GONE TO THE DOGS

            First, a course correction. On my last DAD blog I announced that on Daughter’s advice, I would blog on a regular schedule (namely Mondays & Thursdays). “You have to be consistent!” she put it. But after I turned off my computer she informed me that Tuesdays and Fridays are much better days!

            I don’t know if that’s true. But I do know that like Custer at the Little Big Horn, in our home I am outnumbered. Wife is a female, Daughter is a female, the family cat is a lady cat, even Daughter’s pet snake is a girl snake. Best I just agree. Tuesdays and Fridays it is.

            Now, as I was wondering about celebrity dogs in my last blog. Back in ye olden days two dogs, Rin Tin Tin and Yukon King (SERGEANT PRESTON OF THE YUKON) had their own radio shows. How the heck does a dog star in a radio show? Answer: stand-ins. Both Rinty and King used human stand-ins, guys who stood in front of microphones and barked, growled, woofed and yipped.

            Whether they did their own barking on their TV shows is another matter. On the other hand Cleo, a basset hound who looked like Tallulah Bankhead (look her up on Wikipedia, kids) was bilingual, speaking both dog and human. True, no one in the cast of her 1950s TV show PEOPLE’S CHOICE could hear her; only the viewing audience. But throughout every program she kept up a stream of observations, wise cracks, etc.

OK, OK, her dialog was actually “voiced” by human Mary Jane Croft. But at least TV dogs like Cleo (and eventually Rinty and King) had to show up for work! And sometimes that work was hard. Take Roy Rodgers’ dog Bullet. Do you know how fast he had to run just to keep up with Roy’s horse Trigger?

In 2010 Bullet’s mounted remains sold at auction for $35,000. But at the same sale the also stuffed Trigger fetched $266,000. Even on his way to the Great Doghouse in the Sky poor Bullet couldn't catch a break.

Some dogs enjoyed all the perks that come with being a celebrity. Stretch Bloodhound in his role as “Duke” on TV’s BEVERLY HILLBILLIES wasn’t required to do much more than look sleepy. Yet he was able to retire at age thirteen with I’m sure a fairly decent pension. And silent movie star Strongheart never traveled without his staff of retainers (manager, valet, press agent and “personal representative”). Strongheart incidentally is one of only three dogs to rate their own star (the others being Lassie and Rin Tin Tin) on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Meanwhile let us shed a tear for those dogs who obtained maybe a pinch of fame but for whom true superstardom was not their destiny. Give up a woof for Rex the Wonder Dog and a yip for Lightning the Dog. And of course Ace the Wonder Dog who played Rusty in 1945s THE ADVENTURES OF RUSTY and Phantom’s sidekick Devil (sidedog?) in 1946s THE PHANTOM. Good doggies all.

Dad out.