
The Americanization of Native Americans was an assimilation effort by the United States to transform Native American culture to European-American culture between the years of 1790–1920. George Washington and Henry Knox were first to propose, in an American context, the cultural transformation of...
.
Terminology
The phrase "show Indians" likely originated among newspaper reporters and editorial writers as early as 1891. By 1893 the term appears frequently in BIA correspondence. Bureau personnel refer to Indians employed in Wild West shows and other exhibitions using the phrase "show Indian," thereby indicating a form of professional status.Hiring practices
Hundreds of Native Americans would serve the show between 1883 and 1917. Performers were hired per season and were paid for their time with the show. Recruiting would happen in Rushville, NebraskaRushville, Nebraska
Rushville is a city in Sheridan County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 890 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Sheridan County.-Geography:Rushville is located at ....
, just across the South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
-Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
border from Pine Ridge Agency. Indians were central to the Wild West show from the very beginning. The first 1883 show in Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
, six of the twelve performances, including the opening parade, had Indian performances. The earliest performers were Pawnee from Indian Territory
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
and were used in the show between 1883 and 1885.
Cody shifted his hiring to Pine Ridge in 1885 after hiring the famous Hunkpapa
Hunkpapa
The Hunkpapa are a Native American group, one of the seven council fires of the Lakota Sioux tribe. The name Húŋkpapȟa is a Sioux word meaning "Head of the Circle"...
Lakota Sioux
Sioux
The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
, Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull Sitting Bull Sitting Bull (Lakota: Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake (in Standard Lakota Orthography), also nicknamed Slon-he or "Slow"; (c. 1831 – December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man who led his people as a tribal chief during years of resistance to United States government policies...
. Sitting Bull carried a reputation as the killer of George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1858, where he graduated last in his class...
at Little Big Horn and as the last Native American to surrender to the government during the Indian Wars
Indian Wars
American Indian Wars is the name used in the United States to describe a series of conflicts between American settlers or the federal government and the native peoples of North America before and after the American Revolutionary War. The wars resulted from the arrival of European colonizers who...
. He joined the show in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, on June 12, 1885. Although he only toured for one season, Sitting Bull set the course for all subsequent Show Indian employment. His employment represented a shift to Lakota as the preferred Show Indian. The reputation of the Sioux as warriors confirmed the image of Indians held in American and European minds. The use of Native performers in the Wild West Shows as opposed to surrogates reflected the broad interest in Native peoples within American culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Types of performances
Show Indians contributed several performances to the Wild West shows. They showcased equestrianism, demonstrated their skills with bows and arrows, and their artistry in dance. The most memorable performances were the historical reenactments in which performers recreated events in the recent past. Shows included Indian attacks on settlers' cabins, stagecoaches, pony-express riders, and wagon trains. Originating with Buffalo Bill, the shows also reenacted the Battle of Little Big Horn and the death of George Armstrong CusterGeorge Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1858, where he graduated last in his class...
between 1885 and 1898 and would also reenact Wounded Knee
Wounded Knee Massacre
The Wounded Knee Massacre happened on December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, USA. On the day before, a detachment of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment commanded by Major Samuel M...
after the tragedy in 1890. The performances provided Native Americans an avenue to continue participating in cultural practices deemed illegal on Indian reservations. Vine Deloria notes that Buffalo Bill and the first generation of Show Indians spent their time "playing" Indian as a form of refusal to abandon their culture. "Perhaps they realized in the deepest sense, that even a caricature of their youth was preferable to a complete surrender to the homogenization that was overtaking American society," he wrote. The Wild West shows provided a space to be Indian and remain free of harassment from missionaries, teachers, agents, humanitarians, and politicians over the course of fifty years.
Conflict over hiring Native Americans
Protectionist groups such as the Indian Rights AssociationIndian Rights Association
The Indian Rights Association was an American social activist group dedicated to the well being and acculturation of Native Americans...
as well as the Bureau of Indian Affairs criticized the hiring of Native American performers on several grounds. Advocacy groups argued that a horrifying number of Indians died while employed by shows and alleged mistreatment and exploitation on the behalf of Wild West Show promoters. Reformers insisted that the supposed savagery of Native Americans needed to undergo the effects of civilization through land ownership, education, and industry. The logic of the reformers insisted that once Indians adopted new lifestyles they would progress to a level approximating civilization.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs, on the other hand, worried about the shows' effect on its assimilation policies. The battles between the government and Show promoters was over whose image of American Indians would prevail. In 1886, the BIA begins regulating the hiring of Native American performers in the shows and by 1889 required Indians to sign individual contracts with the shows under the supervision of Indian agents. Only after fulfilling the new stipulations of the BIA would the Indian commissioner grant Indians permission to leave the reservation. The employment of Indians to unauthorized shows was particularly worrisome for the BIA, who feared having Indians under the employ of a show without the guarantee of care and protection that could lead to degrading employee health and morals.
The BIA under Thomas Jefferson Morgan, who became commissioner in the summer of 1889, was especially critical of Indian employment in Wild West shows. Although he could do little about the contracts already signed, he attacked in public and in print the seeming failures of the shows to meet the obligations of the contracts. When reviewing contracts he often turned them down or stipulated provisions shows could not meet, in effect preventing Indians from joining shows. Morgan also threatened aspiring Indian performers by withholding land allotments, annuities, and tribal status and also threatened show promoters with the loss of their bonds if they neglected to uphold their contractual obligations. The only acceptable outcome for Morgan was for Indians to quit the shows.
