Listed below are the films, TV shows, plays, biographies
and novels that are about Soapy Smith or include an actor portraying him.
It is our hope that in the near
future a well done movie will be made about Soapy's adventurous life and death. An author speaking with Randolph J. Smith
(Soapy's grandson) once said,
"A movie on Soapy Smith, would be a mixture of, The Sting and Butch Cassidy
and the Sundance Kid."
We could not agree more. There are so many components of his life that would make
a great film... drama, love, humor, violent confrontations and gunfights. This would be without a doubt a winner of a movie.
It's just waiting to be made.
THEATER
Title: The Girl Alaska Year: 1919 Producer: World Pictures Actor portraying Soapy: None
American black and white silent film. Believed to be the first motion picture that portrayed a mention
of Soapy on film. The film caused Soapy's son, a newspaper man and political power in St. Louis, Missouri, personal anguish
and supposed loss of respect when the film was viewed in his home town theater. In 1919 the son, Jefferson R. Smith, III hired
the legal firm of McCarthy, Morris and Sachritz to take up a legal battle of written letters meant to eliminate objectionable
parts from the film. Jefferson felt the film had injured his personal and political
standing in the community and wished to suefor malicious libel. At first the film company,
George Kleine Motion Pictures was willingto cut offensive scenes out but later renegedon their offer. The one copy of the film that exists at the Library of Congress does
not appear to be that offensive and may have had the objectionable scenes deleted.
Paul Quinzi saw the film during a visit to the Library of Congress and wrote;
The film is the story of a girl called Molly
McCrea, 'daughter of one of the lost gold seekers of Alaska.' After having been abandoned by her father at a young
age, Molly decides to travel to Alaska herself after reading in the newspaper of 'great opportunities for young men in
the north.' Disguised by a pair of overalls and a cap, Molly passes herself off as a boy, stows away on a ship and adopts
the slightly more masculine name 'Alaska.' On the ship, Alaska meets Phil Hadley, who is also seeking his fortune,
and the two 'boys' become best buds.
The two arrive in Skagway and meet an 'old sourdough' who shows them around the town. They soon
hook up with a native who offers to lead them to a good stake. On the way, a huge ice cliff falls on their canoe, killing
their guide, leaving Phil and Alaska to their own devices. (No CGI of course; the prelude to the film alludes to the actors
'missing death by a narrow margin' in this scene). They eventually find the stake, but there's no gold to be found.
They wander around some more and Phil becomes ill. Alaska saves him by discovering, luckily within a few hundred yards, an
old prospector's cabin. Lo and behold, it's the old sourdough from Skagway! He takes them in and offers to let them
stay and help work his claim.
Alaska
seems to be slowly falling for Phil, who constantly pines for Lorraine, his sweetie back home, a socialite who writes him
occasionally. Of course, thinking Alaska is a dude, Phil is totally oblivious to her feelings. One day Alaska, Phil and the
sourdough go into Fairbanks, the nearest town, for supplies. Alaska and Phil go into a saloon, where someone tries to rob
Phil at the faro table. A great bar fight ensues, in which Phil is roundly beaten and falls out into the street. Alaska rushes
to his side, whispers 'I love you' and kisses the unconscious Phil. Then the sourdough collects them and they make
a swift exit from Fairbanks. They continue to work the stake, Phil missing Lorraine, Alaska lamenting her unrequited love
for Phil. The old sourdough falls ill, and on his death bed asks Alaska to take his share of the claim back to the States
and give it to his little girl, Molly! Alaska removes her cap, revealing her curls, and no sooner are father and daughter
reunited than they are separated by death.
Phil decides it's time to head back home to Lorraine, and leaves his buddy Alaska to work the claim.
He is thrown from his sled and is left alone in the wintry wilderness. The next morning, Alaska wakes to the jingling bells
of the returning pilotless dogsled, and goes out to save Phil, which she does, although admittedly still bitter about his
having left her for Lorraine.
