In 1914, the American bon vivant Evander Berry Wall warned a fellow traveler:
“Holy smoke!” he growled; “you don’t want to go to Jerusalem. I’ve just been there. It’s a slow town. Why, you can’t get a decent cocktail in the place.”
The Evening World (New York), July 20, 1014, page 14.
“Kings of the Dudes”
It may have taken a miracle for E. Berry Wall to find decent a decent cocktail in Jerusalem in 1914, but if anyone could do it, it was Wall – he was (to paraphrase an earlier story that ends in Jerusalem) the “King of the Dudes.”
Or, at least he had been. He won the title by proclamation in 1883, the same year Robert Sale Hill coined the word to satirize the young, idle, frivolous sons of Gilded Age millionaires, who had more money than brains and affected aristocratic English manners and speech. Berry Wall (as he was generally known) is remembered today as having been the first “King of the Dudes,” but his successors are largely forgotten. When Berry’s “Dude” reputation cracked and faded like old wallpaper, the title passed to a succession of lesser-known “Kings of the Dudes,” until the public (or the press) tired of plastering their names across their pages.
During each “King’s” brief reign, they were held up for ridicule (or admiration) as the public face of what it meant to be a “Dude.” The first three kings of questionable wisdom came out of the East – New York City.
T. Luis Oñativia, Oliver Sumner (“Ollie”) Teall, and E. Berry Wall. New York’s Three “Kings of the Dudes.” The New York World, July 16, 1893, page 27.
“Dude” - 1883
When Robert Sale Hill coined (or at least popularized) the word “Dude” in January 1883, the word was applied to a specific type – the young, wealthy ne’er-do-wells with more money than brains. They wore tight pants, pointy shoes, high collars, derby hats, a monocle and a mismatched short coat over a long jacket. They banged their hair, chewed the silver tips of their canes, and affected English accents and mannerisms. They were the “Hipsters” of their day; envied and emulated by some, derided and mocked by others.
When Berry Wall first assumed the title in the summer of 1883, to be the “King of the Dudes” was to be first among fools; it was not some great honor sought after or fought over. But the “commercially valuable but somewhat socially damning sobriquet of ‘King of the Dudes’”i also had its advantages. Some of the “Kings” used their titles as free advertising.
The actor Bob Hilliard’s famous (yet fictional) duel with Wall raised his public profile at about the same time he was making the transition from the amateur to the professional stage. “Ollie” Teall took advantage of his notoriety to bring attention to his various business, political and social reform projects. And widespread name recognition helped the traveling salesmen, J. Waldere Kirk and Frank Elsinore Jones, drum up more business for whatever they were selling. Even the original “King of the Dudes,” Evander Berry Wall, used his reputation to promote wine during his “reign.”
“Fake News”
“Fake news” is not a 21st century invention. Many articles published in 19th century newspapers were essentially that era’s equivalent of “click bait,” exaggerated stories designed to entertain more than convey facts. Much of the reporting about the “Kings of the Dudes” and their fashion feuds are likely fake news.
For more than a decade, the “Kings of the Dudes” were the public face for what it meant to be the apotheosis of a “Dude.” Descriptions of them in the press tended, for the most part, toward cartoonish caricatures; over-the-top parodies intended more to amuse and entertain more than enlighten their readership about the actual lives and personalities of the “Dudes.” Reports about the “Kings of the Dudes” include numerous ludicrous accounts of Zoolander-style pose-offs, described in blow-by-blow detail like a championship boxing match.
There may have been an element of truth behind each successive “King’s” personal reputation as a fashion plate, but the exaggerated claims of how frequently they change clothes or how many clothes they own, and the play-by-play accounts of their supposed fights seem far-fetched. In some cases, the fakeness of the news was noted at the time, even if not widely reported – because, what fun is that?
While some of the big city newspapers had their own New York correspondents (or arrangements with New York correspondents), much of the “news” that made it into print were merely copy-and-paste jobs rehashing articles taken off the news-wires or out-of-town newspapers, sometimes several iterations removed from the original source, and sometimes embellished or exaggerated and rewritten to add local flavor or interest. And on occasion, even reporters or “journalists” with access to the truth manufactured a version of the truth for comedic, political or commercial reasons. Much of the “news” about the various “Kings of the Dudes” were reprinted in small city or town newspapers, copied from the big city papers, frequently embellished or exaggerated, making it difficult to sort out dude-fact from dude-fiction.
Some editors appear to have given a nod and a wink with a knowing smile to some of the more incredible items, but most editors simply presented the stories as fact, whether secretly knowing or suspecting the truth, or simply believing the crazy reports coming out of the big cities. In rare instances, however, some editors chose to break the fourth-wall of entertainment journalism, openly acknowledging the stretched truths and fabrications.
