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Short Stuff: Calamity Jane · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck and there's Dave and this is short stuff.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: So getty up, partner, or else Calamity James gonna shoot
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: you in the foot. Did you watch Deadwood? No? I
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: tried to, and I was like, I don't have the
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: emotional investment for this. Okay. Uh. Calamity Jane was one
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: of the great characters on the TV show Deadwood, great
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: character of the Old West. And this is a tough
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: one to research because when you're researching some of these
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: people from this era of the Old West, you start
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: to realize, and historians admit as much that it's hard
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: to get to the real truth because nobody really knows.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: A lot of the information we have on these characters
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: from back then are very much written by people who
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: wrote their bios for the Wild West shows they did,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: which were obviously going to be changed and pumped up,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: and it's just hard to get the real story. Um.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: But Calamity Jane is worth talking about in so far
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: as how much we know about her. Yeah, and she
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: actually wrote an autobiography which apparently was even more pumped
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: up and full of it than in the dime store
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  Speaker 1: novels that were written about her. But the point of
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: that is that she was a legend in her own time,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: quite quite honestly, in actuality. I'm not going to use
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: the L word. Um, but she was born Mary Jane Canary,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: which is a great name in and of itself, but
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  Speaker 1: she does have one of the all time great nicknames,
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  Speaker 1: Calamity Jane or Calamity Jane, depending on where you come from. Uh.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: And I'll go ahead and spoil this is interesting. You
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: said the L word because that was a showtime show
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: I believe about gay women, and it is very possible
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  Speaker 1: that Calamity Jane was a gay women at a time
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: where you could not live as such. Uh. There is
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: speculation about that, and we'll kind of get to that
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: here and there through the thing. But I read a
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: few articles that said, yeah, Calamity Jane was we gay,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: and then the nineteen sixties she became a bit of
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  Speaker 1: a gay icon in some circles. Uh. And very yeah,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: I didn't know that. Yeah, it's very interesting. So yeah,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: born uh Martha Jane Canary in Princeton, Missouri, and her
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: family went to I mean back in the Old West,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: people traveled around a lot, So we're not going to
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  Speaker 1: mention every time she moved this article, does it? Does?
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: It felt like the whole article was just like, didn't
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: you moved here? Did she moved there? Here? But they
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: moved around a lot, as people did back then. Her
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: family was very poor. Um she had two younger brothers
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: and three younger sisters and then um, you know, pretty
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  Speaker 1: early on when she was a kid, she learned how
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  Speaker 1: to shoot by hunting with a gentleman on these caravans
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  Speaker 1: and was really good at it. And in that caravan
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: and white one wagon train in particular, where her family
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: moved from Missouri to Virginia City, Montana, she lost her mom,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: which was the first um step in a turn for
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the worst for an already hard childhood. She had UM
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: and by the time they got to um Montana, I
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: think her and her her mother died. Her father was like,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: let's just keep going on to Utah. And again, we're
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: not gonna say where she moved every time. But the
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: point of it is her father died within a couple
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: of years of her mom. So she loses her mom
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: and she's maybe nine or ten, and then her dad
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  Speaker 1: dies when she's twelve or thirteen, and all of a sudden,
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  Speaker 1: she's the oldest of five siblings. Um or maybe she
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: I think she actually had five additional siblings. So she's
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  Speaker 1: the oldest of six children, and she's in charge now.
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  Speaker 1: She's at age thirteen, now charged with keeping her younger
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  Speaker 1: siblings alive and clothed and fed, and is basically cast
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  Speaker 1: into the Old West in this role. And this wasn't
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  Speaker 1: a place where you could, you know, go to social
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: services or the local church or something like that and
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  Speaker 1: and get help. She had to figure all this out herself,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: and as far as figure hearing it out, she definitely did.
