WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.500 If you were to close your eyes right now, and 00:00:02.500 --> 00:00:04.980 seriously, just for a second, and try to conjure 00:00:04.980 --> 00:00:07.580 up the definitive image of the American Wild 00:00:07.580 --> 00:00:10.759 West, what do you see? You probably see the landscape 00:00:10.759 --> 00:00:14.599 first, the mesas, the dust, the sagebrush. Then 00:00:14.599 --> 00:00:16.719 maybe you see the figures, the cowboy on the 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:19.920 horse, the outlaw on the black hat. But if you 00:00:19.920 --> 00:00:22.140 try to narrow that down to a specific person 00:00:22.140 --> 00:00:26.899 who embodies the showmanship, the skill, and... 00:00:27.660 --> 00:00:31.000 the sheer mythic quality of that era, one name 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:33.060 usually rises to the top. It's Annie Oakley. 00:00:33.140 --> 00:00:35.420 It almost has to be. It has to be. And that name, 00:00:35.439 --> 00:00:38.520 Annie Oakley, has become so ubiquitous that it's 00:00:38.520 --> 00:00:40.500 almost detached from the actual human being. 00:00:40.539 --> 00:00:42.719 Completely. It's a brand. It's a Broadway musical. 00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:45.219 It's a Halloween costume, a touchstone of American 00:00:45.219 --> 00:00:47.380 folklore. It's even a noun in the dictionary. 00:00:47.500 --> 00:00:49.939 And honestly, that is the perfect place to start 00:00:49.939 --> 00:00:52.969 our deep dive today. Before we get into the heavy 00:00:52.969 --> 00:00:55.090 history, and trust me, it gets surprisingly heavy, 00:00:55.170 --> 00:00:58.270 we have to talk about how deep this woman's brand 00:00:58.270 --> 00:01:01.070 sank into the American consciousness. Have you 00:01:01.070 --> 00:01:03.729 ever heard someone refer to a free ticket to 00:01:03.729 --> 00:01:06.129 a sporting event or a show as an Annie Oakley? 00:01:06.349 --> 00:01:09.560 I have, actually. It feels like very old school 00:01:09.560 --> 00:01:12.359 theater slang, something you'd hear in like a 00:01:12.359 --> 00:01:15.140 1940s movie. Hey, grab me a couple of Annie Oakleys 00:01:15.140 --> 00:01:17.640 for the show tonight. Precisely. And the origin 00:01:17.640 --> 00:01:19.980 story of that slang term is actually the perfect 00:01:19.980 --> 00:01:23.459 aha moment to understand her skill and her cultural 00:01:23.459 --> 00:01:26.560 impact. Oh, I love this. So back in the late 00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:28.980 19th century, if you were given a complimentary 00:01:28.980 --> 00:01:32.459 ticket to a theater show or say a baseball game, 00:01:32.719 --> 00:01:34.819 the box office would punch a hole in it. Okay, 00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:37.280 sure. This was a purely practical measure to... 00:01:37.290 --> 00:01:39.430 stop you from reselling it. It marked the ticket 00:01:39.430 --> 00:01:42.069 as dead for resale purposes. Right. Just inventory 00:01:42.069 --> 00:01:45.269 management. Exactly. But at the same time, Annie 00:01:45.269 --> 00:01:47.569 Oakley was touring the world with Buffalo Bill. 00:01:47.790 --> 00:01:49.909 And one of her signature tricks, the one that 00:01:49.909 --> 00:01:52.549 made people's jaws drop in London, Paris and 00:01:52.549 --> 00:01:55.409 New York, was throwing a playing card into the 00:01:55.409 --> 00:01:57.709 air. Yeah. And riddling it with bullet holes 00:01:57.709 --> 00:02:00.209 before it hit the ground. So when people looked 00:02:00.209 --> 00:02:02.069 at their free tickets with the holes punched 00:02:02.069 --> 00:02:03.849 in the center, they said, hey, this looks like 00:02:03.849 --> 00:02:06.620 an Annie Oakley. That is just such a vivid connection. 00:02:06.900 --> 00:02:09.080 It really drives home that she wasn't just famous. 00:02:09.300 --> 00:02:12.219 She was like a reference point for daily life. 00:02:12.360 --> 00:02:14.439 She was the archetype. But here's our mission 00:02:14.439 --> 00:02:17.840 for this deep dive. We need to rescue the woman 00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:21.719 from the musical. Annie, get your gun. Most people 00:02:21.719 --> 00:02:24.400 know that version, the boisterous, loud singing 00:02:24.400 --> 00:02:26.659 cowgirl who can't get a man because she's too 00:02:26.659 --> 00:02:30.879 good with a gun. But the reality, the reality 00:02:30.879 --> 00:02:34.060 is so much more intense and frankly, a lot darker 00:02:34.060 --> 00:02:36.340 and more impressive. I was really struck by that 00:02:36.340 --> 00:02:38.360 in the sources. We are looking at a stack of 00:02:38.360 --> 00:02:41.419 sources today, census records, court transcripts, 00:02:41.419 --> 00:02:44.580 biographies, her own letters to presidents that 00:02:44.580 --> 00:02:47.199 paint a picture of someone who overcame a Cinderella 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:50.139 style nightmare childhood to become a woman of 00:02:50.139 --> 00:02:52.639 immense. political influence, and financial savvy. 00:02:52.840 --> 00:02:55.039 And grit. I think that's the word that kept coming 00:02:55.039 --> 00:02:57.479 up in the reading. Unbelievable grit. Absolute 00:02:57.479 --> 00:02:59.780 grit. And to help us navigate this, because there 00:02:59.780 --> 00:03:02.360 is so much material to cover, I want to frame 00:03:02.360 --> 00:03:04.939 her life around three specific pillars. If you 00:03:04.939 --> 00:03:06.900 want to understand the real Annie Oakley, you 00:03:06.900 --> 00:03:09.439 have to look at survival, celebrity, and integrity. 00:03:10.039 --> 00:03:13.250 Survival. Celebrity integrity. I like that structure. 00:03:13.430 --> 00:03:15.569 It's the only way to make sense of her. Survival 00:03:15.569 --> 00:03:17.710 is her childhood. How she physically managed 00:03:17.710 --> 00:03:21.090 to not die. Literally. Celebrity is how she essentially 00:03:21.090 --> 00:03:23.330 invented the international superstar persona. 