Will I love Rin Tin Tin?

Rin Tin Tin was one of the many TV animal heroes who entertained me growing up. What I didn’t know at the time was that the Rin Tin Tin rushing to the rescue on my black-and-white screen was just the latest in a line of Rin Tin Tins, and the original dog had been an even bigger star in 1920s silent movies.

Susan Orlean delves into that first dog’s history. An American soldier rescued him as a pup on a World War I battlefield in France, brought him to the United States, and trained him into international stardom.

The… show more.

There is always something more behind the image of the celebrities we love to watch on the screen, and it’s even truer when the star is a dog. Susan Orlean writes in her signature propulsive style of the life and times of the German shepherd who became an American icon. Of the puppy who was discovered in France by an American soldier in World War I, Orlean says, "He was born in 1918 and he never died." Rin Tin Tin was in many ways a symbol—the aspirational vessel for a nation’s striving—even as he was himself, a loyal friend to… show more.