Road Trip 2010: Day 19: Skagway Monday night

Skagway: the night of Monday, June 28

The Days of ’98 with Soapy Smith.

The streets were nearly empty as the “boat people” had almost all gone back to their ships. Most of the stores had closed up as their main customer base had departed. Our little group of 45 or so easily outnumbered those that remained in town.
We ambled down Broadway to the north side of town and the little “gambling hall”/ theater where we had tickets to The Days of ’98 with Soapy Smith.

The evening started with a little “gambling” using some funny money. Everyone attending was given $1,000 to use in playing games similar to those that the miners might have enjoyed. Games like 21, Texas hold’em, roulette, and craps. Time was called after 45 minutes or so and the biggest winner was determined.

Roulette

Black Jack

A game of 3-4-5

Texas Hold'em

There was a little singing (Chris Ledeux), poetry reading (Robert W. Service, of course!) and some ragtime piano playing. Then the Big Winner in the casino was announced.

The Big Winner (He did it at the Black Jack table.)

And one of the showgirl's garters was auctioned off for a scholarship fund sponsored by the Eagles. (I lost. Hey! It was for the children.)

The item for auction.

The auction winner claims his prize.

Then it was time for the main attraction: the story of Soapy Smith and his death as told in song and dance as well as narration by Soapy himself.

The drama portrayed Soapy Smith in a somewhat sympathetic manner for a man who was basically a con artist. Celebrated as a town hero by some loathed by others he was Grand Marshall at the 4th of July Parade, shot dead on July 8th and buried ignominiously outside the town graveyard during a sparsely attended lack of ceremony on the 9th. (Sparsely attended because a vigilance committee had arrested his men and was holding them for deportation to the lower 48.)

In between the telling of his story, there was some dance hall entertainment with songs and dances performed by the girls and a few members of the audience.

The girls sang: "A good man is hard to find"...

...then they went out and picked up Geoffrey,
our Good Sammer from Australia.
(He's here with his wife/girlfriend (?) and his two female cousins.)

(They did the Can-Can with a couple of ladies from the audience, but the movements were so intense, that each and every photo was blurry.)

When the show was over—around 9 PM—it was time to walk back to our temporary residence.

The view from Broadway in Skagway...at nearly 9:30 PM




Yeah, I said 9:30 PM.