What personal friend of William "Bill" Hanley was a stage and motion picture actor, vaudeville performer, American cowboy, humorist, newspaper columnist, and social commentator?
William &quot;Bill&quot; Hanley William D. Hanley (February 8, 1861 – September 15, 1935), known as Bill Hanley, was a pioneer rancher in Harney County in southeastern Oregon. He owned several ranches between Burns, Oregon and Harney Lake. Together, his properties comprised one of the largest privately owned cattle operations in the United States. Hanley was also a progressive thinker and well known host. Among his personal friends were leading political figures, fellow cattle barons, industrialist, writers, and artists including Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, William Jennings Bryan, Peter French, James J. Hill, CES Wood, and Will Rogers. Hanley’s progressive political views led him to run for Governor of Oregon and the United States Senate. A strong advocate of wildlife conservation, much of his ranch is now part of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
Butler May Butler "String Beans" May (August 18, 1894 – November 17, 1917) was an American vaudeville performer, singer, pianist and comedian. He has been described as "the greatest attraction in African-American vaudeville, the first recognizable blues star," and was known "for his streetwise humor, contortive vernacular dancing, and outrageous blues piano playing." He was said to have been the highest-paid black entertainer in the country at the time of his accidental death at the age of 23, and has been claimed as "the model for Jelly Roll [Morton], at least as a stage entertainer and perhaps even as a blues pianist". No recordings of May exist.