Spring comes, and one day Phil spies Alaska secretly frolicking by the lake,
naked as the day she was born, highlighting the fact that she's a she (no CGI here, either, but shot from far away). Later
that day, some prospectors happen by the cabin and leave off some newspapers from the States. Phil picks up one only to read,
'Prominent socialite Lorraine Dower weds New York millionaire.' Next morning, Phil takes Alaska to Fairbanks, ostensibly
to file a new claim. Instead, he takes her directly to the chapel (pastored by the Rev. U.R. Blest), whereupon he announces
that they want to be married, to which Alaska coyly consents. THE END.
So what about Soapy?
Of course, the reason I wanted to see this film
in the first place was to see the first on-screen portrayal of Soapy Smith. My understanding of the connection to Soapy was
that his son was so embarrassed and offended by the film that he threatened to sue the producer for libel if he did not remove
the objectionable scenes. I have concluded that either he succeeded, or that the lawsuit itself may have been Soapy's
last con - from beyond the grave.
First, there is no Soapy character, or even a character loosely based on Soapy
(a la Candy Johnson in Honky Tonk, Sheriff Gannon in The Far Country) in the film. The only mention of Soapy is an approximately
15-second scene when Phil and Alaska arrive in Skagway. The entire part plays exactly like this:
Slide: The old sourdough takes Alaska and Phil to
the grave of the notorious gunman, Soapy Smith.
Screen: [Shows Soapy's tombstone, circa 1919, tattooed with graffiti]
Jefferson R. Smith, died July 8, 1898, aged 38 years.
Slide: 'This fellow tried to shoot up Skagway.
They buried him with his boots on.'
Of course, it's possible that some original version had a somehow more sinister depiction of Soapy
and after being threatened with a lawsuit, the director removed it, leaving only the cut I saw. But the film is set in 1919,
so it's unlikely that there would have ever been a Soapy character included in it.
Title: Call of the Wild Year:
1935 Producer: Twentieth Century Pictures Actor playing Soapy: Harry Woods
An American black and white film adaption of Jack London's book of the same name, about a prospector heading north to
the Klondike gold rush who rescues a sled dog from its cruel master. Clark Gable and Loretta Young star.
The Turner
Classic Movies website writes the following synopsis for the film.
In Skagway in the Yukon, in 1900 during the
gold rush, prospector Jack Thornton plans to return to his hometown of Chicago but loses all his money in a card game. "Shorty"
Hoolihan, a New Yorker just released from jail after a six-month sentence for tampering with the mail, tells Jack about a
letter he read that was sent by an ill prospector, Martin Blake, just before he died to his son John in San Francisco, which
contained a map showing the location of a gold mine. Shorty has drawn the map from memory, and although he concedes that it
may be faulty in spots, he talks Jack into becoming his partner after telling him that John Blake and his wife left Skagway
that day in search of the mine. While buying a dog team, Jack and Shorty encounter a wealthy, sadistic English prospector,
Mr. Smith, who wants to buy an untamed St. Bernard named Buck, so that he could shoot him. Jack, who admires the dog, buys
him instead, and although Buck runs away once he is freed on the trail, he returns at night in the whirling snow and curls
up beside Jack. After they come across Blake's wife Claire surrounded by wolves, she explains that Blake has been gone
two days searching for food. Believing that Blake is dead, Jack forces Claire to come with them to Dawson. He and Claire grow
fond of each other on the trail, and at Dawson, Claire agrees to become partners with them to find the gold. Although they
need money to buy an outfit, Jack, after having lost most of their provisions crossing a river, refuses to sell Buck to Smith;
however, after Jack gets drunk and brags that Buck can pull a sled loaded with 1,000 pounds 100 yards, Smith wagers $1,000
against Buck that he cannot. Jack accepts and Buck barely succeeds before he collapses in Jack's arms. As they leave Dawson,
Blake, unknown to them, is brought in barely alive. At night, Jack pensively stares at Claire by the fire and explains his
acceptance of the "Law of the Klondike" -- if there is something you need, you grab it -- which Claire does not
accept. Soon they find the gold, and Shorty is sent to file a claim. As the winter approaches, Buck is tempted by the call
of nearby wolves, while Jack and Claire, alone in an isolated cabin, acknowledge and consummate their love. Meanwhile, Blake
leads Smith to the gold. When they find the cabin, Smith orders one of his men to knock out Blake. Smith then takes the gold
from Jack and Claire at gunpoint but dies with his men when their canoe overturns in rapids and the gold weights them down.
