Legends of the Old West - TEXAS JACK Ep. 3 | “Hunting in Yellowstone”

Episode Date: March 29, 2023

Texas Jack and Buffalo Bill recruit Wild Bill Hickok to co-star in a slightly different version of their successful play. Hickok tolerates the production for a while, but it quickly becomes clear that he isn’t meant for the life of a performer. Between tours, Jack leads a British lord on a hunt through the Yellowstone, but grizzly bears and vicious storms threaten the lives of the party. For the full story of Texas Jack, check out Matthew Kerns’ book! Texas Jack: America’s First Cowboy Star Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Noiser+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Click the Noiser+ banner on Apple or go to noiser.com/subscriptions to get started with a 7-day free trial. For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. On YouTube, subscribe to LEGENDS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the end of his first dramatic tour with Buffalo Bill Cody and Ned Buntline, Texas Jack was at a crossroads. He and Cody had decided to part ways with their co-star. Maybe it was just the money, but just as likely it was Buntline himself, who was a notorious scoundrel and who wrote cringeworthy melodramatic lines for the stage. Bill and Jack had already hired another writer to come up with a new show, though it wasn't much different or better than Buntline's version. Whatever the new show lacked in plot or character, they hoped to make up for with star power, so they invited the only Westerner who was more of a legend than they

were. When the show started up again in New York City in September of 1873, the man standing beside them, the man who took Ned Buntline's place in the cast, was the most famous lawman and gunslinger in the country, Wild Bill Hickok. But for Texas Jack, he was thinking more about another star than his friend Wild Bill. When world-renowned Italian ballerina Jessopina Morlachy had departed the original production just four months into its run, it hurt box office receipts. There wasn't an actress in the country who commanded more respect and guaranteed sales

than the peerless Morlachy, as she was called. Jessopina was from Milan, Italy, and she had trained at the famous La Scala when she was four or five and made her debut as a professional ballerina at the age of 10. By the time she was 16, Morlachy had attracted the unwanted attention of an Italian aristocrat, so she left Milan and toured Europe. She danced in Paris, Berlin, and in London at Her Majesty's Theatre. She danced in Paris, Berlin, and in London at Her Majesty's Theatre.

She was dancing at the Teatro Real in Lisbon, Portugal, when a theatre manager named Don Juan de Paul convinced her to travel to America. In New York, she was serenaded by the New York Symphony, and de Paul insured her legs for $100,000. That would be worth north of $3 million today, so it wasn't much of an exaggeration when a reporter commented that Morlocki's legs were worth more than the state of Kentucky. And for all of her world travels, the man who captured her heart was a cowboy and scout who swooped in from the American West. who swooped in from the American West.

From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer. In this season, we're telling a six-part anthology about the famous cowboy, scout, and stage performer, Texas Jack Omohundro. This is Episode 3, Hunting in Yellowstone. When Jessapina debuted in America, her reviews were glowing. One said, Madame Wiesel Jessapina Morlocki sparkles among them all, buoyant, audacious, vigorous and original, made to delight and making marvelous use of her marvelous legs. Her performance is bewitching, and she hits upon fortunate results at every moment through her gracefulness, flexibility, ease, and delicacy.

Soon, Morlocki moved with the show to Boston, and she replaced the show's choreography with her own. On December 23, 1867, she introduced Boston and America to a style of dance they had never experienced, the can-can. The can-can was an enormous hit. Box office receipts hit records, and citizens flocked to catch a glimpse of Morlocki and her famous legs.

But, of course, there were those who had to be outraged. Some citizens of Puritan Boston were aghast at the display. One paper called it, the prostitution of the ballet to the demands of the lowest appetites. Another joked that a local fire brigade was now permanently stationed at the theater to douse the arduous heat that theatergoers could expect to experience. Luckily, her detractors were few. The majority of people loved her performances, which included one Texas Jack Omohundro.

