Soapy Smith's Soap Box: Whit "Pop" Haydn's collection of videos

December 26, 2011

Whit "Pop" Haydn's collection of videos

A monte gang snags their prey.

My very good friend, Whit "Pop" Haydn is not only a first-class magician and the sponsor of the annual Soapy Smith nights at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, but is also an educated historian on nineteenth century swindles. He has created some YouTube channels that I'd like to introduce to you. Often times I place YouTube videos people have made on this site. The YouTube channels are nice because people can place good videos into a collection so that others don't have to waste time looking all over for them. One of the channels Whit created is called Soapy Smith Night. It began as a collection of video filmed at the annual event at the Magic Castle. There you will find great footage from the 2007-2011 parties. Whit has recently started adding all interesting Soapy Smith videos he can locate. I have shown all these videos here on this site in the past but it is a sure thing more videos will be added to his channel. Do visit Whit's channel: Soapy Smith Night.

Another one of his I like is his Scams channel. Periodically I'll find and post a nice little video, usually through Whit, of a modern shell and pea operator or three-card monte tosser. Whit is now collecting all these great videos into one spot for all to enjoy and learn from. At this posting Whit has posted 40 shell game and monte videos. I had no idea that there were that many out there! All of these are real operators taking in good money, except for one video, which is the one Whit was a part of producing.

The Tetleys

The Tetlleys is a recreation of the Cracker Parker mob script for three-card monte. This was a London mob that worked from 1950-1970 on Oxford Street. If you watch this video and then proceed to closely watch Whit's other videos in his collection of operators in action you will notice that they all follow the same methods. It's a great education into the world of bunco gangs.

Trivia: In the above video, the victim (sucker) is played by none other than Whit "Pop" Haydn myself. The man can add "acting" to his resume. Be sure to visit Whit's Scams channel.