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Broadside - "Kit Carson: The Last Of The Old Time Scouts" New Gayety Theatre

Broadside - "Kit Carson: The Last Of The Old Time Scouts"

New Gayety Theatre

Other works by New Gayety Theatre

Publication: Privately printed, nd ca 1889, NP

12" x 9" advertisement for the New Gayety Theatre's hosting of "Kit Carson and his red skin warriers from the sandy deserts of Old Mexico." William "Uncle Kit" Carson, originally Ora Arturis Woodman, was a long-time Wild West performer and beloved resident of Roswell, New Mexico. Although it is difficult to separate fact from fiction, Woodman was a close friend of Pawnee Bill and Diamond Dick and a personal acquaintance of Geronimo. He performed in Wild West, Circus, and Vaudeville shows from 1880 to 1930 including five years spent with Buffalo Bill Cody. Woodman assumed several personas during his career including that of "Two Braids" (a white army scout who'd been captured by Comanches when a youth); "Tommy Stringfield" (the lone survivor of a massacred homestead family); and "William 'Uncle Kit' Carson" (the nephew of Kit Carson). He regaled audiences with exciting and partially true stories about his early life in New Mexico and service as an army scout. This poster dates from 1880s when he billed himself simply as Kit Carson, apparently hoping that the public didn't realize that the real Kit Carson had died in 1868. 1/4" x 1/2" chip missing from center of broadside along with light chipping to extremities.

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