The Days of '98 Show is a Klondike Gold Rush–themed musical theater show performed in Eagles Hall in Skagway, Alaska. It is the longest-running Alaskan theatrical show. Created in the 1920s, the show was put on by the Skagway chapter of the Fraternal Order of Eagles and performed infrequently in the 1930s. By the mid-20th century, the show was performed frequently in the summer, particularly on days when cruise ships and passenger ships docked. It was staffed by unpaid locals and used to fundraise for various causes including a local hockey team, an elderly care facility, and Christmas toys for all Skagway children.
Right after World War II, The Days of '98 Show began being presented with a format that would be used into the 1970s. It featured mock gambling, can-can performances, period costumes from the Klondike Gold Rush era, and a recitation and pantomime of the Robert W. Service poem "The Shooting of Dan McGrew". By 1977, the Eagles encountered dwindling membership and financial difficulties with their sole income stream, The Days of '98 Show, not making a profit that year. They inducted new members into the organization including people who were performing in the play Soapy Lives about the conman Soapy Smith. The two shows merged in 1978 after the members rewrote the script, combining elements from both shows. The revised Days of '98 Show depicts various events from Skagway's frontier history. It portrays Smith and his gang's hold on Skagway and ends with the shootout on Juneau Wharf between Smith and vigilante Frank H. Reid. The show received positive reviews for being an engaging production that teaches about Skagway's history.
Eagles Hall
The Days of '98 Show is put on by the Skagway Aerie No. 25, Fraternal Order of Eagles and Gold Rush Productions. Established in June 1899, the Order purchased the Eagles Hall, where the show is performed. The Eagles Hall's predecessor was two hotels established in 1898: the Mondamin Hotel on Fifth Avenue close to Main and the Pacific Hotel on Sixth and Broadway. The Order acquired the Pacific Hotel in 1902. After the Pacific Hotel was partially relocated in 1920 to the Mondamin Hotel's posterior, the Eagles bought the building, refurbishing it into a hall and theater. Audrey Prest of the Daily News of Los Angeles in 1989 found Eagles Hall to be reminiscent of a red barn.
Since the hall did not have a stage in 1979, the show was performed on the ground. In 1984, the lobby was furnished with gambling tables, while the theater had "rough hewn walls". The building has offices and a theater with velvet curtains. The ambiance in the theater resembles a saloon during the gold rush. Citing the creeky stairs and the "smells of decades of popcorn butter and a hint of whiskey", Mike Swasey of KHNS said that the theater "smells, sounds, and feels like a classic theatre". The Skagway Newss Marc Bona said in 2023 that the aroma of aged wood and freshly made popcorn permeates the structure. To attract people to watch the show, costumed women sing as they balance on the windowsill of the second floor.
History Early history
The Days of '98 Show is a rowdy vaudevillian melodrama, musical revue, comedy, extravaganza, and historical play. Sources have given different years for when the show began being performed: 1923, 1925, 1926, 1927, or 1932. Festive gatherings in honor of the 1898 gold rush were held intermittently in the 1930s. In its early years, the show would be performed a handful of occasions each summer. Soon after World War II, a show was put into place containing mock gambling, dancing, can-can dancers, and "The Shooting of Dan McGrew". Ann True, the show's general manager in 1973, said that upon her arrival in Skagway in 1946, Days of '98 had already been performed like this. The author Robert L. S. Spude said in 1986 that of Alaskan shows, The Days of '98 Show had been performed the longest. The author Catherine Holder said in 2012 that of currently running Alaskan theater shows, The Days of '98 Show had the earliest premiere. Patricia Corrigan of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said in 1986 the show has been called "the longest running show on Broadway". The initial iteration of the show featured local performers, while the modern shows are done by skilled actors.
Numerous cruise ship excursions include the show as a possible activity. In the mid-20th century, the show was performed in the summer, particularly on days when cruise ships and passenger ships like SS Prince George and SS Princess Louise docked. In 1949, residents put on a "Days of '98 Dance" in which they wore clothes from the Klondike Gold Rush era. Example attire for men included "Christie-stiffs, wide-brimmed miners' hats, moth-eaten toppers [with] string ties and perhaps a scarlet weskit". To depict high-class women, residents wore feathered heats to represent "lady that's known as Lou" (the character from "The Shooting of Dan McGrew") and "Diamond Lil". To depict women who would join men on the Chilkoot Pass, they wore "high-buttoned boots and bustles". The show earned $300 on a regular successful evening in 1949.
The residents of Skagway began putting on the show to fund their hockey group after Princess steamships began making stops in the city. In 1956, the show's proceeds were put towards paying the orchestra and compensating performers' babysitters and the remaining amount went towards the elderly care facility in Sitka, Alaska. Funds earned from the show were used around 1963 were for causes including cancer charity and Christmas toys for children. Funds in 1965 went to the Vancouver Sailors' Home and the Vancouver Crippled Children's Association. Profits from the show in 1971 went to purchasing Christmas presents for the children.
