Bronco Billy (ePub)

"Bronco Billy's Wild West Show" is a rundown traveling wild west show, the star of which is Bronco Billy McCoy, the "fastest gun in the West." The rest of the troupe are down on their luck and yearn for the freedom and opportunity of the long-gone Old West.

The story opens with the show's finale. A blindfolded Bronco Billy shoots balloons around a female assistant on a revolving wooden disc, and for the last balloon, he throws a knife. However, the assistant's leg is nicked, so she quits. The show is not making any money, and nobody has been paid for months.

The show moves on to a new town and Bronco Billy goes to city hall to get a permit. He bumps into Antoinette Lily and John Arlington, who are there to be married. Antoinette despises her future husband, but has to marry before she is thirty in order to inherit a large fortune. Their car breaks down at the motel opposite the Wild West Show. The next morning, Arlington steals all her money and their repaired car. She is left to fend for herself.

Bronco Billy talks Antoinette into becoming his new assistant, "Miss Lily," though she only agrees to do one show. Her first performance is unusually successful, although Miss Lily irritates Billy by not sticking to the script. Still, Billy lets Antoinette join the show and their Western adventure begins.

Bronco Billy is a popular 1980 American film starring Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke. It was directed by Eastwood and the screenplay was also written by Dennis E. Hackin.