ANNIE OAKLEY: FALSE REPORTS OF SCANDAL

When a burlesque performer was arrested for stealing to support her cocaine addiction, she said her name was Annie Oakley. William Randolph Hearst published the sensational story in 1903 of the famous washed up, drug-addicted Annie Oakley, which was then picked up by many other newspapers.
 

The real Annie Oakley, who had very carefully avoided any blight against her reputation was horrified and infuriated. She filed, and won, 55 libel suits against the various papers, one of the largest such actions in US history.

False Reports of Scandal
Annie had left Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show at the end of its 1901 season, and although she did some acting, Oakley looked forward to a quieter existence. That hope was shattered on August 11, 1903, by two Chicago newspapers belonging to publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. Hearst, who controlled America's first national media chain, was famous for a lurid style of reporting called "yellow journalism."



His papers had drummed up support for the Spanish-American War, and they regularly featured sensational headlines such as "Startling Confession of Wholesale Murderer Who Begs to be Hanged." The August piece about Oakley was cut from the same cloth: "Famous Woman Crack Shot ... Steals to Secure Cocaine,"

National Women's History Museum

MARY FIELDS THE LEGENDARY STAGECOACH MARY!

StageCoach Mary Fields (1832 – 1914)

Mary Fields, also known as Stagecoach Mary, was the first African-American woman employed as a mail carrier in the United States, and just the second American woman to work for the United States Postal Service.

Mary was the escort for the Cascade Baseball Team...

Mary Fields was born enslaved in 1832 in Hickman County, Tennessee.

She was six feet tall and weighed two-hundred pounds of muscle. “Black Mary”, as she was called, was tough, short-tempered, two-fisted, powerful, packed a pair of six-shooters and a ten-gauge shotgun that she would not hesitate to use.

Mary had a driving ambition, and loved to fight, drink whiskey and smoke homemade cigars on a regular basis.

Time and again, however, her rough-and-tumble antics were outshone by a heart of gold.

To escape slavery, Black Mary fled west, eventually making her way to Cascade County Montana as a free woman in 1884. In search of improved sustenance and adventure, she took a job with the Ursuline nuns at St. Peter’s Mission in the city of Cascade.

The nuns’ simple frontier facility was well-funded and the nuns had a thriving business converting “heathen savages”, and other “disgusting customers”, to the true path of salvation.

Mary was hired to do ‘heavy work’ and to haul freight and supplies to keep the nuns’ operation functional and well-fed. She chopped wood, did stone work and rough carpentry, dug certain necessary holes, washed laundry, managed the kitchen, and grew and maintained the garden and grounds and when reserves were low, she did one of her customary supply runs to the train stop, in Great Falls, or the city of Helena. Read Full Story Here

 Mary Grocery Shopping

The young boy she had babysat a young boy who grew up to be legendary actor, Gary Cooper, two time Academy Award Winner, he told a story about Mary in 1959 which appeared in Ebony Magazine ...

Mary Fields died in 1914. She was, as Gary Cooper put it, "one of the freest souls ever to draw a breath or a thirty-eight."

THE TRUE STORY OF CALAMITY JANE

 

Calamity Jane: The Woman and the Legend

Love her or hate her, you probably don’t know her at all. Nee Martha Canary, she was less — and more — than she’s cracked up to be: She was a cook and a laundress, a dance hall girl and a prostitute, an abject alcoholic and a devoted nurse, an abused wife and a mother who said of her daughter, Jessie, “She’s all I’ve got to live fer; she’s my only comfort.”

  

CALAMITY JANE FULL EPISODE ON BIOGRAPHY CHANNEL

She knew Wild Bill Hickok, who was newly married, for a mere six weeks before he was shot down in Deadwood, S.D. Legend has it — wrongly — that they were lovers. And let the record show: Though she sometimes donned men’s clothes, Canary typically wore a dress.

But weirdly enough, a major source of misinformation about her came from her impostor daughter, Jean McCormick, who popped up in 1941 with a forged memoir, itself spun from popular fictions, that crystallized Canary’s myth and went unquestioned for decades.

McCormick claimed her parents were Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok, and because so little research had been done on Canary, the forgery, which McLaird debunks in a few deft and convincing strokes, was long accepted as fact. READ FULL STORY HERE

WOMEN OF THE WILD WILD WEST!

A gunfighter, gambler, performer, and alleged prostitute, Kitty Leroy, was best known as one of the most proficient poker players in the Old West.

Lillian Russell -one of the most famous actresses and singers of the late 19th-early 20th centuries. Known for her beauty & style and voice & stage presence, she was referred to as "The American Beauty"

This is Pauline Markham. - (1847-1919) - She had quite an interesting life as a singer, a burlesque dancer & a member of the Lydia Thompson troupe. Pauline supposedly had relations with several Northern Generals & Post Civil War Reconstructionists. She was also responsible for bringing to Tombstone, Josephine "Sadie" Marcus. Sadie eventually became Wyatt Earp’s common-law wife & was with him 46 years.

Julia Bulette, Virginia City madam, was one of the women who helped, in her own way, to settle the old west.

Lottie Deno, famed cardshark of the Old West

Dr. Bethenia Owens, the West Coast's First Female Doctor. Amazing story. Married at 14, she tolerated a worthless husband for 4 years, until in 1858, he “whipped my baby (who was around 24 months old at the time) unmercifully, and struck and choked me.”

Then she left him. And became an extremely hard working woman, teaching and dressmaking, sending her son George to Berkley when he was 14. He became a doctor. And then, she did too.

Cattle Kate - The "outlaw" characterization is a dubious one, as she was not violent and was never charged with any crime during her life. Accused of cattle rustling, she was ultimately lynched by agents of powerful cattle ranchers as an example to what happens to those that opposed them and whose interests she had threatened. Her life has become the subject of an Old West legend.

Martha Jane Canary, better known as Calamity Jane, was an American frontierswoman, and professional scout best known for her claim of being an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok, but also for having gained fame fighting Indians.

Born Phoebe Ann Moses (or Mosey) on August 13, 1860, in Darke County, Ohio, the woman who would be known as Annie Oakley developed her superb marksmanship abilities as a teen, earning enough to pay off the mortgage for her mother's home.

She married fellow marksman Frank Butler in 1876 and would later become a star attraction for Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show for years, renowned for unparalleled shooting tricks. A revered global figure...

Dora Hand, some pioneers recalled, caused more revolver fights than those of any other woman in the West. A popular singer in Dodge City, Kansas, the beautiful woman was shot and killed in 1878 by a cowhand named James “Spike” Kennedy. A posse was quickly organized to chase the killer down and bring him to justice. Among the members of the posse were Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Charlie Bassett and Bill Tilghman.

Rosa May, well known prostitute that frequented Virginia City Nevada and Bodie California during the gold rush. She was an amazing woman, apart from her profession, she was a prominent figure in 19th century old west history. You can visit her grave at Bodie California.

"Doc Holliday's Hungarian Devil" Mary Katherine Horony Cummings, known as Big Nose Kate, was a Hungarian-born prostitute and later long-time companion and common-law wife of Doc Holliday in the American Old West..