The Life and Legacy of Annie Oakley (20 page)

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Authors: Glenda Riley

Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #Women, #History, #United States, #19th Century, #test

BOOK: The Life and Legacy of Annie Oakley
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Chapter 4
''To Be Considered a Lady''
Do Annie Oakley's efforts to open arenic and shooting sports to women between 1885 and 1913 mean she was a feminist? Oakley herself would have rejected such a designation and claimed instead that she was a model Victorian lady. Closest to the truth is that Annie defied convention on one level but embraced it on another. On the one hand, like any avowed feminist, Annie tested and broadened the limits of women's sphere. On the other hand, however, she clung to the concept of ladyhood, thus wrapping the cloak of respectability around her efforts to stretch the acceptable boundaries of women's activities.
This duality often resulted in a seemingly contradictory Annie Oakley. One September day in 1891, for example, Annie buckled her skirt around her ankles, stood on her head, seized a gun, and turned it upside down. From this unladylike position, she yelled "Pull," then smashed a clay pigeon into smithereens. But when the London gunmaker who witnessed the feat reported it to the public, Frank Butler felt compelled to justify Annie's behavior. Frank assured the public that Annie could hit both clay and live pigeons while standing on her head but that she did so only in private or in the presence of "a few intimate friends." In the arena, he explained, Annie left the trick to the Cowboy Kid, Johnny Baker, for she considered "it not proper for a lady to do."
For years, Annie had ranked ladylike conduct high on her list of priorities. Both her Quaker background and her midwestern values encouraged her to accept many of the era's prescriptions regarding true womanhood. But acting like a lady also offered Annie definite advantages. Victorian ladyhood carried with it an extensive body of rules, rules that would allow Annie to keep her life and environment under strict control. Acting like a lady also protected Annie from the slurs and slights cast at show, vaudeville, and Wild West women during her day. No one could, or did,

 

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put Annie into the stereotypical category of fast-living, low-acting, and hard "show women." In addition, because a lady usually originated from the middle or upper classes rather than from rural poverty, ladyhood meant social mobilitya step upwardfor Annie. She associated with the best people, received respectful treatment, and established residences wherever she chose.
Understandably, then, even more than favorable press reviews, Oakley thrived on compliments regarding her ladylike behavior. While in London in 1887, for example, she received what she regarded as the highest compliment of her life. As she tried to grassor bring downthe notoriously fast English blue rock pigeons, J. J. Walsh, editor of London's
Field
, watched quietly. Annie hit only five birds out of twenty and, in her words, "could have been led home easily by a lingerie ribbon." When Walsh approached her after the match, he proffered an accolade she always cherished: "Miss Oakley, I certainly expected to find you a better shot than you are, but not to find you so much of a lady."
The following year in Paris in 1888, Annie publicly revealed that her "highest ambition" had always been "to be considered a lady." Although she excelled in a predominantly male professionthe Wild West arenaand bested men at their own sportshooting and huntingshe had no desire to wear trousers, gamble with the fellows, or swagger and swear. Nor did Oakley seek independence, power, or such political prerogatives as suffrage or the right to hold office.
Instead, Annie fully intended to maintain the numerous qualities that society of the time associated with a real lady. Like the majority of Americans of her day, Annie believed that a quintessential Victorian woman must embody five major qualities. A genuine lady should be modest, married, domestic, benevolent, and a civilizing force.
According to prevailing social standards of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a lady always demonstrated modesty, whatever the circumstances. For one thing, a true lady always maintained an attractive yet demure appearance. Because Annie adhered to these standards throughout her life, she often startled

 

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people. In 1888, for example, a reporter went to an interview with her fully expecting to meet a "strong, virile, masculine-like woman, of loud voice, tall of stature and of massive proportions." On the contrary, Annie stood five feet tall and weighed a little more than one hundred pounds. Despite the strong hands and taut muscles Annie developed first from farmwork as a girl then from working with six-pound and heavier guns, people invariably described her as little, tiny, dainty, and girlish.
Oakley fostered this image by wearing her hair long and loose. She also avoided wearing makeup, jewelry, or her medals, for she feared she would look "a vain, foolish girl." The overall effect enhanced her best featuresher blue-gray eyes and her smileso that most people judged her good-looking and even sexually appealing. In 1894, the
Brooklyn Citizen
described her as "the wonderful woman" who could "leap like a gazelle, run like a deer, shoot faster and straighter than any cowboy in the troupe" and who was "pretty to boot.''
Annie also favored feminine, modest apparel, innocent of what one fan called "man-slaying artifices." Oakley always wore plain but elegantly cut dresses or skirts and blousesas a woman of the middle or upper classes should. Even when performing in the arena, shooting in matches, giving exhibitions, or hunting, Annie refused to wear trousers or other masculine attire. Instead, she donned skirted outfits of fine broadcloth or tan gabardine materials that resembled buckskin but were lighter and easier to maintain. During the summer, she switched to costumes of washable material, usually in blues or tans.
When Annie first traveled abroad in 1887, her simple style of dress aroused a great deal of interest among English women. One wrote to
Society Times
praising Oakley's riding costume, which she thought "cool, comfortable, and handsome." According to Annie, this letter resulted in so many requests for dress patterns that she could have started a "business as a lady's tailor."
When Annie returned to England during the early 1890s, many people asked what English women should wear while shooting. In 1892, Annie responded that they would have to reform their usual costumes, for it was "impossible to shoot brilliantly in a tight-fitting bodiceabsolutely impossible." Moreover, ladies

 