00:03:24.409 --> 00:03:27.250 And integrity. That's the part most people don't 00:03:27.250 --> 00:03:30.050 know. Her later years were defined by a massive 00:03:30.050 --> 00:03:32.629 high stakes legal battle that tells you exactly 00:03:32.629 --> 00:03:35.569 who she was as a person. So let's unpack this. 00:03:35.610 --> 00:03:38.240 Let's start with pillar one. Survival. And to 00:03:38.240 --> 00:03:40.800 do that, we have to rewind the clock all the 00:03:40.800 --> 00:03:43.520 way back to 1860. Right. We are in Dark County, 00:03:43.659 --> 00:03:46.099 Ohio. This is rural country right on the Indiana 00:03:46.099 --> 00:03:49.939 state line. Annie is born Phoebe Ann Mosey. Mosey. 00:03:49.939 --> 00:03:52.159 Not Oakley. Not Oakley. Now, you'll see her last 00:03:52.159 --> 00:03:55.610 name spelled Moses. Mosey, Mosey and different 00:03:55.610 --> 00:03:58.009 records is just, you know, standard illiterate 00:03:58.009 --> 00:04:00.189 census taking of the time. But the family said 00:04:00.189 --> 00:04:02.449 Mosey. And the context here isn't the romantic 00:04:02.449 --> 00:04:05.430 little house on the prairie vibe. Oh, no. It's 00:04:05.430 --> 00:04:07.810 grim. It's desperate. Her parents were Quakers 00:04:07.810 --> 00:04:09.650 from Pennsylvania. And that Quaker background 00:04:09.650 --> 00:04:11.889 is crucial because it influences her personality 00:04:11.889 --> 00:04:15.810 later. She was always quiet, modest, teetotaling. 00:04:15.990 --> 00:04:18.129 She wasn't a rowdy cowgirl. Not at all. But when 00:04:18.129 --> 00:04:20.810 Annie was just six years old, disaster struck. 00:04:21.319 --> 00:04:23.839 Her father, Jacob, got caught in a blizzard. 00:04:23.939 --> 00:04:26.379 A blizzard. Yes, he was out dealing with livestock 00:04:26.379 --> 00:04:29.959 or supplies. Got caught in a severe storm, made 00:04:29.959 --> 00:04:32.480 it home, but developed hypothermia. That turned 00:04:32.480 --> 00:04:34.680 into pneumonia, and he died shortly after. Wow. 00:04:35.060 --> 00:04:38.579 So we have a widow, Susan, with a house full 00:04:38.579 --> 00:04:40.579 of, what, seven or eight children? A home like 00:04:40.579 --> 00:04:43.939 that, yeah. In a log cabin in rural Ohio, in 00:04:43.939 --> 00:04:47.129 the dead of winter, with no income. It is a recipe 00:04:47.129 --> 00:04:50.310 for catastrophe. This is 1866. There is no social 00:04:50.310 --> 00:04:53.370 safety net, no insurance. Her mother, Susan, 00:04:53.750 --> 00:04:56.670 tries to keep things afloat. She even remarries, 00:04:56.670 --> 00:04:58.829 but then the second husband dies shortly after. 00:04:59.129 --> 00:05:02.449 They are destitute. It gets so bad that Susan 00:05:02.449 --> 00:05:04.290 has to make the heartbreaking choice to bind 00:05:04.290 --> 00:05:06.410 out her children just to ensure they are fed. 00:05:07.259 --> 00:05:09.459 Annie, at age nine, is sent to the Dark County 00:05:09.459 --> 00:05:12.319 Infirmary. Infirmary sounds so clinical, almost 00:05:12.319 --> 00:05:14.639 like a hospital. It's a polite euphemism for 00:05:14.639 --> 00:05:16.680 the poorhouse. The poorhouse. This was an institution 00:05:16.680 --> 00:05:19.819 for the destitute, the insane, and the orphaned. 00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:22.740 She is nine years old, separated from her mother, 00:05:22.839 --> 00:05:25.779 living in a state institution. That alone is 00:05:25.779 --> 00:05:28.939 traumatic enough to define a life. But then the 00:05:28.939 --> 00:05:31.620 story takes a turn that honestly reads like a 00:05:31.620 --> 00:05:35.160 horror movie. A local couple comes to the infirmary. 00:05:35.519 --> 00:05:37.740 looking for a child to help them and this was 00:05:37.740 --> 00:05:40.279 a common practice at the time it was called being 00:05:40.279 --> 00:05:43.199 bound out it was essentially indentured servitude 00:05:43.199 --> 00:05:46.199 but usually there was a verbal agreement the 00:05:46.199 --> 00:05:48.500 child works for the family and in exchange the 00:05:48.500 --> 00:05:52.060 family provides education food and clothing right 00:05:52.060 --> 00:05:54.860 this couple promised annie's mother that annie 00:05:54.860 --> 00:05:57.319 would get an education and earn 50 cents a week 00:05:57.800 --> 00:06:00.060 Which would be, what, about $12 or $13 today? 00:06:00.319 --> 00:06:02.939 Around that, yes. It sounded like a job opportunity, 00:06:03.199 --> 00:06:05.199 a way to help her mother. But that is not what 00:06:05.199 --> 00:06:08.259 happened. No. It was a trap. Annie later referred 00:06:08.259 --> 00:06:10.500 to this couple only as the Wolves. The Wolves. 00:06:10.579 --> 00:06:13.139 In her autobiography, written decades later when 00:06:13.139 --> 00:06:15.319 she was a global star, she still refused to write 00:06:15.319 --> 00:06:18.040 their names. We think it was a family named the 00:06:18.040 --> 00:06:20.759 Studebakers, but she erased them from her history. 00:06:20.819 --> 00:06:23.680 They treated her as a slave. That really chills 00:06:23.680 --> 00:06:27.519 me to the bone. The Wolves? It suggests a predatory 00:06:27.519 --> 00:06:29.939 nature. It was predatory. They wanted a larger 00:06:29.939 --> 00:06:32.279 girl who could do heavy farm labor pumping water, 00:06:32.519 --> 00:06:34.699 cooking for field hands, carrying heavy loads. 00:06:34.939 --> 00:06:37.860 Instead, they got a nine -year -old. The abuse 00:06:37.860 --> 00:06:41.120 was physical and mental. There is one specific 00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:43.100 anecdote in the sources that just breaks your 00:06:43.100 --> 00:06:45.199 heart. The snow incident. The snow incident. 00:06:45.800 --> 00:06:48.740 Annie is about 10 years old. She has been working 00:06:48.740 --> 00:06:51.579 all day, cooking, cleaning. She is exhausted. 