Rin Tin Tin

Susan Orlean spent "nearly a decade of her life" writing a book about Rin Tin Tin, reports the Economist (2/4/12). Susan decided to write the book, RinTin Tin: The Life and the Legend, after coming across a reference to the famous German Shepherd and being "startled by the strength of her reaction." She was instantly transported to her 1950s childhood and television memories of "The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin." Her father had recently died and her son had just been born and "she found herself stirred by the emotional permanence of Rin Tin Tin."

As a breed, German Shepherds "grew popular in the 1920s as soldiers returned from the front with stories of their loyalty and heroism in battle. Lee Duncan, a young American soldier stationed in France, could not believe his luck when he stumbled on a whimpering litter in an abandoned enemy kennel. An animal lover with a lonely soul, he saved the puppies and kept the two finest for himself, Rin Tin Tin and Nannette (named after two wartime good-luck charms)."

Driven more by a sense of the dog’s greatness than any material objective, Lee turned Rin Tin Tin into a silent-film star. Dogs and silent films were a good match — "unknowable but accessible, driven but egoless." Dogs were also becoming popular as pets at the time, evolving "from farm hands to hearth-warmers." When Rin Tin Tin died in 1932, "every national newspaper ran an obituary" and one radio announcer praised him as "a gentleman, a scholar, a hero, a cinema star … virtually everything we could wish to be."