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who walked through "fields of wet roots . . . wearing skirts down to the ground" would get soaked and muddy. Their pleasure would soon "give way to misery." Annie recommended instead a loose-fitting bodice of some soft material, preferably tweed, and a skirt falling halfway between the knee and the ankle, a costume that would be both becoming and practical.
The following year, however, she drew back a bit by saying she would not advocate any one costume. "For I have been in the habit of clothing myself to suit each climate, always taking good care to keep my feet dry and warm." Perhaps women had complained that such outfits elicited strange reactions, especially from men. Certainly, Annie received her share of shocked looks. That very year, Bergen County farmers had plainly showed their discomfort when they encountered Annie, out hunting in a ladylike but utilitarian outfit, including calf-length skirts and stout leggings.
Clearly, Annie was determined to retain the public's high opinion of her, and ensure her entrance into high society, by looking as much like a lady as possible, although pursuing what were then regarded as men's sports. Even when clothing styles relaxed among some women, especially arena "cowgirls," Annie maintained her formal ladylike look. While other women adopted bloomer outfits, split skirts, and trousers, Annie wore skirts. As a result, these women often elicited such terms as hard, sexy, and loose, whereas Annie remained soft, sexual, and chaste.
In 1899, for example, while sport shooting, Oakley wore a tailor-made suit of dove-colored cloth, an ankle-length skirt, a military-style jacket with rolling collar and loose sleeves, and a loose-fitting waist of red checked silk set off by a high white collar with a silk tie matching the waist. On her feet she wore heavy-soled, tan shoes that laced to the ankle. According to one observer, Annie's hat was "a feature in itself." It had a brim of stiff felt that extended four inches in width around her head and refused to flap in the strongest wind, a crown of soft felt, and a wide silk band with a few feathers in it.
When Annie shot in the 1902 Grand American Handicap, she wore a similar outfit, but designed for summer wear. Annie appeared in a loose-fitting bodice, an ankle-length full skirt,

 

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sturdy flat-heeled shoes, and a female version of a bowler hat. At the reception following the match, she posed for a photograph with the other shootersall men attired in dark suits and gleaming starched collars. In her long-sleeved, high-collared, long-skirted dress of light color, perhaps gray or lavender, Oakley stood out, yet still looked modest and demure.
In private life, Annie followed a similar style but allowed herself a few more furbelows, including plain but elegant gowns, elaborate hats, fur collars, and fur muffs. For instance, in 1892, she attended a reception dressed in a pearl-gray silk dress with salmon trim, high sleeves, and a large white hat featuring Brussels lace and white ostrich feathers. Gone forever was the gingham that Annie reportedly wore in that first, significant match against Frank Butler back in Ohio. Annie's appearance was no longer that of a poor farm girl; she now looked the part of a Victorian lady.
Besides her dress, Oakley demonstrated her modesty in other ways. She adhered to prevailing standards of female decorum by refusing to ride a horse astride. In keeping with her beliefs, Annie declared riding astride a "horrid idea." Instead, she performed horseback tricks from a sidesaddle, a contraption with a flat seat, on which the rider sat sideways, and a thick, leather-covered hook, which the rider used to anchor herself by her leg to the horse's back. In exhibitions, using this device and wearing full, ankle-length skirts, Annie Oakley lay back against her horse while traveling at a gallop. With her skirt draped gracefully over her legs, she pointed her rifle in the air and almost always hit her target. Or Annie might sit upright, shooting while her mount jumped a fence.
In the arena, Oakley refrained from shooting while riding, perhaps to avoid competing with Cody, but she would retrieve a handkerchief or her hat from the ground by dangling off the side of her horse from the sidesaddle or by draping herself across the horse's back and reaching down the other side. Using the sidesaddle to her advantage, Annie created the illusion, whatever her mount's speed and gait, that she floated on the horse's back.
Reporters must have been tempted to spice up Oakley's restrained image and present her to the public in a more dramatic guise, yet newspaper publicity was amazingly accurate most of

 

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the time, perhaps because of Frank Butler's diligence in supplying editors and reporters with information and photographs. Only occasionally did publicity appear that must have rankled both Frank and Annie. In June 1892, one London newspaper raved about Annie's sweet personality, saying she was "one of the most unaffected, good natured girls conceivable." But next to this item appeared a sketch of a woman, presumably Annie Oakley, with unkempt, curly hair and bedroom eyes. She wore a sexy blouse, a very short skirt that barely covered her hips, tight-fitting boots, and held a smoking gun. One can only wonder whether Annie's ladylike demeanor remained in place when she saw this picture.
Other descriptions that may have irritated Annie appeared at home rather than abroad. In 1893, one reporter claimed that Annie favored "a saucy dress of scarlet plush and embroidered buckskins," which she wore as she "dance[d] herself over the vast lawn where the soldiers prance[d]." In 1898, Amy Leslie similarly misrepresented Annie's arena costume as a "jaunty doll-skirt habit of military blue, trimmed with silver braid and lined with white pique, from under which flutters the most fascinating assortment of lingerie, which might fill with envy the top tray of a ballet girl."
An especially annoying report appeared in
Field and Stream
just after Annie returned from her second trip to Europe during the early 1890s. Although her frequent walking and riding kept her trim and attractive, the magazine reported with little tact that Annie had returned from Europe a bit chubbier than when she left. "'Little Sure Shot' has not grown any 'littler' since her extended vacation, but has increased in avoirdupois."
These and other similar comments indicate that Annie, like it or not, lived most of her life in the public eye. Moreover, both the public and the media were ready to pounce on any indiscretion, unusual item of clothing, or even a slight weight gain. Why Annie's own friend, Amy Leslie, would publicly describe Annie as a woman who favored frilly lingerie is difficult to explain, unless Leslie hoped to soften Annie's often austere image. Or Leslie may have simply wanted to increase her own readership. In either case, Leslie's misrepresentation must have given Annie pause, making her more cautious than ever regarding both female friends and the press.

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