00:06:51.879 --> 00:06:54.019 She's trying to darn socks by candlelight late 00:06:54.019 --> 00:06:56.600 at night, and she nods off. Understandable. The 00:06:56.600 --> 00:06:59.339 wife, the female wolf, wakes her up in a rage. 00:06:59.459 --> 00:07:01.540 As punishment for falling asleep, she throws 00:07:01.540 --> 00:07:03.980 Annie out of the house. Into the snow. Into the 00:07:03.980 --> 00:07:07.540 snow. Without shoes. Barefoot. In an Ohio winter, 00:07:07.800 --> 00:07:10.240 she locked the door. Annie was left out there 00:07:10.240 --> 00:07:13.199 for hours, freezing. It's incredible that she 00:07:13.199 --> 00:07:18.699 survived that. Physically, but mentally. When 00:07:18.699 --> 00:07:21.660 you see the photos of her later, this polished, 00:07:21.720 --> 00:07:24.600 smiling Victorian lady in the Wild West show. 00:07:25.389 --> 00:07:27.529 It is hard to reconcile that she survived this. 00:07:27.709 --> 00:07:30.089 But that survival is what built the shooter. 00:07:30.189 --> 00:07:32.790 That's the key connection. She wasn't just talented. 00:07:32.850 --> 00:07:35.189 She was hardened. She eventually ran away around 00:07:35.189 --> 00:07:38.610 age 12, which took immense courage and managed 00:07:38.610 --> 00:07:40.930 to make her way back to her mother. Wow. But 00:07:40.930 --> 00:07:43.189 the poverty was still there. Her mother was still 00:07:43.189 --> 00:07:45.689 struggling to keep the farm. And this is where 00:07:45.689 --> 00:07:48.149 Phoebe Ann Mosey stops being a victim and starts 00:07:48.149 --> 00:07:50.449 being a provider. Right. She picks up a gun. 00:07:50.709 --> 00:07:52.730 Now, we need to make a really important technical 00:07:52.730 --> 00:07:55.189 distinction here for the listener. When we say 00:07:55.189 --> 00:07:57.569 she started shooting, she wasn't out there sport 00:07:57.569 --> 00:08:00.009 shooting. This wasn't a hobby. No, correct. This 00:08:00.009 --> 00:08:02.050 was market hunting. Market hunting. This is a 00:08:02.050 --> 00:08:03.889 profession that basically doesn't exist anymore 00:08:03.889 --> 00:08:07.250 because of conservation laws. But in the 1870s, 00:08:07.250 --> 00:08:10.610 there was a massive demand for game meat in hotels 00:08:10.610 --> 00:08:13.509 and restaurants in growing cities like Cincinnati. 00:08:13.930 --> 00:08:16.879 So she's a commercial hunter. Exactly. Annie 00:08:16.879 --> 00:08:20.439 was hunting grouse, quail, squirrel, and rabbit 00:08:20.439 --> 00:08:22.939 to sell. And the economics of this are fascinating. 00:08:23.220 --> 00:08:25.319 She was using a muzzleloader at first, right? 00:08:25.379 --> 00:08:27.899 Right. An old rifle. Yes, an old cap and ball 00:08:27.899 --> 00:08:30.439 Kentucky rifle. And think about the mechanics 00:08:30.439 --> 00:08:32.980 of that. You have to pour the powder, patch the 00:08:32.980 --> 00:08:35.820 ball, ram it down, place the cap. It takes time 00:08:35.820 --> 00:08:38.220 to reload. And more importantly. Ammunition costs 00:08:38.220 --> 00:08:42.419 money. Powder. Shot. Caps. That all comes out 00:08:42.419 --> 00:08:44.340 of your pocket. So if you shoot at a squirrel 00:08:44.340 --> 00:08:47.080 and miss... You have literally thrown money away. 00:08:47.139 --> 00:08:50.139 You are in the red. You have lost the cost of 00:08:50.139 --> 00:08:52.659 the shot, and you have lost the sale of the meat. 00:08:52.860 --> 00:08:54.919 So she learned accuracy out of financial panic. 00:08:55.419 --> 00:08:58.120 Precisely. She learned to shoot the animal on 00:08:58.120 --> 00:09:00.320 the head so she wouldn't ruin the meat with lead 00:09:00.320 --> 00:09:02.580 shot, which would lower the price. She became 00:09:02.580 --> 00:09:05.519 a machine. Wow. There's a staggering statistic 00:09:05.519 --> 00:09:08.379 in the sources. By the time she was 15 years 00:09:08.379 --> 00:09:11.000 old, this little 5 -foot -tall girl had earned 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:13.419 enough money from shooting game to pay off the 00:09:13.419 --> 00:09:16.740 mortgage on her mother's farm. 15. Imagine that 00:09:16.740 --> 00:09:20.100 scene. Just visualize it. A 15 -year -old girl, 00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:23.740 barely 5 feet tall, walking into a bank or a 00:09:23.740 --> 00:09:27.159 land office in rural Ohio and slamming down a 00:09:27.159 --> 00:09:30.480 stack of cash that she earned one bullet at a 00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:33.440 time. It's the definition of agency. She took 00:09:33.440 --> 00:09:35.519 control of her life through the barrel of a gun, 00:09:35.580 --> 00:09:38.299 and that leads us directly to the moment her 00:09:38.299 --> 00:09:40.679 life changed forever. The shooting match. The 00:09:40.679 --> 00:09:42.639 shooting match. This is the part of the story 00:09:42.639 --> 00:09:45.639 that feels like a rom -com, but with more gunpowder. 00:09:46.169 --> 00:09:48.870 The timeline is a little fuzzy. Sources say either 00:09:48.870 --> 00:09:53.950 Thanksgiving 1875 or maybe 1881, but the beat 00:09:53.950 --> 00:09:55.970 is the same. There's a traveling marksman named 00:09:55.970 --> 00:09:58.250 Frank E. Butler. Frank Butler. He's an interesting 00:09:58.250 --> 00:10:00.330 character, an Irish immigrant, a traveling showman. 00:10:00.370 --> 00:10:02.909 He does trick shooting in variety shows. He's 00:10:02.909 --> 00:10:05.429 passing through Cincinnati or maybe Greenville, 00:10:05.509 --> 00:10:08.470 and he's feeling confident. He places a $100 00:10:08.470 --> 00:10:11.529 bet with a local hotelier named Jack Frost. And 00:10:11.529 --> 00:10:14.649 we should clarify, $100 in 1875 is huge money. 00:10:14.789 --> 00:10:17.620 It's massive. roughly equivalent to $3 ,000 today. 