Story behind Buffalo Bill monument in Glasgow’s East End

You may be surprised to find a Buffalo Bill statue in Glasgow’s East End so here’s the story behind the time American cowboys visited Dennistoun.

Transcript

00:00The Wild West may not have obvious connotations with Glasgow, so a statue that marks the legacy

00:04of iconic American buffalo hunter Buffalo Bill located in a quiet East End Street

00:10may be met initially with confusion. Atop a narrow plinth in a park on Whitehall Street,

00:16a bronze figure holds for dear life as his horse tries in vain to buck him off.

00:20The figure depicts William Frederick Cody, better known as the legendary American showman Buffalo

00:25Bill. And this monument sits where, more than 130 years ago, Cody and his troupe of performers

00:30stopped with their travelling show and entertained Glaswegians for three months, between 1891 and 1892.

00:37On the 6th of November 1891, the Glasgow Herald announced the event, saying it would certainly

00:43be the most sensational among entertainments in Glasgow during the winter season, and promised

00:47readers realistic representations of life on the western plains of America. The East End Exhibition

00:53building was the only Scottish venue on the Buffalo Bill with his Wild West show tour,

00:58and followed on from stops in Croydon, Germany, Belgium and Wales. Performers arrived in Glasgow

01:04by train, and despite the show finishing in February 1892, the last of the trip didn't leave until

01:10mid-April, often found drunk. One of the company's final acts in Scotland was a charity football match

01:15at Celtic Park, between the Cowboys and Brandon Club. The Native Americans who joined Cody on tour

01:21often came from the Lakota tribe, who had been largely let down by their government's promises,

01:26and the tour was seen as an opportunity to earn money whilst representing their culture.

01:31Reviewing the show, the Scotsman wrote,

01:33As an entertainment, the Wild West show can be compared with no other form of performance show

01:38before the public at present time.

01:40So, let's see here's a question.

01:52We'll keep you in the future.

01:54We'll keep you in the future.