'Ugliest man' became mini-celebrity after appearance on Linkletter show

Who is the ugliest man in Wyoming? Well, I don’t think anyone has claimed that title for over half a century. But, 60 years ago, Ralph Gillette and Reuben Reifschneider were pictured on the front page of the Greybull Standard. They were viewed as mini-celebrities as they were leaving that weekend to fly to Los Angeles for a special appearance on the late Art Linkletter’s popular afternoon show where the famous comedian, and perhaps his audience, would declare the winner, who would return to Greybull to be introduced at the annual Days of ‘49 celebration. 

When the men returned from their debut on television, it was Reisfschneider who was the reigning ugliest man. As far as we could tell he was the last person to wear the dubious crown.

The contest, according to research on Google, had started as kind of a joke, according to the website. However, it never actually took hold. When it came right down to it, how many men would look in the mirror and think, “I could be a candidate for the ugliest man” and believe it?

In our search for the actual participation, we found that Doc Chamber was the first ugliest man — and looking at his photo in the GS, it didn’t make me want to look away. He was quite nice looking.   However, the following year, 1965, just two men, Gillette and Reifschneider, were brave enough to throw their hats in the ring. Perhaps they were lured by the promise of a trip to LA and an appearance on the famous Art Linkletter show.   

We went back to Google which said the original thought was for the contest to recognize the man with the ugliest beard.

Thus the famous years of seeing beards of all colors, lengths, unruliness, started and became a favorite feature of the annual celebration.

Now you wonder if it’s a good-looking man with an ugly beard — or an ugly man with a good-looking beard. Sixty years later, even the ugly beard contest is no longer a part of the annual celebration. 

Ugly men and atrocious beards have gone the way of so many other activities that were a part of Days of 49 and maybe that is a good thing.