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Rin Tin Tin: The Life And The Legend

by Susan Orlean (Goodreads Author)

3.5 of 5 stars 3.50 · rating details · 2,203 ratings · 566 reviews

Nearly ten years in the making and perfect for the holidays, Susan Orlean’s first original book since the celebrated bestseller The Orchid Thief is the publishing event of the season: a sweeping, surprising, and powerfully moving work of narrative nonfiction about the dog actor and international icon, Rin Tin Tin.

German shepherd Rin Tin Tin’s journey is the story of the tw...more

Audio CD, 0 pages

Published September 27th 2011 by Simon & Schuster Audio

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Jan 05, 2013 Will Byrnes rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography-autobiography-memoir, non-fiction

Good book, good book, good. Snap on your flea collars, curl up in your cozy bed, wrap that bushy tail around yourself and park that muzzle on your paws. Susan Orlean has a remarkable tale to tell about an amazing pooch.

For many of you the name Rin Tin Tin rings no bells, but for folks of a certain age (geezers) like me, it summons memories from the way-back. Rin Tin Tin (no relation to the pointy-haired comic book and recent film character) was a hero. Rinny was a very good dog who (yes, who, no...more

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Oct 09, 2011 Debbie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: review-copy, animals, first-reads, media, 2011, non-fiction, history

Disclaimer: I received a free review ARC of the book from the publisher through Goodreads First Reads program.

Before this book, my one vague memory of Rin Tin Tin was that short scene in 101 Dalmatians where the puppies are watching it on TV. Yet, I somehow knew that Rin Tin Tin was a dog, and even had a blurry picture of a German Shepard in my mind, and knew that he was a famous dog actor back in the day. So even me, who was born decades after Rin Tin Tin was last on the air, knew of him.

I fou...more

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Oct 04, 2012 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, journalism, biography, california, dog, movies

An engrossing immersion into one man’s devotion to Rin Tin Tin, Lee Duncan, and his obsession shared with a Hollywood producer, Bert Leonard, in making a mythic story out of him. To me, Orlean comes off as a persistent sleuth and gifted writer in bringing the story alive and clarifying why this dog and his successors captivated the hearts of generations of adults and children around the world. Here is an example of her style:

“Rin Tin Tin has always been more than a dog. He was an idea and an ide...more An engrossing immersion into one man’s devotion to Rin Tin Tin, Lee Duncan, and his obsession shared with a Hollywood producer, Bert Leonard, in making a mythic story out of him. To me, Orlean comes off as a persistent sleuth and gifted writer in bringing the story alive and clarifying why this dog and his successors captivated the hearts of generations of adults and children around the world. Here is an example of her style:

“Rin Tin Tin has always been more than a dog. He was an idea and an ideal—a hero who was also a friend, a fighter who was also a caretaker, a mute genius, a companionable loner. He was one dog and many dogs, a real animal and an invented character, a pet as well as an international celebrity. He was born in 1918 and he never died.”

A big part of Orlean’s fascination concerns how improbable it was for a loner like Duncan to find a German shepherd puppy in a bombed out kennel in France during World War 1, bring him home to raise, and then capture the attention of silent movie producers with his ideas and script. In silent movies, Rin Tin Tin was on a relative equal footing with the human stars. The shepherds that became the national breed of Germany and played myriad roles in the war effort were bred to the ideals of “attentiveness, unshockability, tractability, watchfulness, reliability, and incorruptibility together with courage, fighting tenacity, and hardiness.” Rinty (as he was called by Duncan)demonstrated these qualities in his starring role in over 20 silent movies and 8 ones with sound. Orlean found him to be pretty special as well in showing emotion: “He shows in his expression and acting such deep, human contrasting feelings as trust and distrust, sorrow and joy, jealousy and love, hatred and devotion …”

After the movie career of Rinty and his successors ran its long course in the 20’s and 30’s, Bert Leonard had a lot to do with bringing the dog to life again through the TV series starting in the 50’s. For Orleans, the magic wasn’t quite the same because the stories were more about the human characters. Yet the great theme of the love of an orphan boy for his loyal and brave dog continued to echo aspects in the personal background of Lee Duncan and resonate with all kinds of people.

Orlean's admiration of the accomplishments of Duncan and Leonard leads her to marvel at how the public accepted some kind of unitary identity for Rin Tin Tin despite the commercial franchise involving multiple dogs:
“Whether he was playing a half-breed wild dog in Alaska, say, or a soldier dog in World War I or a borax miner’s companion dog somewhere out west, he was always, foremost, Rin Tin Tin. Using his name also made it seem that Rin Tin Tin existed within the film and outside the film at the same time. … Fusing those two manifestations together highlighted the artifice of film and the self-referential nature of art, the fluid relationship we have with those things we imagine and create.”

