July 13, 2014

11th Annual Soapy Smith Night at the Magic Castle

Help us “Toast the Ghost of Soapy Smith”

Jefferson Randolph ���Soapy” Smith

Canyon Lake resident Anthony Riniti, known to pool afficionados as “Chef Anton” the two-time National Trick Shot Champion of Pool, will be one of the featured entertainers at the third annual “Soapy Smith Night��� at the world-famous Magic Castle in Hollywood.

Chef Anton 2-Time United States Trick Shot Pool Champion

 

Combining original trick shots with comedy, magic, pick-pocketing, and street hustles, Chef Anton’s show is the perfect complement to an evening celebrating America’s greatest con man of the nineteenth century. Other entertainment will include Brandy LaPlante our lovely western songbird, and Professor Dave Bourne (from HBO’s “Deadwood”) as our piano player. Whit Haydn and a number of other scoundrels will also be performing.

 

���Soapy Smith Night��� is a fun celebration in honor of the foremost expert in the three-shell game of the Victorian era. Held in the beautiful Victorian mansion that houses the Magic Castle, the party is a celebrity-studded costume event with magic, music, and entertainment, as well as an historical talk by Jeff Smith of San Bernadino, the great-grandson of Soapy.

 

This will be the 11th year that Jeff Smith and School for Scoundrels sponsor this “wake” for Soapy at the Magic Castle.

 

Jefferson R. Smith is considered to be the first true American gangster. He was famous all over the country during his lifetime, and he was friends with many well-known and influential people including governors and senators, writers, and lawmen and gamblers such as Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson.

 

Known as ���Soapy” for his famous soap swindle, Smith and his gang of over a hundred con men ran the gambling and vice in the towns of Denver and Creede, Colorado, and finally in Skagway, Alaska during the height of the Gold Rush in the 1890���s.

 

Smith’s “businesses” included fake assay offices, a fake telegram depot, a fake army enlistment tent (where inductees had their clothes and belongings stolen while getting their “physical exam”), countless other scams and gambling rackets.

 

In the “soap swindle,” Smith would set up a suitcase on a tripod on a busy street corner, and begin pitching the wonders of his miracle soap “Sapolion.��� In the process he would wrap $100 and $50 bills around several bars of soap, and then replace them in their wrappers and drop them into the suitcase with the other bars.

 

He then proceeded to sell the nickle bars of soap for $5.00 a bar—a princely sum in the “Gay Nineties.” As his shills began buying the bars and loudly “winning” the money, people flocked to the sale and were each sheared of five bucks or more as all the bars were sold.

 

Smith’s notorious career came to an end in Skagway on July 8, 1898 at 9:15 pm when he faced off against vigilante Frank Reid and the two men shot each other to death.

 

Some of Smith’s associates eventually came to the Los Angeles area, including Wyatt Earp, Alexander Conlin (the famous vaudeville psychic), Alexander Pantages (founded the Pantages theater chain), and Wilson Mizner (famous playwright and aphorist who founded the Brown Derby).

 

The citizens of Skagway hold an annual “wake” for Soapy every July 8, which features a toast to Smith at the time of his death. The School for Scoundrels, a company that educates people about con games, along with the Magic Castle has inaugurated this yearly tradition here in Los Angeles.

 

Famous magician Dai Vernon, who until his death was a fixture at the Magic Castle was an authority on Smith and a huge fan. The Magic Castle event is held to raise money for the Dai Vernon Fund, a charity fund for retired magicians in serious need.

 

There is a five dollar cover charge for the evening (on top of the regular fifteen dollar cover for non-members), and participants are encouraged to come in nineteenth century costume. There will be a costume contest with great prizes for the sexiest, funniest, and most authentic costumes. The normal Castle dress code, as it is on Halloween, is suspended for those in costume. There will be other door prizes and contests, and a great auction. There will also be a Faro table at which you can try your luck.

 

The event begins at 6:00 pm on Sunday, July 13, 2014 at the Magic Castle. The majority of the events will take place in the Inner Circle, but there will be performers scattered throughout the Castle doing the Shell Game and Three Card Monte. The traditional “toast to Soapy’s ghost” is at 9:15 pm, and Jeff Smith will have the original tombstone from Soapy’s grave at the Magic Castle for this event.