Pony Express Days

I recognized some stock footage of Dodge City in this short subject about the Pony Express Days. I also got the impression that the film was supposed to be a feature, but for one reason or another was cut down to a short subject and cast with many of Warner Brothers B list players.

The famous legend of the Pony Express bringing the news of Lincoln's election to California is shown here. That the existence of this mail and communication service to our West Coast did a lot to keep California in the union is simply accepted. The Pony Express knew it was on a short term existence, the telegraph was in existence for a decade and a half and it would move sooner or later across the plains as did the railroad, but only after the Civil War.

Before he was Superman, before he played Sir Galahad in a serial, George Reeves takes on the part of the Pony Express's most famous alumnus William F. Cody. Probably Stephen Baldwin in The Young Riders was a lot closer to the real Cody, but Reeves does all right with the part. That it was in fact Cody who brought the word of the election returns I'm not sure of.

Still it's a nice story about young Buffalo Bill.

Included on the First Season Warners DVD of the ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN TV series, this Technicolor Western short stars the future "Man Of Steel" himself, George Reeves, as another legendary character - "Buffalo Bill". Directed by second-unit expert B. Reeves Eason (he was responsible, among other things, for the legendary chariot race sequence in the Silent version of BEN-HUR [1925]), the film details the short-lived long-distance mail service provided by the Pony Express company. It's set immediately prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War, with the rough-riding but dedicated company employees commissioned to deliver pressing news of the delicate situation from one state to the other by horse - an arduous and risky journey which takes a number of days and necessitates them to make several stops at strategic points along the way in order to exchange horses. Invariably, they also have to contend with enemy agents determined not to allow these vital messages to go through - so that, in the meantime, agitators can insidiously work on the population of neutral states so as to rally them to their particular cause! Reeves's Bill Cody is a wannabe Pony Express rider who gets his chance when one of the men is wounded in an ambush and can't complete his journey. Intriguing, action-packed and boasting rich colors, the film is pleasant and unassuming entertainment of the kind they don't make 'em like anymore.

In the years before the Civil War, young Bill Cody wants to be a Pony Express rider. His daddy was killed in an Indian attack. He's considered too heavy to be a rider but he takes a job at a station. Southern agitators are trying to rile up sympathizers in California and recruiting Indians to stop the Pony Express. With the results of Lincoln's election, the mail must get through. With the completion of the transcontinental telegraph, the Pony Express becomes obsolete. Cody goes on a buffalo hunt with his station manager Nevada Jim who gives him the nickname, "Buffalo Bill Cody". Make America Pony Again. That's the feeling of this 20 min short. It's the heroic Pony Express going against southern traitors and barbaric Indians. It has the feel of a tall tale and that's somehow fitting for Buffalo Bill. It's a sales job for the unwashed masses yearning for the good ole days.

George Reeves wants to be a Pony Express rider. Fortunately for him, this was during the 18 months that the organization actually existed, and he's playing "Buffalo Bill" Cody. So you know that he's going to be one, and experience as much adventure as can be crammed into a two-reel Technicolor short.

The movies gives a weird and warped view of the Old West, with everyone carrying a handgun and being white. In reality, about a third of cowboys were Mexicans and a quarter were Black, and guns were rare -- and frequently banned in towns by local laws. There weren't many people out West in those days. Once you got much west of the Mississippi the land was dry and inhospitable until you got to the Cascade Mountains. People went out west for jobs, usually in mines, and when the mines played out, they left.

That doesn't make for much in the way of adventure, and the market for adventure stories and idea of Manifest Destiny resulted in an inexhaustible market for Wild West Shows and Dime Novels about the great men who ran them -- often written by Ned Buntlne, the publicist for Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

The impulse continued for a long time. Western shorts starring "Broncho Billy" Anderson gave way to features starring William S. Hart and a plethora of B western stars, all White, continuing through the 1970s on television. They're good works of fiction, but that's all they were.

Despite only operating for about a year and a half, it's amazing the number of films about the Pony Express. The messenger service only lasted a short time before it went backrupt...and soon telegraph would replace it, which was so much faster and more cost effective. This short color film from Warner Brothers is about this service and focuses on one of their riders, Buffalo Bill (George Reeves). Oddly, Cody was only 15 when he began working for the Express...and Reeves clearly wasn't!

So is this a good history lesson? In some ways, no. The importance of the service is way overstated in the film...such as saying how it 'opened the west'...though California was already a state long before this and as I mentioned above, the service was very short-lived. Also, I could find no evidence that Cody himself delivered the message that Lincoln had won the 1860 election, as they said in the film. HOWEVER, Cody often exaggerated his early life and God only knows what he actually did before becoming the famous showman! And, the film DID admit that the service lasted only a short period and lost money! Overall, the story is reasonably interesting even if much of it is fiction or exaggerated.