Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. everything.

1904		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN II:vi 422: whole cheese, n. The whole thing.
1907		B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 6: The whole cheese on ‘Darington’ to win.

2. an important or impressive person; a sole representative.

1901		W. Irwin Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum III n.p.: Then I shall strive and be the great main squeeze, The warm gazook, the only on the bunch, The Oklahoma wonder, the whole cheese.
1907		N.Y. Eve. Journal 11 Dec. in Fleming Unforgettable Season (1981) 6: He is the whole Swiss cheese at this meeting [...] the whole show.
1913		Sun (Kalgoorlie, WA) 27 July 8/6: [US speaker] ‘They’re [i.e. Australian girls] the whole cheese’.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 288: That is how he became the Whole Cheese.
1931		(con. 1890s) A.F. Harlow Old Bowery Days 493: They’re the whole cheese in national conventions.
1957		‘Weldon Hill’ Onionhead (1958) 167: ‘I happen to be the whole cheese, the only surgeon on board’.
1965		(con. 1930s) R. Wright Lawd Today 104: ‘Them high yellows is stuck up’ [...] ‘Yeah,’ said Bob. ‘They think they’s the whole cheese just ’cause they looks like white women.’.