William "Buffalo Bill" Cody was a "boy extra," a bullwhacker, cattle driver, hunter, and an American Indian fighter on the Great Plains of the 1850s, all before becoming a teenager. He claimed to have killed nearly 5,000 buffalo to supply construction crews of the Kansas Pacific Railroad and to have ridden for the Pony Express. Later, he transformed himself into a showman with the establishment of his Wild West arena extravaganza. Part circus, part...