Reminiscences of a Showman

Mr. Cooke deviates from the chronological sequence in this article at the request of the Evening Star, which deems the present chapter timely.

The origin of "101 Ranch" is here outlined, especial attention being given to that section of the show which visited England last year under the direction of Mr. Cooke.

That gentleman, with the assistance of Harry Cyphers, a Newark journalist intimately acquainted with the London engagement of "101 Ranch," tells graphically of the trials and triumphs of the enterprise, of the visit which royalty made to the show and finally, of the outbreak of the European war, which put an untimely end to the ambitious enterprise.

Not the least interesting section of the narrative is that which tells of the extraordinary efforts by which all the show people were finally landed safely in America.

The reminiscences of a busy life would be far from complete without the story of my connection with "Miller Brothers and Arlington's 101 Ranch Real Wild West," which had its origin on the home ranch of the Miller Brothers at Bliss, Oklahoma. This ranch is probably, the largest rural proposition in the West and comprises some thirty square miles of productive and grazing land, over which herds of horses, cattle and buffalo feed and are fitted for the market.

Origin of the 101 Ranch.

Scores of cowboys, ranch girls and Mexicans employed to tend the herds and till the soil frequently gathered for a holiday and to hold contests themselves, in real Wild West fashion by lariat throwing, "busting bronchos," bulldoging the long-horned steers, bossing the round-ups, branding the calves, and other pastimes which form a part of the daily life of the people of the plains.

To these meetings Indians, who had their wigwams close by, used to come, and gradually the fame of the festive occasions spread throughout the country, until it was determined to give a great public demonstration, to which railway excursions were run from long distances at half fare. This rate also included free admission to the performances given in the open field, and the ranch, and a barbecue lunch, the expenses being covered by a percentage of the railway tickets.

The success was phenomenal, as over 30,000 people were in attendance. This occasion resulted in a resolution by the Miller Brothers - Joe, George and Zack - backed by the approval and encouragement of their mother, to organize a traveling exhibition on the same lines, and in company with Edward Arlington and his father, George Arlington, two practical showmen, who were long associated with me in connection with the Barnum and Bailey show, the project was launched and has since continued to enormous business.

My connection with this enterprise is best told by another disinterested party who became familiar with all the circumstances. Personal modesty would not permit telling the story as he has told it.

Mr. Cyphers Takes Up the Story.

Harry Cyphers, a Newark journalist of established reputation, happened to be in London, England, when I arrived there with the 101 Ranch. He was then representing Madame Melba, the famous cantatrice, whom I had the honor of seeing and hearing in Melbourne, Australia, her native city, at a benefit concert given by her admiring friends on the eve of her departure to study abroad. I have watched her career with more than ordinary interest.

But to return to the story. Mr. Cyphers and his wife, nee "Gretta” Kenny, a Newark girl, like many other Americans, were frequent visitors at the Anglo-American Exposition and our "exhibition," which was supposed to celebrate the anniversary of 100 years of peace since signing the treaty at Ghent, and which terminated, as we all know, in the most senseless, inhuman and appalling war the world has ever known. And the end is not yet.

After viewing the performances on several occasions and getting the details of the exposition and our proceedings, Mr. Cyphers sent out a syndicate article which was published in several American papers. I venture to quote it here:

"Few of the countless attractions that have been shipped across the Atlantic to amuse the stolid Briton have commanded the attention at present attaching to the '101 Ranch’ Wild West Show, the dominant feature of the Anglo-American Exhibition, which recently took possession of the Great White City at Shepherd's Bush, London' most popular recreation resort, and rarely has American enterprise created greater consternation among our English cousins than the circumstances attending the importation of this unique organization.

"Although thousands upon thousands of Londoners have found highly diverting entertainment in the thrilling scenes that these rough and ready actors enact daily in the mammouth stadium that has been set aside for this particular attraction, comparatively few of these pleasure seekers who have witnessed these extraordinary performances and scenic revelations are familiar with the inside history of this colossal undertaking. Little by little, however, these very interesting details are coming to light and, in the newspaper world, where the facts are known, nothing but admiration is expressed for the kind of brains and ingenuity that conceived and executed this daring amusement project.

"Honor to Whom Honor."

"To Louis E. Cooke, proprietor of the Continental Hotel, of Newark, N. J., who, perhaps, is today the oldest active and one of the most prominent circus men in the world, belongs the credit for having caused the Londoner to rub his eyes in wonderment as he contemplates the finished product and reflects upon the sequence of events that led to the organization, the transportation and the staging of this gigantic spectacle in such rapid succession. It is an individual achievement that has no parallel in the annals of London's "arrangements," as the calendar of scheduled events during "the season" are termed, and one that has aroused a higher appreciation than ever before of the kind of article that Yankee ingenuity claims for its own.

