Westminster in May? It Has Happened Before

By Amy Fernandez

Westminster in May seems weird but there’s plenty of precedent. Early on, Westminster held four May shows, actually five if you want to get technical. The 1885 show finished up on May 1. They were still using the train depot at that time. They didn’t have many options at that point and so far, the shortcomings of the venue didn’t seem to affect Westminster’s popularity at all. Weather was a roll of the dice but the club continually focused on identifying and fixing problems¬–except for one. You might say that other stuff deflected attention from the weather issues. After the debacle of 1884, the club needed a new show superintendent, which is perhaps no big surprise. That incident at the Pointer ring became the scandal that wouldn’t die. But their show superintendent, Charles Lincoln, did.

Possibly, the Pointer Protest hastened his demise. On the other hand, Lincoln had done his fair share of double-dealing well before hiring Mr. Munson to basically judge his own dogs at Westminster 1884. The club made a fresh start, appointing 26-year-old Francis Hitchcock as Show Chairman and the rather slippery James Mortimer as superintendent. There wasn’t much about Hitchcock to rile fanciers. He hadn’t been around long enough. Mortimer was another story.

In fairness, superintending shows requires vast experience and mental fortitude. Like his predecessor, Mortimer had tons of both. His tenure in dogs touched every corner of the sport. AKC was more of a concept than an actual regulating body. So, talk of competing interests, etc. remained solely the realm of editorial opinion.

Mortimer started out as Westminster’s kennel manager. From there, Lincoln invited him to judge at Westminster and that went very well. By the time he took over as superintendent he was judging and brokering dogs all over the country. He was quite a good judge, which probably comes with that kind of background. Moreover, Westminster faced challenges replacing their show superintendent and Mortimer basically appointed himself. He was tough, knowledgeable, conversant in the few show regulations that existed…and just a bit shady. Hey, nobody is perfect.
The 1885 show went fairly well. The entry of 960 wasn’t great, but after the previous year some members had envisioned the club going down in flames. Hitchcock and Mortimer seemed to know the drill. Hitchcock’s dogs were entered and won under another club member but that was perfectly legal at the time.

By 1886 Westminster was back to its usual confident state of micromanagement, sans Hitchcock. The show, May 4-7, drew 1039 entries. By then, publicity took care of itself and Pointers remained the center of attention. Sensation continued to be benched along with the rest of the club’s Pointers.

The downside of success is complacency and that’s probably the best explanation for 1887. At least it didn’t involve Pointers that time. It was St. Bernards, which was possibly worse considering the breed’s popularity and the exponential public fascination.

Apparently, no takeaway message had registered with Westminster after 1884 because Mr. Mortimer served as both superintendent and judge–assigning himself to judge one of the show’s biggest entries. Despite the lack of actual rules banning such things, public sentiment was coming down hard on this nonsense.

It came fast and furious after St. Bernard judging at Westminster 1887. Apollo was an established star in the breed. He’d won plenty over the years but those years were showing. James Watson used his editorial forum to highlight the dog’s increasingly houndy head and dodgy hindquarters which were glaringly apparent to ringside well prior to any published criticism. And that was endless.

The most interesting result of that disaster was the club’s unprecedented decision to hire Anna Whitney–a woman–for Saint judging the next year. Aside from her expertise in Saints, that was way overdue. She drew the usual huge entry (117). That storm faded into history and I’d love to say that Westminster learned its lesson.

One thing for sure, May had not been lucky for the club in that regard. The following year they moved to those dreadful February dates. So, here we are just weeks away from another May show. No sense speculating about the future. But you can’t go wrong with honest judging.

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Posted by Liz on Apr 27 2023. 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.