Morris & Essex Redux

120 – March, 2010

by Captain (Arthur) J. Haggerty

Max von Stephanitz judging German Shepherds at Morris & Essex in 1930.

Gilligan’s Island, Manhattan, and Mystique come immediately to mind. All-breed shows? Well, there is Westminster, Chicago, Philadelphia and the Kennel Club of Beverly Hills. But BIS at most all-breed shows is only marginally better to Shepherd fanciers than a BISS.

The show wasn’t actually held on the grounds of Giralda. Mrs. Dodge couldn’t imagine allowing the grounds of Giralda Farms to be trampled under foot, so the show site was actually the polo fields at adjoining Hartley Farms, the estate of Mrs. Dodge’s husband Marcellus Hartley Dodge.

What about Morris & Essex? If you have been in the breed for a while you have at least heard of Morris & Essex. You may even have exhibited at that most prestigious of shows if you were in the breed 45 or 50 years ago. Holy mackerel! Has it been that long? The first Morris and Essex show was in 1927, and the last was in 1957. That is, it was the last one until a group of dynamic fanciers reconstituted the club and put on the first modern-day Morris & Essex Kennel Club dog show on October 5, 2000. You don’t have to be an old-timer for the Morris & Essex name to sound familiar to you. Its reputation is so far-reaching that fanciers who have been around half the years since that last Morris & Essex show in 1957 recognize the name and nostalgically recall it even though they were never there.

The name Morris & Essex is forever linked to the name Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge. It was her show and it was her Kennel Club. You might have thought an individual couldn’t own a kennel club, but then you probably didn’t know Mrs. Dodge. The French saying Autre temps, autre moeurs means “other times, other manners,” or, loosely translated: “How times have changed!” How true. It was a different world then. Mrs. Dodge was an avid Shepherd fancier. She maintained a kennel of up to 150 dogs, although they weren’t all German Shepherds (other favorite breeds were Spaniels, Bloodhounds, Beagles, Golden and Labrador Retrievers, and Rottweilers). There were other members in the Morris & Essex Kennel Club too, but you always knew Mrs. Dodge was in charge and that she did what she wanted to do. For example, contrary to popular belief, Morris & Essex was not a true “all-breed” show. A breed had to be invited by Mrs. Dodge in order to compete. She maintained that exclusivity. Eighty some odd was the maximum number of breeds ever in attendance.

Over the years Mrs. Dodge owned some well-pigmented white Shepherds. Before bringing out the tar and feathers, please note that Mrs. Dodge passed away in 1973, and up until 1968 white was a disqualification only if albino characteristics were evident. On top of that, who would presume to tell Mrs. Dodge what she could or could not do? She was a standard setter, a Renaissance woman well ahead of her time, and the first woman to judge for the Westminster Kennel Club, where her assignment was to do Best In Show. Mrs. Dodge judged shows in every state in this country, and the top shows in Canada, England, Ireland, and Germany, and wrote two books, “The English Cocker Spaniel in America,” and, collaborating with her curator of art, Miss Josephine Z. Rine, “The German Shepherd Dog in America.”

Almost twice as many breeds and varieties competed at the “new” Morris & Essex, which took place on the grounds of Giralda Farms in Madison, New Jersey. The 2000 show drew an entry of 3,200 dogs, which is pretty good for a Thursday show that hadn’t been held in 43 years. The Morris & Essex of the past had a number of shows with more than 3,000 entries during a period of time when there was no such thing as a 3,000-dog show. The biggest entry was in 1939 when 5,002 class entries were made on behalf of 4,456 dogs entered. Plus, 50,000 people were in attendance too.

At the 1933 show Mrs. Dodge brought Rin-Tin-Tin in from Hollywood, using the popular film star to further interest in the German Shepherd breed. It was not unusual in those days to see two-legged major celebrities and start like Gary Cooper in attendance at Morris & Essex shows.

Mrs. Dodge died in 1973, but her influence on dogs and charities lives on through her charitable foundation, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. One of these charities is the St. Hubert’s Giralda Animal Welfare and Education Center located on the grounds of Giralda Farms, her old estate. Giralda was Mrs. Dodge’s kennel name. St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center was the beneficiary of the 2000 Morris & Essex dog show.