It was during the inaugural week of the Wild West Show's recent engagement at Madison Square Garden, New York city, that the idea of presenting a similar attraction simultaneously in London was conceived. The feasibility of the scheme was immediately referred to Mr. Cooke to determine, and within forty hours he was on board a fast steamer; it was just five weeks later that the very heart of London pulsed with the crack of the frontiersman's rifle and the uncanny yells of the exotic redskin, while a distinguished assemblage gasped with admiration at the most picturesque stage setting this phase of American life has ever had on the mimic scene.

Some Quick Work.

"To be exact and chronological in the order of events supplying the prologue to the scenes that are now a matter of daily enactment, it is necessary to relate that Mr. Cooke sailed from New York aboard the Mauretania April 7, on his original exploring expedition. He arrived in London six days later, and in the four days that intervened between the return voyage of the Mauretania, on which he again took passage, he had completed all the arrangements necessary for the importation of the host of cowpunchers, rough riders and Indians that subsequently converted the big arena into a miniature "wild and wooly West." It was on the afternoon of May 14, just five weeks from the day he sailed out of New York, that the initial performance on this mammoth stage, and singularly enough, it was one of the few features of the comprehensive exhibit that was ready for public patronage coincident with the formal opening of the exhibition grounds.

"From the moment that Mr. Cooke first stepped foot on British soil until he shook the dust of London temporarily from his heels the matter of eating and sleeping was reserved for the brief intervals that were not otherwise employed. His commission first took him to the exhibition grounds. There he found a section of the great stadium admirably adapted to his purpose and he immediately closed negotiations with the local management. He secured the necessary signature to one of the best contracts ever written and half an hour later had taken all the required measurements of the colossal grounds on which the enormous canvases were to be stretched.

Preparing the Arena.

"Then began the search for scenic material and a clever sketch artist to execute a miniature panorama. Colored prints were secured from the London libraries, souvenir postcards were found in an out-of-the-way shop, crude drawings from memory were added to the collection. With the aid of these, reinforced by his own impressive eloquence, Mr. Cooke managed to convey some idea of the majesty of the Rockies, the awe-inspiring grandeur of the Arizona canyons and the far-reaching stretches of the desert fastnesses, all of which he had planned to reproduce as a proper stage setting.

"While the artist applied himself to the execution of these hurried sketches Mr. Cooke personally laid out his arena. The huge concrete motor track had to be covered with turf and the mammoth tank, in which aquatic sports were ordinarily held, had to be filled and before he left hundreds of workmen were actually employed in the gigantic undertaking the exigencies of the case imposed upon them.

"Another day was spent in coralling an efficient corps of scenic painters, who were charged with the work of reproducing the miniature sketch on 1,500 lineal feet of canvas, while a veritable army of carpenters were hired to build the great frames, some of them reaching seventy-five feet in height, on which this seemingly endless panorama of America's physical beauty was to be stretched.

"All of this work and innumerable less important details were in process of accomplishment before Mr. Cooke made his first flying trip back to the States. In the meantime he kept the Atlantic cable hot. He had not neglected the equally urgent necessity of organizing a second Wild West company, and in this respect he had ideas of his own. He had designed the biggest and best attraction of its kind ever produced on this side of the Atlantic, and he had found it necessary to wire instructions explicitly to the Messrs. Miller Brothers and Arlington, who were also busy. It was under his direction, therefore, that the wheels of activity were set in motion on the American Side of the Atlantic. Requisition was immediately made on the plains for a new and choice supply of cowboys, and cowgirls. The Indian reservations were likewise communicated with. Horses had to be secured, and the flight of a company of Huerta's cavalry across the border afforded an unlooked for supply.

How the Scenario Was Written.

"Nor did Mr. Cooke experience a temporary respite from his arduous task when the Mauretania weighed anchor and began the six-day voyage back to New York. Up to that moment the scenario had not been touched. Producing a Wild West Show is not unlike producing any other work of dramatic interest. As Major Burke would say, the production is not a 'show,' but 'an educational exhibition,' and while it may be regarded as allegorical, the stage proceedings, in the course of their development, are designed to unfold a real story. In this process logical sequence is the most essential element, and it was to the narrative and such theatrical climaxes as he might devise that demanded much of his attention on his return voyage.

