Fame, Fortune & The Brussels Griffon

By Amy Fernandez

Unless you’re a serious student of the film or fashion history, you’ve probably never heard of Vernon and Irene Castle. But precisely 100 years ago every aspect of their lives rated TMZ-type media coverage.

Best remembered for revitalizing ballroom dancing, they also popularized far more scandalous dance trends like the foxtrot, turkey trot, ragtime, tango, and their namesake Castle Walk. This chic acting/dancing couple ranked as cutting edge trendsetters. You can thank Irene for introducing the rail-thin, waiflike silhouette, cropped hair, and short skirts that heralded the flapper era a decade later. Even more shocking at the time, the Castles openly advocated racial equality and gay rights. Irene also played a starring role American Brussels Griffon history.

Born in New Rochelle, NY in 1893, Irene represented the third generation of one of the most prominent families in New York’s dog world. Her father, Dr. Hubert Townsend Foote, was a successful physician, AKC delegate for the Toledo KC, Atlanta KC, and Scottish Terrier Club of America, and a noted breeder of Wires and Manchesters. In 1892, he imported Ch. Brittle, the first top quality Wire in America. In The Dog Book, Watson emphasized his determined effort to keep Manchesters afloat in America. “It was not until Dr. Foote of New Rochelle took up this breed that we got a fancier with the necessary persistence. For it is one of the hardest to breed to perfection… Dr. Foote stuck with it for twenty years until Mrs. Foote took up Scottish Terriers and he fell victim to their enticing qualities.”

Like other girls of her social class, Irene was packed off to the finest boarding schools where she proved to be a dismal student. She was far more interested in horses, dogs, dancing, and especially, amateur theatricals. Her father’s dismay worsened appreciably in 1910 when she met Vernon Castle at the New Rochelle Rowing Club. British by birth, this young aspiring actor and dancer personified her ideal of elegance and sophistication. Irene was lovestruck. Vernon introduced her to show biz, and despite her father’s strenuous objections, they married within a year. The couple soon embarked for Europe where their dancing made them the rage of Parisian society. In 1912 they returned triumphantly and proceeded to electrify the New York social scene with their innovative style and dance moves that rewrote the rules.

Irene also returned with Brussels Griffons, a breed that was virtually unknown in America at that time. As Herbert Compton noted in The Twentieth Century Dog, “The Griffon made its first bow in public in 1895, and awoke to find itself famous.”

Virtually overnight, Europe had gone mad for Brussels Griffons. Society page tidbits like this 1896 morsel from The Ladies Kennel Journal ensured the Griff’s ascendancy as the premier pet of European royalty and high society. “A pretty little Griffon, which was given by Mrs. Sewell to HRH Princes Charles of Denmark has been for some time at Sandringham where it gambols about with Princess Victoria’s black Pom.” Reviewing the breed’s history two decades later, Hutchinson’s Dog Encyclopedia confirmed, “There was a time when no member of Brussels high society was without his or her Griffons.”

In contrast to the Continent, America didn’t warm up to the Griffon quite so fast. Irene did her part to change that. In addition to exhibiting her dogs at major shows like Westminster, the breed became a familiar sight in New York as the Castles leveraged their growing fame into lucrative ventures including Broadway hits, dancing schools, and cabarets. Constantly in demand for fashionable soirees and celebrity endorsements, the Castles became an international sensation, touring the globe with their menagerie in tow.

The advent of WWI intensified their stratospheric fame. It made headlines when Vernon announced his enlistment in 1915. After the couple’s farewell performances before sold out crowds at Madison Square Garden, he sailed to England and joined the RAF. He flew 300 combat missions, earned the Croix de Guerre for bravery, and the rank of captain before he was transferred to Fort Worth, Texas as a flight instructor. And that’s where Vernon, aged 30, met his Waterloo while training a student pilot on February 15, 1918.

Unlike the 1939 portrayal of the couple in the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rodgers film, the Castle’s marriage was DOA by then. Soon after Vernon’s accident, Irene wed her second of four husbands and embarked on a successful film career. For the next decade, she continued to actively promote her Griffons, which came primarily from the English Nofa bloodline, best known for its blacks. The Brussels Griffon never achieved the level of popularity it had known in Europe, but it was well established in America by the late 1930s.

In 1923, Irene married Major Frederick McLaughlin, hockey Hall Of Famer and owner of the Chicago Blackhawks. Irene retired from films and the dog game to raise a family, but her love for animals remained a guiding force in her life. With McLaughlin’s help she purchased ten acres in Deerfield, a northern suburb of Chicago, and built a privately funded animal shelter in 1928. Later known as Orphans of the Storm, she initiated a policy of accepting unwanted animals from municipal shelters throughout the Chicago area.

After her death in 1969, Irene and Vernon were reunited at Woodlawn Cemetery.

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