Pictured above is AKC Show Champion Do Mor Director. Photo is from the book "The Wonderful World of Beagles and Beagling" by Anna Katherine Nicholas and Joan McDonald Brearley, published in 1975.
Director was said to be a top hunting hound, spending large parts of his life as the gundog for John Refieuna of Johjean Kennels near Chicago. Director died in 1966, but was reported to have sired over 20 show champions while at stud with Johjean. He had a storied career in the show ring. My Woodpont Beagles of today are loaded with Director and other Johjean hounds, many generations back.
Director's pedigree shows Dual Champions Seibold's Betty II, Seibold's Panel, and Penzbest Penman within 5 generations. There is a cross of CH. Madden's Marten, Lew Madden's most famous hound. CH. Do Mor Director's sire was Ch. Jim Dandy of Pine Lodge, whose stud ad said he was "A smooth running, level-headed hound, close on checks, very clean in every respect - the kind everyone wants for a brace-mate". Now this ad for Jim Dandy was from the late 1940s, so the gradual split between show and field beagles was still occurring, and some breeders were still striving for a dual champion, thereby entering both shows and trials. Apparently Jim Dandy was entered in both, as he was reported to have 24 field championship points in addition to being a show champion. How did we lose hounds like this!!??
CH. Jim Dandy of Pine Lodge
Jim Dandy's sire (Do Mor Director's grandsire) was the famous CH. Charmac Gay Boy. And Director has another close up cross of Charmac Gay Boy through his dam. The "Gay" in his name had nothing to do with Frank Reese's famous kennel, but this was a dog Frank knew well. He had this to say in an interview with Rev. John Parks published in The Rabbit Hunter magazine: "The hardest traits to put in a hound are type and gameness. I can put gameness in, but have never been satisfied with my progress in type, in spite of my use of a number of bench champions over the years. My best out crosses have been CH. Charmac Gay Boy and CH. Bedlam Basil. The show hounds gave me type and brains, less trouble on off game, and less babblers." CH. Charmac Gay Boy figured prominently in the early pedigrees of Frank's Gay line.
CH. Charmac Gay Boy
Just for fun, I spent several evenings researching pedigrees to see how many times CH. Do Mor Director was found in the pedigrees of my current Woodpont Beagles. I was astounded at what I found, especially since Director's death was only 54 years ago. He comes down into my hounds through show lines only, since few field breeders were using show champions in the late 1950s and since. But because the Colegren, Bedlam, and Echo Run show lines were line bred to Director, he gets multiplied quickly because these lines are very popular even today with many show breeders. And because there are so relatively few show breeders compared to field, the impact of a few great studs is even greater. Most show beagles today go back to the same lines, whereas field lines somewhat are more varied.
I took my young Woodpont Timothy, who at age 2 is hunting well in the pack and is likely to be part of the future breeding program, and found he had an amazing total of at least 1588 crosses of CH. Do Mor Director in his pedigree! There were a few lines in his pedigree way back that I could not research, so it is very possible that total could be slightly higher. To say I was astounded would put it mildly, but it shows how closely linebred our show hounds are today. Timothy is no show hound, but he does have solid conformation and is a good representation of the type of hound we are producing today, both in field work and type. By crossing field and show lines, we get an athletic, foxhound looking, hunting beagle that can stand a lot of work afield.
Woodpont Timothy - over 1500 crosses of CH. Do Mor Director.
Timothy's 5 generation pedigree