Morlocki toured the country and established herself as a first-class star and unparalleled talent. When Ned Buntline convinced her to join the Scouts of the Prairie in December of 1872, it was the luckiest break that he, Buffalo Bill, and especially Texas Jack could ever have hoped for. But she left the show after just four months of its run. Her ballet performances after leaving the Scouts had been enormously successful, so convincing her to return to the new production, now called Scouts of the Plains, would be a real win. That was especially true considering the fact that Wild Bill had even less experience as an actor than Bill Cody or Texas Jack, and he was far less enthusiastic about trying. So, Texas Jack had his work cut out for him. Before he and Hickok and Cody could launch their

new production, he needed to find Morlocki and ask her two questions. One was professional, and one was very personal. At the end of August 1873, Texas Jack boarded a train in North Platte, Nebraska, bound for Rochester, New York, where Morlocki was starring as Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Texas Jack showed up at the back door of the Rochester Opera House with his two questions, and Morlocki answered both with one word. Texas Jack and Jessapina Morlocki were married on August 31, 1873, in Rochester. It was the kind of underdog story that Americans loved to see, especially since it could have ended in a way that most people expected.

Jack was far from the first man to ask for Morlocki's hand in marriage, and among her many admirers was Jim Fisk, the millionaire robber baron and business partner of railroad magnate Jay Gould. of jobs as a young man, and then during the Civil War, he smuggled cotton up from the South to fulfill his textile contracts with the federal government, and it helped make him rich. In 1869, he and Jay Gould nearly crashed the U.S. Stock Exchange when they tried to corner the market on gold. Their greed led to the Black Friday scare of 1869 and helped lead to the Panic of 1873. And Jim Fisk wanted to marry Jessapina Morlocki just as badly as Texas Jack did. One evening at the theater, as Morlocki waited backstage, Jim Fisk walked into her room and placed a diamond ring on her finger. Without time to respond, she was rushed to the stage to dance. Returning to her room after the

show, she found Fisk waiting. She removed the ring from her finger and handed it back to Fisk. My dear young lady, it's real, he promised. I don't think you quite understand the value of that little stone. It's of the first order and worth at least $5,000. She shrugged, showed Mr. Fisk the door, and gave him a parting line. I can make that with one of my toes. Morlocki made the right choice, as if there was any doubt. Jim Fisk was eventually murdered after a failed extortion attempt by a business associate who had fallen in love with Fisk's mistress.

By all accounts, Texas Jack and Jessupina Morlocki remained madly in love and deeply committed to each other for the rest of their lives. She said yes to his second question as well, and agreed to join the three scouts in New York where their new show was set to premiere. With the inclusion of Morlocki, the show had exactly one trained actor as a headliner. Texas Jack and Buffalo Bill had grown more comfortable over the last tour,

but not necessarily much better, according to the critics. Wild Bill Hickok was a whole different story. James Butler Hickok was even less of an actor than his friends, which soon became apparent. He became a public figure in 1865 when an article about him appeared in Harper's New Monthly magazine. The article's author, George Ward Nichols, had believed every tall tale he heard either from or about Wild Bill, and his readers were convinced that Hickok had shot and killed more than 100 men.

The article turned Wild Bill into a legend, and authors like Ned Buntline had set out to find and interview him. But the fame had another effect on Wild Bill. Now that he was regarded as the fastest gun and surest shot in the West, he was a target for anyone seeking to make a name for himself as a gunslinger. Wild Bill had an answer to every threat, but he started worrying that an ambush was around every corner

and danger lurked in every shadow. He had served as city marshal in Hays, Kansas, and later as sheriff of Ellis County. He first met Texas Jack in Hays when Jack arrived at the end of a trail drive. Hickok later became marshal in Abilene, where he may have been introduced to the notorious outlaw John Wesley Harden. Hickok's time as a lawman came to an end in Abilene after a shootout with an infamous saloon owner named Phil Coe. Hickok mortally wounded Coe, and then, in the heat of the moment,

ended up killing one of his deputies by mistake. The civic leaders of Abilene relieved Hickok of his duties as marshal two months after the tragic accident, and the killing haunted him for the rest of his life. So, when Texas Jack and Buffalo Bill asked Hickok to star with him in a stage play and promised him wealth beyond his imagination, it was a hard deal to pass up. But it was soon apparent that Wild Bill wasn't cut out for acting. to pass up. But it was soon apparent that Wild Bill wasn't cut out for acting. That fact,

which was hilarious to the audience, became apparent in the very first minutes of the very first performance. As a podcast network, our first priority has always been audio and the stories we're able to share with you. But we also sell merch, and organizing that was made both possible and easy with Shopify. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell and grow at every stage of your business, from the launch your online shop stage all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage. Whether you're selling scented soap or offering outdoor outfits, Shopify helps you sell everywhere. They have an all-in-one e-commerce platform and in-person POS system, so wherever and whatever you're selling, Shopify's got you covered. With the internet's best converting checkout, 36% better on average compared to other leading commerce

