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Call Number
CWM Mss 29

Title
 Gordon Lillie Papers, 1912-1919 (.2 c.f. 1 box)

History
Gordon W. Lillie, aka “Pawnee Bill,” (1860-1942) was the owner and performer of several wild west shows including Pawnee Bill’s Wild West, Pawnee Bill’s Historic Wild West and Great Far East and later Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. His exhibitions featured reenactments of historical events, showing stagecoach attacks, daring rescues, and battles with Indians. The Great Far East show included the “spectacle of the war between the Russians and the Japanese.” Among his performers could be found Arab jugglers, Mexican cowboys, Cossacks, Japanese, and Pawnee Indians as well as American cowboys.  

In 1908, Lillie invested in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West, which was deeply in debt.  The “Two Bills” show was successful for a time, especially during its run as Buffalo Bill’s farewell tour, but eventually the enterprise failed when Cody’s creditors foreclosed in 1913.

After the close of the “Two Bills” show Lillie continued as a businessman and invested in banking, oil, and real estate and started a movie production company on his ranch Blue Hawk Peak in near Pawnee, Oklahoma. Pawnee Bill died in his sleep in 1942.

Scope and content
The collection is arranged alphabetically and comprises of business records and souvenir items of the Buffalo Bill Wild West and Pawnee Bill’s Far East Combined Shows. Nine letters are from Otto Ringling to Gordon Lillie (aka Pawnee Bill) owner and performer of Pawnee Bill’s Wild West. The Ringling letters relate entirely to financial matters, are on Barnum and Bailey Circus letterhead and date to a period after the Ringling Brothers purchased the Barnum show but before the formal merging of the two circus titles. The one letter from Robert Scott also relates to financial matters. The contracts all relate to performers with the artillery and cavalry component of the shows and date to 1912.

Presented to Circus World Museum by Charlotte Linthicum July 22, 1991

Container List
Box      Folder
                        Cody and Lillie Contracts
1          1                      Baldwin, Jessie, 1912
            2                      Brown, Frank, 1912 
            3                      Byrne, John, 1912 
            4                      Eastburn, William, 1912 
            5                      Gregory, Harry, 1912 
            6                      Guildensoph, Ben, 1912 
            7                      Halse, John, 1912 
            8                      Olds, Martin J., 1912 
            9                      Schanz, Louis, 1912 
            10                    Tice, Leonard, 1912 
            11                    Wilson, Robert, 1912 
                        Correspondence
            12                    Ringling, Otto, 1909 
            13                    Scott, Robert, 1909 
            14        Souvenir Playing Cards, Buffalo Bill Wild West and Pawnee Bill Far East Combined, undated