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| Artifact #88 Letter June 20, 1944 Jeff Smith collection |
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few days ago you called me and told me you had a manuscript based on the life of Jeffrey Smith"
Artifact #88 is a typed response letter from the famed New York drama and motion picture agent, Annie Laurie Williams to Soapy Smith's son, Jefferson Randolph Smith III.
Annie Laurie Williams, the agent who sold Margaret Mitchell's “Gone With the Wind” to David O. Selznick for the film, Opened her career and firm in 1929, representing some of the most important American authors, including Margaret Mitchell, Harper Lee, John Steinbeck, and Lloyd C. Douglas.
Artifact #88 is a typed response letter from the famed New York drama and motion picture agent, Annie Laurie Williams to Soapy Smith's son, Jefferson Randolph Smith III.
Annie Laurie Williams, the agent who sold Margaret Mitchell's “Gone With the Wind” to David O. Selznick for the film, Opened her career and firm in 1929, representing some of the most important American authors, including Margaret Mitchell, Harper Lee, John Steinbeck, and Lloyd C. Douglas.
Jefferson Smith apparently had written a manuscript and offered to send it to Williams' agency. Unfortunately, I do not know the location of that manuscript. Likely, it is still in family hands somewhere. The letter is addressed to Jeffery Smith, 136-31- 58th Avenue, Flushing, L. I., (Long Island, New York). In 1942, two years before this letter, records show that Jeff still lived in Missouri. The next address is a Los Angeles, California one, in 1952. Jeff kept outsiders in the dark in regards to his father. He held "behind-the-scene" political and newspaper positions that he feared would be jeopardized if certain people were to find out who his father was. In 1946 Jeff's daughter, Joy Roberta Smith, got married in New York. It is possible that Joy lived in New York in 1944 and that Jeff used her address as a mailing location, in order to keep his life as the son of a famous bad man on the quiet, if the manuscript deal went sour. Also take note that Annie Williams mentions Jeff as going "back to Texas." Jeff may have listed his residence as "Texas." As part of this attempt to hide his identity Jefferson used the names "Jeffrey" to identify both himself and
his father, while hiding his and his father's real identities.
Below is the text of the letter.
Below is the text of the letter.
June 20, 1944A few days ago you called me and told me you had a manuscript based on the life of Jeffrey Smith and if I were interested you would let me read it. I am interested and hope you can come in and bring the manuscript and talk to me before you go back to Texas. If I don't happen to be in my sister Pamela Barnes will talk to you and you can leave the manuscript with her.Sincerely yours,Annie Laurie Williams (signature and typed)
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| Annie Laurie Williams |
(Click image to enlarge)
Jefferson Randolph Smith III
Sep 26, 2010 - A
Sep 26, 2010 - B
Jefferson Randolph Smith III: pages 7, 107-08, 167, 417-18, 546, 584, 587-89.
"One of the healthiest ways to gamble is with a spade and a package of garden seeds."
—Dan Bennett
It sounds like his son was chasing his father's ghost his entire life from '98 on. Not uncommon, I suppose, for someone who loses a parent at a young age.
ReplyDeleteIndeed he did! He desperately tried to show the good side his father had, while trying to clean-up the bad side. He was nine years old when his father met his demise. No son wants to see their father as a "badman," and that sentiment carried over into the grandchildren. I remember my father's back-and-forth mental battles over the history of his grandfather, having learned everything from his father. As the new generations have replaced the older ones, the truth has become more important than protecting "Soapy's" name. That truth does contain a good side to the man. In my own life, I use Soapy's story as a lesson to the current and future generations. On the side column I have the quote I authored just for Soapy: "Upon the world he made his mark, and from him we learn how not to be one."
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