Happy Birthday Rin Tin Tin Warner Bros.' First Star Turns 100
Happy Birthday Rin Tin Tin Warner Bros.' First Star Turns 100 On September 15, 1918, in the waning months of the First World War, Lee Duncan, a corporal in the U.S. Army Air Service, found himself in Flirey, France, inspecting the village after the retreat of German troops. He came across a bombed-out kennel filled with dead dogs, but in one corner lay a terrified German Shepherd and her five nearly newborn puppies, all of whom were very much alive. Incredibly, five years later, one of these puppies would become one of the biggest movie stars of the 1920s, and would put a newly incorporated motion picture studio, Warner Bros., on its path to becoming one of the major players in the entertainment industry. Lee Duncan, pictured here with the young Rin Tin Tin in France, rescued the six dogs from the kennel, eventually keeping a male and female puppy for himself. He named them Rin Tin Tin and Nanette, after a pair of good luck charm dolls that French children would...