ANNIE OAKLEY

'Annie Oakley' (August 13, 1860 – November 3, 1926) b. 'Phoebe Ann Mosey'^[1] was an American sharpshooter and exhibition shooter. Oakley's amazing talent and luck led to a starring role in ''Buffalo Bill's Wild West'' show, which propelled her to become the first American female superstar. Using a .22 caliber rifle at 90 feet (27 m), Oakley could split a playing card edge-on and put five or six more holes in it before it touched the ground. [1]

Contents

Early life

Libel cases

Later years

Representations on stage and screen

Media

See also

References

External links

Early life

According to the Annie Oakley Foundation, Annie Oakley was born in "a cabin less than two miles northwest of Woodland, now Willowdell, in Darke County, Ohio."[2] North Star, a few miles away, has a plaque claiming it to be her town of birth.[3]
Annie was the fifth of seven children. Her parents, Susan and Jacob Mosey[4], were Quakers from Pennsylvania. A fire burned down their tavern so they moved to a rented farm in Patterson Township, Darke County, Ohio. Her father, who had fought in the War of 1812, died in 1866 from pneumonia and overexposure in freezing weather. Susan Mosey remarried, had another child, and was widowed a second time. During this time, Annie was put in the care of the superintendent of the county poor farm, where she learned to embroider and sew. She spent some time in near servitude for a local family where she endured mental and physical abuse (Annie referred to them as "the wolves"). When she reunited with her family, her mother had remarried a third time.
Partly due to poverty following the death of her father, and partly by preference, Annie did not regularly attend school with other children of her age. Later she received some additional education. Apparently, she could not spell her family's name since she later rendered it ending in "ee". Her family's surname, "Mosey", appears on her father's gravestone, in his military record and is the official spelling by the Annie Oakley Foundation (AOF) maintained by her living relatives.[5] Being one of many Oakley myths, the name "Moses" appears incorrectly attributed in some encyclopedia entries and internet searches; AOF reported that her "brother John and sister Hulda changed their names to Moses before their dual wedding ceremony in 1884."[6]
Annie began hunting at the age of nine to support her siblings and her widowed mother. She sold the hunting game to locals for money, and her skill eventually paid off the mortgage on her mother's house.

Libel cases

In 1903, sensational cocaine prohibition stories were selling well. The newspaper magnate, William Randolph Hearst, published a false story that Oakley had been arrested for stealing to support a cocaine habit. The woman actually arrested was a burlesque performer who told Chicago police that her name was "Annie Oakley". The original Annie Oakley spent much of the next six years winning 54 of 55 libel lawsuits against newspapers. She collected less in judgements than were her legal expenses, but to her, a restored reputation justified the loss of time and money. ^[2]
Most of the newspapers that printed the story had relied on wire services, and upon learning of the libelous error they immediately retracted the false story with apologies. Publisher Hearst, however, tried to avoid paying the anticipated court judgements of $15,000 ($285,000, adjusted for inflation) by sending an investigator to Darke County with the intent of collecting reputation-smearing gossip from Annie's past. The investigator found nothing.

Later years

Annie continued to set records into her 60s, even after suffering a debilitating automobile accident that forced her to wear a steel brace on her right leg. In a shooting contest in Pinehurst, North Carolina in 1922, sixty-two-year-old Annie hit 100 clay targets straight from the 16 yard mark.
[7] She also engaged in extensive, albeit quiet, philanthropy for women's rights and other causes, including the support of specific young women that she knew.
Annie Oakley died on November 3, 1926, of pernicious anemia, at the age of 66 and was buried in Brock Cemetery^[3] in Greenville, Ohio. Her husband, Frank Butler, was so crushed by her death that he stopped eating. He died just 20 days later. After her death on Nov. 3, 1926 at age 66, it was discovered that her entire fortune had been spent on her charities.

Representations on stage and screen

★ In 1935, Barbara Stanwyck played Annie in a highly fictionalized film called "Annie Oakley."

★ The 1946 musical ''Annie Get Your Gun'' is very loosely based on her life. The original stage production starred Ethel Merman, who also starred in the 1966 revival.

★ A 1950 film version of ''Annie Get Your Gun'' starred Betty Hutton.

★ Some years after headlining the 1948 national tour, Mary Martin returned to the role for a 1957 NBC television special.

★ From 1954 to 1956, Gail Davis played her in the ''Annie Oakley'' television series.

★ In 1976, Geraldine Chaplin played Annie in ''Buffalo Bill and the Indians'' with John Considine as Frank Butler.

★ In 1982, Diane Civita played Annie, opposite Richard Donner as Bill Cody, in an episode of Voyagers!, where, during Cody's performances before Queen Victoria, Annie engaged in a marksmanship contest with a Russian duke.

★ In 1985, Jamie Lee Curtis offered a fresh portrayal in the "Annie Oakley" episode of the children's video series, ''Shelley Duvall's Tall Tales and Legends''.

★ The third season (1985) of ''Airwolf'' has an episode called "Anne Oakley", featuring actress Tricia O'Neil as a modern day Oakley who runs a travelling Wild West Show.

★ In 1999, ''Annie Get Your Gun'' was revived, with Bernadette Peters in the title role. Reba McEntire played the role after Peters left the show.

★ In 2006, an episode of PBS's ''American Experience'' documented Oakley's life. Unfortunately, several myths were perpetuated.

Media

:Animated GIF files of Annie Oakley performing can be found here.

See also

★ Calamity Jane

★ Lillian Smith (entertainer)

★ Belle Starr

References

1. Annie Oakley foundation.org
2. Pbs.org
3. Famous Ohio Gravesites

External links

★ Annie Oakley - Biography by Dorchester County Public Library, Cambridge, MD, which has many additional details about Oakley's life but gives the wrong date for her marriage as provided by AOF[8]

★ Annie Oakley Foundation's archived page "Tall Tales and the Truth"

★ Annie Oakley Foundation's current web site "Mosey" research page

★ Annie Oakley Research links — Virtual Museum of History

★ Annie Oakley biography (Women in History)

★ American Experience | Annie Oakley | People & Events | PBS (includes several myth errors in both the video production and the accompanying PBS web page)

★ "Little Miss Sure Shot" - The Saga of Annie Oakley

★ Short bio, pictures and the 1894 edison motion picture of Annie Oakley.

★ Annie Oakley at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming