April 1st, 1873

On April 1st, 1873, the Scouts of the Prairie were playing their second show on Broadway. They'd opened in Chicago the preceding December and worked their way east towards the Big Apple and Broadway, with stops at St. Louis, Cincinnati, and more cities in between.

An advertisement for The Scouts of the Prairie from the New York Daily Herald - April 1, 1873

Worth noting here is the inclusion of the play's outline, which by the time they reach Niblo's Garden at the corner of Broadway in Prince Street included "Ned Buntline's Temperance Lecture," "Texas Jack and his Lasso," and "The Loves of Buffalo Bill." Also of note is the new scenery for the piece provided by William Voegtlin, who received top billing as the most successful scenery artist alive at the time.

The two notices below the play's synopsis speak to the incredible popularity of Texas Jack and Buffalo Bill, as the theatre's management added two matinees per week to accomodate the rush of theater-goers eager to buy tickets to see the heroes of the west. As Buffalo Bill told a reporter soon after, "We're no damn scouts now...we're first class stars!"