After Buck finds Blake, Jack carries him to the cabin, where he and Claire nurse him to health. Although Jack tells Claire
that he is keeping her, he relents after she explains that although she loves him, Blake needs her and that she lives by a
different law than Jack. After the Blakes leave, Buck joins the wolves and becomes a father, and Jack is left alone for the
winter, but in the spring, Shorty returns with an Indian woman, whom he won in a crap game, to be their cook.
Title: Honky Tonk Year: 1941 Producer: Metro-Goldwyn
Mayer Actor portraying Soapy: Clark Gable
An American black & white film starring Clark Gable, Lana Turner,
Frank Morgan, Claire Trevor and Chill Wills. MGM purchased the rights to the book, The Reign of Soapy Smith, by William
Ross Collier and Edwin Victor Westgate and transcribed into a cinema play by Ann Lee Whitmore and Tom Sellers, with Clark
Gable playing the lead (L.A. Times, 04/29/1940. p. 8). The film was to be about Soapy, but according to Jeff,
his grandfather, Soapy's son, (Jefferson Randolph Smith, III) threatened to open a lawsuit against MGM if they used his
father's name and story.
Soapy's son still had rights over
usage of his father's name. Rather than scrap the movie, which had already begun filming, MGM just changed the names around.
Soapy Smith became Candy Johnson, a con man, played by Clark Gable. Candy Johnson, tired of running from town to town, sets
his mind to have a town of his own. A very fun film with great comical dialogue and a few shootouts thrown in for flavor.
At
the startof the film there is a beautiful rendition on three-card Monte, the game that was instrumental in the real
Soapy's death. In the film Gable, as Mr. Johnson, for the sake of a woman, decides to use his huckstering skill
to build a small-town church, but soon he's up to his old tricks, again, managing a dance hall and gambling emporium.There is a happy ending.
Below is the opening scene for Honky Tonk
showing Clark Gable as Soapy doing three-card Monte.
By Douglas Churchill Special
to THE NEW YORK TIMES.
HOLLYWOOD, Calif., April 28, 1940--Clark
Gable will play the lead in "Soapy Smith," which Pandro S. Berman will produce for Metro, the studio announced.
The story, based on "The Reign of Soapy Smith," by Edwin Victor Westrate and William Ross Collier, deals with the
...
LOS ANGELES TIMES, April 29, 1940--Clark Gable will be the star in one of the earliest
pictures produced by Pandro Berman for the M.G.M. studio. The film scheduled for this star features Soapy Smith, one of the
characters celebrated in early Colorado history. "The Reign of Soapy Smith," written by William Ross Collier and
Edwin Victor Westgate, has been purchased by the studio and will be transcribed into a cinema play by Ann Lee Whitmore and
Tom Sellers, two of the younger writers at the establishment.
Title: The Great Jesse James Raid Year: 1953 Producer: Jezebel Productions Actor portraying Soapy: Earl Hodgins
JesseJames (Willard Parker), retired and living under an assumed name in St. Joseph, Missouri, agrees over the protests
of his wife Zee (Barbara Woodell) to join Bob Ford (Jim Bannon) and Sam Wells (Richard Cutting)in a Colorado gold raid. Jesse
rounds up gunman Arch Clements (Tom Neal); demolition expert Elias Hobbs (Wallace Ford), with suspect credentials as he later
blows himself up; and get-away wagon driver Johnny Jorette (James Anderson). They rendezvous at Ford's saloon in Creede,
Colorado, where Ford's girlfriend Kate (Barbara Payton) joins the gang. Sam guesses Ford's plan to double-cross Jesse
and collect a reward and Ford kills him. Lots of other people die before Jesse and Ford ride off in opposite directions.
