Here above is the table of violent acts known to have been committed by Soapy Smith in his lifetime. I am positive there are more but as of yet I have not come across them.
I am currently working on the table of charitable acts known to have been committed by Soapy. That should prove to be an interesting one to complete. The two tables will be published on the main website when completed.
Iupdated the handbill photographs on the main website for the committees of 101 and 317 this afternoon. Previously I utilized a table mock up but nothing beats the real thing. I replaced the tables with the pic below. My book has photographs of the two original handbills located and on display at the Alaska State Museum in Juneau, Alaska. Below are actually copies of the handbills that I had made in the 1980s. The printer did an excellent job of copying the handbills from photographs of the originals.
(Click on images to enlarge)
The story behind the handbills is an amazing one and is covered in detail in my book. A miner had been shot and killed on the White Pass trail. Being that Soapy's bunco men worked the trails it was decided by a group of men that fault lay with Soapy and his gang. The handbill on the left was published in the newspaper and printed copies were posted about town. Normally that warning would have been enough to scatter the short con operators but this was Soapy's gang. A meeting was called for and held, to represent the "law-abiding" sector of Skagway. I can imagine the surprise and downright shock when the vigilantes awoke to the handbills (right) posted around town. Reading them both together and deciding who the "good-guys" were must have caused many a debate at the time.
It is interesting to note that Soapy's member count of 317 just happen to be the address of Jeff Smith's Parlor.
I came across another film containing Soapy Smith as a character. Call of the Wild is a 20th Century Pictures 1935 black and white American adaption of author Jack London's book of the same name, about a prospector heading for the Klondike gold rush who rescues a sled dog from its cruel master. Clark Gable and Loretta Young star. Actor Harry Woods plays the part of Soapy. This is the second film I know of in which Clark Gable is in that has a Soapy Smith character.
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.
Thank you's go out to the very special people who contributed to this year's website fund that keeps the main website, Alias Soapy Smith, online. Their help led to a new addition to the website on the Soapy Smith Preservation Trust page. Scrolling down the page on the right side you will come across the organizations officers. The additional title of Grub-stakers has been added. There the names of those who have helped financially are listed. During these hard times it is good to see us pull together to keep the site up and running.
This is definitely one of my favorite trail photographs in my personal collection. I just put it on the main website and it's one of the 54 photographs in the book. It shows a shell and pea operator running a game along one of the trails outside Skagway 1897-1898. Because of the clothing and hat there is a possibility that this is Soapy himself! If not then it is certain to be a member of the infamous Soap Gang.
I am always happy to "finish" a page on the main website. The most recent is SOAPY'S SALOONS with a brief acknowledgment of some of Soapy's known saloons in Colorado and Alaska. The page includes some new photographs of the saloons as well as several of the business cards like the one above, from the Geri Murphy Collection.
Now that the manuscript is at the printer I am once again free to update the main website. Today I opted to work on the page Soapy's Saloons. I added the above photograph showing the Tivoli Club in Denver, Colorado along with the Midway, the Orleans Club, and Jeff Smith's Parlor. The page has no text yet and is still under construction.
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(Click image to enlarge)
One of the various Tivoli Club cards
The Tivoli Club