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no matter what stage you're in. Shopify dot com slash realm. The first act of the new show started with the three scouts gathering to talk around a campfire. Buffalo Bill took a drink from a jug and talked about a buffalo hunt. Then he passed the jug to Texas Jack, who talked about a cattle stampede on the Chisholm Trail. Jack handed the jug to Wild Bill, who turned up the jug and took a long drink. Then he dropped the jug and spewed a mouthful of liquid toward the stage lights. Hickok yelled at his friends, You must think I'm the worst fool east of the Rockies that I can't tell whiskey from cold tea.

This don't count, and I can't tell a story under the temptation unless I get real whiskey. It was just one of many times when the audience laughed at Wild Bill instead of with him, which he hated. More than Texas Jack or Buffalo Bill, Hickok felt like the show was a farce, making a mockery of the actual lives these men lived out west. Hickok quickly grew bored, and that wasn't good for anyone. Hickok quickly grew bored, and that wasn't good for anyone. Hickok began entertaining himself at the expense of the rest of the cast. The scouts were supposed to fire their weapons, loaded only with black powder, above the heads of their Indian foes.

Hickok made a game of firing at the exposed legs of the warriors who were clowed only in breech cloths. The little explosion sent them hopping offstage in pain when they were meant to fall over dead. Bill and Jack asked Hickok to refrain from burning their fellow actors, and Hickok promised to be on his best behavior. Bill Cody had turned some of his profits from the first tour into a home in Rochester, New York, where he had moved with his wife and children. When the tour was scheduled to play his new hometown, Cody was anxious to impress his new neighbors and asked Hickok to take the show seriously. Hickok ignored his friends and pulled his old prank of firing at the exposed legs of a stage warrior. Backstage, Hickok and Cody argued, with Texas Jack trying to calm both of his friends and keep the act together. It was no use.

Wild Bill stormed out of the theater and never acted again. When the show was done, Texas Jack and Buffalo Bill found him at the hotel, where he told them he made up his mind to return to the West. To show there were no hard feelings, Texas Jack and Buffalo Bill paid him the rest of his salary with an additional gift of $1,000 and a pair of Colt revolvers. Wild Bill left Rochester, bound for Cheyenne and eventually his final fate in the boomtown of Deadwood. Even without Wild Bill Hickok, Texas Jack and Buffalo Bill finished their tour strong, raking in profits and leaving audiences wanting more. Cody was anxious to begin another tour as soon as possible, but Jack missed the open spaces and wide vistas of the West.

A letter from the Earl of Dunraven proved just the opportunity Jack was looking for. He had guided the English Lord on a hunt a couple years earlier, and the Earl wanted to do it again. The Earl had his sights set on the wildest country that was left in the American West. Jack sent a letter replying simply, I am ready for anything. When Texas Jack and the Earl of Dunraven set out for Yellowstone Park in August of 1874, America's first national park was just two years old. In 2021, Yellowstone National Park counted just shy of 5 million recreational visits.

In 1874, that number was closer to 400. There were no permanent roads or good maps, and the best way to venture into geyser land was on horseback with a trusty guide. Supplies and tents had to be packed in by mule. Along with the Earl and Texas Jack came the Earl's friend and physician, Dr. Kingsley, an artist and painter named Valentine Walter Bromley, a cook, one of the Earl's cousins, one of the Earl's assistants, and the Earl's favorite dog, a collie named Tweed. If the Earl wanted adventure, he would get it on that trip, and far more than he bargained for, as it nearly killed two members of the group. When the Earl met Jack in Denver, the Earl was surprised to see Jack dressed

not in the grimy buckskin suit he had once worn, but in a fine linen suit with diamond shirt studs and a gold watch and chain purchased at Tiffany's. Despite Jack's newly acquired wealth, Dunraven found Jack to be the same quick-witted, fun-loving companion he had met two years earlier. General Sheridan advised the pair to avoid approaching the park from the southeast, so they headed to Salt Lake City to outfit themselves for the trip. Dunraven wrote that due to Jack's newfound fame, I acquired a considerable amount of second-hand renown, and, like the moon, shone with borrowed splendor. It was obvious to all that I was on terms of equality with a great personage, and on that account, cigars were frequent and drinks free.