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  Speaker 1: And also she developed a pretty pretty pronounced taste for
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  Speaker 1: whiskey starting around that time too. From what I understand, Yeah,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: like throw out what you think about Deadwood and these
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: great old stories, like it really needed to hit home
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  Speaker 1: that this is a twelve or thirteen year old young
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  Speaker 1: girl who is literally on her own with five younger
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  Speaker 1: siblings in her care. And she didn't just blow them
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  Speaker 1: off and leave like she was. She had to figure
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  Speaker 1: this out and worked as a nurse, and worked as
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: a dishwasher by all accounts, worked as a sex worker
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  Speaker 1: when she needed to. And this whole time. Like you said,
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  Speaker 1: she started to drink a little bit. Uh, she was
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  Speaker 1: sort of rough housing with the older men in the
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  Speaker 1: in the towns where she lived, shooting up things, and
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  Speaker 1: like we said earlier, it was a really good shot.
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  Speaker 1: And like her legend kind of started to grow. So
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  Speaker 1: she started taking on additional jobs, especially with the military
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  Speaker 1: as a career as a writer. As a scout UM,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: I guess got a lot of work with them, including
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: working with UM with General Custer Um. But it wasn't
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: until she started to she So she first moved to
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  Speaker 1: Deadwood as an orphan thirteen year old in charge of
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: her siblings, and then moved away, and then she moved
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  Speaker 1: back about a decade later. In that time, she became
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  Speaker 1: friendly with wild Bill Hickock, and from what I understand,
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  Speaker 1: it was about there that her her status as a
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  Speaker 1: legend really kind of was born just by association with him,
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  Speaker 1: or standing in the same spotlight as him. She deserved
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: the spotlight herself, but it was his spotlight that she
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  Speaker 1: was initially introduced to the world of like dime store novels.
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  Speaker 1: Back East. Correct and let's take a break, it's a
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: perfect place to start, right As her legend is growing. So, uh,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: we're back, and let's see calamity. Jane meets while Bill Hickock.
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  Speaker 1: They fall in love and settle down and have a
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  Speaker 1: family and live happily ever after, I believe, And that
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: was it. No, but they were really really close. Everything
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: I read really stressed the importance of their friendship over
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: the years and how he really took her under his wing.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: And then when I started reading articles about whether or
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: not she was gay and in a situation where she
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: was not allowed to live that way, and you know,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: speculation abounds because of things like she dressed like a
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: man and she hung out with the men, and she
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: never had any boyfriends. Uh, there is Uh, there are
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  Speaker 1: stories of her getting married later in life and having
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  Speaker 1: a child. But I also saw some marty calls that
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: call that into question, saying that maybe that didn't even happen. Well,
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  Speaker 1: there's no certificates anywhere on record, um. But it made
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  Speaker 1: me wonder about while Bill Hillcock Hickock, and if he
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: was um, maybe knew the deal and was sympathetic to
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: what was going on. So he was her beard. Well
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: I don't not beard because he didn't act as her
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: boyfriend or anything. But just maybe sympathetic to her. I mean,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: that's what I cooked up in my head. At least
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: I got you I had seen there. There are plenty
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: of um articles that put the two together romantically. UM.