A 1964 newspaper article said the show required no fewer than 20 individuals to host each performance and none of them received compensation. In 1965, Days of '98 was performed between April and the beginning of October. The 1967 cast of more than 50 people put on more than 60 shows. Performed three to four times weekly, the Days of '98 Show in 1971 had two casts that took turns appearing in the production every other week. A subset of the cast had to appear in all shows since there were insufficient people to fill up both casts. There were 90 planned performances in 1973.
Merger of Days of '98 Show and Soapy Lives Tom Biss, an actor, moved in 1973 from Anchorage, Alaska, to Skagway. He performed that summer in a one-person play, Soap Pitch (later called Soapy Lives) in a log cabin. The venue was in Skagway's American Legion Hall on Seventh and Broadway. In the winter that year, Biss performed the show in Juneau and Ketchikan. He returned to Skagway in 1974 to perform a more elaborate show in the Arctic Brotherhood lodge hall involving more actors. He established the company Soap Theatrical Co. for putting on the play. Judy Irving, the venue's spotlight manager, used M. Mike Miller's 1970 book Soapy as the foundation for penning the script of Soapy Lives for Biss. Written from the first-person of the frontier gangster Soapy Smith, Soapy offers a positive spin on his life in which he reflects on his youthful mishaps. Having worked as an Alaska Sportsman journalist, Miller likely relied on the magazine's 1950s and 1960s articles as research content for his book. Al Swingle wrote music for the play. The Arctic Brotherhood set was constructed using wood from a Dyea beach.
The show starts with two members of Smith's gang, played by Jim Richards and Steve Hites. As they consume alcohol, the duo sing several songs as they nostalgically recall their interactions with Smith. Hites plays the piano and the guitar while Richards plays the guitar and the banjo. A woman, a dance hall performer, appears in the play. Coming out of his saloon, Biss's Soapy Smith introduces himself to the viewers. He describes how he swindled people in Skagway and became the town's ruler. Bemoaning the vigilante "Committee of 101" that seeks his removal, he criticizes his associates for their foolish avarice in stealing from a man. He is resolute in thwarting Frank Reid, who wants to overthrow him. The show reaches its climax when Smith dies during the shootout on Juneau Wharf with Reid.
While performing in his own show at night, Biss acted as Soapy Smith in the Days of '98 Show in the day and participated in its "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" performance. The show brought on a narrator and a pianist before Jim Richards purchased it from Biss in 1975. In Soapy Lives, Richards had played a Soapy Smith gang member who was a banjo player and later started playing Soapy Smith. In June 1977, Tyler Eccles played "Slim Jim" Foster, a member of Smith's gang. That year, Soapy Lives had been staged about 450 times. At the time, Eagles Hall had a community production called the Days of '98 Show that was performed in the late evenings. To avoid a head-to-head clash, Soapy Lives scheduled shows during the daytime hours, catering to cruise ships.
The Days of '98 Show relied on a volunteer cast and scheduled 62 performances in the summer of 1977. That year, the Eagles introduced additional songs. The production was performed in 1977 every time SS Princess Patricia and MS Prinsendam were in port and a number of the times Monarch Star docked. Both Soapy Lives and the Days of '98 Show had trouble financially supporting the performers. Around 40,000 cruise ship passengers had docked in Skagway in 1975, a small number that could barely sustain Soapy Lives performers Richards, a musician, and an actress. Eagles Hall encountered financial problems in 1977 after its sole income stream, Days of '98 Show, had failed to turn a profit that year. With few members left in the organization, they could not cover the property tax or the membership fees. Their inability to pay the oil bill led to the freezing of their pipes. Eagles Hall had six members left when, realizing they needed a change, members George Flemming and J. D. True suggested adding six young performers to the club's membership rolls. Their aim was to prevent the Grand Aerie from taking over the property and to continue putting on showings of the Days of '98 Show. The six members were inducted as Eagles members during a rite performed on a table in Flemming's kitchen. The new members included Jim Richards and Steve Hites. The initiation of these new members later led to a merger of the Days of '98 Show and the play Soapy Lives.
The process to revise the format and script of the Days of '98 Show began in December 1977. Jim Richards and Steve Hites were housemates. After spending hours fighting a house fire that month, Steve Hites returned to his own house and started sleeping in a chair without getting changed. According to Hites, Richards roused him from sleep and urged him to take notes as Richards outlined a new Days of '98 Show. Richards suggested combining elements of the Soapy Lives show and the Days of 98 show. The show would feature new songs. It would have William Moore narrate about finding the White Pass. It would feature the Days of 98 Shows can-can performers and discuss Skagway's history including Soapy Smith's death. Hites delivered the notes to Tom Healy, who refined the dialogue and acts. Richards, Hites, and Healy jointly came up with a revised script. Hites wrote some of the new show's music, while Richards wrote two songs: "The Boomtown Saloon" and "Moonlight, the Yukon and You".Heimbuecher, Ruth (1984-03-18). "Skagway: The gold rush era lives on" (pages 1 and 2). The Pittsburgh Press. Archived from the original (pages 1 and 2) on 2024-04-27. Retrieved 2024-04-27 – via Newspapers.com.