{"id":514,"date":"2026-01-30T16:33:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T21:33:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/yesterdays-news\/?p=514"},"modified":"2026-03-05T10:26:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T15:26:39","slug":"boneheads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/yesterdays-news\/2026\/01\/30\/boneheads\/","title":{"rendered":"Know Everything About Nothing: The Refreshing Foolishness of the Bonehead Club"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the blood-soaked horrors of World War I, men, to say the least, were not alright on a spiritual or existential level. This could explain why a bunch of Dallas men got tired of swapping traumatic war stories and decided they needed to inject a little frivolity into their male-bonding. With fabulous hats<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thus, April Fool’s Day 1919, the Bonehead Club was born.<\/p>\n

A fraternal order of merry pranksters in bowler hats<\/a>, the Boneheads dedicated themselves to nonsense in the purest and most audacious manner, declaring with Dadaist fervor:<\/p>\n

“OUR AIM: NOTHING, OUR PURPOSE, NOTHING, OUR INSPIRATION: NOTHING, MOTTO: TO LEARN MORE AND MORE ABOUT LESS AND LESS UNTIL, EVENTUALLY, WE SHALL KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT NOTHING<\/a>!”<\/p>\n

There is no president. There are all<\/em> vice presidents. However, a Big Chief<\/a> is selected, along with a Scribbler (to take notes) and a Money Grabber (to take money). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite their commitment to nothingness, the Boneheads sure were active in their community, providing local color, amusement, and annoyance throughout Dallas for decades. Whether it’s disrupting festivities at the luxurious Adolphus Hotel<\/a> or Sheraton-Dallas<\/a>, treating some pooches<\/a> to fine dining, “bugging<\/a>” a convention for Texas Pest Control, or kidnapping the SMU Homecoming Court<\/a>, the Boneheads never missed an opportunity to crash a party or make a spectacle. They were most known for their annual topsy-turvy “closing<\/a>” of the State Fair of Texas<\/a> on Opening Day<\/a> in a comically futile attempt to keep the influx of tourists –especially Oklahomans– out<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of their unplanned plans, their anti-agenda agenda, their charterless charter, involved thumbing their noses at “the pretensions of presumptuous people” by showing how ludicrous public policy could be. Stunts included parading a “mermaid<\/a>” and caravan of boats through the flooded streets of Dallas in response to a proposal to make the Trinity River more navigable —<\/p>\n\n\n\n

— peddling their own ‘art<\/a>‘ in response to exorbitantly priced modern art —<\/p>\n\n\n\n

–and “beautifying” downtown Dallas by planting trees<\/a> in the middle of the busy streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each year of lighthearted tomfoolery culminated in the annual Bonehead of the Year award and banquet to “honor” someone that the club, in all of their wisdom, deem America’s biggest Bonehead. Past winners have included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n