Soapy Smith

Which actor played the con-man Soapy Smith? Or is my memory failing me and it was a character "based" on Soapy Smith?

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/soapy-smith-killed-in-skagway-alaska?et_cid=43544575&et_rid=703756786&linkid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.history.com%2fthis-day-in-history%2fsoapy-smith-killed-in-skagway-alaska

If I remember right it was Sam Jaffe and the character was based on Soapy Smith -- it was Soapy Saunders I think.

I'm brain dead today. Who played Silky O'Sullivan?

Pretty sure that was Walter Brennan

You are right, Mme Calico. I was having a temporary (I hope...at my age that's not a given) brain dump.

Hello, Fortitudine and all the rest of you.

The character of Jefferson Randolph Smith II, alias "Soapy" Smith, has been used in numerous TV shows and films for decades. Clark Gable is probably the largest actor to have played the part but that will soon change. In the next few years Soapy will finally get some well deserved recognition in the film adaption of Howard Blum's book, The Floor of Heaven. The link from the History Channel was written by someone who had no idea of the real history. I won't go into the details about that, but I will suggest that anyone here interested in learning about the REAL Soapy Smith is invited to my online sites. Soapy was my great-grandfather and I have spent 25-plus year researching his life and death.

Jeff Smith
The Soapy Smith Preservation Trust
author of Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel
website: (www).soapysmith.net
blog: (www).soapysmiths.blogspot.com

Thank you for posting the URLs to your sites, Jeff-Soapy. I've popped over and they look fascinating. You will probably receive many visitors from this forum. The members here may also be interested in the Wikipedia article on your great-grandfather http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soapy_Smith which seems to be something of a very abridged version of your book, and gives a taste of it. It has been some time since I've read about him and his scams. He certainly was creative in his line of business.

Love your site, Soapy! Is that you doing the narration?

Quite a few of us here are history buffs, so this is perfect. Thanks for sharing the links with us.

BeeJay: Yes, I wrote the bulk of the Wikipedia page on Soapy. Another interesting Wikipedia page is listed on the Soapy Smith Wikipedia page, called Shootout on Juneau Wharf, which tells more details about the gunfight in which Soapy was killed.

Remuda: No, the narration is from an old record about the Klondike gold rush. Unfortunately my voice is no where near sounding like that, lol.

Thank you for showing an interest. I am the family "publicity agent" for Soapy so I have devoted much of my adult life introducing him to people. You will see the Alias Smith and Jones programs on my website on the media and arts page, as well as other TV shows Soapy appeared in.

I'm sure many of you know who Wyatt Earp is. I'm willing to bet that some of you only recently learned about Soapy, however, in looking at the amount of newspaper articles written about each man, while they were both alive (1860-1898) Soapy was more well known across the United States than Wyatt Earp. Of course that's because Wyatt did not become really famous until Stuart Lake wrote about him in the 1920s. Soapy went by the way-side but he is making a come back. If the film The Floor of Heaven gets completed (Hollywood is fickle that way) it could make Soapy well-known once again. For those old enough, look what Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid film did for them.

Thanks for showing an interest gang.
Jeff Smith

I'm looking forward to spending some time on your website. Thank you for posting the links and keeping Soapy's memory alive.

Way back in my twenties, I used to be involved in the tourism industry in Alaska which is where I learned about Soapy Smith. He's still well remembered in Skagway and a real asset to tourism in southeast Alaska. It wasn't until I was researching stories for ASJ that I became familiar with his Denver days.

I'm glad you decided to join our site.

Welcome, Jeff/Soapy Smith! I bookmarked your website ages ago and a few
months ago read more about your ancestor in a book called Outlaw Tales of Colorado,
which included a chapter about him. Are you familiar with that book?
If you are, I'd be curious as to what you thought of the chapter about
Soapy Smith.

Hi, Ghislaine.

I do not have a copy of Outlaw Tales of Colorado. In the past I tried to contact the author, Professor of History, John Heaton of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks but he never wrote back. At that time I was not able to see anything inside the book but your question brought me back to checking out the book on Google and I was able to see pages 70-77, seven pages of the 17 page chapter on Soapy. I can tell you that this Professor did no research of his own. He merely copied incorrect information from old books. Definitely do not use this book as a source.

A few mistakes I quickly found on the first two pages

Lists "Old Man Taylor" as his mentor. This was first published in 1935 and there is no provenance.

Lists "Doc" Baggs as one of his gang member. Charles L. Baggs was Soapy's predecessor, not a member of the Soap Gang.

Lists "Canada Bill" as one of his gang members. "Canada Bill" Jones was a partner of Baggs and died when Soapy was young.

Incorrectly lists Charles Bowers ("Reverend Bowers"), but his name was John L. Bowers.

Mentions "Icebox Murphy," but no such person existed. This came from the older books on Soapy.

The author states Soapy stayed away from women. Where he obtained this information I do not know, but it's not true.

The author incorrectly lists Soapy's wife as Anna Nielsen, which comes from older books. Soapy's wife was Mary Eva Noonan, believed to be a cousin of the outlaw Dalton brother's.

That's the mistakes from pages 70-71. I won't bore you with all of them, however, I will be more than happy to tell you the correct story about any other story from pages 72-77 as that's all I can view from that particular book. There are some great portions of the truth in the authors book, like the story of Soapy's petrified man. The author does not know that McGinty (Soapy's name for the corpse) still exists and can be seen by the general public!

Anyone who wants to know the story of Soapy Smith should get my book, Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel, http://aliassoapysmith.blogspot.com/ It's 650 pages packed with brand new information all backed with excellent sources. There are 54 photographs, most never having been published before. All that for $26. I spent 25-years researching to publish the book so it's like paying me $1 per year for my work, not bad. That link will also lead you to comments by others about my book. If you like old west history you will like this book!

I am always here to answer questions.

Jeff Smith

Thank you for your detailed reply. However, the author you mentioned is not the one listed on the book I have. So I googled him and he wrote Outlaw Tales of Alaska, a different book altogether. The book I have, Outlaw Tales of Colorado, is written by Jan Murphy. The chapter on Soapy Smith is ten pages and deals primarily with his time in Colorado, only briefly touching on the later period he spent in Alaska, presumably because the book is focused on Colorado history. But it's good to know your opinion about the other book, too!

Hi, Ghislaine.

My bad. You are right I did confuse the two book. However, I did Google and discuss the errors for the correct book that you asked about, so the seven errors I found on pages 70-71 did come from the book Outlaw Tales of Colorado and still stand as errors in that book. I guess I should change my comment to "Neither book should be used as historical sources." Sorry for the confusion.

Jeff Smith

Okay. Thanks for clarifying.