Travel abroad
In addition to performing throughout the United States, Show Indians toured EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. The first international trip was to London, England, on March 31, 1887. On the steam ship State of Nebraska, the show's entourage included eighty-three saloon passengers, thirty-eight steerage passengers, ninety-seven Indians, eighteen buffaloes, two deer, ten elk, ten mules, five Texas steers, four donkeys, and one-hundred and eight horses. The show was part of the celebration of the Golden Jubilee
Golden Jubilee
A Golden Jubilee is a celebration held to mark a 50th anniversary.- In Thailand :King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-reigning monarch, celebrated his Golden Jubilee on 9 June 1996.- In the Commonwealth Realms :...
of Queen Victoria and toured through Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, Salford
City of Salford
The City of Salford is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Salford, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Eccles, Swinton-Pendlebury, Walkden and Irlam which apart from Irlam each have a population of over...
, and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
for five months. The show returned to Europe in 1889-1890 where it visited England, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
World's Fairs and expositions
In 1893 at the World's Columbian ExpositionWorld's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St...
in Chicago, William F. Cody and other Wild West show promoters brought their show to the fair. The Indian Bureau agreed to sponsor and supervise the Columbian Exposition's American Indian exhibit, which included a model Indian school and an Indian encampment. Financial difficulties, however, led the Indian Office to withdraw its sponsorship and left the ethnological exhibit under the directorship of Frederick W. Putnam of Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum is one of the oldest and largest museums focusing on anthropological material, and is particularly strong in New World ethnography and...
. Despite being denied a place in the World's Fair, William F. Cody established a fourteen-acre swath of land near the main entrance of the fair for "Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World," where he erected stands around an arena large enough to seat eighteen thousand spectators. Seventy-four Indians from Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, who had recently returned from a tour of Europe, were contracted to perform in the show. Cody brought in an additional one hundred Sioux from Pine Ridge, Standing Rock, and Rosebud
Rosebud
A rosebud is the bud of a rose flower. The word may refer to:-Arts:* A plot device in the film Citizen Kane* "Rosebud" , an episode of the television comedy The Simpsons, parodying Citizen Kane...
reservations, who visited the fair at his expense and participated in the opening ceremonies. Over two million patrons saw Buffalo Bill's show in Chicago, often mistaking the show as an integral part to the World's Fair.
Portrayal of Indians and the mythic West
The popular image of Indians as living in tribes, sleeping in tipis, wearing feather headdresses, being equestrian, and hunting bison was fueled by the Great PlainsGreat Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
serving as the principal source of Indian performers. The popular perception of the Sioux as the distinctive American Indian first emerged with early dime novel
Dime novel
Dime novel, though it has a specific meaning, has also become a catch-all term for several different forms of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S...
writers, then the Wild West Shows maintained that image and its persistence through film, radio, and television westerns. Historian Robert F. Berkhofer Jr. called the Wild West shows "dime novels come alive."
The Wild West Shows intended to celebrate American progress and technology by demonstrating the superiority of American history and society. The American West served as a formative characteristic in American exceptionalism
American exceptionalism
American exceptionalism refers to the theory that the United States is qualitatively different from other countries. In this view, America's exceptionalism stems from its emergence from a revolution, becoming "the first new nation," and developing a uniquely American ideology, based on liberty,...
. The frontier, according to Frederick Jackson Turner
Frederick Jackson Turner
Frederick Jackson Turner was an American historian in the early 20th century. He is best known for his essay "The Significance of the Frontier in American History", whose ideas are referred to as the Frontier Thesis. He is also known for his theories of geographical sectionalism...
's famous thesis
Frontier Thesis
The Frontier Thesis, also referred to as the Turner Thesis, is the argument advanced by historian Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893 that the origin of the distinctive egalitarian, democratic, aggressive, and innovative features of the American character has been the American frontier experience...
, was "breaking the average bond of custom, offering new experiences, [and] calling out new institutions and activities" that forged a unique American character rooted in individualism, self-sufficiency, and democratic institutions. Nate Salsbury, Cody's partner in the Wild West Show, argued that the performances were accurate reflections of frontier life and viewed the show as a national narrative that represented the "true" West. Joy Kasson notes that "in a manner that has become familiar in the age of electronic popular culture, an entertainment spectacle was taken for 'the real thing,' and showmanship became inextricably entwined with its ostensible subject. Buffalo Bill's Wild West became America's Wild West." In Cody's story of the West, Native Americans played a central role.
See also
- Buffalo BillBuffalo BillWilliam Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was a United States soldier, bison hunter and showman. He was born in the Iowa Territory , in LeClaire but lived several years in Canada before his family moved to the Kansas Territory. Buffalo Bill received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for service to the US...
- CircusCircusA circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...
- List of Wild West shows
- Native Americans in the United StatesNative Americans in the United StatesNative Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
- Variety ShowsVariety showA variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...
- VaudevilleVaudevilleVaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
- Wild West ShowsWild West ShowsWild West Shows were traveling vaudeville performances in the United States and Europe. The first and prototypical wild west show was Buffalo Bill's, formed in 1883 and lasting until 1913...
- Battle of Tippecanoe Outdoor DramaBattle of Tippecanoe Outdoor DramaThe Battle of Tippecanoe Outdoor Drama was a Summer outdoor historical drama held in Battle Ground, IN in the Summers of 1989 and 1990. The drama was held at a outdoor amphitheater specially constructed for the drama, renamed the Tippecanoe County Amphitheater after the drama folded in 1991...