Annie Oakley made stop in Bangor

Is there anyone who hasn’t heard of Annie Oakley? I was introduced to her on a bubble gum card in the mid-1950s. I was smitten. Dale Evans certainly couldn’t hit the thin edge of a playing card at 30 paces. Annie Oakley was more than an actor; she was an athlete who bested men as well as women and made a lot of money doing it.

Our grandparents were equally enthralled.

“Annie Oakley, the champion woman shot of the world … is coming to Bangor,” the Bangor Daily Commercial announced breathlessly on Aug. 4, 1905, more than three weeks before Mrs. Frank Butler was due to entertain the Bangor Gun Club with her extraordinary skills. Interestingly, the Commercial’s rival, the Bangor Daily News, never mentioned “Little Sure Shot’s” appearance, which probably had something to do with newspaper politics and the nature of Annie’s unadvertised visit.

Oakley was no longer travelling with Buffalo Bill, as she had on her last visit to the Queen City in 1900. Those were her glory days when she performed around the world, shooting a cigarette from the mouth of Crown Prince William, who would become Germany’s last emperor, on one memorable occasion.

Now she was traveling the country with her husband, Frank Butler, giving exhibitions. He worked for the Union Metallic Cartridge Co. She had endorsed the company’s ammunition, and her picture appeared on cartridges. He would set up a canvas tent with UMC advertising and gifts such as Annie Oakley pins and UMC flags. They both displayed their marksmanship at these events.

Hunting season in Maine opened Oct. 1, so thousands of sportsmen were starting to think about guns and ammo. Hundreds of hunting enthusiasts greeted Annie and Frank at 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26, at the Bangor Gun Club’s range in East Hampden “just below the Tin bridge,” the railroad bridge that still crosses Route 1A near the line between Bangor and Hampden.

“Miss Oakley’s exhibition consisted of remarkable work with the rifle and some remarkable fine shooting with the shotgun. Breaking glass balls in the air and tricks with the rifle called forth much admiration. … Mr. Butler is an expert trap shot and his work at the traps was the subject of much favorable comment,” the Commercial’s reporter wrote.

Afterward, the Butlers gave the reporter an interview at the Bangor House, where they were staying. He wrote, “Annie Oakley … is a woman 36 years of age with white hair, which makes her look much older than she is.” Her hair had turned white after a train wreck, he said.

Actually, Annie was 45. She occasionally lied about her age. The year before, she testified in court that she was 38, according to Glenda Riley, one of her biographers.

She had been injured in a train wreck. The severity of her injuries and the impact on her hair color, however, have been debated by some biographers. Right after the wreck, she and her husband left Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show to try out other endeavors, such as selling Union Metallic’s cartridges.

Much of the interview with the Commercial centered on Annie’s and Frank’s international experiences traveling with Buffalo Bill. In Berlin, Frank found out it was illegal to shoot live pigeons and suggested eliminating the event from the program. Instead, Crown Prince William blocked the chief of police and his men from attending the show. Nothing was illegal if the police weren’t there.

Besides visiting Bangor that summer, Mr. and Mrs. Butler performed in Portland and Lewiston as well as several smaller towns including Oakland and Ashland. They also appeared in Rangeley, where Annie was able to pay a visit to her old friend Cornelia “Fly Rod” Crosby, the woman who gained fame as a sportsman, journalist and promoter of the Maine Woods. They visited Crosby’s lodge and drove around town.

While Crosby never achieved the fame that Annie Oakley did, both showed – wearing skirts instead of bloomers – they could make it in a male world without violating the standards of femininity for the time.

Richard R. Shaw contributed information for this column. Wayne E. Reilly can be reached at wreilly@bangordailynews.net.