Edward's (Bass') Molly Bee.

These are the dogs I cut my teeth on many years ago. If you lived in NC odds are your first bulldog came from Mr. Edwards. His wife told us that Wilson Electric Company would call every six months or so and ask him to cash his paychecks so they could balance the books. That is how many puppies he sold.

He also had a select few he would place dogs with and one of those was the guy that helped me the most in the dogs. This guy use to tell Mr. Edwards "you are famous because of Molly Bee and me". He matched a bunch of dogs for Mr. Edwards.

The few breedings with Molly Bee were sort of low percentage dogs. If you had one you could ride up and down the road with anyone/anywhere. Most of the Molly Bee breedings were as much Snooty and Caesar as they were Molly Bee. The percentages of game dogs was middle of the road, maybe even low, but it was just about assured they could bite. Really bite.

I had a Two Eyes/Molly Bee (Snooty) bred bitch once and Mr. Edwards said she was the closest thing he had seen to Molly Bee since Molly Bee. I was ready to be famous (LOL) and she decided she had done all she came to do. She had another bred similar who never made the first scratch but you could come to her corner if you wanted to, but you would leave with a lot of regret. She was brutal and devastating but had no interest in pursuing anything.

Maybe my favorite thing about the stories about Molly Bee is that Mr. Edwards played the dog game as well as anyone. He leaned over to at least 10 of his closest friends and whispered, "This is how Molly Bee was really bred". There are a number of people who are absolutely sure they know how Molly Bee was really bred. LOL He also experimented with dual sire litters. He practiced with rabbits and made his assumptions based on color, size and type. I am not sure how scientific his research was, but there were a number of grandkids that didn't fit the model of their parents.

Sort of flashing back and babbling. Mr. Edwards was good with the dogs and good for the game. I consider Molly Bee the greatest match dog of all time, male or female. She won 8 matches and nothing ever scratched back to her.

S

 

Yes. Those were the stories of Big Boy I heard years ago. We had a couple three over the years that would not scratch but were monsters if pushed.

There was one of Mr. Edwards last females Edwards' Molly II. She was bred to one his Two Eyes bred males and I got a bitch that looked like Molly Bee spit her out herself, and was just as devastating, she just would not scratch. When Molly II was bred to Patrick's Kasai (Bolio/Toothless Jack/Rick Rude) bred male she threw a female named we had named Rose Bee.

Memphis Belle was littermates with this one and neither would scratch but both flat go on their half of the box.

ONLINE PEDIGREES :: [58559] :: COVER GIRL (online-pedigrees.com)

Rose Bee had all the Molly Bee traits and she would scratch. The only issue was there was never made the first enthusiastic scratch. She made them all, but it was almost like they were made begrudgingly. Like, OK, if you really want me too, I guess I can one more time. She made the 6-7-8 count by the time she got there. To her credit she made them all, but I was scared because it is not a long trip from 6-7-8 to 10. Hindsight being 20/20 I should have rolled the dice.

ONLINE PEDIGREES :: [99946] :: DTAS REGGIE (online-pedigrees.com) This is the littermate to Rose Bee. Reggie and Ethel won matches. Reggie somewhat faster but Ethel was a 'get there when I get there' type.

Ramera was a solid female who scratched hard, fast and true. The plan was to get all that Molly Bee/Snooty mouth and Jiggs (Red Boy) should fix/put some faith in the scratching. For the most part it worked. The best tag line to this story is Mr. Mims wanted no part in crossing one of his Red Boy dogs like this. He said mixing chicken shit with chicken salad was not real smart. He had tons of respect for Pulley and had for years offered him dogs to be shown but Mr. Pulley was 'stuck on Mr. Edwards hard mouthed curs' is what Mr. Mims said. He said if you mix chicken shit with chicken salad no matter how much chicken salad you add, no matter how long you keep adding chicken salad you would always know there was some chicken shit in the mix and worse, every now and then you would taste the chicken shit when it came to the top. Maybe not words to live by, but there was a lot of truth in his comparison.

ONLINE PEDIGREES :: [208451] :: RAMERA DE NEGRA (online-pedigrees.com)

Ramera when bred to game ass producing males didn't exactly knock it out of the park in her limited breedings but she put a couple on the ground. Boo Boy Black was a match quality dog and I should have kept him. He came along when I was having some issues being married/owning dogs (as they didn't always live peacefully together) and I got rid of a lot of dogs. I placed him with a friend and he made them a couple three good dogs.

