Photo courtesy of www.RinTinTin.com
On September 15, 1918, a World War II army patrol was cautiously searching through the rubble of a bombed out kennel at a German airfield in France when Lee Duncan, a 29-year-old U.S. pilot, spotted a German Shepherd mother with five puppies huddled in a trench. It was a moment that would change his life — and those of countless others.
The patrol adopted the dogs, with Duncan taking a male and female puppy. He named them Rin Tin Tin and Nanette after the tiny French puppets given to soldiers for luck, and he became very interested in training them. Duncan was excited to bring his dogs home with him after the war, but unfortunately, Nanette died of distemper before reaching Los Angeles.
Once home, Duncan poured his efforts into Rin Tin Tin, or Rinty, as he called him. One day in 1922 he entered Rinty in a dog show, which he lost, and a jumping contest, which he won (with a jump of nearly 12 feet). The jumping event happened to be filmed, giving rise to a short career for Rinty doing stunts for film shorts. It also gave rise to Duncan’s idea that Rinty could star in a feature film. Duncan optimistically wrote a script for a feature-length film starring Rinty, but studio after studio rejected it.
Finally scraping the bottom of the studio barrel, Duncan came across an exasperated film crew that had spent several unsuccessful days trying to film an outdoor scene with a wolf. Duncan boasted his dog could do the scene in one take. The studio told him to go away, and take his dog and his script with him. Duncan kept pestering them, and they finally agreed to go ahead and try it. Twenty minutes later, the scene was a wrap and Rinty had a contract to finish the movie. Man From Hell’s River was a hit with audiences, and Rinty was immediately signed for another, then another movie, playing one heroic role after another.
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