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Viquesney Doughboy Myths
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MYTH 1: The first completed Viquesney Doughboy was placed at Centralia, Washington.
No. Viquesney completed work on his first "Spirit of the American Doughboy" in March of 1921, and the following April he was notified in a letter from the American Legion that his monument had won its design competition against 400 contenders, and it was therefore going to be "adopted as [the Legion's] National Memorial" which was then being being planned for Centralia's George Washington Park. So apparently the original plan was to have a copy of Viquesney's Doughboy installed there. But Nashville, GA already had its $5,000.00 order placed for Viquesney's first Doughboy in August of 1920, seven months before work on it was even completed.
Nobody knows for sure what happened next, but the statue that was eventually placed at Centralia, WA is another WWI memorial statue, The Sentinel, by Alonzo Victor Lewis, dedicated in 1924. A possible explanation is that before his statue could be completed for Centralia, Viquesney was sued in 1922 for copyright infringement on behalf of sculptor John Paulding, who had filed his own copyright for a similar design Doughboy statue six months ahead of his competitor. Obviously it wouldn't have reflected well upon the American Legion to have the winner of its design award involved in litigation over artistic originality, and it probably dropped the project in favor of Lewis. The situation would have been extremely embarrassing to both sides; indeed to this day, the American Legion won't answer any inquiries as to why the memorial at Centralia isn't Viquesney's, and steadfastly denies it ever endorsed his statue. But Viquesney continued to claim in his advertisements for years afterward that his Doughboy was "100% endorsed by the American Legion".
The Sentinel at Centralia, WA
This isn't Viquesney's Doughboy.
Photo: Lettie Gavin
Myth 2: The first completed Viquesney Doughboy stands in Spencer, Indiana, the sculptor's hometown.
Again, no. Spencer didn't get its Doughboy until May 29, 1927, years after many others had been installed at other locations. It's possible Viquesney was waiting until he could reaquire his Doughboy company from his former business partner, Walter Rylander, to whom he had temporarily sold all rights in 1922, perhaps in response to the copyright lawsuit mentioned above. Viquesney did regain control again in January of 1926, and offered his Doughboy at cost to the town of Spencer, which readily accepted.
MYTH 3: The first completed Viquesney Doughboy stands in Americus, Georgia.
Still no, although closer to correct than the two previous beliefs. Although Viquesney was living in Americus, Georgia at the time he completed his first Spirit of the American Doughboy in March, 1921, and the statue was put on public preview in the lobbies of the Rylander Theater and Windsor Hotel in that city, it had been already ordered by the city of Nashville, Georgia in August of 1920, before it was even finished. It was later shipped there, where it still stands today. Americus did get its own Viquesney Doughboy a few months later, on November 11, 1921.
MYTH 4: All Viquesney Doughboys are bronze castings.
Many people over the years have just assumed their city or town's Viquesney Doughboy to be a genuine bronze casting. But as these statues eventually get restored one after the other, it's becoming evident that the 1920 copyright version is actually formed from sheets of machine-pressed copper welded together over an internal frame. And in the case of the later 1934 copyright version, another surprise: People who thought these were also made of bronze are discovering they're made of cheaper copper-plated cast zinc. Apparently Viquesney wanted to cut costs to make the statue more affordable during the Great Depression. Even the rare (three known) 1922 stone version isn't what it seems; advertised as "beautiful pure Italian marble", it was made of partially metamorphosed Georgia limestone, often called "Georgia marble".
MYTH 5: The popular miniature 12" desktop Doughboy was the model for the full-size statue.
No. Although Viquesney produced many other miniatures with the thought and hope that they would materialize as full-scale monuments (and a few of them did), the miniature Doughboy came only after Viquesney was swamped with requests from Veterans for a miniature of his newly completed life-size statue. However, according to one source, he did sculpt a clay model for use while working on the original.
MYTH 6: The Doughboy miniatures were made of bronze.
Unfortunately, no. Wording in Viquesney's ads, referring to the "bronze" finish of the statuette, sometimes led readers to believe the whole statuette was bronze. The most expensive version, at $6.00, was bronze plated, but was still cast of an easily breakable lead alloy called pot metal, which often didn't last long, with children running about the house. The fragile bayonet and rifle assembly was usually the first casualty.
MYTH 7: "Doughboy lamps" found today on eBay and elsewhere today are just homemade conversions of the 12" statuettes, and thus not worth as much because of this "modification".
Well, not exactly. Although all Viquesney "Doughboy lamps" are nothing more than the 12" Doughboy statuettes with shades and electrical hardware added (which anybody handy enough could do), they were, from at least 1922 and on into the late 1930s, sold as the "American Doughboy Art Lamp" from the factory, and are in fact just as valuable as the statuette version to collectors (and possibly more so, since ones with original hardware and in operating condition are quite rare. An original shade is almost impossible to find; I've only seen one in good condition, below).
A Viquesney Doughboy lamp with an extraordinarily rare original shade
(but with the usual damaged rifle).
Myth 8: Other Doughboy statues in similar poses are later imitations of Viquesney's work.
Actually, Viquesney was late to the gate. Sculptor John Paulding, Viquesney's main competitor, installed a version of his Doughboy titled "Over the Top" on May 30, 1920, many months before Viquesney finished work on his, but because of the latter's cheaper production methods and flamboyant advertising style, he was able to outsell Paulding to the point where many people now erroneously believe Paulding's Doughboy is the imitation of Viquesney's, rather than the other way around.
Myth 9: There is at least one Viquesney "Spirit of the American Doughboy" monument in every state of the Union.
Despite Viquesney's claim that this was so (except Alaska and Hawai'i, which weren't yet states at the time), there are nine states (California, Delaware, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon, and Rhode Island) which have no record of ever having a Viquesney Doughboy. Omaha, Nebraska, had one once, but it was vandalized within a year of its dedication and eventually disappeared altogether by 1959. Thus there are currently ten "lower 48" states which have no Viquesney Doughboy.
MYTH 10: Viquesney's "Spirit of the American Doughboy" was his only claim to fame.
While "The Spirit of the American Doughboy" is Viquesney's most famous work, he was quite a prolific artist. See the page "What Else Did Viquesney Make".