From Salt Lake City, the party headed to Virginia City, Montana, about 340 miles by stagecoach over some of the roughest roads in the West. They purchased horses, ponies, and mules for their trek and then set off south toward the Bottler Brothers Ranch in Montana's Paradise Valley. Fred Bottler joined the group as they pushed toward Mammoth Hot Springs and into Yellowstone Park. Far from the painted backdrops and calcium lights of the stage, Texas Jack was still an entertainer. At night, when the tents were up and the party sat around the campfire with a meal and a cup of whiskey, Jack talked.

Dunn-Raven wrote, Jack, who is of course smoking, is holding forth to the rest of us, telling us some thrilling tale of cattle raids away down by the Rio Grande on the Mexican frontier, graphically describing some wild scurry with the Comanches on the plains of Texas, or making us laugh over some utterly absurd story narrated in that comical language and with that quaint, dry humor which are particular to the American nation. Every morning, Texas Jack was the first man up. He started the fire, brewed the coffee, and woke the others. Dunraven also noted, Jack, like most prairie men,

invariably introduces himself to the sun god with a copious libation of whiskey. With Jack's first drink of the day put away, the party set out to hunt deer, elk, and sheep. The discarded entrails and carcasses of the kills left behind by the hunters as they traveled farther into the park enticed a local grizzly bear to follow. Each morning, after his whiskey, Jack went on a scout to determine the path of the hunters. One morning, he came back early. The Earl could see he was out of breath. Jack sat down, filled his pipe with tobacco, and said, Jesus, I have seen the biggest bear in the world. Damn me if he didn't scare me proper. I have seen the biggest bear in the world. Damn me if he didn't scare me proper. Give me a drink and I'll tell you. While members of the party fetched a cup and unstopped the keg to fill it

with whiskey, Jack told them that he had tracked a pair of white-tailed deer for a few miles before coming face to face with the bear that was on the party's trail. I saw something moving and dropped behind a tree. There, within 60 yards of me, was a grizzly as big as all outside. By God, he was a terror, I tell you. The bear didn't see Jack, who hid and watched and waited for the grizzly to leave. The next day it snowed, and Jack and Dunraven set out to track the bear. Jack spotted fresh prints, and they followed them until they found the Bruin, and the encounter that followed was nearly the end of Texas Jack Omohundro. Jack carried his rifle, and the Earl carried a double-barrel shotgun.

By the time they heard the animal, they were less than fifty yards away. Dunraven fired both of his shots. He hit the bear, and Jack pursued it with his rifle into a willow thicket. I rode in, said Jack, and the bear soon rose up in front of me with a growl and a rush. The pony became frightened, reared up, and fell backwards rolling over me. I was not hurt, but sprang to my feet in a second and found the bear at arm's length. I could easily see his open mouth and glaring eyes. I gave him a shot from my revolver in a twinkling, but he aimed his blow and his right paw grazed my cheek and, falling upon my chest,

knocked me out of time. Jack heard the others calling for him, but he was too hurt to respond. They charged in after him, only to find Jack bleeding from a claw mark to his face and the bear dead nearby. It must have looked bad, but the damage to Jack wasn't severe, though he was only the first of the group to face mortal danger. The party was beset by a week of storms. As the light faded one evening, Dr. Kingsley failed to return to camp. At dusk, the party heard the sound of gunfire and thought the doctor had shot a deer. Half an hour later, with the storm intensifying, another shot rang out farther away. Earl Dunraven worried for his old friend and wrote,

To be left out on such a night might have cost a man his life, for it would have been hard for even an old, experienced mountain man to have found material dry enough to make a fire. Texas Jack ran through the darkness in the direction of the gunfire. Kingsley had fallen in the dark, sliding down the wet hillside and injuring his leg. He tried to start a fire, but the wood was too wet. He had given up hope of being rescued when he heard Jack calling his name in the darkness. It was nearly dawn when Texas Jack walked into camp carrying Kingsley. The two men and the rest of the party survived the adventure,

and the Earl recorded it all for a book he called The Great Divide. They were in Yellowstone Park for nearly two months. They killed deer, antelope, elk, bison, sheep, and a bear. They saw geysers, mud holes, rivers, waterfalls, and canyons. And the Earl's book acted as a travel guide for other European visitors and a promotional tool for Texas Jack. Safely out of Yellowstone, Jack reunited with his wife and joined Buffalo Bill for a new tour that kicked off in Philadelphia in August of 1875. It would prove to be their longest and their last tour together.

