Rin Tin Tin(1918-1932)
- Actor
The first 'Rin Tin Tin', who along with his heirs starred in numerous
films and television series, was discovered during World War I,
September 15, 1918, by US Air Corporal Lee Duncan and his battalion in
Lorraine, France. At a bombed out dog kennel, Duncan found a mother
Shepherd Dog and her scrawny litter of five pups. Duncan chose two of
the dogs, a male and female, while members of his group took the mother
and the others back to camp. The only survivors over the next few
months were the two pups Duncan had claimed, naming them 'Rin Tin Tin'
and 'Nannette' after tiny French puppets the French children would give
to the American soldiers for good luck. When the war ended, Duncan made
special arrangements to take his pups back to his home in Los Angeles,
but during the Atlantic crossing, Nannette became ill and died, shortly
after arriving in America. In 1922, Duncan and Rin Tin Tin attended an
LA dog show, with 'Rinty' performing for the crowd by jumping 13 ½
feet. Following the show, producer Darryl Zanuck asked Duncan if he
could try out his new 'moving pictures' camera on the dog and paid $350
to film Rinty in action. Contacting every studio in Hollywood with a
Rin Tin Tin -starring script "Where The North Begins", Duncan
unexpectedly stumbled onto a low-budget, Warner Bros (Vitaphone) film
crew having difficulty shooting an exterior scene with a wolf. Duncan
quickly approached the director and told them that Rinty could do the
scene in one take. True to his word, Duncan's 'wonder' dog did the
scene in one take and both were hired for the entire shoot of "Man From
Hells River". The film was a hit and Rin Tin Tin was a sensation,
making 26 pictures for Warners while starring in his own live 1930s
radio show "The Wonder Dog". At the peak of his popularity, Warners
maintained 18 trained stand-ins to reduce any stress on their dog star,
while providing Rinty with a private chef who prepared daily lunches of
tenderloin steak (consumed as live classical music was played to help
ease the dog's digestion.) Rin Tin Tin died in 1932 at the age of 14,
returned to his birthplace in France, and interred in "The Cimetière
des Chiens (et Autres Animaux Exotiques)" in the suburb of Asnieres.
Today, Rin Tin Tin's continuous bloodline carries on at a Texas kennel,
where a litter of 8-11 pups are born each year.