ONLINE PEDIGREES :: [124797] :: HENDRICK BOO BOY BLACK (online-pedigrees.com)

From Ramera came Hendrix Red Ruby. She was one of the weirdest females I have ever seen and gave meaning to the phrase 'bitches are crazy'. She would go with relatively normal intensity, would trade for the most part and scratched really hard. She was nothing really special, a little better than average but nothing to write home about until.....if she was touched on her front legs, especially the forearm part she unleashed a hell like none other. It was like touching her legs transformed her into maybe Molly Bee herself as nothing lasted very long after. I never seen anything like her. She won once but her back leg would not make it thru the 2nd keep.

https://www.apbt.online-pedigrees.com/modules.php?name=Public&file=printPedigree&dog_id=124797

When bred she made Sluggo, a 5/8th Red Boy dog who was one of the best looking dogs I ever owned. He was an amazing specimen to look at and everything about him said 'bulldog' with the exception of being a bulldog. Cold as ice. Never once seen the point in doing anything but looking good.

ONLINE PEDIGREES :: [539953] :: US1 SLUGGO (online-pedigrees.com)

He was another one I gave away when I was close to being homeless. It was said this male won two matches but that is just what was told. Not sure.

ONLINE PEDIGREES :: [599387] :: POBOY LIL KIDD BUTCH (online-pedigrees.com)

Babbling again. Last month I had about 10 days off from 30 years of 12 hour rotating shift work and I have yet to sleep 6 hours in a row since. It is amazing what routines do to the body and the brain.

Just tracking down from Molly Bee. All these dogs had those traits in common. Mouth was ever present, scratching was hit and miss (and hit and miss is being very generous) but like way back when, if you had one, you could ride up and down the road with anyone/anywhere.

It is almost 4AM and I am going to try this thing they call sleep one more time. LOL

S

When bred to Boo Boy she

 

Two reasons, one the percentages were relatively low and two, and maybe more importantly, she was stolen.

For all we know when bred to some other males she produced at a much higher level.

If there was a larger sample size then there would be more options for breeding the offspring to perpetuate the line.

It was a stretch back then that any big black male that could bite hard was out of the stolen Molly Bee. It was almost comical.

One of the older fellows that helped me a lot ran in the circles of Molly Bee and Bass and Red Boy and the likes. There was a bitch in Florida that was handpicked to stop the great Molly Bee. It was a large gathering and a lot of people were around the box. Mr. Y was trying to make his way to the box with Mr. Edwards. They heard release, a dull roar as they met in the middle and before they could get to the box Mr. Y said the loud crack sounded like the firing of a .22 caliber rifle. Right off the sound it was another dull roar of the crowd, like the air coming out of the room and someone said, "It's over!".

In just about no time the bitch went into Molly Bee's mouth and had the top half of her muzzle right below her eyes snapped in half.

From there the legend grew and grew.

S

 

The other post listing some of the dogs we had down from her had a couple things in common.

First, those were the good ones who won some matches, which is what it is all about. The problem is that each of those had more than a handful of littermates each that did not work out.

Second, they could all bite well above average. My mind slips me now and then, but I can only remember one game plug that would scratch but could not bite. The Edwards' Molly II female was bred to Patrick's Kasai (was leaning toward it being more of a Bolio/Snooty cross than Bolio/Molly Bee) and it was ironic, because the Patrick male threw incredible mouth himself.

Maybe it was like a double negative cancelling each other out. LOL

S

 

My buddy bred this:

ONLINE PEDIGREES :: [224707] :: FULLER'S CORNBREAD (K&W's CORNBREAD) (online-pedigrees.com)

Probably the best dog I ever owned. And I had the littermate sister as well. I got in a bind and sold the male to have the money to match the sister.

When I sold him, he went into the backyard of McGhee's Panther. Of course you have to stop the new dog to prove your yard stands taller. They paraded the dogs to Cornbread and basically, he kept making chain spaces. The McGhee guy was thoroughly impressed when he saw him but then was pleasantly surprised/impressed when the dog was a 1/4 his blood from a breeding he done himself. Cornbread had 4 and 6 and 8 minutes stories the same.

One of the comments Lonzo made years and years ago was when asked if Panther was actually a game dog and he replied, " Don't know and don't care, nothing has stayed long enough to find out". (or in so many words).