Written by Les Adams
Title: The Far Country Year: 1955 Producer: Universal
International Pictures Actor portraying Soapy: John McIntire
In1896, Jeff Webster (James Stewart) sees the start of the Klondike gold rush as a golden
opportunity to make a fortune in beef...and woe betide anyone standing in his way! He drives a cattle herd from Wyoming to
Seattle, by ship to Skagway, and (after a delay caused by larcenous town boss Gannon, loosely, but clearly and unmistakably,
based on Soapy, played by John MacIntire) through the mountains to Dawson. There, he and his partner Ben Tatum get into the
gold business themselves. Two lovely women fall for misanthropic Jeff, but he believes in every-man-for-himself, turning his
back on growing lawlessness...until it finally strikes home. Written by Rod Crawford.
Title: The Klondike Fever Year: 1980 Producer: CFI Investments Actor
portraying Soapy: Rod Stieger
Thisfilm
is supposed to chronicle Jack London's epic journey from San Francisco to the Klondike gold fields in 1898. Soapy
Smith is a main character but it is obvious that the writers either never picked up a history book on the gold rush or
chose to ignore everything they read.
TELEVISION
Title: The Alaskans Year: 1959 - 1960 Producer: Warner Brothers Actor portraying Soapy: John Dehner
When gold
was discovered in the Yukon in the 1890's, thousands of hopeful prospectors headed north for a chance at becoming rich.
The easiest passage to the Yukon was through the small Alaskan port town of Skagway, which quickly exploded into a sprawling
boom town, offering almost everything a miner could want, for a price. Adventurers Silky Harris and Reno McKee have arrived
in this town looking to make their fortunes. Not mining for gold, but by catering to and fleecing the hardy, hard-living miners
who pass through town. Written by Jean-Marc Rocher.
Several episodes included Soapy in some form of dishonest
mayhem. One of the episodes, "Remember the Maine" tells the story of Soapy and his volunteer army.
Title: Alias
Smith and Jones Year: 1971 - 1972 Producer: Universal TV Actor portraying Soapy:
Sam Jaffe
American TV show based on two outlaws (HannibalHeyes and Kid Curry) trying to go straight
with the law. They are popular with everyone except the railroads and the banks. They are offered an amnesty on
condition that they stay out of trouble for a year and that they don't tell anyone about it. With a view to keeping their
noses clean they adopt the identities of Smith and Jones and use all of their ingenuity keeping out of the way of the law.
Sam Jeffe plays the part of Soapy in three episodes:
1.) The Great Shell Game (aired February 18, 1971) 2.) A Fistfull of Diamonds (aired March
4, 1971) 3.) Bad Night in Big Butte (aired March 2, 1972)
Title:
Deadwood Year: 2004 - 2006 Producer: HBO Actor portraying Soapy: Gil Gayle
Title: Treasure/The Saga of Soapy Smith Year: 1968 Producer: Burrud
Productions Actor portraying Soapy: Unknown
TheSaga of Soapy Smith aired on Bill Burrud's Treasure. Well done portrayal of
his Skagway days leading up to his death. The question arises as to the where Soapy's wealth went after his death.
It is hard to fathom that Soapy died broke when at the height of power. His widow claimed he was worth millions.
THEATRICAL
PLAYS
Title:
The Ballad of Soapy Smith Year: 1983 Producer: Micheal Weller Actor portraying Soapy: Denis Arndt
A wonderful play written by Michael Weller and premiered in Seattle, Washington in 1983. It was
performed in New York and years later in a college university in California, where Jeff Smith had the pleasure of seeing the
play and meeting Mr. Weller.
