"Given that his contemporaries hailed businessman James K. P. Miller as "the foremost citizen of Deadwood" and stated that his "name will always be coupled with the prosperity of Deadwood and the Black Hills," it would seem that he should be as well remembered as Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Seth Bullock, Harris Franklin, and W. E. Adams. Yet, few in Deadwood or elsewhere have ever heard of James K. P. Miller. Dime novels did not make him a Western...

"This story is the result of news media observations of the Gem Theatre in Deadwood and the people who worked there, those who played there, and, more importantly, the people who did not feel comfortable or accepted anywhere else. While considering these observations, the underlying control and presence of Al Swearingen is pervading and inescapable. The Gem was the self-conceived stage of his entertainment, his natural habitat. Wading through the...