There were some who thought that “talking movies,” would never last.  Our parents thought the Beatles were a flash in the pan, and we believed that rap music had a short shelf life. We guess we can forgive a pair of old terrier men, James McCashin and Mr. H.H. Fleitmann, for thinking that the brace of untrimmed Blue Black Terriers that they showed in the miscellaneous class at Westminster in the 1920s was a passing fad.

Some believe this was the first presence of the breed we know today as the Kerry Blue Terrier. We came across the suggestion, however, that the Kerry Blue was in North American as early as 1918, the source pointing to five “Irish Blue Terriers” that were imported to be pets, and were never bred.

When Tommy Grisdale came home from England bringing with him a Kerry Blue Terrier, the dog was later described in 1950s edition of The Complete Kerry Blue Terrier as a “dark straggly looking specimen that resembled nothing in Terrier competition at the time.” Ouch. Perhaps the breed was accorded more respect when Gene Tunney imported three Kerry Blues while he was Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World.

Image: “Who Goes There” by  Eddie Kagimu is available for purchase here