In 1996, Morris & Essex Vice-President Wayne Ferguson was rummaging through Mrs. Dodge’s attic and came across some Morris & Essex artifacts. Although it was last held before his time in dogs, Wayne knew Morris & Essex’s reputation and was energized by what he found. His excitement was infectious and he passed his “disease” on to other fanciers who jumped at the chance to revitalize the club. They wanted to do their best to foster the tradition of the former show—Morris & Essex was and is all about tradition. Coming up with a trophy list and display to rival Mrs. Dodge’s would be a most difficult task but the club accepted the challenge. An interesting tribute to nostalgia in the trophy list was the new book “Dog Shows: Then and Now” by Anne M. Hier given to each of the group winners—an exceptional prize perfectly suited to this exceptional show.

The magnitude of the show makes it difficult to put on, so the new club has decided to put on a show only every five years. Wayne Ferguson predicts a 5,000-dog show in five years and offered to buy me a dinner if they don’t make the five-k number. I had a better idea. I told him that rather than having him buy me dinner, we’d bet a dinner on his prediction. Now that is a bet I hope to lose.

Interest was so great that the male German Shepherds were judged a day before the regular show in order to not have to add a second judge. As would be expected, Captain von Stephanitz also gave a critique of every dog shown under him, regardless of whether it placed in its class or not.

The old Morris and Essex was the largest one-day show in the world. But with America’s entrance into World War II, the show was suspended from 1941 to 1945, due to wartime restrictions. During the war years, the polo fields became a top secret meeting place for important War Department officials who met with Mr. Dodge, owner and President of the Remington Arms Company, which supplied sixty-nine percent of the arms and ammunition used by the U.S. and its allies during the war. A frequent guest was General Eisenhower himself, who became a close friend of Mr. Dodge.

The show resumed in 1946 and continued, with a single interruption, until 1957. In 1954 Mrs. Dodge got into a fight with the American Kennel Club about the date of her show. She had always held hers the week before Memorial Day, but in 1954 the AKC scheduled Westminster on the same day. Mrs. Dodge cancelled Morris & Essex, but was persuaded to return in June of the following year.

Mrs. Dodge designed her show as an exhibitors’ show. The best trophies, the best venue, and the best judges. How did Mrs. Dodge pull all of this together? With the Rockefeller and Dodge money, securing the finest trophies presented no problem. Mrs. Dodge had three men working full-time year-round preparing the grounds for that one-day show. The perfection of the venue was no accident. And the judges? People did not refuse Mrs. Dodge.

In 1930, the third year of Morris & Essex, there was an entry of 271 German Shepherds. Who did Mrs. Dodge get to judge? None other than “the father of the breed,” Cavalry Captain Max von Stephanitz, who was 66 years old at the time. There were only 21 breeds invited to the show that year and it drew class entries of more than 1,800, with 1,500 dogs entered. When the good Captain was here, a banquet was held for him at the staid Greek Revival Breevort Hotel on 12th Street and 8th Avenue in New York City. The cost was a bargain at three bucks. The German Shepherd Dog Club of America (at that time known simply as The Shepherd Club) hosted the dinner.

At the 1933 show Mrs. Dodge brought Rin-Tin-Tin in from Hollywood, using the popular film star to further interest in the German Shepherd breed. It was not unusual in those days to see two-legged major celebrities and stars like Gary Cooper in attendance at Morris & Essex shows.

Mrs. Dodge died in 1973 but her influence on dogs and charities lives on through her charitable foundation, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. One of these charities is the St. Hubert’s Giralda Animal Welfare and Education Center located on the grounds of Giralda Farms, her old estate. Giralda was Mrs. Dodge’s kennel name. St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center was the beneficiary of the 2000 Morris & Essex dog show.

About the Author

Captain Haggerty’s memories go back to Morris and Essex but he is ashamed to admit he was showing a Dachshund at the time, not a Shepherd. He begs your forgiveness and rushes to point out that at least it was a German breed. He refuses to say what years he was there but claims he was just a young kid. Captain Haggerty was a GSDCA member, dog trainer, freelance writer and book author.

Photo Below: German Shepherds and their owners or handlers pose in 1927 at the first Morris & Essex show. The total entry at that first show was 595. From left to right: Ch. Iso von Doernerhof and J.B. Simpson, Satan of WPG and J.A. Reynolds, Iso of Anthracite and R.A. Farley, Inkee of Romont and Mrs. Charles Baiter, Schatz of Kittatinny and M.R. Nause, Alex of Glencrest (handler not identified), and Iso of Bergholz with Marie Leary.

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Posted by admin on Feb 23 2011. Filed under Dog Show History, Remembering Our Past?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.