The tour moved from Philadelphia into New York State, then west through Pennsylvania before looping back to New Jersey and Delaware. For the first time, Bill and Jack took their show south into Tennessee, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. In Savannah, attendance was poor and the scouts discovered that a year or two earlier, two imposters calling themselves Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack had disappointed audiences. The real scouts invited local men to join them for a shooting contest to convince them to come to their show. The tour moved west through Alabama to Texas, where Jack introduced his wife to some of the cowboys he had worked with on the Sam Allen Ranch. Then they came back through Tennessee to Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky,

and West Virginia before heading north to Canada. On April 20, 1876, the Scouts were in Springfield, Massachusetts. The first act of their play had just ended when Buffalo Bill pulled Texas Jack aside. The look on Bill's face must have told the whole story. Cody had just received an urgent telegram. His only son, Kit Carson Cody, had fallen ill and wasn't expected to last through the night. If Cody left Springfield now, he could just make the train home. At 8.25 p.m., Texas Jack received a telegram that said, my only darling boy is dead. When Cody missed the next show, a local paper reported that Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack had come to blows,

and either Buffalo Bill had been killed or was in jail for the murder of his old friend. Texas Jack was furious after reading the reports, and he dashed off letters to the editors of several prominent newspapers, defending and confirming the still-living status of his friend. With each letter, Jack enclosed a clipping about the death of Bill Cody's son and a demand that the paper print a correction. Jack wrote, Besides the moral, if not legal, libel in the use of W.F. Cody's name in connection with such an affair, it is the perfectly uncharitable and heartless conclusion you hastily jumped at,

after the explanation personally given your reporter by me is, to say the least, a criminally careless violation of the injunction to comfort the afflicted. Your reporter and the editors were truthfully informed of the reason for Mr. Cody's absence, and he painfully feels the injustice you have done him in this, his first great sorrow, of coupling an absurd gossip with his irremediable affliction. I, therefore, send the following extract from the Rochester Democrat in corroboration of the death of his darling boy. A broken-hearted Buffalo Bill rejoined the tour a few days later, and the show continued through Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.

The tour ended 289 days after it started, on July 3, 1876, in Wilmington, Delaware. Texas Jack, Jessupina Morlocki, and Buffalo Bill performed in more than a hundred cities. The death of Bill's son and the endless days at theaters, hotels, and in train cars took their toll on Cody. He told Jack and Jessupina that he thought his days as an actor were done. Cody's sister said, Very glad was the sad-hearted father that the theatrical season was over. He played nightly to crowded houses, but it was plain that his heart was not in his work. With the tour over, Cody left to spend time with his family while Jack and Giuseppina headed to Philadelphia,

where Jack had a plan to spend the nation's centennial earning a fortune. In the summer of 1876, America prepared to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Philadelphia was chosen to host a celebration that would be the first World's Fair in the United States. Texas Jack's idea was to invest in a Western-themed hotel, complete with a saloon and a shooting gallery. He and Buffalo Bill had succeeded in bringing a small version of the West to the East in their stage play, and now Jack wanted to go bigger. play, and now Jack wanted to go bigger. The hotel was a rousing success that was mentioned in newspapers across the country, until it all went up in smoke. Next time on Legends of the Old West, disaster strikes in the East and the West in the summer of 1876. Texas Jack and Buffalo Bill are called to the West

after an historic battle in southern Montana, and then Jack has to rush back to the East to deal with a crisis in Philadelphia at his new hotel. That's next week on Legends of the Old West. Members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week to receive new episodes. They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials, and they also receive exclusive bonus episodes. Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com.

Memberships begin at just $5 per month. Memberships begin at just $5 per month. This series was researched and written by Matthew Kearns, the author of Texas Jack, America's First Cowboy Star. Original music by Rob Valliere. I'm your host and producer, Chris Wimmer. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening.

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