Berry Wall and Howell Osborne have been typical extravagant young men in New York. But many stories about them are exaggerations and carry their own refutation in the absurdity of the statement.
St. Louis Globe-Democrat, June 5, 1891, page 4 (reprinted from the Philadelphia Press).
Some imaginative individual wrote a pretty descriptive yarn in one of the morning papers, a few days ago, on Mr. Robert Hilliard’s wardrobe, and donned him the “King of the Dudes,” and the lawful successor of Mr. E. Berry Wall.
The Standard Union (Brooklyn, New York), October 22, 1887, page 2.
And Frank Elsinore Jones said of his winning the title over J. Waldere Kirk, that the “whole thing originated in a joke.”ii The reporter who wrote the Jones-vs-Kirk story line even confessed that he had fabricated the supposed duel after having mistaken Jones for Kirk in a hotel lobby.iii And in a plot-twist that never made the national news, the Kansas City Journal named one of its own employees, J. John Roddy, “King of the Dudes” a few days after it declared Jones the victor.iv
The “Dudes”
But there were actual people behind their public personae, and their lives were interesting in their own right. E. Berry Wall and his immediate successor, T. Luis Oñativia, were classic “Dudes”; young (in their early 20s when crowned “King”), single, fabulously wealthy based on fortunes inherited from fathers who died young, and known for little else other than dressing well and socializing in the best places with the right kinds of people. Oliver Sumner Teall, on the other hand, was the anti-dude. He came from money but turned his back on it to make his own way in life. He was also older (nearly 40 when crowned), married, and an active, busy entrepreneur, businessman, philanthropist and civic and social reformer and leader.
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The St. Paul Globe, November 6, 1887, page 20. |
E. Berry Wall is said to have successfully defended his title against a challenger named Bob Hilliard in 1887 or 1888 (although some reports have him losing the title to Hilliard). Wall lost the title by general proclamation in 1888 after withdrawing from public view, reportedly due to financial distress that made it difficult to live up to the title. A more important factor, however, may have been his recent marriage, which stripped one of one’s bona fide “Dude” credentials.
Tomas (or Thomas, Tomasito or “Cito”) Luis Oñativia replaced Wall as “King of the Dudes” for a few years beginning in about 1888. “Cito’s” dude-cred followed him even into death. He is buried in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, which is also the forever-home of another famous American “Dude” from a later era, Jim Morrison of The Doors. Berry Wall was not buried at Pere Lachaise, but his dog was buried in the Asnieres pet cemetery in Paris, popularly known as “the Pere Lachaise of pet cemeteries.”
“All Paris knows the cruel loss which Mr. Berry Wall suffered last year in the person of his Chinese dog Chi-Chi, who died at Monte Carlo and who was piously buried in the Asnieres Cemetery. Inconsolable, Mr. B. W. has adopted another chow, called Toi-Toi, exactly like his predecessor.
Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph, June 9, 1940, “The American Weekly,” page 9.
Oliver “Ollie” Sumner Teall (the “Wild Duck”) briefly ruled as “King of the Dudes” following Onativia’s marriage in early-1893. Teall built his fortune as a cowboy and rancher in Arizona and New Mexico, having followed Horace Greeley’s advice to “Go West!” Out of gratitude for the good advice, he led the Horace Greeley Statue Committee’s efforts to raise funds for completion of the statue now situated across from Herald Square. He was named “King of the Dudes” not just for his swell wardrobe, but because he was a political and social organizer and leader of other, actual “Dudes.”
The first three “Kings of the Dudes” were all crowned in New York City, where the word “Dude” had been coined and where the sorts of people who fit the “Dude” profile lived in the greatest numbers. It was also the financial, cultural and media center of the United States, where, for the most part, news, fashion and pop-culture trends were generated and distributed to the rest of country. Sensational reporting about “Dudes” roaming New York City may have given people outside the Metropolitan bubble a false impression of life in the city. In 1894, for example, a tourist in New York City was disappointed upon finding out that the reigning “King of the Dudes” was just an ordinary man with nice clothes.
I had expected to see something quite different from other people. Well, excuse me, I’m going over to Fifth avenue and walk up to Central park and see if I can find that man who wears a single eyeglass before I go home.” – New York Herald.
The Arcadian Weekly Gazette (Newark, New York), April 18, 1894, page 9.
But the reports about “Kings of the Dudes” also gave the rest of the country something to shoot for. In about 1895, William Randolph Hearst’s San Francisco Examiner declared a traveling cigar salesman named J. Waldere Kirk the new “King of the Dudes.” His exploits were chronicled by newspapers, primarily through the Midwest and West, for several years, before blowing into New York City as a “a sartorial sirocco” blown in from out of the West.
But New York is a tough town. He made a big splash with the New York press for a few days, was generally ignored by them after he was seen wearing the same red tie two days in a row. Although that story may itself have been fake news, just an excuse to ignore an outsider who deigned to declare himself more dude-like than the New York “Dudes.”
