Soapy's Shell Game

The Search for Soapy’s Shell Game

Jefferson R. “Soapy” Smith and the “Dr. Q” Connection

The Search for Soapy’s Shell Game Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith was one of the premier con men and “skin game” artists of the nineteenth century. He was considered to be the greatest shell game operator of all time: “Soapy Smith was without a question the one and only con man who cleaned up with this. He took them as fast as they laid their money on the layout. His boosters dragged the sucker in and Soapy put the axe to them, where Nellie wore the beads. …Soapy Smith was beyond doubt the slipperiest of the slippery with his line of bull con and the simple little walnut shell game.” --J. H. Johnson, 1927

I remembered Dai Vernon’s fascination with this character, and heard him talk about him more than once. Chef Anton and I were interested in Soapy from the beginning of our studies. I traveled to Skagway, Alaska many times, as well as to Denver and Leadville, Colorado in search of information on this incredible character. Eventually, Chef and I met up with Jeff Smith, Soapy’s great-grandson, who is a real authority on Soapy, and has a huge collection of Soapy’s letters and memorabilia. One of the ideas about Soapy that was most interesting to me, was a suggestion made to me about five years ago from historian David Charvet that at least a part of Soapy’s shell routine may have survived in Thayer’s “Dr. Q” manuscripts. At the time, David was working on a now released book “Alexander—The Man Who Knows.” Alexander was Alexander Conlin, the author of the “Dr. Q” manuscripts. Conlin had been one of Soapy’s henchmen in Scagway, Alaska during the gold rush, before years later becoming the renowned psychic performer. David Charvet suggested that the Dr. Q manuscript on the shell game was in all likelihood the basic rudiments of the game that Conlin would have picked up at the feet of the master, Soapy Smith. It is interesting that in this short manuscript, the barest of routines is laid out, but that the use of two peas is clearly a main ingredient of the scam. So here are the instructions for the Shell Game as written up by one of the students of the great Soapy Smith. You will find here some great ideas that can be expanded on with a little ingenuity. Using the Sheets Acquitment, the Haydn Turnover, and the maneuvers, the use of the two pea ruse can become even more practical and devastating than it was for Soapy.

Taken From: Glenn Gravatt, compiler. Thayer Quality Magic Volume IV, pp 164-166. 1981: Magic Limited, Oakland, California.