ATDTDA (1): Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show (part 4)

[Tim Strzechowski]

[...] Cody upstaged the fair again in July, when exposition officials rejected a request from Mayor Carter Harrison that the fair dedicate one day to the poor children of Chicago and admit them at no charge.  The directors thought this was too much to ask, given their struggle to boost the rate of paid admissions.  Every ticket, even half-price children's tickets, mattered.  Buffalo Bill promptly declared Waif's Day at the Wild West and offered any kid in Chicago a free train ticket, free admission to the show, and free access to the whole Wild West encampment, plus all the candy and ice cream the children could eat.

Fifteen thousand showed up.

Buffalo Bill's Wild West may indeed have been an "incongruity," as the directors had declared in rejecting his request for a concession within Jackson Park, but the citizens of Chicago had fallen in love (p. 250 - 51).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bill

http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/buffalobill/bbwildwestshow.html

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/HNS/BuffaloBill/home.html

http://www.americanwest.com/pages/buffbill.htm

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/207.6s.jpg

http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/goldmountainmining/buffalo-bill-cody-wild-west-show-sign-180.gif
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