EDITOR’S PAGE
What a Great Ride!
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DOGSinREVIEW.com
ways the breeders who took top billing in Dogs in Review,
for it was they whose talent and knowledge produced the
great dogs that dedicated owners and skilled professional
handlers could proudly take into the ring to claim top hon-
ors. Introducing the magazine to readers, Bo wrote in his
fi rst Editor’s Column: “Someone said that all the American
dog fancier wants is ‘gossip and ads’ but we believe there
is a core group of dedicated dog fanciers who also want
such basic things as news, information, facts, even (yes!)
entertainment ….”
Bo’s prediction was right because the magazine grew
from strength to strength. Advertisers loved the content but
implored Bo and Paul to make the book more glamorous, as
befi tted the show dogs that graced its pages. They con-
ceded, and in time Dogs in Review went upscale … color
photos, glossy paper stock and perfect bound (a publishing
term that translates to “staples, be gone!”). In time, the
magazine outgrew the resources of the three people who
produced it each month—Bo, Paul and Francine Reisman,
offi ce manager—and now, with a dog show guy (me!) en-
sconced in the California offi ce of Fancy Publications, there
was the comfort level needed for Bo and Paul to sell the
magazine. And so began my many years as Editor-in-Chief,
working with Bo as Editor.
Bo compiled a wonderful timeline for this Collector’s
Issue, recalling the milestones over 21 years of history for
the magazine and the sport. We have also included some
vintage columns from Mrs. Clark and Rick Beauchamp,
as well as an installment of Kerrin Winter-Churchill’s “The
Great Ones,” one of our most popular series. You have lots
of reminiscing to do!
Thank you to the many fi ne contributors and photogra-
phers who made Dogs in Review such a widely admired
publication; the advertisers for your support; and our loyal
readers, including the many judges who continue to tell us,
“I get a ton of magazines sent to me but yours is the only
one I keep.” The respect of your peers: What greater compli-
ment could there be?
Allan Reznik, Editor
[email protected]
can still remember the
phone call from Paul Lepi-
ane and Bo Bengtson back
in 1996. As longtime friends
and colleagues through sight-
hounds (I was a regular con-
tributor to their publications
Afghan Hound Review and
Sighthound Review), they
approached me along with a
handful of others to ask an
audacious question: Did we
think the American show
dog fancy would welcome
a new all-breed magazine
that offered substance and
intelligent discourse on our
sport? Meat and potatoes
and not just frothy dessert?
I was confi dent that such a publication would be
well received. Clearly the other dog people Bo and Paul can-
vassed felt equally positive about this bold venture because
the Charter Issue of what was then called Purebred Dogs in
Review arrived in February 1997.
It was published on newsprint, and saddle-stitched
(staples in the centerfold), true to Bo’s roots as a journal-
ist back in Sweden and, later, in England. It had to be the
content and not the pretty wrapping that was most import-
ant. Bo and Paul nailed the content in Volume 1, Issue 1,
featuring an illustrious group of international contributors
and columnists who shared Bo’s vision and made American
readers sit up and take notice. Ferelith Somerfi eld, chair-
man of the board of the world-renowned English weekly
newspaper Dog World, as well as an international judge,
wrote the guest editorial in the Charter Issue. The revered
all-breed judge and master breeder Anne Rogers Clark
began her column in the fi rst issue, and the always antic-
ipated “Annie on…” column appeared in every issue until
her death many years later. A book was published, anthol-
ogizing her columns. Another icon of the sport, Richard G.
(“Rick”) Beauchamp began writing for us shortly thereafter,
and was another stalwart of the magazine until his passing.
That fi rst issue featured Captain Jean Heath’s glorious
Lakeland Terrier Ch. Revelry’s Awesome Blossom as its
cover dog, and a brilliant interview Bo conducted with
Sylvia Hammarstrom whose famed Skansen Kennels have
produced the greatest number of champions in any breed,
a record that still stands. From the beginning, it was al-