FAQ

In late 1800s Ohio, sharp-shooting but illiterate hillbilly Annie Oakley (Betty Hutton) wins a shooting match against Frank Butler (Howard Keel), shooting ace with Buffalo Bill Cody's (Louis Calhern) travelling Wild West Show and is offered a job with the show. Frank and Annie fall in love, but when Annie performs a shooting display that eclipses anything Frank has done and gets top billing, Frank joins Pawnee Bill's (Edward Arnold) rival show, resulting in conflicts that threaten their budding romance.

Annie Get Your Gun is based on a stage musical of the same name with lyrics and music by American composer Irving Berlin and a book by American playwright Dorothy Fields and her brother Herbert. The musical premiered on Broadway in 1946 with Ethel Merman playing Annie and was subsequently adapted for the film by American writer Sidney Sheldon.

It's the day of the shooting match to determine who is the better shot Annie or Frank. Knowing that Annie is still pining for Frank, Chief Sitting Bull (J. Carrol Naish) rigs all of her rifles so that she will lose the match but win back Frank's affections. Not knowing that her guns have been sabotaged, Annie suddenly puts up all of her medals as a bet in her favor, much to the horror of Charlie Davenport (Keenan Wynn) who plans to sell the medals in order to keep the show afloat. The match commences with Annie taking the first five shots. When she misses two shots, she asks for another rifle (also rigged) and misses the next shot. Frank loans her his rifle, and she hits the clay birds perfectly. Frank takes his five shoots, hitting them all. When it comes time for Annie to take her second five shots, she goes for one of her own rifles, and Sitting Bull tells her what he has done. 'Be second best,' he advises her and reminds her of her own words: You can't get a man with a gun.' Annie understands, misses her first two shots and concedes the match to Frank. Proud as a peacock, Frank accepts the medals but turns around and gives them back to Annie, promising that they will be partners again. The final scenes are a big finale with cowboys and Indians alike riding circles around Annie and Frank to the tune of 'There's no Business Like Show Business.'

Yes. Annie Oakley [1860-1926], born Phoebe Ann Mosey in a cabin in rural western Ohio, the sixth of seven children, learned to trap and shoot at an early age in order to support her family when her father died from pneumonia in 1866. She married traveling show marksman Frank Butler [1850-1926] in 1876 after competing against him (and winning) in a local shooting contest. They joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West show in 1885, and she and Frank toured together around the country and Europe, even performing in front of various heads of state. She died at the age of 66 of pernicious anemia.