One back in the pedigrees is Pernell's Red Baron. I think all the Molly Bee gameness was mustered up and this dog go it all. It was a said like what felt like a thousand times, "Tim, why don't you get him up?". This dog was the hardest of keepers. He could grab a 55 gallon steel drum (back in the old days steel drum not this stamped metal of today) by the edge, lift it off the ground and sling it. He would go get it and sling it again and again. Some days he would roll it down the hill and not have a house during the night. He didn't have a tooth in his head, was dumb as a stump and only meeting his maker would prevent him from scratching. I can't imagine there has been another dog with that much box time. Best part, the only part where he was ever winning was in his own mind.

His sister Miss Spazz showed game but she was not enthusiastic enough to make that ride. But she could really, really bite.

The Cornbread dog got the bite part, and I am not sure he was game or he just liked to come off the chain. He was such a personable dog it was like he had facial expressions. He would literally say, "Pick me, Pick me" every time dogs came off the chain. And if he didn't get picked as you walked by he would first look sad, then in turned to anger and he looked pissed off for not being able to play in the reindeer games.

S

 

The cross was special, and I wish it had been repeated.

When they made the breeding the conversations were like, "the Patrick dogs being this to the table. Fat Bill's dogs bring this to the table. The McGhee Panther bred dogs bring this to the table. Matt and Bill built the first part of the bridge. Patrick trashes out Bill and Bill trashes out Patrick. This is the breeding neither of them would ever make and the actual dogs would not factor into the equation." or in so many words.

Looking at pedigrees would suggest the Patrick dog should deliver brains. Fat Bill's Miss Two Eyes was one of the smarted, slickest hardest biting bitches one could want and after schooling she was set to be matched. (She was match quality but when Two Eyes died, they decided to breed her).

The funniest thing about Kasai is that he threw tons of mouth. If a female was par or better he made her puppies with a ton of mouth. If the bitch could really bite her puppies from him were border line freak mouth type dogs.

Sort of hi-jacked the thread away from the Molly Bee stuff but there was the 'connection' between Molly Bee and Panther and things sort of evolved from there.

S

 

(This was an actual conversation earlier tonight)

It is funny how every conversation can lead to "it's all about the dogs" yet in most cases, if the dogs are really lucky, they might pull 3rd place after the man's ego and his wallet.

The Negro Spike blood to the Two Eyes stuff would more than likely make high quality bulldogs. The breeding would have to be a one off on both sides as I doubt either one could get past the history nor their history to make it happen. I am sure both would feel they didn't need the other. Again, one of the spokes in the wheels that keep the dog game going. LOL

The guy that introduced me to the dogs as a 10–11-year-old (he was my best friend's dad) was all about the dogs. So much so, he had hardly any friends in the game, he had their respect, but not their friendship. He was a stickler for details and everything from selecting the two dogs to be bred to the integrity of the chain set-up was pointed at hearing your dog was the winner late one Saturday night. His character flaw was that he expected that from everyone and had no filter when it came to pointing it out. If he were invited on your yard and there was a chain set-up that you had already said to yourself you were going to replace tomorrow, he would trash you out, on your yard and in front of whoever. People immediately took it personally even as he told of the 'two great dogs' he lost years before. When he left it would be one more in the column of 'that sonofabitch ain't welcome here'.

As the years went back it got somewhat comical at how many people he pissed off with the good for the dogs in his heart.

Babbling, but here goes.

The local crew left one night to match an Edward's Molly Bee/Chinaman bred male into the Red Boy Jocko stuff from down in South Carolina. The majority of the crowd knew Howard and as usual not many liked him. The decided upon referee didn't show. I say it was a sign of respect and knowing Howard was about the dogs, the other side asked Howard to referee even tho he was riding and had money on the male they brought. Both sides agreed. (as the story has been told I think, whether they knew it or intended to, got an advantage by taking that level of experience out of the opposing corner, but that is just my opinion). The show started and Howard warned KG about coming out of the corner with the dog as that can help a dog to make his scratch. The dog has to scratch on his own without help. KG's dog was out front and after a handle was to scratch. On the way to the corner Howard said, 'stay in your corner til the dogs are in hold/don't help them out'. KG released and followed his dog out of the corner a couple steps and Howard DQ'ed him immediately.

Then they had to ride home together. Howard always said he was glad he drove that night, or he would have been left. KG had no use for Howard ever again. And Howard hated it, but during his time in the dogs he was 'all about the dogs'. A month later he called and asked to breed to the male he DQ'ed from the show and KG cursed him like none other. KG said he cursed him more for him having the nerve to ask than asking in the first place.

The guy that has helped me the most in the dogs tells me it was a good thing I knew him as a kid and by the time I got out of the service Howard was out of the dogs.....because you would dislike that sonofabitch too......

S