Klondike Fever

What is certain about Klondike fever is that young Jack London arrived in Alaska and traveled to the Yukon territory. Legendary outlaw Soapy Smith was operating in both Alaska and the Yukon at that time. So was legendary Mountie Sam Steele.

This is the basis for the film Klondike Fever as 21 year old Jack London's encounters with them and other characters would form the frame of his first writings. London is properly cast in the right age bracket by young Jeff East.

Playing Smith is Rod Steiger and Sam Steele is played by Lorne Greene. In real life Smith woul be dead the following year and Steele would serve in the Boer War and compile a good record.

Any aficionado of London's work will of course recognize the genesis of his classic novel White Fang. London's already budding socialist views were most certainly sharpened by his Yukon experience.

The beauty of the Canadian frotier is captured in the cinematography in British Columbia where the film was shot. I imagine the real Yukon was a bit too forbidding for movie crews.

Don't be worried by accuracy here. Klondike Fever is a plausible film about some real folks who could have all met.