The New York press stopped ignoring Kirk several months later when he shot an angry husband whose wife was in his hotel bedroom. He never married anyone himself, but was rumored to have been engaged or married at least twice; once to a woman from “one of the wealthiest families in Los Angeles,” and once to a woman with tangential connections to both E. Berry Wall and Bob Hilliard.
Like the New York press before it, the Western press manufactured “Dude” drama to sell papers. Kirk supposedly lost the title to a traveling salesman named Frank Elsinore Jones in a supposed fashion duel in the lobby of a Kansas City hotel. Jones declined the title, but admitted to traveling with a fine set of clothes – he was, after all, a clothing salesman.
E. Berry Wall, T. Luis Onativia, Oliver Sumner Teall and J. Waldere Kirk; each man was, for a moment in time, rightly or wrongly, intentionally or not, deservedly or not, the public face of what it meant to be a “Dude.”
These are their stories:
The Kings of the Dudes
(Follow Links to Parts I, II and III)
Part I - Evander Berry Wall - the Original and Best
https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2022/02/kings-of-dudes-part-i-evander-berry.html
Part II - T. Luis Oñativia and Oliver Sumner Teall - the Heirs to the Throne
https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2022/02/kings-of-dudes-part-ii-heirs-to-dude.html
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| T. Luis Oñativia |
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| Oliver Sumner Teall |
Part III - Western Dudes - J. Waldere Kirk and others
https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2022/02/kings-of-dudes-part-iii-western-dudes-j.html
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| J. Waldere Kirk |
End of the Lineage - the End of the Dudes?
“The Last of the Dudes”?
J. Waldere Kirk was the last of the widely acknowledged “Kings of the Dude.” One New York observer believed his reign even marked the end of the word “Dude.” If “Dudes” and “Dude” fashions were only still alive out West, they didn’t really count in the cultural centers of the East.
The Last of the Dudes.
J. Waldere Kirk’s descent on New York with an assortment of trunks filled with “pants” and “vests” and other Chicago-made clothes suggests the almost unnoticed death of the word “dude,” which has been revived for Mr. Kirk’s special benefit and as a mark of appreciation for his sartorial display.
The word came into the English language about the time that some of the disciples of aestheticism in England were carrying out their theories in their clothes, and in a few months every New York man who dressed well according to the fashions of the day was a “dude.” These fashions were extreme. They dictated trousers that were uncomfortably tight and shoes that faded away to a sharp point. Even men who wanted to dress well and were known to be able to dress as they chose strove for eccentricities. Had Mr. Kirk arrived in New York eight or nine years ago he might not have been conspicuous. He came out of the West just that number of years too late if he is really honest in his expressed purpose of showing New Yorkers how they should dress.
The “dude” now is a thing of the stage, the past or the West, so far as New York is concerned. The best-dressed men in town are those whose clothes are the least conspicuous, and Mr. Kirk will find little sympathy with his eccentricities in “pants” and “vests.” As an agitator of public interest, however, he has bravely downed the man who invented milk baths for actresses, and it would be manifestly unfair to rank him with the balloonists of yellow journalism. – New York Sun.
Washington Times (District of Columbia), June 6, 1897, page 18 (reprint from the New York Sun).
The editors of The Sun may have had a point, as far as current fashion trends went, but they missed the boat when it came to limiting the word “Dude” to its original, narrow meaning. They never anticipated, or had already missed, the transition of the word from a New York Anglophile a la 1883, to a more fluid meaning applicable to any comically fashion-forward person in any place, at any time, and with respect to any particular sub-group or sub-culture. And they were writing too early to have experienced later shades of meaning including the neutral “fellow or chap,” the “approving designation” applicable to any man, as a “vocative, or term of address,” and ultimately as a ubiquitous, “general exclamation.”v
The word “Dude” abides, in all of its variations, thanks in part to “Kings of the Dudes,” like E. Berry Wall, T. Luis Onativia, Oliver Teal and J. Waldere Kirk, who collectively, over several decades, were each for a time the living embodiment of the “Dude,” keeping the notion of the “Dude” alive in the minds of the public.
i St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 29, 1899, page 1 (said of J. Waldere Kirk on the occasion of his rumored marriage to “Baroness” Blanc.).
ii Chicago Inter-Ocean, January 1, 1899, page 30.
iii Chicago Inter-Ocean, July 17, 1899, page 3.
iv Kansas City Journal, December 8, 1898, page 1.
v “Mailbag Friday: ‘Dude,’” Ben Zimmer, Wordroutes, Exploring the Pathways of our Lexicon, VisualThesaurus.com, September 19, 2008. https://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/mailbag-friday-dude/
Minor correction: it's Père Lachaise, not Pierre
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