On a hot summer day in 1882, the people of North Platte, Nebraska, were celebrating what they called The Old Glory Blowout.

Suddenly, down the middle of the fair grounds galloped a tall horseman with big hat, pointed beard, and long hair—the famous Buffalo Bill. As young Johnny Baker watched the galloping frontiersman, he wondered if anyone could have put together a better show than this Fourth of July celebration.

But The Old Glory Blowout proved to be nothing compared to the great Wild West Show that Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody) opened in Omaha the following year. Here, under the open sky, Johnny Baker watched a band of Indians chase the battered Deadwood Stagecoach, while army scouts dashed to the rescue; and here he determined to stay with the show as long as it ran.

In Missouri pretty Annie Oakley joined the troupe. As an added attraction, Buffalo Bill persuaded Sitting Bull, most feared of the Indian Chiefs, to come from the Dakotas and set up a whole Indian village. Everywhere crowds came to see the Wild West Show and because of it our picturesque Western frontier life became known all over the world.

In the pages of Walter Havighurst's Buffalo Bill's Great Wild West Show the reader will find the whole colorful, exciting story of the most famous live western show America ever produced, along with a vivid picture of the performers who created it.

From the dust jacket