I’ve seen the Broadway play “Annie, Get Your Gun” twice, and I saw the movie as well. I never knew how much was truth, how much was fiction. I was happy to read the following in today’s edition of Garrison Keillor’s “The Writers’ Almanac.”
It’s the birthday of American sharpshooter Annie Oakley (1860), born Phoebe Ann Mosey in a log cabin just north of what is now Willowdell, in Darke County, Ohio. Her parents were Quakers from Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania.
Oakley had been trapping animals since she was seven and was shooting and hunting animals to support her family by the time she was eight. She sold her game to local shopkeepers, who shipped it to cities like Cincinnati. Oakley’s shooting prowess became well known in Darke County and greater Ohio.
On Thanksgiving Day of 1875, the Baughman & Butler shooting act came to Cincinnati. Frank Butler, a charming Irish immigrant, bet $100 that no local could best him in a shooting match. Local shopkeepers presented Annie Oakley. Frank Butler said: “I almost dropped dead when a slim girl in a short dress stepped out to the mark with me. I was a beaten man the moment she appeared.” Oakley won and she married Butler a year later.
For more than 50 years, Annie Oakley and Frank Butler traveled the world, wowing audiences with Oakley’s marksmanship. From 30 paces, she could split a playing card held edge-on, hit dimes tossed into the air, and split cigarettes from between her husband’s lips. When she joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West traveling show (1885), she was the star attraction, earning $100 a week, more than any man in the troupe. Buffalo Bill’s troupe crossed the United States and did several European tours. Oakley met King Umberto of Italy and the Queen of England, who told her, “You are a very clever little girl.” Lakota leader Sitting Bull nicknamed her “Little Miss Sure Shot.”
Oakley campaigned for women’s rights and even volunteered to train 50 women sharpshooters for the Spanish War and World War I, though she was turned down both times. She said, “I would like to see every woman know how to handle guns as naturally as they handle babies.”
Thomas Edison filmed Oakley and the Buffalo Bill troupe at his studio in West Orange, New Jersey, turning the film into nickelodeons. People paid five cents apiece to see Annie Oakley. She was the most famous woman in the world for a time.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Great article
Diane, thank you for Annie Oakley and Garrison Keillor. I must start following Keillor online. I really miss him on the radio. Keep up the good work you have been doing. John Poulos Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
I live in a neighborhood not far from Oakley and almost every week drive by a mural created in her honor. To see the mural, go here, and then click on the small image so it is enlarged. Artworks is a local institution that commissions artists and hires apprentices to work on murals celebrating the city. https://www.artworkscincinnati.org/mural/little-sure-shot/
That’s impressive, Laura!
OK. The protagonist in my next novel is going to be named Phoebe Mosey. And–what a plus–it rolls off the tongue quite loverly.
The Howard Keel/ Betty Hutton LP soundtrack to the movie “Annie Get Your Gun” came out in 1955 when i was 5 or 6. My grandparents must have acquired it immediately. I spent a lot of time at their house, & remember bouncing on grandpa’s lap at that age belting out “Doin What Comes Naturally,” and collapsing in giggles with “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better.”
Ginny, get hold of Betty Hutton’s autobiography. It’s a great read and very moving. She was Hollywood’s biggest star, then her career crashed and she ended up destitute. Very sad. Moving too.
Thanks didn’t know this. Will do.
Check this out
I am sure this is a correct rendition of Keilor’s post but not completely accurate. Annie Oakley died in 1928 – she could not have trained women for the Spanish Civil War. Probably meant Spanish-American War since the phrase precedes WW I
Comment on the human mind: I never read the post as saying “Spanish Civil War”. Knowing when she lived, I immediately read it as Spanish -American War.
This got me to thinking about testing. My having a pretty good knowledge of Annie’s biographical information made me mess up. Is that why I could always do better if the test was essay? What is really a legitimate test? (My phone wanted me to insert LEGO instead of legitimate. AI ?)
Seems to me even our testing is dangerously inaccurate.
I just deleted “civil” as it’s an obvious error. We all make them.