BALLADOF SOAPY SMITH - Play in three acts by Michael Weller, directed by Robert Egan, scenery by Eugene Lee, costumes by
Robert Blackman, lighting by Spencer Mosse, songs by Michael Weller, score by Norman Durkee, produced by the Seattle Repertory
Theater, Seattle, Wash., through Nov. l9.
SEATTLE - Michael Weller's "The
Ballad of Soapy Smith" is a Gold Rush melodrama about a legendary con man known - rather more staidly - as Jefferson
Randolph Smith (l860-l898). If, in its world premiere at the Seattle Rep, Weller's sprawling epic seems perfectly suited
to its rustic but sophisticated Northwestern setting, that's not by accident. The script was developed last year during
a Seattle Rep workshop, then chosen to open the company's impressive new $l0-million theater. Beyond this cosy provincialism,
"Soapy Smith" is a rip-roaring play about megalomania and power, a Wild West show with something more on its mind
than six-shooters and revenge.
Weller picks up his charismatic hero just a year before
his death. As a somewhat mysterious presence in the Klondike, Smith arrives in Skagway, Alaska, alert to the town's possibilities.
(Memorably described by Jack London, Skagway was a way-station leading to the Yukon gold fields.) Perfectly willing and eloquently
able to pan gold dust out of the palms of prospectors, Smith elects a more devious plan. With steady assurance and easy reliance
on hypocrisy, he becomes - or appears to become - a benevolent townsman, "Good Citizen Smith." By any definition
he's the ultimate politico, a grafter sliding by on charm while grasping everything in reach. The subtext of Weller's
play is an instant-history on the making of a politician. As someone says of him, Soapy Smith bends "truth into shapes
never before seen on this earth."
As a cover he owns and operates a restaurant, Jeff Smith's
Oyster Parlour. His coterie includes con artists like himself, and the town's madame. He forms his own "army"
as a force against the moralizing (yet murderous) Skagway vigilantes. He wins friends and influences people, including an
upstanding citizen named Burke Gallagher who, despite his admiration of Smith, sees him for what he is. As Weller has constructed
his play, Gallagher is Smith's nemesis; in vague Pirandellian shadows, he's also Smith's dormant conscience. Although
Smith never rises beyond self interest, never advances so much as a small step toward nobility, he eventually becomes troubled
by his lack of soul. At one point he says, "If I'm truly no more than what I am now, it's been a sorry little
journey indeed." He knows his life has been "bullshit" and: "All the way to hell he sees clearly what
he is."
Michael Weller tells Soapy Smith's story through the device
of a narrator, Paul Anthony MacAleer, a minor poet given to doggerel. (Weller credits MacAleer's verse as part of the
play's inspiration.) The device is effective principally because MacAleer is not just an outside observer, not just someone
bearing witness; instead, as an "uncultured dirt-farmer from Nebraska," he's a fully developed character whose
life in Skagway is pivotal to the plot. MacAleer's thickly sentimental poem about Smith is, finally, revealed for what
it is, dumb, sugary versifying, the opposite side of the far more complicated, vinegary truth. This revelation, by the way,
is made by MacAleer's subject himself. Soapy Smith has been educated, he knows "The Aeneid," and he's brash
enough to describe poetry as good propaganda. But when he hears MacAleer's couplets, he describes them as "rhyming
flapdoodle."
Beneath the often familiar scenes of Weller's play (backroom
skulduggery, streetside brawls, political meetings, whispering whores, hang-'em-high justice), there's a still familiar
but sharply dramatic focus. "The Ballad of Soapy Smith" is not merely about "the vital spirit that marks the
adventurous beginnings of the Pacific Northwest," as one Rep press release has it. In a very real sense Weller's
play is about the contradictions that are the basis for the whole country. Weller's play begins in easy, beguiling myth
(MacAleer's awful honorific) and ends in brute reality (Soapy Smith's murder). What we witness en route is not America's
coming of age but, rather, the repetitions of history as old as the con artistry of Julius Caesar and as new as the bunko
oratory of Ronald Reagan. Michael Weller finds raucous splendor in his epic (that's the come-on, the entertainment), then,
to his credit, he plays it cool, cynical, straight.
