AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: Legends of the Wild West continues with Annie Oakley at 7:00 pm and Jesse James at 8:00 pm.

Annie Oakley: This is the story of the star of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, the young woman who thrilled audiences around the world with her daring shooting feats. While her act helped fuel turn-of-the-century nostalgia for the vanished, mythical world of the American West, the legend of Annie Oakley had little to do with the real Annie. Although famous as a western sharpshooter, Oakley lived her entire life east of the Mississippi. A champion in a man's sport, Oakley forever changed ideas about the abilities of women, yet she opposed female suffrage. Her fame and fortune came from her skill with guns, a concept that was counter to her Quaker upbringing.

Jesse James: The story of Jesse James remains one of America's most cherished tales ... and one of its most fictitious. James, so the legned goes, was a western outlaw, though, in fact, he never went west; America's Robin Hood, though he robbed from the poor as well as the rich; a gunfighter, though his victims were almost always unarmed. Less heroic than brutal, James was a member of a vicious band of Missouri guerrillas during the Civil War. With a life steeped in violence and bloodshed, he met what was perhaps the most fitting end.

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