# Explain Mr. Blackwell to me please? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 12, 2006, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-mr-blackwell-to-me-please/339686 "2006-01-12T17:49:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-mr-blackwell-to-me-please/339686/1 "2006-01-12T17:49:16Z")
Once a year he rears his head to spout off his list of worst dressed celebrities, complete with silly rhymes and crazy consonance, but not much is heard from him the other 364 days of the year. I suppose he does a “best dressed list”, but I don’t know for sure. Is he qualified to do such a list? I mean, was he a top designer back in the day or something? Or is he just some loon who gets attention because he’s been trotting out his one trick for so long that people just put up with him, sort of like the cousin no one sees except for Thanksgiving time and who makes the same dumb joke at the dinner table every year (“Good food, good meat, good God, let’s eat”)? Will he be missed when he’s gone? Will he ever go away? Seems like he doesn’t even bother trying anymore. It’s not all that hard to put Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Anna Nicole Smith, etc. on a list every year and call a press conference to call them bad dressers. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-mr-blackwell-to-me-please/339686/2 "2006-01-12T18:00:58Z")
He hit on a gimmick in the 60s and he’s been riding it for 40 years. I don’t think anyone pays attention any longer. I can’t even remember the last time I heard him mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-mr-blackwell-to-me-please/339686/3 "2006-01-12T18:22:47Z")
I was surprised to see this is the 46th annual list. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/58956e/32.png) [@Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoodoo_Ulove)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-mr-blackwell-to-me-please/339686/4 "2006-01-12T18:30:12Z")
> [@Casey15](#): > > It’s not all that hard to put Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Anna Nicole Smith, etc. on a list every year and call a press conference to call them bad dressers. I’m shocked, shocked! Attention paid in the trash media to someone trivial and stupid? ---
**Author:** ![Millit\_the\_Frail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@Millit\_the\_Frail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Millit_the_Frail)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-mr-blackwell-to-me-please/339686/5 "2006-01-12T19:48:10Z")
Anyone got a link? I, personally, love to make fun of people who dress worse than I do and spend a whole lot of money doing so. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-mr-blackwell-to-me-please/339686/6 "2006-01-12T20:16:44Z")
Remember when Harry Shearer used to do an impression of him? I think it was on Saturday Night Live during the time when he was a cast member. I always thought Shearer’s version, as ridiculous as it was, was more of a real human than the original. I haven’t seen Mr. B’s latest list, but in the past I always got the impression that it was drawn from pictures that were printed in places like People magazine. He would declare someone “Worst Dressed” based on one unflattering outfit that the papparazzi happened to catch them in. Not clever, not funny. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-mr-blackwell-to-me-please/339686/7 "2006-01-12T20:19:45Z")
Huh. I thought he was dead. ---
**Author:** ![Monstera\_deliciosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monstera_deliciosa/32/109_2.png) [@Monstera\_deliciosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstera_deliciosa)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-mr-blackwell-to-me-please/339686/8 "2006-01-12T21:03:49Z")
> [@Droolian](#): > > To answer your questions: > > 1. No, he doesn’t do a best dressed list, just the worst, which shows how hatefilled he truly is. Actually, he does do a best-dressed list: [404 Not Found | wfmynews2.com](http://wfmynews2.com/life/entertainment/article.aspx?storyid=55094) ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-mr-blackwell-to-me-please/339686/9 "2006-01-12T22:02:32Z")
Google is your friend! [Here](http://www.peteranthonyholder.com/cjad11.htm) is a transcript of a radio interview he did 10 years ago, upon the release of his autobiography, From Rags to Bitches. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-mr-blackwell-to-me-please/339686/10 "2006-01-12T22:06:53Z")
From the article linked above: > [@Mr.Blackwell](#): > > Well I did the article. Outraged half of the people in the world. The other half of it loved it. And that began the image of the man who does the top ten worst dressed women. Now the first year after it, nobody would touch it. The second year, the people began to get curious. By the third year more then five people showed up at a press conference. We tried it every year the same time, but it took three full years for it really to take hold. And by the time it took hold, it just exploded wide open. Now nobody thought of me as a dress designer. Nobody thought of me as a kid who ever been an actor. Most of them didn’t even know it. They thought of the man who does the list. And that’s what I was basically known for. Just the guy who did the list. They thought I crawled out from under a rock once a year, made a few very acerbic statements and crawled back under a rock. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-mr-blackwell-to-me-please/339686/11 "2006-01-12T22:07:52Z")
[Here’s](http://people.aol.com/people/articles/0,19736,1147674,00.html) this year’s list. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-mr-blackwell-to-me-please/339686/12 "2006-01-13T22:27:12Z")
Back in the fifties, Mr Blackwell (whose real name is Richard Selzer) was a fashion designer. But not a very successful one. In 1960, in an attempt for some publicity, he released a list of what he claimed were the worst dressed celebrities (the first list had nine women; every subsequent list has named ten). The list got a lot of attention although it didn’t really do much for Blackwell’s reputation as a fashion designer. But it was successful enough that he repeated it and it eventually became an annual event. His original 1960 list: Anna Magnani Brigitte Bardot Yvonne De Carlo Lucille Ball Anita Ekberg Shelley Winters Carolyn Jones Kim Novak Anne Baxter ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-mr-blackwell-to-me-please/339686/13 "2006-01-13T23:43:08Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > Back in the fifties, Mr Blackwell (whose real name is Richard Selzer) was a fashion designer. But not a very successful one. In 1960, in an attempt for some publicity, he released a list of what he claimed were the worst dressed celebrities (the first list had nine women; every subsequent list has named ten). The list got a lot of attention although it didn’t really do much for Blackwell’s reputation as a fashion designer. But it was successful enough that he repeated it and it eventually became an annual event. > > His original 1960 list: > > Anna Magnani > Brigitte Bardot > Yvonne De Carlo > Lucille Ball > Anita Ekberg > Shelley Winters > Carolyn Jones > Kim Novak > Anne Baxter So basically he just names 10 random popular celebrities, finds unflattering pictures of each one, and becomes a nation-wide celebrity himself. Sweet gig. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-mr-blackwell-to-me-please/339686/14 "2006-01-14T04:12:39Z")
> [@PoorYorick](#): > > So basically he just names 10 random popular celebrities, finds unflattering pictures of each one, and becomes a nation-wide celebrity himself. > > Sweet gig. Dibs on this gig when he dies. How much does he make? ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-mr-blackwell-to-me-please/339686/15 "2006-01-14T04:28:03Z")
A few years back, he included the First Lady (the US president’s wife) on his List Of The Ten Worst Dressed Women. The host threw his sorry butt off the set. I take my hat off to that. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-mr-blackwell-to-me-please/339686/16 "2006-01-14T04:53:00Z")
> [@](#): > > So basically he just names 10 random popular celebrities, finds unflattering pictures of each one, and becomes a nation-wide celebrity himself. It’s one of the definitions of genius: thinking of a simple idea before any one else thought of it. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-mr-blackwell-to-me-please/339686/17 "2006-01-14T14:29:25Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > A few years back, he included the First Lady (the US president’s wife) on his List Of The Ten Worst Dressed Women. The host threw his sorry butt off the set. I take my hat off to that. Which First Lady?