Annie Oakley 1
Annie Oakley
Annie Oakley, legendary sharp-shooter and celebrated member of Buffalo Bill 's Wild West show, was one of America 's first superstars. In the late nineteenth century, her image was known all over the world. She had tea with Queen Victoria, met the Austrian Emperor Franz Josef, and was challenged by Grand Duke Michael of Russia to a shooting match. Though the Grand Duke was noted for being an excellent wing shot, Annie Oakley beat him, missing only three birds out of fifty, while he missed fourteen. (AnnieOakleyFoundation.org) The great Sioux warrior Chief Sitting Bull was so impressed by Oakley 's skill that he adopted her, giving her the name "Watanya Cecilia"--"Little Sure Shot." Though her life inspired dime novels, a Broadway play, and Hollywood movies, little is known about the real Annie Oakley, an intensely private, complicated woman who excelled publicly in a man 's sport. (Foundation) Near the end of her life, Will Rogers paid her a visit and then wrote about her in his daily newspaper column: "She was the reigning sensation of America and Europe during the heyday of Buffalo Bill 's Wild West show. She was their star. Her picture was on more billboards than a modern Gloria Swanson. It was Annie Oakley, the greatest rifle shot the world has ever produced. Nobody took her place. There was only one." (Edwards) Annie Oakley, an American Experience documentary film which aired May 8, 2011 on PBS, separates life from legend. Filmmaker Riva Freifeld says she was initially attracted to the project because "I thought this was the most extraordinary story of somebody breaking out of a mold. A woman of the Victorian age, small, petite, who had a horrible, miserable childhood. She pulled herself out of all that through her own talent and worked through the pressures against women and made herself into the most famous practitioner of a sport that is quintessentially male: sharpshooting." (Vonada) Virginia Scharff, professor of history and
Annie Oakley, legendary sharp-shooter and celebrated member of Buffalo Bill 's Wild West show, was one of America 's first superstars. In the late nineteenth century, her image was known all over the world. She had tea with Queen Victoria, met the Austrian Emperor Franz Josef, and was challenged by Grand Duke Michael of Russia to a shooting match. Though the Grand Duke was noted for being an excellent wing shot, Annie Oakley beat him, missing only three birds out of fifty, while he missed fourteen. (AnnieOakleyFoundation.org) The great Sioux warrior Chief Sitting Bull was so impressed by Oakley 's skill that he adopted her, giving her the name "Watanya Cecilia"--"Little Sure Shot." Though her life inspired dime novels, a Broadway play, and Hollywood movies, little is known about the real Annie Oakley, an intensely private, complicated woman who excelled publicly in a man 's sport. (Foundation) Near the end of her life, Will Rogers paid her a visit and then wrote about her in his daily newspaper column: "She was the reigning sensation of America and Europe during the heyday of Buffalo Bill 's Wild West show. She was their star. Her picture was on more billboards than a modern Gloria Swanson. It was Annie Oakley, the greatest rifle shot the world has ever produced. Nobody took her place. There was only one." (Edwards) Annie Oakley, an American Experience documentary film which aired May 8, 2011 on PBS, separates life from legend. Filmmaker Riva Freifeld says she was initially attracted to the project because "I thought this was the most extraordinary story of somebody breaking out of a mold. A woman of the Victorian age, small, petite, who had a horrible, miserable childhood. She pulled herself out of all that through her own talent and worked through the pressures against women and made herself into the most famous practitioner of a sport that is quintessentially male: sharpshooting." (Vonada) Virginia Scharff, professor of history and
References: Josephson, J. (1996). Annie Oakley. Children 's Digest, 46(4), 12. Kasper, Shirl. Annie Oakley. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992. Kim-Brown, C. (2006). LITTLE SURE SHOT: The Saga of Annie Oakley. Humanities, 27(3). Macy, Sue. Bull 's-Eye: A Photobiography of Annie Oakley. National Geographic Society, 2001. Oakley, Annie. (2011). Britannica Biographies, 1.Riley, Glenda. The Life and Legacy of Annie Oakley. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994. Sorg, E. V. (2001). Annie Oakley Was No Westerner But Her Peerless Shooting Style Made Her The Western Woman. Wild West, 13(5), 56. Vonada, D. (1990). Annie Oakley Was More Than `A Crack Shot In Petticoats. Smithsonian, 21(6), 131.