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:20.419 He bets he can beat any local shooter. He's expecting 00:10:20.419 --> 00:10:24.120 a big, tough guy. Exactly. He's expecting a burly 00:10:24.120 --> 00:10:27.580 farmer or a Civil War veteran or a local militia 00:10:27.580 --> 00:10:30.309 guy, someone who looks the part. Right. Instead, 00:10:30.649 --> 00:10:33.190 the hotelier brings out a 15 -year -old girl 00:10:33.190 --> 00:10:36.690 in a homemade dress. Oh, no. Frank Butler must 00:10:36.690 --> 00:10:38.570 have thought it was a joke. He actually admitted 00:10:38.570 --> 00:10:40.470 later that he almost called the bed off because 00:10:40.470 --> 00:10:42.610 he felt bad taking their money. He thought he 00:10:42.610 --> 00:10:44.889 was going to humiliate this child. But the match 00:10:44.889 --> 00:10:47.450 starts. And they aren't shooting clay pigeons 00:10:47.450 --> 00:10:50.409 like we do today. No, no. They are shooting live 00:10:50.409 --> 00:10:53.070 birds' pigeons released from traps. This was 00:10:53.070 --> 00:10:55.690 the standard sport of the day. Okay, so it goes 00:10:55.690 --> 00:10:58.049 shot for shot. Shot for shot. The crowd must 00:10:58.049 --> 00:11:00.370 have gone silent. Frank hits. Annie hits. Frank 00:11:00.370 --> 00:11:02.950 hits. Annie hits. You can imagine the sweat starting 00:11:02.950 --> 00:11:05.269 to form on Frank's forehead. Oh, yeah. This little 00:11:05.269 --> 00:11:07.710 girl isn't missing. They get to the 25th bird. 00:11:07.830 --> 00:11:10.549 Frank misses. And Annie? She steps up, raises 00:11:10.549 --> 00:11:13.639 that heavy gun, and drops the bird. Dead center. 00:11:13.899 --> 00:11:17.600 He loses. Frank Butler loses the match, loses 00:11:17.600 --> 00:11:20.320 his $100, and loses his reputation as the best 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:23.240 shot in town. But he wins a wife. He does. And 00:11:23.240 --> 00:11:25.320 what I love about this is that Frank Butler didn't 00:11:25.320 --> 00:11:28.700 have an ego meltdown. You have to remember, the 00:11:28.700 --> 00:11:31.580 era of Victorian masculinity was very rigid. 00:11:32.080 --> 00:11:34.779 Losing to a girl should have been humiliating. 00:11:34.879 --> 00:11:37.279 Should have crushed him. But Frank was immediately 00:11:37.279 --> 00:11:40.700 smitten. He started courting her. providing her 00:11:40.700 --> 00:11:42.940 with tickets to his shows, writing her letters. 00:11:43.659 --> 00:11:48.159 They married, likely, in 1882. And this began 00:11:48.159 --> 00:11:50.440 one of the most successful partnerships in entertainment 00:11:50.440 --> 00:11:53.700 history. But it wasn't just a romance. It was 00:11:53.700 --> 00:11:56.080 a business strategy that flipped the traditional 00:11:56.080 --> 00:11:58.259 script. Right. I mean, usually in this era, the 00:11:58.259 --> 00:12:00.399 husband is the star and the wife is the assistant. 00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:02.419 Sure. And initially they toured that way. Frank 00:12:02.419 --> 00:12:04.519 was the shooter. Annie was the assistant holding 00:12:04.519 --> 00:12:06.960 the targets. But Frank was smart. He realized 00:12:06.960 --> 00:12:09.039 very quickly that he was a good shooter. But 00:12:09.039 --> 00:12:11.320 she was a prodigy. She was lightning in the bottle. 00:12:11.399 --> 00:12:14.129 The audience loved her. So he stepped back. He 00:12:14.129 --> 00:12:16.789 voluntarily demoted himself. He became her manager, 00:12:16.990 --> 00:12:19.669 her press agent, and her assistant. He held the 00:12:19.669 --> 00:12:22.490 targets for her. He realized that the money and 00:12:22.490 --> 00:12:25.690 the fame lay with her talent, not his. That takes 00:12:25.690 --> 00:12:28.929 a remarkably secure man in the 1880s. Incredibly 00:12:28.929 --> 00:12:31.730 secure. He dedicated the rest of his life to 00:12:31.730 --> 00:12:34.950 making her a star. And that's when she officially 00:12:34.950 --> 00:12:38.129 adopts the stage name Oakley. Where did that 00:12:38.129 --> 00:12:40.419 come from? The leading theory is that it was 00:12:40.419 --> 00:12:42.720 the name of a neighborhood in Cincinnati where 00:12:42.720 --> 00:12:45.120 they lived for a while. It sounded better than 00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:48.080 Phoebe and Mosey. Annie Oakley does have a rhythm 00:12:48.080 --> 00:12:50.100 to it. Yeah, it's punchy. It sounds like a star. 00:12:50.299 --> 00:12:53.059 So they have the name. They have the act. They 00:12:53.059 --> 00:12:57.100 are touring vaudeville. But the rocket fuel was 00:12:57.100 --> 00:13:00.120 joining Buffalo Bill's Wild West show in 1885. 00:13:00.299 --> 00:13:02.620 This is the big leagues. You have to understand. 00:13:03.259 --> 00:13:05.519 Buffalo Bill Cody's show wasn't just a circus. 00:13:05.720 --> 00:13:08.860 It was a traveling phenomenon. It was a massive 00:13:08.860 --> 00:13:11.860 reenactment of the frontier myth. Right. It had 00:13:11.860 --> 00:13:14.759 hundreds of people, herds of buffalo, elk, horses. 00:13:15.039 --> 00:13:17.860 It traveled on its own customized train. Joining 00:13:17.860 --> 00:13:19.659 this show was like headlining the Super Bowl 00:13:19.659 --> 00:13:22.600 halftime show, but every single night. And Annie 00:13:22.600 --> 00:13:24.779 became the star attraction immediately. Right. 00:13:24.820 --> 00:13:26.679 Let's talk about the stunts. Because reading 00:13:26.679 --> 00:13:28.320 about them is one thing, but trying to visualize 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:30.740 them, she wasn't just hitting targets. She was 00:13:30.740 --> 00:13:32.559 doing things that seemed physically impossible. 00:13:33.149 --> 00:13:36.149 It was precision shooting on a level that is... 00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:40.039 Hard to comprehend. She would shoot a cigar out 00:13:40.039 --> 00:13:42.120 of Frank's mouth. Which, again, speaks to Frank's 00:13:42.120 --> 00:13:44.279 trust level. Immense trust. But the one that 00:13:44.279 --> 00:13:46.779 always gets me is splitting a playing card edge 00:13:46.779 --> 00:13:49.039 on. Wait, explain edge on for the listener. Okay, 00:13:49.120 --> 00:13:51.220 so imagine someone holding a playing card. Usually 00:13:51.220 --> 00:13:53.620 you shoot the face of the card, the king or the 00:13:53.620 --> 00:13:56.220 queen. That's a decent target. Sure. But edge 00:13:56.220 --> 00:13:58.820 on means they turn the card sideways. The target 00:13:58.820 --> 00:14:00.860 area is just the thickness of the card stock. 