Anthologic Movie Star Dogs
People love dogs. People also love movies about dogs or movies starring dogs. Even cartoon dogs are popular, like Scooby-Doo, Pluto, Goofy and let’s not forget Snoopy. In 1905 (that was a long time ago), the movie “Rescued by Rover” was the first movie starring a dog. The dog’s real name was Blair. In “Rescued by Rover,” a beggar woman kidnaps a baby and the family’s dog, Rover, comes to the rescue.
You can’t talk about movie star dogs without talking about Lassie. Lassie is probably the most famous movie star dog of all time. Lassie was created in 1938 by Eric Knight. There are still “Lassie” movies being made today. Interestingly, all of the “Lassie” dogs are male, and all of them are descendants of the original Lassie.
Rin Tin Tin was rescued from the trenches in Germany when he was just a puppy. He was brought to the United States by Lee Duncan, who was an American pilot during World War I. Lee Duncan was also his trainer. The first movie starring Rin Tin Tin was “Where the North Begins,” which was released in 1925. Rin Tin Tin signed his own movie contracts with a paw print and made a total of 25 movies during his lifetime.
Do you remember the movie “Benji without a leash”? And don’t forget Skippy, who has starred in movies like “Topper Takes a Trip,” “Bringing up Baby” and “The Awful Truth.”
Any discussion of movie star dogs wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t mention Petey. Petey was a white American Pit Bull Terrier with a black ring around one eye, and he made movies with a large group of kids known as “Our Gang.”
Yes, we love our own dogs and we love the dogs of movie stars. There’s nothing much more “American” than apple pie and a kid with his dog!
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