Over the years it took Orlean to write the book, she came to recognize her own obsession with the story began to approach the almost pathological devotion of Duncan and Leonard to keeping Rin Tin Tin alive. The following sequence of insights capture for me the essence for why this book on Rin Tin Tin was so compelling:

” What made this one character outlast everything around him, leaving in his wake Strongheart and dozens of others no one remembers; finding generation after generation to admire him; engaging one person after another to devote their lives to him?
…Being forgotten, washed away—that is what is typical in human experience. Anything that can withstand that inevitable decline is fascinating because it has managed to do what none of us can do: it has lived on when everything else is destined to die.
…We want things to last because life without them would be bewildering, an endless question of why anything has value or feels familiar and how any of us could be connected to anything outside ourselves.”
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Jan 11, 2012 Trish rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: animals, biography, audio, memoir, nonfiction, totally-unexpected

This is less the story of Rin Tin Tin (and his offspring) than of the man that owned him…and after that, of the men and women that sought to preserve the memory of him. I am a sucker for dog books, but since dogs don’t talk, one must be satisfied with stories of their owners. Just as Marley and Me was not so much the story of the dog than of John Grogan and his family, so Rin Tin Tin must be imagined through this book and the massive archive of film footage of him and his chosen successors.

What...more This is less the story of Rin Tin Tin (and his offspring) than of the man that owned him…and after that, of the men and women that sought to preserve the memory of him. I am a sucker for dog books, but since dogs don’t talk, one must be satisfied with stories of their owners. Just as Marley and Me was not so much the story of the dog than of John Grogan and his family, so Rin Tin Tin must be imagined through this book and the massive archive of film footage of him and his chosen successors.

What struck me from the century of history behind the name of Rin Tin Tin—the first dog with the name was born in 1918 in war-torn France—was how the first man to own him, Lee Duncan, never seemed to develop the same kind of love for any dog of the same name that followed. None had that unique set of qualities that so endeared Rinty to his owner in the first place. But a huge industry rose and fell on the tide of public opinion through the war years and after, carried on and on by men with more conviction than talent, more hubris than humility. When, many times, the rights to the Rin Tin Tin name could be passed on profitably to keep the flame alive, it was often sequestered and squandered, its value magnified to untenable proportions.

Susan Orlean must have wondered many times how she had gotten herself into this project. It required long, deep dives into the lives of obsessives, and it leaves one feeling slightly deranged and breathless to think that the story of that talented canine comes from the dark recesses of neglected warehouses and lives warped to fit the myth. I listened to the audio of this book, and I had to laugh at how many times I was sure the story was over—by her telling and the inflection in her voice--only to hear another section declaring itself on my mobile device. The name of Rinty was resurrected so many times under such improbable circumstances, that one simply has to credit the wild imaginations of the rights-holders, and one feels a little sorry that the original great Rinty is not alive to be celebrated.
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May 21, 2012 Amanda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ya'll knew this read would happen.

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Of course I loved this book. I have a GSD, I love the breed. I spent much of the book swollen with pride for my dog. I loved it so much I know call Klaus (my GSD) "Rinty" when he's acting like a prima donna. Which is often because he's so spoiled. This book had a great mix of the story of the Rin Tin Tin line and other bits about dogs. Dogs of war, how GSDs were bread, the side stories of some of the main characters, and dogs in Hollywood. Husband and I read...more

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Dec 11, 2012 Denis Farley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A page turner, I couldn't pry myself from it this past week. I enjoyed the author's earlier book, The Orchid Thief. You get the feeling, if there is a bottom to a story, Susan Orlean will find it. With Rin Tin Tin, a legacy that she has advanced another step toward a century of interest and wonder, mythology really, her ten years of research, rumination and finally elucidation, to put it in the language of film, in both the fore and background is at once comprehensive and intimate. You get the b...more

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May 01, 2012 Tina Hamilton rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I could not put down this book. I think that Susan Orlean is a fine writer. However, I am not a lover of dogs, especially German Shepherds. But, oh, the story behind the story of Rin Tin Tin is fascinating and covers much history of the early film industry from silent, to talkies and from black and white to color. Then television makes it appearance with the three main channels. All of this affected Rin Tin Tin's popularity, loss of popularity, the rebirth of popularity, and on and on, and it st...more

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Jan 04, 2012 Sylvie rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, animals, first-reads