00:14:00.980 --> 00:14:04.259 It's a line, basically. A sliver. A sliver. She 00:14:04.259 --> 00:14:07.460 would stand 30 paces away and fire. She had to 00:14:07.460 --> 00:14:10.240 hit that thin edge perfectly to slice the card 00:14:10.240 --> 00:14:13.220 in half. That is wild. She also hit dimes thrown 00:14:13.220 --> 00:14:15.980 into the air. She would jump over a table and 00:14:15.980 --> 00:14:17.980 shoot a glass ball before it hit the ground. 00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:20.220 And she did all this while looking like a proper 00:14:20.220 --> 00:14:22.460 Victorian lady. That contrast was key, right? 00:14:22.539 --> 00:14:25.320 Oh, absolutely. She made her own costumes, modest 00:14:25.320 --> 00:14:28.019 knee -length skirts, high collars. She looked 00:14:28.019 --> 00:14:30.220 like a school teacher or a kindly aunt, but she 00:14:30.220 --> 00:14:33.100 was lethal with a Winchester. That contrast... 00:14:33.100 --> 00:14:36.740 was the entire hook. She was safe, she was feminine, 00:14:36.840 --> 00:14:40.120 but she was powerful. And she was paid like it. 00:14:40.720 --> 00:14:43.340 The sources say she earned more than anyone in 00:14:43.340 --> 00:14:46.200 the troop except Buffalo Bill himself. Which 00:14:46.200 --> 00:14:48.259 is saying something. She was earning more than 00:14:48.259 --> 00:14:49.980 the President of the United States at one point, 00:14:50.039 --> 00:14:52.039 but her value wasn't just in the shooting, it 00:14:52.039 --> 00:14:54.460 was in her persona. Right. And that brings us 00:14:54.460 --> 00:14:56.860 to her relationship with Sitting Bull. This blew 00:14:56.860 --> 00:15:00.659 my mind. Sitting Bull the Lakota holy man and 00:15:00.659 --> 00:15:03.500 leader who had defeated Custer at the Battle 00:15:03.500 --> 00:15:06.899 of the Little Bihorn. He ends up in this show. 00:15:07.240 --> 00:15:09.100 It's one of those historical collisions that 00:15:09.100 --> 00:15:11.460 feels like fiction. Sitting Bull was essentially 00:15:11.460 --> 00:15:13.980 a prisoner of war who was allowed to tour with 00:15:13.980 --> 00:15:16.480 the show for a season. He was a symbol of resistance, 00:15:16.899 --> 00:15:20.940 a legend. And he saw Annie perform in Minnesota, 00:15:21.159 --> 00:15:23.379 I believe. He watched her knock the cork off 00:15:23.379 --> 00:15:25.179 a bottle and snuff out a candle with a bullet. 00:15:25.320 --> 00:15:28.000 And he was mesmerized. He was. He insisted on 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:29.620 meeting her. He didn't just want an autograph. 00:15:29.740 --> 00:15:32.659 He offered $65 for a photo with her, which was 00:15:32.659 --> 00:15:35.519 a lot of money. But more than that, he symbolically 00:15:35.519 --> 00:15:38.559 adopted her. his daughter why do you think they 00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:41.980 connected on paper they are worlds apart he's 00:15:41.980 --> 00:15:44.259 a lakota warrior she's a white woman from ohio 00:15:44.259 --> 00:15:47.179 but are they so different think about it both 00:15:47.179 --> 00:15:49.679 of them were people of immense skill and dignity 00:15:49.679 --> 00:15:53.340 who were in a way being displayed for crowds 00:15:53.340 --> 00:15:56.440 that's good point Sitting Bull was touring because 00:15:56.440 --> 00:15:59.580 his way of life had been destroyed. Annie was 00:15:59.580 --> 00:16:02.320 a survivor of extreme poverty and abuse who was 00:16:02.320 --> 00:16:05.200 using her skill to survive in a man's world. 00:16:05.419 --> 00:16:07.879 I think they recognize a shared grit in each 00:16:07.879 --> 00:16:10.919 other. A mutual respect. A mutual respect that 00:16:10.919 --> 00:16:13.019 transcended the racial and political tensions 00:16:13.019 --> 00:16:16.440 of the time. He gave her the Lakota name Watanya 00:16:16.440 --> 00:16:18.980 Sisila. Which translates to... A little sure 00:16:18.980 --> 00:16:20.980 shot. A little sure shot. That nickname wasn't 00:16:20.980 --> 00:16:23.159 a marketing slogan cooked up by Buffalo Bill's 00:16:23.159 --> 00:16:26.220 PR team. It was a name bestowed by Sitting Bull. 00:16:26.399 --> 00:16:29.159 That gave her an authenticity that money couldn't 00:16:29.159 --> 00:16:31.149 buy. But speaking of tensions, it wasn't all 00:16:31.149 --> 00:16:33.629 friendship backstage. There was a rivalry, a 00:16:33.629 --> 00:16:36.929 real all about Eve situation with a younger shooter 00:16:36.929 --> 00:16:39.590 named Lillian Smith. Ah, yes. Lillian Smith. 00:16:39.649 --> 00:16:42.330 She joined the show in 1886. She was 15 years 00:16:42.330 --> 00:16:44.549 old, the same age Annie had been when she started. 00:16:44.690 --> 00:16:47.330 And she was the anti -Annie. The anti -Annie. 00:16:47.389 --> 00:16:50.629 How so? She was a Californian. She wore flashy 00:16:50.629 --> 00:16:53.769 loose clothes. She was loud. She bragged. Annie 00:16:53.769 --> 00:16:56.210 hated it. Right, because Annie cultivated this 00:16:56.210 --> 00:16:59.509 very specific image. Exactly. Polite, ladylike, 00:16:59.549 --> 00:17:02.350 professional. Lillian was the opposite. And the 00:17:02.350 --> 00:17:04.230 press started playing them against each other. 00:17:04.309 --> 00:17:06.450 This is actually why Annie started lying about 00:17:06.450 --> 00:17:08.269 her age. Oh, really? I saw that in the notes. 00:17:08.490 --> 00:17:11.789 She shaved six years off. Right. Because Lillian 00:17:11.789 --> 00:17:14.529 was 15 and getting all this press for being a 00:17:14.529 --> 00:17:17.690 prodigy, Annie, who was in her mid -20s, felt 00:17:17.690 --> 00:17:19.869 the pressure. So she started claiming she was 00:17:19.869 --> 00:17:22.789 born in 1866 instead of 1860 so she could still 00:17:22.789 --> 00:17:25.049 compete as a girl wonder. That's fascinating. 