“It was to this very important part of his task that Mr. Cooke applied himself most assiduously during the first three or four days of his second sea trip, and when he wasn't keeping the wireless operators busy with messages from mid-ocean to both the English and American shores he was locked in his stateroom assembling his ideas and reducing to a written formula the whole history of pioneer and Indian life for reproduction within a prescribed period of time.

"With his manuscript finished, this globe-trotting sea voyager-author-producer-strategist gathered up the loose threads of his venture and wove them into the very texture of his scheme. So completely had he anticipated every requirement that upon his arrival again in New York he found everything in readiness for putting into action every idea he had conceived. The new recruits from the Indian reservations and from the Oklahoma ranches were awaiting him while the various accessories had likewise been assembled at his direction. The following day found the entire company in rehearsal, and a week later three ocean liners carried a complete Wild West Show out of New York harbor.

"Before developments had reached this very satisfying stage, however, a new obstacle presented itself and at first threatened to cause serious delay. It was at a season of the year when ocean travel eastward was becoming extremely popular. The general exodus of native tourists to foreign lands had begun and accommodations for the transportation of this huge and unique company of seafarers was a difficult one to arrange. This was finally accomplished by dividing the company into two detachments and sending them on separate steamers. Mr. Cooke with his lieutenants took passage on a third steamer, and although be waited until the others had embarked the greater speed of his vessel made it possible for him to arrive in London a few hours before the members of his company marched into the exposition grounds.

"With his entire aggregation on the scene of their proposed activities, Mr. Cooke inclined to take a long breath of bracing English air and settle down to something of routine life. The scenery had been built and was being set in place rapidly. The water tank had been filled with sand and gravel and the concrete motor track had been covered with turf. The appointments of the mammoth grandstand, where 14,000 spectators could be comfortably accommodated, had passed inspection, and the publicity campaign had been started with the noisest of English thunder. Apparently there remained little to do beyond placing the company in final rehearsal under the direction of Mr. Zack T. Miller and Mr. Johnny Baker previous to opening the doors of the great stadium to the public.

Bath Tub for the Indians.

"The only hitch In the whole proceedings was unforeseen. In the discharge of their official duties the members of the London County Council are painfully conscientious. They are so vertically upright in their political rectitude that they lean backward. They adhere to the letter of the law rather than to its spirit, and in their exactions they are both specific and insistent. They haven't as yet cultivated the habit of winking the official eye, much less closing it. They prefer to intensify its microscopic lens with the aid, perhaps, of a monocle. Where the Anglo-American exhibition is concerned, not a solitary thing escaped them.

"Who ever identified an American Indian with a modern bathtub? To the London County Council belongs the distinction of dispelling the traditional bath on the banks of the Red river. Their modern teepees were bad enough from the redskin's point of view. These has been fully equipped with shower baths and their appurtenances. But this was not enough. The Indians must have a regulation English "tub" - several of them, in fact, the kind that are built for willowy bathers only. And these the Indians got, all arguments to the contrary notwithstanding. Up to date there is no record of any of them having been tested, to say nothing of actual use, and because of the expense involved the manager has been tempted to gild them and use them for ornamental purposes only.

"This, however, is but one instance out of a baker's dozen or more where the whims of the London County Council have had to be gratified at the cost of not a little time and money, not to mention the mental anxiety their rigors have inflicted. Their demands, in several instances. are still responsible for darkened and untenanted buildings in the exhibition grounds, and that Mr. Cooke could have complied with the requirements that political body imposed without finding it necessary to postpone indefinitely the formal opening of the Wild West show speaks volumes for the adroit resourcefulness and indomitable courage of the man whose personal achievement is magnified beyond the magnitude of the undertaking with which he is at present so conspicuously identified."

Royalty Visits the Show.

Everything was running nicely The 101 Ranch easily carried all honors and was visited by royalty and nobility. Queen Alexandra and her party, including her sister, the Empress of Russia; Princess Victoria, Lord Lonsdale. Lord Blythe and other distinguished persons close to the throne, occupied the royal box. On their departure they all shook hands with me, expressing their great pleasure, and I had an opportunity to say to the Russian empress that I hoped to be able to bring the entire performance to her country the next season, having already made practical arrangements to play Paris, Berlin and Vienna during the winter, after closing in London, and then tour Russia the next summer. The empress's graceful reply was that she could assure us a warm welcome, and from the sincerity of her remark I fell she meant just what she said.

Indications pointed to planting the 101 Ranch banner in all parts of the world, on a tour that would have covered several years.

And then!

War.

