Annie Get Your Gun (musical) Show Business", "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly", "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun", "They Say It's Wonderful", and "Anything You Can Do." Dorothy Fields had the idea for a musical about Annie Oakley, to star her friend, Ethel Merman. Producer Mike Todd turned the project down, so Fields approached a new producing team, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. After the success of their first musical collaboration, "Oklahoma!", Rodgers and Hammerstein had decided to become producers of both their own theatrical ventures and those by other authors. They agreed to produce the musical and asked Jerome Kern to compose
Frank E. Butler variety shows. After meeting at a shooting competition in Cincinnati, Ohio, Butler married Annie Oakley on August 23, 1876, although he would later claim the date was June 20, 1882. They developed their shooting act in 1882 when Oakley stood in for Butler's sick partner, John Graham. In 1884, the Butlers joined the Sells Brothers Circus. From 1885 to 1901, they were a fixture on "Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show". As Oakley became the star attraction, Butler became her manager and wrote articles and press releases. Oakley said that the financial part was always in her husband's hands. Oakley returned