I got a late start in this book—an advance readers edition that I won through Goodreads’ First Reads Giveway—because I was away from home for a couple of weeks visiting Miami, Florida. Ah, yes, The Magic City is still beautiful and still fascinates, but this visit had, as all of the recent ones have had, its very sad side to it: I was there to help my elderly and very ill parents. So, when my husband called me in Miami to say I’d received a package from Simon & Schuster, and that it “looks l...more I got a late start in this book—an advance readers edition that I won through Goodreads’ First Reads Giveway—because I was away from home for a couple of weeks visiting Miami, Florida. Ah, yes, The Magic City is still beautiful and still fascinates, but this visit had, as all of the recent ones have had, its very sad side to it: I was there to help my elderly and very ill parents. So, when my husband called me in Miami to say I’d received a package from Simon & Schuster, and that it “looks like a book,” I was very happy. The news brought joy to a dismal day: I’d received my free book AND it’s about a dog! A German Shepherd, no less!

I’m on page 46 of Rin Tin Tin, and thus far, I’ve responded to this book as I did to Susan Orlean’s previous book, The Orchid Thief—I’ve been thrilled by some of its passages, such as her description of the St. Mihiel American Cemetery on the outskirts of Flirey, France, and impatient with some of the material that can only be described as “filler stuff.”

I'm now on page 155. I'm not a slow reader, but I read several books at a time so the time I dedicate to each book will vary day-to-day... depends on my mood.

Not all of the "filler stuff" in this book is, well, just that. Some of it is really, really interesting. For example, the author has included a wonderful description of the cemetery for dogs in Paris: Le Cimetiere de Chiens. The original Rin Tin Tin is buried here. Ms. Orlean says that "Le Cimetiere des Chiens was founded in 1899 by a group of intellectual pet lovers that included Emile Zola, Marguerite Durand, and Camille Saint-Saens, after Paris passed a law prohibiting animal graves within one hundred yards of human habitation... Le Cimetiere des Chiens is an elegant space, set off from the street by a baroque stone entryway and a curlicued iron gate; it is very Parisian, shady, and somber, filled with spindly rose bushes and gnarled topiary." Can't you just imagine it? Damn! Why didn't I know about this place when I was in Paris? I visited Pere Lachaise and loved it, but I would also have loved Le Cimetiere des Chiens!

Did you know that Adolf Hitler deeply cared about animals and animal welfare? I'd of never guessed this, although I do know that he was deeply attached to his German Shepherd.

I'll add more as I read more!

It took me forever, but I finally finished it. Disappointed! This book isn't so much about Rinty. It's really about the movie industry in Rinty's time. If that's your thing, you might like it. It wasn't for me.

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Aug 03, 2011 SheilaRaeO rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads

This book is a fascinating account of the real life Rin Tin Tin and his owner Lee Duncan, as well as the early days of the entertainment industry from silent film and vaudeville reaching all the way to television. We also learn of the immense contributions of animals to the war effort of WWI and WWII, with the United States finally bringing in the use of trained dogs in WWII. Susan Orlean has done an amazing job of research for this book and has tied it all together in a compelling narrative. Ce...more

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Apr 12, 2013 Lori Beninger rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

The TV show The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin was among my most favorite childhood memories. For a short time in the 1950s, my family had German Shepherds as pets -- and I still find them the most regal of dogs. Therefore, when my friend recommended this book to me, I jumped at the chance to learn more about an animal who I both loved and admired.

What I liked most about this book was what I learned: (1) that the TV dog was just one in a long line of Rin Tin Tins who began their illustrious career in...more The TV show The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin was among my most favorite childhood memories. For a short time in the 1950s, my family had German Shepherds as pets -- and I still find them the most regal of dogs. Therefore, when my friend recommended this book to me, I jumped at the chance to learn more about an animal who I both loved and admired.

What I liked most about this book was what I learned: (1) that the TV dog was just one in a long line of Rin Tin Tins who began their illustrious career in the 1920s; (2) that the original Rin Tin Tin was not an imaginary dog, like Lassie, but a real-life animal of phenomenal abilities with an unbreakably bond to one man; (3) that the first Rin Tin Tin was born in France in 1918 and brought to the US by a young soldier named Lee Duncan, the man who made Rin Tin Tin his life; and (4) that the dog's life, and the lives of his progeny, represented so much more to the public (both in America and abroad) than could be expressed in film and TV. Rin Tin Tin became a cultural phenomenon whose fame and influence has spanned more than 90 years.