Like a clap of thunder from a clear sky came the rumbles of war! It seemed impossible. It was too horrible to anticipate. Gradually the stern facts presented themselves, but that war should be declared in the face of such peace was unbelievable. Not until about July 27 did it really look serious. Then the banks began to take alarm. The press was teeming with rumors. Business became unsettled, although we played to capacity on Saturday, August 1, and were compelled to give four performances on Monday, August 2, it being a bank holiday.

While war had not been openly declared, it was inevitable, and on Sunday, August 2, ominous whispers were heard in military and railway circles. Arrangements had been made for excursions from all parts of the country to London, for the bank holiday, but all special trains were cancelled and the tracks cleared for immediate action in case they were required by the government, which, as a matter of course, prevented anything like the number of visitors at the exposition that had been expected. Our patronage was made up almost entirely by the populace of London and its immediate vicinity.

Financial Precautions.

During the day of August 3, we were visited by a number of people high in office and authority, among whom was my banker. He confidentially informed me that in all probability some action would be taken during the day or night to extend the bank holiday until Friday of that week, that the banks might make ample provisions to protect themselves and take care of the financial conditions. There was no doubt in his mind, that if the banks were compelled to open the next morning they would have to close their doors before noon for lack of currency and ready cash.

Taking this as a friendly tip, I at once consulted with the exhibition management, of which Mr. Imre Kiralfy and his sons, Charles, Gerald and Albert, were the directors-general and executives. I suggested to them that we keep all of the receipts of the exposition from every source, including our own, in the private vaults, on the exposition grounds, instead of depositing them in the banks as we had been in the habit of doing, thus securing the ready cash to tide over any emergencies. These arrangements were agreed upon. The next morning we found that England had openly declared war, and the banks were authorized to resort to the emergency prerogative of posting the announcement of an indefinite holiday. It was then absolutely impossible to obtain gold or silver in any quantities.

Excitement merged into pandemonium in the streets of London, but thanks to our foresight there was plenty of money in the exposition grounds, at Shepherd's Bush, where we were exhibiting in the stadium. From Saturday noon until the next Friday the banks remained closed. During the interim, by special Parliamentary provision and order, paper money was printed in small notes of one pound and ten shilling denominations, respectively, totaling the enormous amount of 100,000,000 notes.

The Horses Commandeered.

From that time forth things happened quickly. The next Sunday afternoon several officers of the English army, accompanied by their veterinaries, visited the stables of the 101 Ranch.

"We need your horses," the lieutenant laconically remarked, while his aides looked over the stock. The first selection took ten of our best horses. Later that afternoon another detachment of commandeers entered the headquarters and took twenty-nine more animals, which were set aside and a royal warrant issued for the price asked and paid. But the show was short just that many horses and the next day we had to rearrange our program, to put in all of the acts minus the horses that had been commandeered. This necessitated putting many of the Indians and minor people on foot and the performances were continued twice daily thereafter, although other amusement places in London closed and the outlook was dubious.

Then came another condition unforeseen. Over in Germany at Essen, the home of the great Krupp gun factories was another show, the Sarasinia Circus, which had a detachment of twenty-five 101 Ranch Indians. The Germans in one swoop took all the horses of that outfit and the show came to an abrupt end. At midnight on Sunday of the next week these twenty-five Indians marched into our arena. Being "true Americans," they had been shipped to London without passports, and we had just that many more mouths to feed, bodies to clothe and transport back to the United States.

The Return to America.

There were then nearly 200,000 Americans in England and on the continent clamoring, begging, bribing and pleading to get transportation. One by one, a few at a time, on this and that boat, I finally secured passage for our people and forwarded them just as fast as places could be secured, regardless of position, rank or file. This gradually reduced the number of people in the performance, and the expenses as well, but the show kept going until transportation facilities were secured for all the people, up to the day before they were to sail, when final arrangements were made to dispose of the remaining horses to the government, except three choice animals, which they allowed us to bring back to America.

After completing all these arrangements on the other side I sailed for New York to arrange with the railways to take the Indians back to their reservation, in accordance with our agreement with the United States government. I was at the docks to meet the cowboys and wild-West girls when they arrived one week later on the steamer St. Paul when all were dispatched to their homes.

Thus came the untimely end of a proposition that bid fair to surpass it anything previously projected in the amusement line, as we were in the midst of a highly prosperous season in London, with at least three of the most favorable months for the exhibition before us when the war broke out, the most horrible war, which is still raging at this writing (August 10, 1915), with no one wise enough to predict when it will terminate, or give any righteous cause for all the woeful want and bloodshed which it has entailed.

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