After the performers rode into the arena for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, a now familiar song opened the fanfare: “The Star Spangled Banner.”
What might surprise people, says Buffalo Bill Museum Curator Jeremy Johnston, is the tradition of playing the anthem before events predated its adoption as America’s National Anthem.
“Thanks in large part to Buffalo Bill’s wild west, the national anthem became very important and was played at all sports of outdoor activities, and we still see that today with sporting events, many outdoor extravaganzas, the national anthem always opens up the performance,” he said.
Former Professor of Music at Northwest College Mike Masterson helped recreate the music from the Wild West show by researching old programs and other materials to produce the CD "Wild West Music of Buffalo Bill’s Cowboy Band”.
In an essay included with the CD, Masterson pointed out that the pre-show song ritual was nearly fifty years before “The Star Spangled Banner” officially became America's national anthem in 1931.
“Because of the thirty years of Wild West touring that helped spread this musical tradition, it could be argued that the general public’s acceptance of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ as our National Anthem demonstrates another example of Cody’s (and band director Sweeney’s) influence on American culture,” he wrote.
A copy of the CD mentioned above and Masterson’s PHD dissertation on the music performed in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show can be found at the McCracken Research Library at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody.
