In the Days of Buffalo Bill is a 1922 American silent Western film serial directed by Edward Laemmle. The film, which consisted of 18 episodes, is currently classified as lost. A clip of the Golden Spike segment has been found and uploaded to the Internet Archive.
Contents
Production
Parts of the film were made at Edgar Rice Burroughs's ranch near Universal City and at Manix, California in the Mojave Desert. The Union Pacific Railroad supplied two antique steam locomotives to represent the Jupiter and Union Pacific 119, as well as three wooden passenger cars. The locomotive which represented Jupiter was a 4-6-0 wheel arrangement, whilst a 4-4-0 played 119.
Citizens from Yermo and as far as Barstow were invited to play as extras for the Golden Spike scene. The UP built a spur track 15 miles east of Yermo to represent Promontory Point. 200 to 300 spectators were reported on the scene that day. A sandstorm disrupted filming, and the cast and crew had to make a mad dash back to Yermo for shelter.
The antique locomotives and cars were stored at the Yermo roundhouse, till a fire destroyed it in March 1922. Both actors and railroad crew worked hastily to rescue the movie train from the roundhouse. Luckily, the engines and cars escaped unscathed. The Union Pacific railroad had them insured for $50,000.
Some production stills from the 1869 episodes have been saved in the Mojave River Valley Museum in Barstow, California since 1975, but were long mistaken as photos of the first train into Barstow in 1883.
Cast
Art Acord as Art Taylor
Duke R. Lee as Buffalo Bill Cody
George A. Williams as Calvert Carter
Jay Morley as Lambert Ashley
Otto Nelson as Alden Carter
Pat Harmon as Gaspard
Jim Corey as Quantrell
Burton Law as Allen Pinkerton (as Burton C. Law)
William De Vaull as Edwin M. Stanton (as William P. Devaull)
Joel Day as Abraham Lincoln
J. Herbert Frank as Abraham Lincoln
Clark Comstock as Thomas C. Durant
Charles Colby as William H. Seward
Joseph Hazelton as Gideon Welles (as Joe Hazleton)
Lafe McKee as Gen. Robert E. Lee (as Lafayette McKee)
G.B. Philips as Montgomery Blair
Tex Driscoll as Gen. U.S. Grant (as John W. Morris)
Harry Myers as Andrew Johnson (as Henry Myers)
Ruth Royce as Aimee Lenard
Chief Lightheart as Sitting Bull
William Knight as Jack Casement
Litigation over name "Buffalo Bill"
The corporation founded by William F. Cody, the actual Buffalo Bill, and two partners in 1913, which made a film of his wild west exploits, The Adventures of Buffalo Bill (1917), brought a suit in federal court in Colorado seeking an injunction to prevent the 1922 film serial from using the name "Buffalo Bill" and his likeness in any advertising. Applying the law of unfair competition, the court dismissed the suit noting that the name, which at best had only a common law trademark, had acquired a secondary meaning regarding the American West which had lost its exclusivity from being used in several plays without challenge, and that the theater-going public could readily distinguish between the films.
Chapter titles
Bonds of Steel
In the Enemy's Hands
The Spy
The Sword of Grant and Lee
The Man of the Ages
Prisoners of the Sioux
Shackles of Fate
The Last Shot
From Tailor to President
Empire Builders
Perils of the Plains
The Hand of Justice
Trails of Peril
The Scarlet Doom
Men of Steel
The Brink of Eternity
A Race to the Finish
Driving the Golden Spike