What I liked least about the book (and the reason I gave it only 3 stars) was Susan Orlean's presentation, especially in the first 2/3 of the book. She obviously did her homework: trudging through boxes upon boxes of papers and photos, and traveling far to interview as many of the participants in the story as were still alive at the writing of the book (2010). While she expressed a personal interest in her subject (she spent 10 years in the research), I was not convinced of her conviction until the end. The story unfolds in a stilted manner, each fact stiffly laid before the reader without Orlean's usual flair and quirkiness (both of which are evident in her wonderful fiction The Orchid Thief). I was interested in all of the facts, but was not compelled by the writing. It was not until the latter 20% of the book that Orlean's writing style became grafted to the story, pulling me along; only then did I truly believe that Rin Tin Tin meant more to her than a subject for a book.

Still, just for the pure joy of knowing and understanding this dog, I recommend the book. I am more in love with Rin Tin Tin than I ever was before.
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Feb 21, 2013 Mike Jensen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Pop culture characters have limited lives. All but forgotten today are Dr. Kildare, Dr. Christian, the Lone Wolf, and Red Ryder, yet each of these had success in several media and some lasted for several decades before fading from public consciousness. Today, Tarzan and the Lone Ranger seem to be on the endangered species list, with fewer appearances in the usual media, smaller numbers of followers when they do appear, and less recognizable versions of themselves being offered in the hope of app...more Pop culture characters have limited lives. All but forgotten today are Dr. Kildare, Dr. Christian, the Lone Wolf, and Red Ryder, yet each of these had success in several media and some lasted for several decades before fading from public consciousness. Today, Tarzan and the Lone Ranger seem to be on the endangered species list, with fewer appearances in the usual media, smaller numbers of followers when they do appear, and less recognizable versions of themselves being offered in the hope of appealing to modern audiences. The focus of this book is one such “character.” The word is in quotes because Rin Tin Tin was a real and very gifted dog that became pop culture phenomenon that eventually faded away.

Susan Orlean mostly does an excellent job of juggling three narrative balls. She tells the story of Rin Tin Tin and his trainer, including how the dog became a film star, and no star was bigger in the silent era. This story is broken into for discussions of the social history of dogs in the United States: how they became part of family life, the emergence of kennel clubs and dog shows, how domestic dogs first came to be trained, and more. This is not an odd add-on to the Rin Tin Tin story, for Rinty in part drove this dog consciousness and in part the growing interest in dogs helped create an audience for his films. (I realize this seems circular, but the two did feed each other, according to Orlean.) Finally, there is the life of Rin Tin Tin as a character after the first dog died to be replaced by one of his offspring, and later by other German Shepherds supplied by other trainers. In conjunction with this, Orlean explores the multi-media aspects of Rinty, from the popularity of figurines, books and comic books, the TV series, all the memorabilia spawned by it, then the later unpopular versions as the character became irrelevant: a reissuing of the original TV series, a modern update, and a foreign film with a previous parody, until most people today probably have not heard of Rin Tin Tin in any of his incarnations.

There are only three real drawbacks to this book. Most of it is beautifully written, but Orlean occasionally overwrites in an eye-rolling manner. I am not always confident of her research. The first TV series was filmed at Ray Corrigan’s Corrigannville Ranch. In describing Corrigan’s film career, Orleans mentions only when Corrigan was on the downside of it, an actor in a gorilla suit. She fails to mention, and perhaps did not learn, that he was once a rather charismatic leading man in B Westerns and serials. This oversight is an insult to Corrigan and makes me wonder what important facts Orlean missed about the many other colorful personalities she discusses through the book. She also fails to supply a filmography, a list of books and comic books, and other memorabilia related to Rin Tin Tin. Even a “selected” list would have been better than burying mention of a few of these items in the text of her book.

This is a very good book and well worth reading for the social history of dogs, Rin Tin Tin himself, and Rin Tin Tin as a force in pop culture, but this book should have been and could have been great.(less)

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Jan 21, 2013 Benjamin added it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

Sarah and I listened to this on a long car trip and that's about the only reason we got so far into it. I heard Susan Orlean talk about this book several times on NPR, where she lingered on the fact that Rin Tin Tin was super popular in his time and totally forgotten in ours. Is that interesting of itself? I'd say that most of us are already aware of "time" and its corrosive effects on memory, but it seems worthy of a lot of writing and pontificating to Orlean. And I mean a lot.

To be fair, there...more Sarah and I listened to this on a long car trip and that's about the only reason we got so far into it. I heard Susan Orlean talk about this book several times on NPR, where she lingered on the fact that Rin Tin Tin was super popular in his time and totally forgotten in ours. Is that interesting of itself? I'd say that most of us are already aware of "time" and its corrosive effects on memory, but it seems worthy of a lot of writing and pontificating to Orlean. And I mean a lot.

