In the Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper, dated October 20, 1916, a special article to the newspaper announced that “Buffalo Bill” Cody endorsed Woodrow Wilson for President .
Looking closely at the article, it is interesting to me because endorsements from celebrities is not in any way a new thing. It is also interesting that instead of Twitter, the message of endorsement was sent by telegram.
We don’t think much about cowboys any more. Maybe once and a while a cowboy movie will resurface, but it seems that we have lost the days that celebrated true Wild West heroes. “Buffalo Bill” was a Medal of Honor recipient and later in life traveled around the country with his Wild West Show. He was a true hero and celebrity at the time in 1916. It makes sense that his endorsement would make a headline. There are many people who laugh at the fat of celebrity endorsement. But, we all can see that it is simply an opinion of an individual. Whether we respect the individual is our decision to make. The bigger problem is the person watching the endorsement need to understand what they believe in and vote accordingly. However, it seems silly that we use celebrities to advertise nearly every type of product around the world, so why do we act surprised when they also endorse a candidate for President.
The article helps put these endorsements in perspective as we seek to understand the election.
If you are interested in learning anything more about “Buffalo Bill”, be sure to check out the “Buffalo Bill” entry in Wikipedia.
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Photo from Wikipedia.com
Newspaper article accessed through Newspapers.com, by subscription through Amazon.com