Saturday, March 28, 2009

Who Is Soapy Smith? I Aim To Learn More.



The older I get the more I discover how much more there is to discover! It's that way in the dynamics of life and in the things we do, including hobbies and interests, such as Western histories, Western films, and Western literature. Over the past week or so, I've bumped into the name "Soapy Smith," seemingly everywhere I turn. This morning I stumbled, again, onto this You Tube video, which then led me to snoop the web and find this web site (http://www.soapysmith.net/index.html).

I haven't yet begun to read much, but the real-life character and stories, the little bit that I have explored, have intrigued me, so I'm gonna spend some time, here and there, reading more about Soapy; he seems like a colorful man, and the stories look fun and interesting.

I'm going to buy and then add this Clark Gable flick to my 365-Western-Movies-In-One-Year List, and I've included a link, below, for those that wanna buy one, too. I'll probably write more about Soapy as I discover more about him.

Happy Trails...

9 comments:

  1. http://soapysmiths.blogspot.com/

    The blog is run by a relative of old Soapy Smith. He's a great guy named Jeff Smith - check it out.

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  2. Oh, I see that the site that Gary (Archavist) recommends is also run by the same man that I cite in today's blog post. So, he's got two "Soapy" web sites. How do you like that? A lot of Soapy stuff to devour!

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  3. Here's one recommendation for you. I consider it a western, but others might not. LAST OF THE DOGMEN starring Tom Berenger and Barbara Hershey.
    He plays a modern day bounty hunter who follows three escaped cons into a forbidding tract of mountains in northwest Montana and discovers a "lost" tribe of wild Cheyenne. Quite good.
    I need to check out a few more before I mention them.

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  4. Hi, WesternsMan.

    If you look in your first batch of posts you will see I am there. I am guessing you did not see it. The film Honky Tonk is very loosly based on the book, The Reign of Soapy Smith, 1935. However, my grandfather, Soapy Smith's son, threatened to sue MGM as he still held rights to his father's name so MGM changed the story around a little but it is obviously Soapy.

    The most recent use of Soapy on film was HBO's Deadwood in which Soapy sold soap in all three seasons.

    Due to lack of time, Soapy's part was cut from the film, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Ron Hansen's book of the same name has Soapy talking Ed O'Kelley into ending Bob Ford's life.

    A planned prequel of The Sting had Soapy Smith as Paul Newman's mentor in the 1890s. However, the box office failure of the sequel killed plans for the prequel.

    An author once told my father that a movie about Soapy Smith would be a mixture of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting. Soapy's day is coming

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  5. Just ran across your blog—I will be back.
    Have read a little Soapy stuff over the years.
    -N-

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  6. Do you have an email address? I've looked all over this blog and can't find it. Anyway, my novel, Scalp Mountain, is now for sale at Amazon. Will you review me? My email address is juliarobbmar@aol.com. I am pasting in my book description. thanks, Julia Robb
    It’s 1876 at Scalp Mountain and Colum McNeal is fleeing gunmen sent by his Irish-immigrant father. Colum pioneers a Texas ranch, a home which means everything to him, but struggles to stay there: José Ortero, a Jacarilla Apache, seeks revenge for the son Colum unwittingly killed.
    At the same time, an old acquaintance, Mason Lohman, obsessively stalks Colum through the border country, planning to take his life. Colum has inspired the unthinkable in Lohman. In a time and place where a man’s sexuality must stand unchallenged, Colum has ignited Lohman’s desire.
    Other characters include Texas Ranger William Henry, who takes Colum’s part against his father while wrestling with his own demons. Henry’s family was murdered by Comanches and he regrets the revenge he took;
    and Clementine Weaver, who defies frontier prejudice by adopting an Indian baby, must choose between Colum and her husband.
    Scalp Mountain is based on the Southern Plains’ Indian Wars.
    Those wars were morally complex, and the novel attempts to reflect those profound, tragic and murderous complications.
    Everyone was right, everyone was wrong, everyone got hurt.
    For more information, visit my website, at scalp mountain.com and the blog, at http://scalpmountain.blogspot.com/

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  7. would like to get blog on westerns fan club by email at k527@msn.com

    ReplyDelete