To be fair, there are many stories here that might be of interest to some people: there's the development of the German shepherd breed by the obsessed German hobbyist and the Nazi takeover of the German shepherd society; there's the growth of marketing tie-ins with the Rin Tin Tin tv show; there's the pet cemetery of Paris; there's the producer of the Rin Tin Tin show and his other shows. Those stories may be interesting, if a little haphazard--as if the main throughline here wasn't enough to warrant a book. The original Rin Tin Tin barely makes it through half of this book before dying at the ripe old age of 14.

But Orlean's writing and thinking demonstrate several issues that bug me, no matter what length she's writing. First, her prose is occasionally over-written. Some others seem to enjoy it, so your mileage may vary. But I doubt Orlean has Elmore Leonard's advice above her computer: "if it sounds like writing, I rewrite it." Everything here is written in the self-conscious "New Yorker" style that marks some of their regular contributors.

Second, Orleans has almost an academic urge to inflate the importance of her subject. Did you know you can understand the entire media landscape of the twentieth century through Rin Tin Tin? See, in silent movies, he was larger than life, an ideal dog, but in the tv show, he became a representative of the everydog--and isn't that pretty much movies vs. tv. The whole book is full of Orlean's connections and thoughts like this: Rin Tin Tin is important to orphans; Rin Tin Tin takes over people's lives; Rin Tin Tin has "the resigned and solemn air of an existentialist"; etc.

Third, Orlean injects herself into the story, which I didn't mind so much. But her reminiscence of her grandfather's Rin Tin Tin figure out of reach makes this whole book seem like a personal love letter to an object of affection. Her bristling over Lassie makes this reportage less than trustworthy.(less)

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Nov 25, 2012 Larryta rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: susan-orlean

Susan Orlean's marvelous biography of Hollywood's greatest animal star is discursive, in the best sense of the word. The research and reporting is impeccable. From one dog, discovered in the muddy trenches of World War I France, she radiates out to tell so many stories: Hollywood silent cinema, the use of dogs in wartime and the animal's changing status in 20th century American life, the establishment of dog shows and the breeding of shepherds in Germany, the story of Rin Tin Tin's reclusive, my...more

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Nov 20, 2012 Shonna Froebel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is the culmination of years of research by Orleans, and it shows.
The book describes the life of Lee Duncan, the original owner and trainer of the dog Rin Tin Tin. We see the life of the real dog Duncan brought back from France after World War I, and the on-screen persona in both film and television. Orleans gives a picture of the movie and television business over the years, and shows the various players involved from producers, screenwriters, and directors to co-stars.
She shows how th...more

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Aug 17, 2012 Louise rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dogs, biography, entertainment-industry

This book shows how each generation of Rin Tin Tin had a public role that was relevant for its time. In the Hollywood silent film era he starred under his own name. World War II, he led in the Dogs for Defense recruitment effort. In the dawn of TV era, he helped develop the TV drama.

There are lots of colorful people in this story. Lee Duncan through luck, pluck and total devotion, took Rin Tin Tin (and his mother and still nursing him and his siblings) from a battlefield of World War I and made...more

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Jul 22, 2012 Eric rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was drawn to Orlean''s book, I suspect, after having been reminded again, sadly, some months ago, of the brevity of our dogs' lives. Orlean tells us that what drew her to Rin Tin Tin was his permanence, "how he had managed to linger in the minds of so many people for so long, when so much else shines for a moment only and then finally fades away. He was something you could dream about. He could leap twelve feet, and he could leap through time." This highly readable and engaging book is at its...more

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May 18, 2012 Birdie's Mom rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The author spends a great deal of time sorting through Rin Tin Tin's original owner, Lee Duncan's, notes and records to get as close as she can to the true story of the movie star's life and legacy. I have since learned (from reviews of the book) that she may have made some errors of fact regarding who Rinty met and was involved with during his life, but I think this was due to errors in her source material, not gaps in her own research. It seems that there was considerable manipulation of Rin T...more The author spends a great deal of time sorting through Rin Tin Tin's original owner, Lee Duncan's, notes and records to get as close as she can to the true story of the movie star's life and legacy. I have since learned (from reviews of the book) that she may have made some errors of fact regarding who Rinty met and was involved with during his life, but I think this was due to errors in her source material, not gaps in her own research. It seems that there was considerable manipulation of Rin Tin Tin's "story" both during his life and during the lives of his successors, and getting to the truth beneath the press releases, the "official" biographies, the stories told by co-stars, directors and studios heads, and those told by persons who took up the mantle of "Rinty's" official handler after Lee's death -- Susan Orlean had her work cut out for her.