Under Robert Egan's direction
"The Ballad of Soapy Smith" has been given exactly the bustling production it needs. Eugene Lee's set is an
open-rafter marvel (with a huge blow-up of the snow-capped Klondike just up a center-stage ramp), a variant copy of other
timbered sets Lee has done for the Trinity Square Repertory. Denis Arndt is wonderful as Soapy Smith; spellbinding, in fact,
and good enough to make us care about this corrupt and venal man. Denis Arndt catches Soapy Smith's larger-than-life radiance
and plays it for a kind of low voltage ease. Ted D'Arms is fine as Burke Gallagher, whose goodness owes a debt to a dark
secret. Christopher Cooper is fine, too, as MacAleer, and there's good work from Kate Mulgrew, Paul Hofstetl, Kevin Tighe.
The cast has 33 actors, and there are some less than ideal performances but the level of acting is pretty admirable.
The Ballad of Soapy Smith is probably too big, too populous for Broadway, and it doesn't belong
there in the first place. As an example of homegrown regional theater, it has its own weight and conviction. It sings a variant
song of a man - and a country - trapped in his own myth and inevitably paying the price. It's the Faust legend echoing
from purple mountain majesty, from sea to shining sea.–Kevin
Kelly of The Boston Globe ,November
16, 1983.
Title: The Days of '98 Show Year: 1925 - Present Producer: Gold Rush Productions (Jim Richards) Actor portraying Soapy: varies
Althoughwe are great fans of the show we are not affilated. For ticket &
general information please see their website.DAYS OF '98 SHOW
The Days of 98 Show
in Skagway, Alaska is a one-hour historic musical comedy drama based on the Skagway adventures of Soapy Smith. The show is
seen each summer by thousands of tourists.
Jim Richard's
says in an interview with the local radio station, "We are taking a little artistic license by putting a show on in Soapy’s
saloon, which would be more or less indicative of the shows that were put on during the 1890’s with appropriate turn
of the century music. We run through the demise of Soapy Smith. We get his name going first; we let people know about how
he got his name. Then it switches immediately to his bar here in Skagway. And it’s his last day, and he’s absolutely
losing it, and he goes off and gets killed."
Where:
The Eagles Hall (Fraternal
Order of Eagles, Aerie 25) at Sixth and Broadway, Skagway, Alaska. The show has been performing in the Hall for over 25 years.
The Eagles Hall was built using the sides of the Mondimen Hotel, in which Soapy lived. It is said that the Eagles Hall is
haunted by the ghosts of gold rush era. The Eagles Hall is also host to the annual Soapy Smith Wake held every July 8 in honor
of the day Soapy was shot.
When:
18 to 20 shows a week during the summer months when tourism is at its' peak.
The evening shows are often preceded by mock gambling with "Soapy's money." The competition is high at the original
roulette table, black jack, dice game and faro. Performances are schedule to match the arrival and departure of the cruise
ships.
History:
The production has been running for over 80 years which makes it the longest running
show in Alaska. The show has been a tradition for
most of its 80-plus years. The show got its beginnings as dances staged at the White Pass Athletic Club for visitors in the
1920s to raise money for the hockey team. When the club shut down, the back bar and the show moved uptown to the Eagles Hall.
Many charter Auxiliary members were part of the original cast of musicians and can can dancers. The show has evolved
from a cast of Eagles volunteers to paid professionals.
Jim Richards
and Gold Rush Productions, the owners of the show, take pride in the fact that they hire only professional actors and musicians
for the show. Richards has been apart of the show for nearly three decades.
COMPUTER
& ELECTRONIC GAMES
Title: Gun Year: 2005 Producer: Neversoft
& Activision Inc. Actor portraying Soapy: Computer generated
Gunis a western-themed video developed by Neversoft and published by Activision
for the Xbox 360, Xbox, GameCube, PC, PSP and PSP2. It was released in North America on November 8, 2005 and in mid-to late
November in Europe. Soapy Jennings is one of the characters in the game named after Soapy Smith. It is unknown why they changed
his name but one rumor states it was in honor of one of the creators friends.
