The 1967 Westminster Dog Show

By Amy Fernandez

Since moving to the Piers Westminster has been rapidly reinventing itself. The multifaceted, all-encompassing event unfolding over there really isn’t a break with tradition as much as a return to it. In a nutshell, we’ve been there before. More precisely, 50 years ago. That’s when the show began its trajectory towards the modern, stripped down version that’s defined it ever since. That wasn’t necessarily the end goal envisioned at that pivotal moment but everyone came into Westminster 1967 braced for big changes. After 42 years, it was leaving MSG III, a long forgotten venue that once inhabited 9th Avenue from 49th to 50th Street.

In a sense the sport and the club grew up together in that vast, boxy building. An elitist, marginal hobby blossomed into a mainstream sport, which by then attracted thousands of fans from every walk of life. And Westminster itself morphed from a scrawny pup into a big wooly beast of a show.

Perhaps 1967 wasn’t the brightest moment in American culture. At the low end of the scale, The Monkees topped the charts, tobacco companies were pitching safe cigarettes, and Jimmy Hoffa was still making news as president of the Teamsters Union. On the other hand, it truly was a vintage year for purebred dogs. Topping the list was the 1966 top dog all breeds, the black Miniature Poodle Ch. Frederick of Rencroft. The Phillips system was still a relatively new twist on the game. Just two years old, Freddie and handler Frank Sabella showed the world where it was heading, accumulating over 25,000 breed points in one year, earning both the Popular Dogs Dog of the Year Award and the Ken-L Ration Special Achievement Award. This was Freddie’s second shot at Westminster. He came into it with 28 Bests, 51 Groups and, most recently, back to back specialty wins at Golden Gate. He was definitely the favored contender but those odds changed constantly as results rolled in from the weekend specialties. Over at the Statler Hilton, Clayton Webb judged arecord east coast entry of 155 Irish Setters. Bigger news was a class dog from Georgia taking the breed. Draaherin Fantabulous defeated 35 specials after a hairsplitting finale pitting him against his multiple BIS sire AKC/CKC Ch. Draherin Auburn Artistry.

There was more excitement at the Boxer specialty where 11-month-old Salgray’s Ambush won the futurity over an entry of 88. Bred and owned by Daniel and Phyllis Hamilburg, he was handled by both Larry Downey and Stan Flowers. Downey
showed him in the futurity and Flowers took over for the specialty taking him from 9-12 to BOB over an entry of 236. His uncle, Ch. Salgray’s Fashion Plate, had won it for the past two years along with Westminster Working groups, finishing 1965 ranked fifth overall. His sire, Ch. Salgray’s Flying High, and his dam, Ch. Salgray’s Flaming Ember, were both BIS winners. He was gonna be trouble.

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Posted by Alex on Mar 13 2017. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.