00:17:25.269 --> 00:17:27.630 It created this weird friction where Annie actually 00:17:27.630 --> 00:17:29.710 left the show for a couple of seasons just to 00:17:29.710 --> 00:17:32.079 get away from Smith. But she came back. She came 00:17:32.079 --> 00:17:34.859 back once Lillian was gone, just in time for 00:17:34.859 --> 00:17:38.259 the 1889 Paris Exposition. And that takes us 00:17:38.259 --> 00:17:40.559 to Europe. Okay. And if she was a star in America, 00:17:40.740 --> 00:17:43.319 she was a sensation in Europe. This is the celebrity 00:17:43.319 --> 00:17:46.180 pillar reaching its peak. Absolutely. Kings and 00:17:46.180 --> 00:17:48.819 queens were lining up to see her. She performed 00:17:48.819 --> 00:17:51.559 for Queen Victoria, who was notoriously hard 00:17:51.559 --> 00:17:54.640 to impress, but she called Annie a very clever 00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:57.940 little girl. She performed for King Umberto of 00:17:57.940 --> 00:18:01.099 Italy. But the most famous incident involves 00:18:01.099 --> 00:18:04.259 the Kaiser of Germany. Kaiser Wilhelm II. Yep. 00:18:04.359 --> 00:18:07.259 And this is one of those what if moments in history 00:18:07.259 --> 00:18:09.880 that keeps you up at night. It really is. So 00:18:09.880 --> 00:18:12.579 the newly crowned Kaiser Wilhelm sees the show 00:18:12.579 --> 00:18:15.119 in Berlin. He's a bit of a pompous figure obsessed 00:18:15.119 --> 00:18:18.140 with the military. He asks Annie to perform her 00:18:18.140 --> 00:18:21.039 famous trick, shooting the ashes off a cigarette. 00:18:21.500 --> 00:18:23.680 And Frank usually holds the cigarette. Usually. 00:18:23.740 --> 00:18:26.359 But the Kaiser wants to get involved. He volunteers. 00:18:26.460 --> 00:18:28.839 He wants to hold the cigarette himself. No. Yes. 00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:30.599 Okay, stop and think about the pressure here. 00:18:30.700 --> 00:18:33.700 You are holding a Winchester rifle. You are aiming 00:18:33.700 --> 00:18:36.319 at the face of the head of state of a major European 00:18:36.319 --> 00:18:39.180 power. And you are doing it in front of his entire 00:18:39.180 --> 00:18:41.980 imperial guard. If you miss by an inch, if you 00:18:41.980 --> 00:18:44.180 sneeze, if the wind blows, if the cartridge is 00:18:44.180 --> 00:18:47.079 overloaded, you don't just fail a trick. You 00:18:47.079 --> 00:18:49.700 assassinate an emperor. You start a war. Wow. 00:18:50.039 --> 00:18:52.420 And she didn't miss. He didn't miss. She shot 00:18:52.420 --> 00:18:55.240 the ash right off the cigarette. But the kicker 00:18:55.240 --> 00:18:58.559 is what happened later. Decades later. Yes. Flash 00:18:58.559 --> 00:19:01.500 forward to World War I. Kaiser Wilhelm is now 00:19:01.500 --> 00:19:04.220 the enemy of the United States. He has plunged 00:19:04.220 --> 00:19:07.299 Europe into a devastating war. Right. Annie Oakley, 00:19:07.400 --> 00:19:10.200 who is now retired and older, writes a letter 00:19:10.200 --> 00:19:12.539 to the Kaiser. She essentially says, I'll give 00:19:12.539 --> 00:19:15.059 you a second shot. Oh, my gosh. Implying she 00:19:15.059 --> 00:19:17.019 wouldn't aim for the ash this time. Exactly. 00:19:17.119 --> 00:19:19.279 She asked for another chance to take the shot. 00:19:19.400 --> 00:19:22.339 She famously said later, if I shot the Kaiser, 00:19:22.539 --> 00:19:24.359 I might have saved the lives of several millions 00:19:24.359 --> 00:19:28.000 of soldiers. That is just, it's dark humor, but 00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:30.200 it shows she understood her place in history. 00:19:30.359 --> 00:19:32.660 She absolutely did. And speaking of her place 00:19:32.660 --> 00:19:34.500 in history, we have to talk about her impact 00:19:34.500 --> 00:19:36.960 on media. She wasn't just a live performer. The 00:19:36.960 --> 00:19:40.240 Edison film. 1894, Thomas Edison. He had his 00:19:40.240 --> 00:19:43.559 famous Black Maria studio in New Jersey. He invited 00:19:43.559 --> 00:19:46.880 Annie to perform for his kinetoscope. So we actually 00:19:46.880 --> 00:19:48.839 have footage of her. You can go online right 00:19:48.839 --> 00:19:51.900 now and watch Annie Oakley shooting glass balls 00:19:51.900 --> 00:19:55.380 in 1894. She was a multimedia star before the 00:19:55.380 --> 00:19:57.240 term even existed. Exactly. So things are going 00:19:57.240 --> 00:19:59.799 great. She's rich. She's famous. She's happily 00:19:59.799 --> 00:20:03.339 married. She has conquered Europe. And then 1901, 00:20:03.539 --> 00:20:07.309 everything crashes, literally. A train accident. 00:20:07.670 --> 00:20:09.950 As I mentioned, the Buffalo Bill troop traveled 00:20:09.950 --> 00:20:12.329 by train. In North Carolina, there was a head 00:20:12.329 --> 00:20:14.890 -on collision with a freight train. It was horrific. 00:20:15.109 --> 00:20:17.670 Many animals were killed. Annie. She was thrown 00:20:17.670 --> 00:20:20.089 from her bunk while she was sleeping. The injuries 00:20:20.089 --> 00:20:23.650 were severe. Paralyzed. She was temporarily paralyzed. 00:20:24.210 --> 00:20:27.950 She had internal injuries. She had to undergo 00:20:27.950 --> 00:20:30.869 five spinal operations. That sounds like a career 00:20:30.869 --> 00:20:33.490 ender. For anyone else, it would have been. Her 00:20:33.490 --> 00:20:35.549 hair reportedly turned white from the trauma 00:20:35.549 --> 00:20:38.309 of the event, but she clawed her way back. She 00:20:38.309 --> 00:20:40.289 just kept going. She couldn't do the rough riding 00:20:40.289 --> 00:20:43.029 and the acrobatic shooting in the same way immediately, 00:20:43.150 --> 00:20:45.630 so she shifted gears. She started acting in a 00:20:45.630 --> 00:20:48.710 play called The Western Girl. It was less physically 00:20:48.710 --> 00:20:51.269 taxing, but she still got to shoot guns on stage 00:20:51.269 --> 00:20:54.690 using blanks. So she adapts. But just as she's 00:20:54.690 --> 00:20:57.190 recovering from this physical trauma, she gets 00:20:57.190 --> 00:21:00.650 hit with a reputational bomb. This is the William 00:21:00.650 --> 00:21:03.430 Randolph Hearst story. And this is where we see 00:21:03.430 --> 00:21:06.009 that third pillar, integrity. This is a crucial 00:21:06.009 --> 00:21:08.349 chapter that often gets left out of the biographies. 