How dog actor Rin Tin Tin saved Warner Bros. Studios from bankruptcy in 1923

Hollywood has a long history of casting dogs in movies. Family movies, action movies and movies that follow animals on their journeys. Anyone could rattle off a slew of dog movies over the years, but apparently one dog started it all, and his name was Rin Tin Tin.

“In 1918, Lee Duncan, an American soldier fighting in World War I, discovered it among a litter of German Shepherd puppies left to die in a bombed-out field in France. (They were apparently bred to serve the Imperial German Army.) Duncan found homes for the puppies and kept two for himself, naming them Rin Tin Tin and Nanette, after two popular yarn dolls French children gave to soldiers as good luck charms. “

Back home in Los Angeles, Duncan took his puppy, whom he nicknamed “Rinty,” to Hollywood after seeing him win the competitions he entered. Rinty was first cast as a wolf in 1922. The Man from Hell’s River.

A year later, he was sharing billing with the silent film actress Claire Adams in Where the North begins. The silent film was written by Duncan, who studied Rinty’s facial expressions and came up with dramatic scenarios that took full advantage of them. The result was a dog that could “register emotions and portray a real character with his or her individual loves, loyalties, and hates,” as Duncan once put it.

The film cost Warner Bros. $100,000 to produce and grossed $352,000, saving the studio from bankruptcy and leading to 26 more films until Rin Tin Tin’s death on August 10, 1932, a month short of his 14th birthday. Rin Tin Tin Jr., one of 50 puppies he sired, had some success, as did his grandfather Rin Tin Tin III, who starred in the 1947 film The return of Rin Tin Tin.

I’m a dog lover and I think it’s great that Rin Tin Tin has lived his life making movies. It appears that he was an intelligent puppy and lived a long and good life.

Via: THR