As Colton White, players must straddle the line between good and evil as they showdown against
corrupt lawmen, a murderous preacher, renegade army psychopaths, merciless outlaws and unforgiving Native Americans, while
waging war on horseback, collecting bounties, and commandeering trains. Players travel through an action-packed landscape
of high mountain wilderness, deserts and bustling territorial towns in an epic story of betrayal, greed, and revenge.
Soapy (voice by Dave Wittenberg) is a safe-cracking card cheat and the main characters (Colton) closest ally.
Soapy is a little too smart and cocky for his own good. Though he's a smooth talker, he tends to get himself into trouble,
where as Cole is constantly bailing him out.
Title: The Yukon Trail Year: 1994 Producer: The
Learning Company Actor portraying Soapy: Computer generated
The Yukon Trail
A Windows/Mac
computer game in which the player is a Klondike gold rush stampeder trying to get to Dawson and the gold fields to make a
fortune. In Skagway the player runs into Soapy Smith, his saloon, a crooked shell game and a card cheat.
TheYukon Trail begins in
July 1897 on the wharf in Seattle, Washington, the jumping-off point for thousands of stampeders. If you're smart, persistent,
and just a little lucky, you'll make it to Dawson City, headquarters of the gold rush. There you can set out on your own
to dig for gold.
Along
the way, all kinds of people will want to give you advice. But be careful who you listen to! Some people have valuable advice.
Others don't know what they're talking about. And still others are trying to cheat you.
Meet actual historical figures, like Soapy
Smith, as well as fictional characters that represent the types of people you might have encountered.
Title: Conker, Live
and Reloaded Year: 2005 Producer: Rare Ltd. Actor portraying Soapy: Computer generated squirrel
Conker: Live and Reloaded is an Xbox game, that
Jeff played with his son Jefferson. When in the "Total War" portion of the game, players team up against a sea landing
force of enemy squirrels. The names of each character is visible in white letters above the heads for identification purposes.
One
day, Jefferson and I were in the heat of battle in the game. we were the bank of a trench when, in a blur I something that
caught my attention. A squirrel flew by in a blur just below us, in a trench. I startled my son by yelling, "Did
you see that?" Before he could answer, I took off chasing the squirrel down the winding trench. My son, now
mad and yelling at me for deviating from the game, was trying to keep up. Finally, I trapped my prey in a cul-de-sac.
Look at the name of
the character I was chasing, Jeff! I hollered excitedly. The name above my captives head read "Soapy."
Not really knowing, or caring whether "Soapy" squirrel was friend or foe, I did the only thing I could do in that
predicament...I shot "Soapy squirrel" dead.
MUSIC
The Ballad of Soapy
Smith, 1981, written by Al Oster.
The Ballad of Soapy Smith,
1987, written by Tim Martin.
The Bloody Ballad of Notorious Bad
Man Soapy Smith’s Wretched and Violent Demise, 2008, written by Ed Parrish.
BOOKS
NON-FICTION
Clifford,
Howard, Uncrowned King of Skagway, Sourdough Enterprise, 1997. Well published with common mistakes. Has a different
perspective of Soapy's death and who shot him. Howard is a friend of the Smith family having met John Randolph Smith and
Jeff Smith in 1973.
Haigh,
Jane, King Con: The Story of Soapy Smith, Friday501, 2006. Book review.
Pullen, Harriet S.,
Soapy Smith Bandit of Skagway: How He Lived; How He Died. Stroller's Weekly Print (Elmer J. White - believed to be a member
of the Soap Gang). early 1900s (unknown publication date).
Robertson, Frank G. and Beth Kay Harris, Soapy Smith: King of the Frontier Con Men,
Hastings House, 1961. Probably the best biography made to date.
Shea & Patten, The Soapy Smith Tragedy, Daily Alaskan Print, 1907 (this is the
Daily Alaskan newspaper which published Soapy's death in July, 1898).