Nevertheless, I found the book fascinating, and learned a great deal about a dog that I knew only as a name and a few mostly-forgotten reruns of a quaint TV show. I never knew he was born in a German kennel in occupied France in WWI, or that he never actually served as a war dog. I never knew that his first movies were silent black-and-white pictures that were sent all over the world, or that these pictures saved the fledgling Warner Brothers Studios from bankruptcy several times over. He actually received the most votes for the first Academy Award for best actor ever given, and the Academy had to "recast" the votes excluding Rinty's to decide the human winner.

Orlean was criticized for being too self-referential in the writing of this book, but I found her style engaging, and enjoyed "going with her," so to speak, as she sought out Rin Tin Tin I's grave in France, or began sorting through Duncan's letters and Rinty memorabilia.

I bought a copy of the book to keep, after reading a library copy. Like many of the people Orlean described in her book, I want to revisit Rinty's legacy, and remember the dog who amazed the world with his expressive face and ability to convey emotion on a black-and-white screen.(less)

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May 06, 2012 Gypsy Lady rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Page 89
In the 1920s, this was still a new country, still something of an experiment, trying out the notion that a society could reconcile private desires and ambitions with the demands of community. The American identity was till pliable, still taking shape. Many Americans had left ancient cultures of permanence and constraints and ethnic identities to join a society where identities were exploded and recombined -- who can know how many different religions and backgrounds were represented in au...more Page 89
In the 1920s, this was still a new country, still something of an experiment, trying out the notion that a society could reconcile private desires and ambitions with the demands of community. The American identity was till pliable, still taking shape. Many Americans had left ancient cultures of permanence and constraints and ethnic identities to join a society where identities were exploded and recombined -- who can know how many different religions and backgrounds were represented in audiences at Rinty's films in New York City or Chicago or Los Angeles?

Page 170
Popular culture is a period of time captured in a look and a gesture. Popular performers are m
ade by it and undone by it, as they ago out of relevance.

Page 277
At what point does devotion become a form of willful blindness? It would be impossible to commit to anything or anyone if you didn’t have a certain capacity for self-delusion and obliviousness. After all, there is nothing in the world that’s perfect – nothing that doesn’t requires, on occasion, the averted glance or the moment of selective deafness or the carefully calibrated memory lapse in order to remain lovable. To be passionate about something requires the ability to forget what’s wrong with it. But how much forgetting is the right amount? When is loyalty more about forgetting, and the love of being in love, than about the truth of what’s at hand? Knowing how to gauge the nature of devotion -- that is, knowing the difference between those instances when your glance has been averted too many times and those when you gave up on something far too fast – seems a life skill, a talent. Just to realize when enough is enough would be a gift. But it seems we are forever weighting things with a finger on the scale, always too quick to give up or too ardent by half.

Page 281
She is what some people would call controversial or maybe, more simply, plain spoken.

Page 282
Every one of them had a facet that glinted with just a bit of madness. A singular passion helps you slice through the mess of the world, but I had also come to believe that cutting such a narrow path plays tricks with proportion and balance and pushes everything that much closer to the edge. It’s not that passionate people are crazy; it’s that by necessity, they have traded the sweep of a big view for one that’s contracted and focused, which can give their world a peculiar shape.

Page 297-298
But Rin Tin Tin had become a compound entity at the same moment that entertainment was swelling into something gigantic and corporate: characters were becoming brands, movies were becoming franchises, and lawyers were stepping in to choreograph the structure and content of it all, adding the particular obfuscation of lawyering to something already tangled and confused. At any one time, Daphne seems to have been engaged in a royal flush of lawsuits.
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May 04, 2012 Agatha rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This was a good book but it was a little bit more about Hollywood history than I would have preferred. I went in thinking it was going to be heavily focused on the amazing connection in animal-human relationships. I was aware of Rin-Tin-Tin, I knew that he had been a dog in TV and movie entertainment (generally around the same time as “Lassie,” I thought?), and I knew that he was a German Shepherd. Then recently I read something in which I learned that he had been a puppy discovered by a US sold...more

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Apr 21, 2012 Fence rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, 600s, animals

While serving during World War I serviceman Lee Duncan came across a little of new born German Shepherd puppies. He took two for himself and gave the others to other soldiers. The two he kept he named Nannette and Rintintin. Unfortunately the little female Nannette died, but Rintintin grew up to be a star.

Orlean’s traces Rin Tin Tin’s development from his first roles as a stand-in for a wolf in motion pictures to his staring role in blockbuster films, and then his decline in popularity as the ye...more While serving during World War I serviceman Lee Duncan came across a little of new born German Shepherd puppies. He took two for himself and gave the others to other soldiers. The two he kept he named Nannette and Rintintin. Unfortunately the little female Nannette died, but Rintintin grew up to be a star.

