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LASSIE
Lassie.
Probably the most famous dogs name in history.
Immortalised on film and recognisable through the generations.
The original Lassie, and the predecessor of them all, was actually a male dog called Pal. Pal was born in California in 1940 and brought to the attention of Rudd Weatherwax an animal trainer in Hollywood since the 1930's. He took Pal to Hollywood for the new Lassie film, but the studio decided that as Pal was not a show dog he could not play the lead in Lassie, so instead he would be the stunt dog. But when the show dog playing the lead refused to enter a river, Pal did it in one take. He swam the river and then instead of shaking himself of water like most dogs, he stayed wet and bedraggled, limped to the top of the bank and lay down wearily. A star was born! "Pal went into the river, but Lassie came out" Louis B Mayer exclaimed. Pal went onto star in all seven MGM Lassie movies between 1943 - 1951 and two episodes of the TV series before retiring. He died in 1958.
| Date Born: | 04/06/1940 |
Date Died: | 01/01/1958 |
Type: | Dog |
Breed: | Rough Collie |
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