Bill Cody

Bill Cody, whose real name was Frederick Garfield Penniman but later changed his name to honor his favorite character out of the Old West, ran away from the Onondaga Indian reservation in Syracuse, New York, where he was born August 6, 1913, to live with an uncle in Springfield, Massachusetts. The 15-year-old, who was three-quarters Indian, ran away from his uncle's home a year later to join the circus." He began announcing and working rodeos. The stunt work he learned being thrown off bucking broncos landed him a job as a stunt man in movies. He doubled for both cowboys and Indians in movies filmed during the 1930s and '40s. Cody then took his act on the road, developing a sharp-shooting, knife-throwing, whip-cracking show for vaudeville, burlesque and Wild West tent shows."