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Lassie Information
The character of Lassie was created by British-American author Eric Knight in Lassie Come Home, published as a short story in the
Saturday Evening Post in 1938 and as a novel in 1940. Lassie got her name from a famous dog from Lyme Bay in Dorset who saved the
life of sailor after the sinking of HMS Formidable (1898) in January 1915 after a u-boat's torpedo struck it. This Lassie was
featured in a lot of publicity at the time, partly as world war one propaganda, and thus she became very well-known. In Knight's
story set in Depression-era England, a young Yorkshire boy owns an exceptionally beautiful and loyal collie, but when the family
faces severe economic hardship, the dog is sold to a wealthy nobleman. Both boy and dog grieve over the separation, made worse when
the new owner transports Lassie hundreds of miles away to his estate in Scotland. However, the collie's instinct and courage cause
her to escape, and the book follows Lassie's desperate efforts to return to the boy she loves.
In 1943 the book was made into what would become the first Lassie movie, Lassie Come Home, which generally followed the plot of the
book, and in which Roddy McDowall starred. Since then, there have been numerous sequels, television series and spin-offs. Other
television series followed in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, made by various production companies, with varied casts and themes, making
the Lassie concept as a television series one of the very longest running of any collective series so focused.
Lassie is one of only three dog characters, and one of very few fictional characters (another being Mickey Mouse) who have been
awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – the others being Rin Tin Tin and Strongheart. In 2005, the show business journal
Variety named Lassie one of the "100 Icons of all time" – the only animal star on the list.
On the 1954-1974 television series Lassie, she had a series of owners, the first two being "Jeff Miller", played by Tommy Rettig
and, later, "Timmy" (Jon Provost). Both were farm boys frequently helped out of scrapes by their super-intelligent dog. June
Lockhart, who had previously appeared in Son of Lassie, took over the role of Timmy's mother from Cloris Leachman. Ranger Corey
Stuart (Robert Bray) came later and, near the end of the series, Lassie struck out on her own, with no regular human master.
The first dog to play the 1943 movie role of Lassie was Pal, originally from Glamis Collies of California. The original owner could
not train the dog and hired Weatherwax Trained Dogs to do the job. When the owner couldn't pay the bill, Pal became owned by animal
trainer Rudd Weatherwax and his brother Frank Weatherwax. Some of the dogs that played Lassie were owned and trained by Rudd Weatherwax
until his death, and then by his son Robert Weatherwax. Today the dogs are owned and trained by Carol Riggins.
Before Pal's death, he was bred with a number of bitches, resulting in hundreds of offspring, Nine direct line descendants of Pal
have performed as Lassie. All offspring not chosen to be the next Lassie were adopted with spay/neuter contracts.
All 9 Lassies have been male, playing a female character. The female collie loses her coat at least once a year making it unsuitable
for use year round. Also, the male is larger and a child actor can play opposite the dog for a longer period of time.
In 1997 a Canadian company produced a new Lassie TV show, using a collie not in the original Pal line, generating protests from
fans calling for only "authentic" Pal descendents to be used on a series billed as Lassie. Midway through the second season, an
8th-generation Lassie descended from Pal and trained by Carol Riggins of Weatherwax Trained Dogs was brought in until the series
ended in 1998.
The current Lassie is busy making personal appearances and promoting dog food.
The copyrights to the films and series are various because so many production companies picked up the story (and changed its characters
and focus) over the years. The rights to "Lassie" are held by Classic Media; however, Warner Bros./Turner Entertainment holds the rights
to the "Lassie" films originally made by MGM. Many of the movies and TV episodes are available on VHS and DVD, and repeated on television
in the U.S. The 1954 – 1957 episodes of the Lassie TV show were later syndicated as Jeff's Collie and televised on the Animal Planet
channel. The later seasons' programs featuring Jon Provost and Rober Bray continue to be rerun in many countries.
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