The process of the Americanization of the world was parallel to the rise of America as a world power. It influenced not only the politics, economy, technology, and culture, but also the mentality, customs, behavior and value systems of societies and states on the entire planet. Most often it was associated with the rise and spread of American mass culture. In the 1920s, Hollywood grew into a world leader of film production, jazz and radio developed. Consequently, America began to intensify the “export” of its mass culture. The rise of department stores and a consumer society started to dictate the world rhythm.
However, the roots of this process may be traced even to the end of the American Civil War, when American mass culture began to spread globally. What were the “initial stages of Americanization”, if we can map them in that way? How and by what means and media did they penetrate the European culture in the 19th century? Since our earliest childhood, through our naive games of cowboys and Indians, we encountered the answers to these questions. At that time, we did not wonder where these games originated. We considered them to be largely a part of our own everyday life. But, are these children’s games what lead us to search for the continuity and presence of this type of American popular culture, starting from the late 19th century to the present, 150 years later?
At the end of the 19th century, conquered by the Barnum’s Circus and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, American entertainment for the masses became more and more visible in Europe. The story of the legend and icon of the Wild West, Buffalo Bill, was based on the romanticized biography of William Cody. Cody fought in the Civil War, was a “pony express” courier and a buffalo hunter. He fought against the Indians and supplied food to the builders of the railroads in the Wild West. At the time of the rise of mass culture, to stage Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, William Cody used the popularity of the Battle of Little Bighorn, in which the Sioux, led by Chief Sitting Bull, defeated General Custer. The show staged battles between cowboys and Indians, and he was the main star.
When he was invited to present the show in London in 1887, he crossed the Atlantic with “121 passengers with 97 Indians, 180 horses, 10 buffalos, 10 moose, five Texas cattle, four donkeys and two deer”. This show was then seen by the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII), the Princess of Wales and William Gladstone. Queen Victoria heard about the success of the play and so Buffalo Bill’s show was played before her on May 11, 1887. Moreover, she asked for an additional show before the celebration of her jubilee. On that occasion, the kings of Belgium, Greece, Saxony and Denmark, as well as the future German Emperor Wilhelm II, saw Buffalo Bill. In 1887, in London alone, Buffalo Bill’s show was performed more than 300 times before an audience of approximately two and a half million. After this, two big Buffalo Bill tours started in Europe. In what is today Serbia, the show was performed in Kikinda (July 5, 1906), Zrenjanin (July 6, 1906), Pancevo (July 7, 1906) and Vrsac (July 8, 1906). This was the first large introduction of the inhabitants of this area to cowboys and Indians.
This was just the beginning of the fascination with cowboys and Indians. Translations of books about the Wild West were moving fast, James Fenimore Cooper was intensely read in the 1920s and 1930s, comics were published in Politika’s Zabavnik, and in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, westerns became a favorite film genre. Westerns also remain a favorite film genre in socialist Yugoslavia, but, in line with the Yugoslav foreign policy, space was opening up for “osterne” (Eastern European westerns) and “spaghetti westerns”. A special phenomenon was the “partisan westerns”. In addition to cowboys in partisan uniforms, Yugoslavia also had its cowboy, Harry Jackson. Cowboys and Indians were favorite children’s games, along with games with partisans and Germans. This all points to the continuity and presence of this type of American popular culture from its very beginning to the present day.