Orlean’s traces Rin Tin Tin’s development from his first roles as a stand-in for a wolf in motion pictures to his staring role in blockbuster films, and then his decline in popularity as the years go by.

Of course the film star of Rin Tin Tin was not just one dog. Or at least, not for long. At first Rinty was the star and did his own stunts and everything. Later he had stand-ins, and different dogs would play different versions of Rin Tin Tin, from playful to ferocious. And after the death of Rin Tin Tin a variety of his descendants took on his mantel, and even other dogs pretending to be Rinty while the “real” Rin Tin Tin descendant stayed at home playing the role of ranch dog.

But it is more than simply a look at a dog family. It is, rather, an examination of the role these German shepherds played in the lives of the men and women they touched. Duncan seems to have focused all his attentions and passions on the dog and promoting Rinty as a premier example of dogness.

She looks at how society changed over the years of Rin Tin Tin’s popularity and what he seemed to have represented to Americans, and other people whereever his films and later his television show played. But it isn’t a sociological examination either. Instead it is an examination of an obsession. Duncan’s obsession with his dog. America’s obsession with this canine hero. And all the others since then who have devoted their lives to keeping the memory of Rin Tin Tin alive.

I’m not so sure his memory is alive any longer, not over here anyway, I’d say very few children today would recognise the name, although I might be wrong.

All in all I found this a fairly entertaining book. I don’t think I’d be rushing out to buy it, or recommending that many people read it though. Solid would be an apt description, and that isn’t really a ringing endorsement, is it?(less)

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Apr 05, 2012 Cheryl rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-nonfiction, animals, biography-memoir

I listened to the audio version of this book. It was read by the author. Honestly, Ms. Orlean should definitely have had a professional read this book. She used little inflection and then when she finally did, it seemed to appear in the wrong places! Her voice is very monotonous and it was hard to concentrate on what she was saying.

That being said, the first part of the book was interesting. Reading about how Lee Duncan found Rin Tin Tin in France after World War I and managed to bring him back...more

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Feb 06, 2012 Judy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Rin Tin Tin was born in 1918 and Lee Duncan, an American Doughboy fighting in France in World War I, discovered the newly born puppy, his mother, and his littermates in a bombed out dog kennel. Duncan, who lived for years in an orphanage, immediately identified with the plight of the canine family and rescued them. Duncan gave most of the puppies away to other soldiers, as well as the mother once the puppies were weaned, but kept two puppies for himself. He was able to bring them back to the U.S...more

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Jan 12, 2012 Phil rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've never seen a Rin Tin Tin movie or an episode of the television show. Growing up, I was more of a Lassie kid. But, I dig Susan Orlean's journalism and her attention to detail, so I thought I'd give this a shot.

I was crying by the end.

And, it wasn't about the dog.

Orlean specializes in obsession. Why do people devote their lives to one narrow pursuit? What benefits do people find in extreme specialization? The people she follows in her stories tend to be socially isolated, outcasts, weirdos. T...more

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Jan 05, 2012 Kirsti rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, eccentricity, history, los-angeles, nonfiction

Four and a half stars. Meandering but fascinating. Events take place over such a long period (there are many generations of Rin Tin Tin) that Orlean covers the late 1800s, orphanages, ranch life, the history of dog breeds, World War I, military cemeteries, silent films, a dog cemetery in Paris, the Depression, the origins of dog training for nonprofessionals, talkies, early television, the origins of merchandising, fan conventions, and the rise of the lawsuit.

Trivia about "Rinty":

* The name com...more

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Dec 11, 2011 George Seminara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I so love this book. Rinty, was already on my radar due to the fact that he and his master,(?)Lee Duncan, are characters in the equally wonderful, Sunnyside, by Glen David Gold. So when I read the review in the New York Times I ordered it right up. I mean, come on? The author of the, Orchid Thief? I was waiting for anything from Susan Orlean. All I can say is that after reading this book, I have totally lost respect for my mutt. I personally don't think that sleeping until noon and chasing a bal...more

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Dec 10, 2011 Nell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, bigraphy-and-memoir

Through Rin Tin Tin’s story we see how society changed from before World War I to the baby boom; how dogs changed from hunters and farm workers who lived outside to family pets as society became more urban; how Hollywood, movies and television grew from silent films to children’s programming with heavy merchandising tie-ins.