Westrate, Edwin Victor and William Ross Collier, The Reign of Soapy
Smith: Monarch of Misrule, Doubleday, Doran, 1935. The first complete biography. No footnotes, resources given.
FICTION
Walt Disney Comics, Uncle Scrooge, Marvel, June 1994.
This is the story of how Scrooge McDuck (Uncle Scrooge) obtained his riches, all
thanks to Soapy Slick (Soapy Smith). Scrooge goes to Skagway where he buys a fraudulent mine claim from Soapy. When Scrooge
finds gold on the claim Soapy tries to claim the mine back.
(left) Scrooge holds up a gold nugget from his claim as Soapy and his gang start
up the hill after him.
Fats, A. Conan, The Adventure of the Grace Ghost, Greater Grace Daily Online
Gazette. A. Conan Fats, a descendant of English mystery writer A. Conan Doyle, author of Sherlock Holmes stories, continues
the family tradition of writing. This time Soapy is the villain in The Adventure of Grace Ghost.
Ford, John M., How Much For Just The Planet? Pocket Books, 1987. Soapy is not a character in this
book, but a Star-trek Federation Starship in the year 2268. The U.S.S. Jefferson Randolph Smith (NCC-29402, Sulek-class) is
a Federation resource exploratory ship under the command of Captain Tatyana Trofimov.
From the same novel there are other ships named after the Klondike era, such as the U.S.S. Dawson
City. It appears John did a little research into mining for the novel. It also appears Ford had a sense of humor.
Miller, Mike, Soapy,
Alaskabooks, 1970. A fun fictional paperback read.
Markstein, George, Tara Kane, Stein & Day (Scarborough House), 1978.
American black and white silent film. Believed to be the first motion picture that portrayed a mention
of Soapy on film. The film caused Soapy's son, a newspaper man and political power in St. Louis, Missouri, personal anguish
and supposed loss of respect when the film was viewed in his home town theater. In 1919 the son, Jefferson R. Smith, III hired
the legal firm of McCarthy, Morris and Sachritz to take up a legal battle of written letters meant to eliminate objectionable
parts from the film.
An American black and white film adaption of Jack London's book of the same name, about a prospector heading north to
the Klondike gold rush who rescues a sled dog from its cruel master. Clark Gable and Loretta Young star.
An American black & white film starring Clark Gable, Lana Turner,
Frank Morgan, Claire Trevor and Chill Wills. MGM purchased the rights to the book, The Reign of Soapy Smith, by William
Ross Collier and Edwin Victor Westgate and transcribed into a cinema play by Ann Lee Whitmore and Tom Sellers, with Clark
Gable playing the lead (
In 1896, Jeff Webster (James Stewart) sees the start of the Klondike gold rush as a golden
opportunity to make a fortune in beef...and woe betide anyone standing in his way! He drives a cattle herd from Wyoming to
Seattle, by ship to Skagway, and (after a delay caused by larcenous town boss Gannon, loosely, but clearly and unmistakably,
based on Soapy, played by John MacIntire) through the mountains to Dawson. There, he and his partner Ben Tatum get into the
gold business themselves. Two lovely women fall for misanthropic Jeff, but he believes in every-man-for-himself, turning his
back on growing lawlessness...until it finally strikes home. Written by Rod Crawford.
American TV show based on two outlaws (Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry) trying to go straight
with the law. They are popular with everyone except the railroads and the banks. They are offered an amnesty on
condition that they stay out of trouble for a year and that they don't tell anyone about it. With a view to keeping their
noses clean they adopt the identities of Smith and Jones and use all of their ingenuity keeping out of the way of the law.
The Saga of Soapy Smith aired on Bill Burrud's Treasure. Well done portrayal of
his Skagway days leading up to his death. The question arises as to the where Soapy's wealth went after his death.
It is hard to fathom that Soapy died broke when at the height of power. His widow claimed he was worth millions.