00:21:08.839 --> 00:21:12.200 But it defines her. In 1903, a woman was arrested 00:21:12.200 --> 00:21:14.960 in Chicago. She was a burlesque dancer, she was 00:21:14.960 --> 00:21:16.960 addicted to cocaine, and she was stealing a pair 00:21:16.960 --> 00:21:19.779 of trousers to support her habit. When the police 00:21:19.779 --> 00:21:22.400 arrested her, she lied. She told them, I'm Annie 00:21:22.400 --> 00:21:24.859 Oakley. And the press ran with it. William Randolph 00:21:24.859 --> 00:21:27.599 Hearst's newspaper Empire ran with it. They published 00:21:27.599 --> 00:21:31.279 a sensational story. Annie Oakley in jail. Annie 00:21:31.279 --> 00:21:33.539 Oakley, a cocaine addict. Oh, that's brutal. 00:21:33.759 --> 00:21:35.819 Yeah. For a woman who built her entire brand 00:21:35.819 --> 00:21:38.599 on being this wholesome, teetotaling Quaker lady, 00:21:38.799 --> 00:21:41.440 this is the ultimate insult. It was devastating. 00:21:41.579 --> 00:21:44.359 The real Annie Oakley was quietly living in New 00:21:44.359 --> 00:21:46.700 Jersey, sipping tea, recovering from her back 00:21:46.700 --> 00:21:48.779 surgery, when she found out she was furious. 00:21:49.119 --> 00:21:51.779 I bet. Most papers retracted the story immediately 00:21:51.779 --> 00:21:55.500 when they realized the mistake, but Hearst, Hearst 00:21:55.500 --> 00:21:59.809 fought it. Why? Ego, money, power. He didn't 00:21:59.809 --> 00:22:01.710 want to admit he was wrong and he didn't want 00:22:01.710 --> 00:22:04.130 to pay the damages. He actually sent a private 00:22:04.130 --> 00:22:07.109 investigator down to Dark County, Ohio to dig 00:22:07.109 --> 00:22:10.150 up dirt on Annie's past. He tried to find a scandal. 00:22:10.329 --> 00:22:12.230 He wanted to find something, a secret lover, 00:22:12.430 --> 00:22:15.490 an illegitimate child, anything to discredit 00:22:15.490 --> 00:22:17.849 her character so he wouldn't have to pay. And 00:22:17.849 --> 00:22:20.789 what did the investigator find? Nothing. He found 00:22:20.789 --> 00:22:23.349 a hardworking girl who paid her mother's mortgage. 00:22:23.690 --> 00:22:26.769 Her reputation was absolutely bulletproof. So 00:22:26.769 --> 00:22:29.160 what did she do? She sued. She went on a warpath. 00:22:29.720 --> 00:22:33.519 She filed 55 libel lawsuits against newspapers 00:22:33.519 --> 00:22:36.779 across the country. And you have to understand 00:22:36.779 --> 00:22:39.160 the effort involved here. This is 1904. You can't 00:22:39.160 --> 00:22:41.589 just zoom into court. Right. She had to travel 00:22:41.589 --> 00:22:44.990 by train to courthouses all over America to testify. 00:22:45.190 --> 00:22:47.690 And the cost must have been astronomical. She 00:22:47.690 --> 00:22:50.109 spent more money on legal fees and travel than 00:22:50.109 --> 00:22:52.329 she ever won in judgments. So it wasn't about 00:22:52.329 --> 00:22:54.190 the money. It was never about the money. It was 00:22:54.190 --> 00:22:56.990 about integrity. She said, the one thing I have 00:22:56.990 --> 00:22:59.789 is my name. She was willing to bankrupt herself 00:22:59.789 --> 00:23:03.859 to clear it. And she won. She won 54 of the 55 00:23:03.859 --> 00:23:07.859 suits. 54 wins. That is obsession. It's honor. 00:23:08.059 --> 00:23:10.660 It proves that the Annie Oakley persona wasn't 00:23:10.660 --> 00:23:13.460 just a costume. It was a code she lived by. That 00:23:13.460 --> 00:23:16.579 code of honor extended to other women, too. We 00:23:16.579 --> 00:23:18.579 need to talk about her views on women and guns. 00:23:19.039 --> 00:23:21.259 She wasn't a suffragette in the traditional sense, 00:23:21.420 --> 00:23:24.019 was she? No, not really. She wasn't out there 00:23:24.019 --> 00:23:26.980 marching for the vote necessarily, but she was 00:23:26.980 --> 00:23:30.150 a fierce advocate. her brand of feminism was 00:23:30.150 --> 00:23:34.210 very practical call it ballistic feminism ballistic 00:23:34.210 --> 00:23:36.849 feminism i like that she believed that women 00:23:36.849 --> 00:23:39.170 should know how to handle guns as naturally as 00:23:39.170 --> 00:23:42.230 they handle babies that's a great quote she saw 00:23:42.230 --> 00:23:44.230 it as a matter of self -defense and independence 00:23:44.230 --> 00:23:48.089 she taught over 15 000 women how to shoot over 00:23:48.089 --> 00:23:51.009 the course of her life 15 ,000. She viewed it 00:23:51.009 --> 00:23:53.630 as mental and physical discipline. She wanted 00:23:53.630 --> 00:23:56.329 women to be safe, not helpless. And she even 00:23:56.329 --> 00:23:57.930 tried to get women into the military, right? 00:23:58.009 --> 00:24:01.349 Multiple times. In 1898, during the Spanish -American 00:24:01.349 --> 00:24:03.950 War, she wrote to President McKinley offering 00:24:03.950 --> 00:24:07.539 a company of 50... Lady sharpshooters. No way. 00:24:07.660 --> 00:24:09.500 She promised they would provide their own arms 00:24:09.500 --> 00:24:12.160 and ammunition. She said every one of them is 00:24:12.160 --> 00:24:14.339 an American and a good shot. And McKinley. He 00:24:14.339 --> 00:24:16.339 rejected it, probably threw the letter away. 00:24:16.519 --> 00:24:19.119 She tried again in World War I with President 00:24:19.119 --> 00:24:22.220 Wilson, rejected again. But she was decades ahead 00:24:22.220 --> 00:24:24.380 of her time in thinking about women in combat 00:24:24.380 --> 00:24:27.319 roles. It's funny. She's this mix of very traditional 00:24:27.319 --> 00:24:30.240 Victorian values. She always wore skirts. She 00:24:30.240 --> 00:24:32.839 expected men to be gentlemen. But then she's 00:24:32.839 --> 00:24:35.559 proposing an all -female sniper unit. That contradiction 00:24:35.559 --> 00:24:37.940 is what makes her so interesting. She subverted 00:24:37.940 --> 00:24:40.339 gender roles by perfecting them. She entered 00:24:40.339 --> 00:24:43.420 a man's world shooting, but did it so ladylike 00:24:43.420 --> 00:24:46.160 that men couldn't be threatened by it. They could 00:24:46.160 --> 00:24:49.299 only applaud it. She hacked the system. So let's 00:24:49.299 --> 00:24:51.539 look at the final chapter, the final years. She 00:24:51.539 --> 00:24:54.180 survived the wolves, the Wild West, the train 00:24:54.180 --> 00:24:56.880 crash, the libel suits. How did she spend her 00:24:56.880 --> 00:24:59.880 60s? Surprisingly, she kept shooting. At age 00:24:59.880 --> 00:25:02.839 62, she entered a shooting contest in North Carolina. 