Dude, the Lost Wireman —Stephen Brockelman, April 2014
Mornings, in the 1960s, Dude’s alarm clock rang at 4:00—Saturdays, Sundays, holidays included. An hour or so later he was unpacking tins of shoe polish—black, brown, cordovan, and neutral—along with his well-used brushes, buffers, and rags. He kept the tools of his trade in a decades-old wooden box that he carried under his left arm. The strap of the box had, over the years, worn a deep groove in his left shoulder. In his right hand he carried a large, brown, corrugated cardboard box. It had a lid. He had glued a leather strap around the box that he could carry it as a suitcase. Those early mornings, Columbus “Dude” McGriff would walk to one of the Manhattan hotels where he, from time-to-time, leased a shoe shine stand. Dude was nearly blind in one eye; his second eye was glass. He waxed and polished the shoes of swells, business men, and visitors who wanted to look their best for the day in the city. After he’d organized his tools-of-the-trade, Dude would open the other box—the one that he carried in his right hand—and extract three or four of his creations from their protective newspaper wrapping. One day he might display an airplane, a truck, and a grasshopper; another day, a cow, a bus, and an ant. In the 1960s, Mel Torme bought some of Dude’s creations, as did Robert Goulet. More than two decades later Academy Award winning director, Jonathan Demme would seek out Dude at his home in Tallahassee, Florida and buy some of the man’s work. Columbus “Dude” McGriff, unidentified newspaper clipping
Columbus “Dude” McGriff’s work was included, posthumously, in a 1993 exhibit that opened in Tallahassee and was curated by James Roche, 40-year art professor at Florida State University:
Unsigned, Unsung, Whereabouts Unknown Make-Do Art of the American Outlands The following narrative is a compilation of interview and video transcripts featuring Roche talking about the Unsigned, Unsung show, self-taught and outsider art, and Columbus “Dude” McGriff. Professor Roche: Columbus "Dude" McGriff, recently deceased, unsigned, unsung, nobody knew him for years; he's what we call the Lost Wireman--you've heard of the Philadelphia Wireman--well, Columbus was 'the lost wireman.'