Roadside Journal

The man who knew Buffalo Bill

By Chuck Woodbury

Buffalo Bill's Wild West : Celebrity, Memory, and Popular History

Buffalo Bill Cody : The Man Behind the Legend

, editor
Out West Newspaper

Emblem, Wyo., is along U.S. Route 14 east of Cody. The town sign says the population is 10, but it’s actually three.

Two of the three are Garold and Opal Orr, who live on a 320-acre ranch across the highway from the post office and the Cowboy Casbah, a general store with limited (very) inventory.

In good weather, Garold, 83, spends his days sitting on the front porch, swatting flies and watching the world drive by. He can barely walk because of football injuries. He played for the very first Kansas City Chiefs football team in 1927 and for the next five years. After football, his legs were a problem, but he could still walk. But nowadays, they’re nearly useless.

He never intended to be a football player. In a way, he can thank Buffalo Bill Cody. His grandfather and Buffalo Bill were buddies. Buffalo Bill, well-traveled man that he was, suggested that young Garold might do well to go to veterinary school in Kansas City. The school there was one of the best in the United States, he believed.

Well, Garold agreed that might be the thing to do, so years later, after high school, he went to Kansas City. It was there that he met Opal, who he called Frenchy. “She was a little bit of a squirt,” Garold recalled. “One day she said to me, ‘You know, Orr, you’re so big and I’m so little, we don’t make a very good couple, so I don’t think we should go together.’ ” Well, Garold said he’d exercise to lose some of his 300 pounds. So he started running at a local track. “One day I went over there, and there was this little bit of a fellow, big cigar in his mouth, and he says, ‘Hey, lad, did you ever play football?’ Garold answered yes, he’d played in high school in Greybull. The man, who Garold learned later was H.L. Hunt, the famous oil baron then asked, “How’d you like to play for me?”

He offered Garold $1,500 a month plus expenses. Garold didn’t think it was such a great idea; his plan was to be a veterinarian. But Opal thought otherwise. “You know, Orr, you’re as dumb as you are big,” she said. “You could make more money in a year playing football than you could in ten being a vet.”

So he signed up with the Chiefs, and was eventually assigned to play end. If he caught the ball, with his speed, he could outrun anyone to the end zone. After football, he worked in the oil industry. He and Opal raised five children, including a Japanese boy they adopted as a baby.

He also raised a few pets — traditional ones, but also an elk and a bobcat. He had to give both away. The bobcat was eating the neighborhood's entire chicken population.

Garold says he knew Buffalo Bill pretty well as a young lad. “I got a kick out of him because he was such a great story teller. When I was a kid, he told me what I ought to do — get me a good education, make a lot of money so when I got old I could retire, travel the world, look it over. I tried, and did pretty fair. I don’t have to worry now money-wise, just leg-wise. I wish they could so something about my legs, but the doctors say there’s nothing they can do.”

I asked him if he could relive his life if he’d play football again, even though he’d ruin his legs. He thought about it for a moment, then said, “Oh, yes, because I was young and I loved to play football. If I had to do it over again, I’d probably go down the same path.”

A stop at the Buffalo Bill Museum

In Cody, I stopped by the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. This is a Smithsonian-quality exhibit with four museums in one — the Whitney Gallery of Western Art, the Buffalo Bill Museum, the Plains Indian Museum, and the Winchester (guns) Museum. I spent most of my time in the Buffalo Bill Museum because I wanted to learn more about Buffalo Bill (and because I had explored the other parts of the museum a couple of years ago).

Buffalo Bill was about the most famous man in the world at the turn of the century. Although some folks think of Buffalo Bill as one of the characters out of the old West, he actually lived into the 20th century, dying in 1917.

One thing that particularly interested me at the Buffalo Bill Museum was the display on Annie Oakley, the famous Western sharp-shooter. I was reminded that Annie Oakley got her start shooting game for restaurants in Cincinnati. She later joined up with Buffalo Bill in his Wild West Show.

I kept staring and staring at the photo of Annie Oakley. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. My image of Annie Oakley was that she was unfeminine, unattractive, dirty, and Tomboyish.

Yet, there in the museum, staring at her photo, I was struck by her beauty. I remembered a movie I’d seen with Christopher Reeve called “Somewhere In Time.” In the movie, Reeve fell in love with a similar historical photo. He became obsessed with meeting that woman (played by Jane Seymour), and managed to travel back in time and do so.

As I stared at the photo of Annie Oakley, I had the same sort of reaction. I wanted to meet her — to talk with her — to go out to dinner with her; she could tell me all about hunting game, about traveling with Buffalo Bill, and about what it was like to live in the wild West. I’d tell her what it was like to travel by motorhome. Later, we could take a walk under a moonlit sky, and at midnight I’d give her a good night kiss. (Imagine that, me kissing Annie Oakley!)

Well, it was just a romantic thought; my life isn’t the movies, and I won't be meeting Annie Oakley for the simple reason that she's dead. Still, I do think I’ll do a little reading up on her.

From Out West #12, Oct., 1990

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