00:25:03.140 --> 00:25:06.369 Okay. She hit 100 clay targets in a row from 00:25:06.369 --> 00:25:10.049 16 yards. 100 in a row at 62. She never lost 00:25:10.049 --> 00:25:13.250 the touch. But the body was wearing out. In 1922, 00:25:13.369 --> 00:25:15.509 she was in a car accident, another major injury. 00:25:15.730 --> 00:25:18.029 She had to wear a steel brace on her leg. But 00:25:18.029 --> 00:25:20.150 she still performed. She still performed again 00:25:20.150 --> 00:25:23.609 afterward. Believable. And the money. She'd earned 00:25:23.609 --> 00:25:25.710 a fortune over her life. But she didn't keep 00:25:25.710 --> 00:25:28.500 it. After she died, it was discovered that there 00:25:28.500 --> 00:25:30.740 was very little left in the estate. Where did 00:25:30.740 --> 00:25:33.319 it go? She gave it away. She spent her later 00:25:33.319 --> 00:25:36.319 years funding charities, specifically orphanages 00:25:36.319 --> 00:25:38.519 and organizations that helped young women get 00:25:38.519 --> 00:25:41.079 an education. She remembered where she came from. 00:25:41.200 --> 00:25:43.299 She never forgot being that little girl. Never. 00:25:43.339 --> 00:25:45.319 She never forgot that little girl in the Dark 00:25:45.319 --> 00:25:47.220 County infirmary. She wanted to make sure other 00:25:47.220 --> 00:25:50.799 kids had a chance. And her ending? Yeah. Honestly, 00:25:50.940 --> 00:25:52.859 it's like something out of a romance novel. It's 00:25:52.859 --> 00:25:56.210 heartbreaking. It is. Deeply sad, but poetic. 00:25:56.509 --> 00:25:59.750 She died in 1926 in Ohio of pernicious anemia. 00:25:59.970 --> 00:26:03.650 She was 66 years old. Frank Butler, her husband 00:26:03.650 --> 00:26:06.750 of over 50 years, the man who had stood by her 00:26:06.750 --> 00:26:09.349 side and held her targets and managed her career. 00:26:09.829 --> 00:26:12.650 He was so distraught that he just stopped. He 00:26:12.650 --> 00:26:16.089 gave up. He stopped eating. He died 18 days later. 00:26:16.369 --> 00:26:18.269 They couldn't exist without each other. They 00:26:18.269 --> 00:26:20.450 really couldn't. They were buried together in 00:26:20.450 --> 00:26:22.970 Brock Cemetery in Ohio. It was a partnership 00:26:22.970 --> 00:26:25.750 to the very end. That is heavy, but it feels 00:26:25.750 --> 00:26:28.130 right for them. It does. So as we wrap this up, 00:26:28.230 --> 00:26:30.569 what is the legacy here? Obviously, we have the 00:26:30.569 --> 00:26:32.970 cowgirl image. Yes, she is the mother of the 00:26:32.970 --> 00:26:35.930 American cowgirl. Before her, women in the West 00:26:35.930 --> 00:26:38.390 were depicted in fiction mostly as victims to 00:26:38.390 --> 00:26:41.309 be rescued or as saloon girls. She created the 00:26:41.309 --> 00:26:43.829 image of the capable, independent Western woman. 00:26:43.990 --> 00:26:46.549 She paved the way. Paved the way for Dale Evans 00:26:46.549 --> 00:26:49.430 and every cowgirl since. She's in the National 00:26:49.430 --> 00:26:52.339 Women's Hall of Fame. The Cowgirl Hall of Fame, 00:26:52.440 --> 00:26:55.279 the Trap Shooting Hall of Fame. But beyond the 00:26:55.279 --> 00:26:57.440 plaques and the halls of fame. I think her legacy 00:26:57.440 --> 00:27:00.519 is simpler. She proved that talent doesn't have 00:27:00.519 --> 00:27:03.279 a gender. She beat the men at their own game 00:27:03.279 --> 00:27:05.660 shooting, and she made them love her for it. 00:27:05.859 --> 00:27:08.339 She forced the world to respect a woman with 00:27:08.339 --> 00:27:10.920 a gun. And she did it all, starting from absolutely 00:27:10.920 --> 00:27:13.500 nothing. Less than nothing, she started in the 00:27:13.500 --> 00:27:16.019 negative. I want to leave you with that provocative 00:27:16.019 --> 00:27:19.460 thought we hinted at earlier. The Kaiser's cigarette. 00:27:20.029 --> 00:27:23.289 It haunts me. Think about the 20th century, World 00:27:23.289 --> 00:27:27.730 War I, the trenches, the mustard gas, the collapse 00:27:27.730 --> 00:27:30.769 of empires, the rise of ideologies that followed 00:27:30.769 --> 00:27:34.609 communism, fascism, all of that history hinged 00:27:34.609 --> 00:27:37.789 on the life of Kaiser Wilhelm II. He was the 00:27:37.789 --> 00:27:40.750 domino that tipped it all over. He was. And on 00:27:40.750 --> 00:27:44.089 a sunny day in Berlin in 1889, a poor girl from 00:27:44.089 --> 00:27:47.269 Dark County, Ohio, aimed a Winchester rifle at 00:27:47.269 --> 00:27:50.339 his face. If she had sneezed, if the wind had 00:27:50.339 --> 00:27:53.180 blown, if she had just been a tiny bit less perfect. 00:27:53.599 --> 00:27:55.500 The 20th century looks completely different. 00:27:55.759 --> 00:27:58.279 It's a reminder of how fragile history is and 00:27:58.279 --> 00:28:00.539 how strange it is that a sharpshooter from Ohio 00:28:00.539 --> 00:28:03.299 held the fate of the world in her trigger finger 00:28:03.299 --> 00:28:05.140 for a split second. It really makes you wonder. 00:28:05.660 --> 00:28:07.500 That's it for this deep dive on the real Annie 00:28:07.500 --> 00:28:10.059 Oakley. Not just the musical star, but the survivor, 00:28:10.220 --> 00:28:12.660 the provider, and the legend. An incredible life. 00:28:12.839 --> 00:28:14.079 Thanks for listening. We'll catch you on the 00:28:14.079 --> 00:28:14.380 next one.