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  Speaker 1: Some say that she she yeah, she was into him
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: and he wasn't into her. UM. And it really kind
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: of demonstrates like just how hard it is to pin
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  Speaker 1: down fact from fiction in her story in particular. But
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: the it is it is factual that she and Bill
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  Speaker 1: Hiccock were close friends at the very least in Deadwood, UM,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: and that she was there when he was murdered in
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: August of eighteen seventy six, when he was shot in
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  Speaker 1: the back of the head by Jack McCall at point
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: blank range, while while Bill was um at a at
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  Speaker 1: a gambling table in a saloon in Deadwood. Yeah, which
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: was very tough on her obviously. UM. So she left
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  Speaker 1: Deadwood pretty shortly after that and then again spent you know,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: the next Uh it seems like ten or fifteen years
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  Speaker 1: really traveling all over the place. She never stayed in
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  Speaker 1: one place for long. I think in the early eighteen
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  Speaker 1: eighties she bought a ranch on the Yellowstone River, but
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: only stayed there for about a year. I went to
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: California only stayed there about a year. Eventually went to
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  Speaker 1: Texas and this is where she supposedly married Clinton Burke
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  Speaker 1: in El Paso, and then they went back to Colorado
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  Speaker 1: and ran a hotel as a family. But again I
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: saw that called into speculation. Yes, supposedly there are um
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  Speaker 1: corroborating accounts of witnesses seeing her with a young child
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  Speaker 1: in some of these places, so it is possible she
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  Speaker 1: did have a daughter, um. But again there's no birth
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: certificates or anything anywhere. Apparently some woman came forward in
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  Speaker 1: the fifties or sixties and claimed to be wild Bill
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  Speaker 1: Hiccock and Calamity Jane's daughter, but was was exposed as
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: a fraud later. Yeah, no, that was disappointing. I thought
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: so too. Right there at the end, the legs out
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  Speaker 1: from under it, you know. Eventually close to nineteen hundred, Uh,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: she said, hey, you know what I can do really
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: good is shoot a gun. And there's this guy out here,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: like she really crossed paths with all the biggies of
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: the Old West. She hooked up with Buffalo Bill and
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: his famous Wild West show, and she was a sharpshooter
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  Speaker 1: for that show, and she didn't do that for very
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: long because that taste for whiskey she developed as a teenager. Um,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: I I saw more that she would go on big
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: binges and it wasn't so much a like steady alcoholism,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: but she couldn't help but go into these big drinking
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: binges that cost her these jobs time and time again
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  Speaker 1: over the years. Do you know how much of a
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  Speaker 1: drinking problem you would have to have to get fired
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: from the Little Bill's wild West Show for drinking? Seriously?
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  Speaker 1: I can't imagine, because they could work that into the
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: show for a while. Yeah, she just shoots wildly into
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: the air, looking everybody exactly duck. Uh. Yeah, I imagine
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  Speaker 1: it was pretty severe, which is very sad actually. Uh
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: you know, you can make jokes about like her being
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: drunk at a wild West show, but it seriously disrupted
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: her life, Yeah, for sure, because not only did she
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: lose that job, she also was later hired on at
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: the Pan American Exposition I think in nine o one
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: and lost that job supposedly for the same the same things.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: So she was like she was definitely a hard drinking
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: person for sure. Um. And it also kind of makes
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: it even sider when you realize that she went and
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: got those jobs to help support her family. Uh, if
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: she in fact did have a family. But even if
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: you didn't, it's still I mean, losing a job because
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: you do you drink too much? As a little sad Yeah,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: for sure. Um. As far as the name Calamity Jane,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: there are a bunch of stories on where she got
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: this name. I thought we may as well read her
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: own account, even though her book is not completely to
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: be trusted. But she was talking about a campaign she
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: was on, and she said it was on Goose Creek, Wyoming,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: where the town of Sheridan is now located. Captain Egan
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: was in command of the post and we were ordered
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: to quell and uprising of the Indians. And we're out
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: for several days. Ah, and I'm making the shorter What
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: do you call that abbreviating? I'm abbreviating this Uh when
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: it's returning to the post. We were ambushed about a
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: mile and a half from our destination. We were fired
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: upon and Captain Egan was shot. I was writing in
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: advance on hearing the firing and turned in my saddle
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: and saw the Captain reeling in his saddle and about
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: to fall. I turned my horse and galloped back with
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: all haste to aside and got there in time to
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: catch him while he was falling. Uh, captain e and
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: on recovering laughingly said, I name you Calamity Jane, the
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: heroine of the planes. Very nice. That sounds totally made up,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: by the way. Yeah, yeah, that's a quite a story.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: But again, like a lot of other stuff in her
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: orbit is questionable. For sure, she definitely was called Calamity Jane.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: It just seems to have been lost to time. And again,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: what we hope is not lost is this was a
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: young girl who made her way in the West, who
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: lived against all odds and supported herself and her her
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: younger siblings against all odds. Yeah, which is worth celebrating
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: in and of itself. Right. Well, that's it for Calamity
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Jane and everybody. That's it for short stuff. So audios.
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