The original Rin Tin Tin was found in a bombed-out kennel in France in World War I by Lee Duncan. Duncan had been left at an orphanage with his sister for three years when h...more

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Nov 30, 2011 John Frazier rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was more than the chronicle of an American icon and his impact on a country in need of one at the end of WWI. It was about author Susan Orlean's personal connection through her grandfather's plastic likeness of the canine movie star, a likeness that, though one of millions and of no particular monetary value, was so revered as to be virtually off limits to Orleans and her siblings. Her exploration of the dog's history and its place in her life is a revealing peek into a worldwide fascinatio...more

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Nov 21, 2011 Tony rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography

RIN TIN TIN: The Life and the Legend. (2011). Susan Orlean. ***.
Surviving over 100 years is no mean feat for a German Shepherd, but Rin Tin Tin did it. His early days are sketchy, most source material coming from the memoir of the man who found him in a bombed out French town in a kennel where all the other army dogs of the Germans had been killed by a shell blast. His early history in film is also a little sketchy, too, since most of these early films have been lost to time. What we do know wa...more

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Nov 04, 2011 Lizz rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

No one does singular obsession quite like Orlean. I make it a point to read her books and New Yorker articles and damn near anything else she writes. It's quite a trick to take an individual's tunnel-visioned approach to one aspect of life and find universality in it while strategically inserting oneself into the narrarative to further expound on that universality. Orlean always does it.

I'm not a Rin Tin Tin fan and think of him as relegated to merchadise in a sad flea market. Sentimentality was...more

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Oct 22, 2011 Sandie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011-books, contemporary-lit, feel-good-reads, young-adult

THE ADVENTURES OF RIN-TIN-TIN was a television staple for my brother and me when we were kids in the fifties. Little did I know that “Rinty” was a real dog and that some of the episodes touched on the actual real life experiences of the dog and his owner Lee Duncan. One of the T.V. episodes told of how the 101st Cavalry became godfathers of sorts to the young orphan Rusty and his dog. It is amazing how this story parallels actual events in the life of Lee Duncan, Rin-Tin-Tins owner and trainer,...more THE ADVENTURES OF RIN-TIN-TIN was a television staple for my brother and me when we were kids in the fifties. Little did I know that “Rinty” was a real dog and that some of the episodes touched on the actual real life experiences of the dog and his owner Lee Duncan. One of the T.V. episodes told of how the 101st Cavalry became godfathers of sorts to the young orphan Rusty and his dog. It is amazing how this story parallels actual events in the life of Lee Duncan, Rin-Tin-Tins owner and trainer, during his stint in the military during WWI. Of course, much to my chagrin, I discovered that the television Rinty that I grew up watching was actually Rin-Tin-Tin IV and that the original had been dead since 1932.

The real life Rin Tin Tin was one of an abandoned litter found by Duncan in Lorraine France in September 1918. Duncan adopted the litter, possibly because he felt them kindred spirits……Duncan having been first abandoned by his father and later placed in an orphanage by his mother. All of Duncan’s life was a struggle and he experienced repeated losses so he wasn’t about to abandon his dog and worked diligently to bring Rinty back to America. His dream was to make his dog a star (possible replacing Strongheart, another Shepherd working in the fledgling movie industry).

A good portion of the book is devoted to the life of Lee Duncan, a loner who related more to his dog than to any member of the human species, while the rest of the chronicle goes on to detail the legacy of Rin-Tin-Tin. While some of Susan Orleans research and timelines appear to be a little faulty this book does put into perspective the many changes that have occurred since the original Rin-Tin-Tin first stepped on the scene to arouse in every young child the desire for a German Shepherd like Rinty. Of course, over the years there were other Rin-Tin-Tins (descendents of the original) and other movie dogs (Lassie) but for Lee Duncan there could only be only one Rin Tin Tin.

For those who love dogs and believe that a dog can make a difference in the life of a human, this book is a recommended addition to your TBR pile. By the end of the novel you will certainly feel that like the others who reigned during Hollywood’s Golden Era, Rinty certainly deserves his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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About Susan Orlean

I'm the product of a happy and uneventful childhood in the suburbs of Cleveland, followed by a happy and pretty eventful four years as a student at University of Michigan. From there, I wandered to the West Coast, landing in Portland, Oregon, where I managed (somehow) to get a job as a writer. This had been my dream, of course, but I had no experience and no credentials. What I did have, in spades...more

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Books by Susan Orlean

The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession

The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters With Extraordinary People

My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who's Been Everywhere

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“It's human nature to set a point in our minds when we feel triumphant and to measure everything that comes after it by how far we fall or rise from that point.” — 2 people liked it

“If only feelings and ideas and stories and history really could be contained in a block of marble—if only there could be a gathering up of permanence—how reassuring it would be, how comforting to think that something you loved could be held in place, moored and everlasting, rather than bobbing along on the slippery sea of reminiscence, where it could always drift out of reach.” — 2 people liked it

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