In the Days of Buffalo Bill

In the Days of Buffalo Bill
Cover of Universal Weekly (July 15, 1922)
Directed byEdward Laemmle
Written byRobert Dillon
Produced byCarl Laemmle
StarringArt Acord
Duke R. Lee
CinematographyHerbert Kirkpatrick
Howard Oswald
Distributed byUniversal Film Manufacturing Co.
Release date
  • September 11, 1922 (1922-09-11)
Running time
18 episodes
CountryUnited States
LanguagesSilent
English intertitles

In the Days of Buffalo Bill is a 1922 American silent Western film serial directed by Edward Laemmle. The film, which consisted of 18 episodes, is currently classified as lost.[1] A clip of the Golden Spike segment has been found and uploaded to the Internet Archive.[2]

Production

Parts of the film were made at Edgar Rice Burroughs's ranch near Universal City and at Manix, California in the Mojave Desert.[3] The Union Pacific Railroad supplied two antique steam locomotives to represent the Jupiter and Union Pacific 119, as well as three wooden passenger cars.[4] The locomotive which represented Jupiter was a 4-6-0 wheel arrangement, whilst a 4-4-0 played 119.[5]

Citizens from Yermo and as far as Barstow were invited to play as extras for the Golden Spike scene. The UP built a spur track 15 miles east of Yermo to represent Promontory Point. 200 to 300 spectators were reported on the scene that day. A sandstorm disrupted filming, and the cast and crew had to make a mad dash back to Yermo for shelter.[6] [7]

The antique locomotives and cars were stored at the Yermo roundhouse, till a fire destroyed it in March 1922. Both actors and railroad crew worked hastily to rescue the movie train from the roundhouse. Luckily, the engines and cars escaped unscathed. The Union Pacific railroad had them insured for $50,000.[8]

Some production stills from the 1869 episodes have been saved in the Mojave River Valley Museum in Barstow, California since 1975, but were long mistaken as photos of the first train into Barstow in 1883.

Cast

Advertisement in The Film Daily (July 2, 1922)
Advertisement in Universal Weekly (June 10, 1922)

Litigation over name "Buffalo Bill"

The corporation founded by William F. Cody, the actual Buffalo Bill, and two partners in 1913, which made a film of his wild west exploits, The Adventures of Buffalo Bill (1917), brought a suit in federal court in Colorado seeking an injunction to prevent the 1922 film serial from using the name "Buffalo Bill" and his likeness in any advertising.[9] Applying the law of unfair competition, the court dismissed the suit noting that the name, which at best had only a common law trademark, had acquired a secondary meaning regarding the American West which had lost its exclusivity from being used in several plays without challenge, and that the theater-going public could readily distinguish between the films.[10]

Chapter titles

  1. Bonds of Steel
  2. In the Enemy's Hands
  3. The Spy
  4. The Sword of Grant and Lee
  5. The Man of the Ages
  6. Prisoners of the Sioux
  7. Shackles of Fate
  8. The Last Shot
  9. From Tailor to President
  10. Empire Builders
  11. Perils of the Plains
  12. The Hand of Justice
  13. Trails of Peril
  14. The Scarlet Doom
  15. Men of Steel
  16. The Brink of Eternity
  17. A Race to the Finish
  18. Driving the Golden Spike

See also

References

Notes
  1. 1 2 3 Lincoln and Grant are each played by two actors.
Citations
  1. ↑ "Progressive Silent Film List: In the Days of Buffalo Bill". silentera.com. Retrieved October 20, 2009.
  2. ↑ https://archive.org/details/surviving-clip-from-in-the-days-of-buffalo-bill
  3. ↑ https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-herald-examiner/203009182/
  4. ↑ https://www.newspapers.com/article/desert-dispatch/203007681/
  5. ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0013265/mediaviewer/rm3912815873/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
  6. ↑ https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-bulletin/203006717/
  7. ↑ https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-herald-examiner/203007696/
  8. ↑ https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-pomona-progress/203010289/
  9. ↑ Col. W.F. Cody Historical Picture Co. v. Colonial Amusement Co., 284 F. 873 (D. Colo. 1922).
  10. ↑ "Right to Use Name "Buffalo Bill" to Advertise Motion Picture Not Exclusive". Mississippi Law Review. 1 (5). University of Mississippi: Blackstone Law Club: 94. April 1923. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
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