Rintintin

Adventure packed story after story. Rusty gets into a danger situation and Rin Tin Tin saves him, either by himself or by going back to Fort Apache to get Lt. Rip Masters and/or Sgt O'Hara and Corporal Boone to save him. It was a must see for 5 years on Friday nights on ABC, than afternoon re-runs and Saturday morning re-runs for years.

The Scene: Board Room, Screen Gems TV Unit; Subsidiary of Columbia Pictures Corporation. A paunchy, Balding and Bespectacled 50ish man is presiding over a strategy meeting. The "Suits" have to make a decision about what to do with a property that they have an option on using in Movies or TV.

Bald Head: "Well, what are we gonna do with this, this,...Watzis name, Schultz?

Schultz: "Uh, the Dog, sir? It's Rin-Tin-Tin."

Bald Head: "Yeah, that German Shepherd from World War I, the Army Dog! Our option runs out and that'd be $8,000,000.oo down the drain if we don't do something with 'em! What we gonna do?"

Board Man 1: "That's the dog from France in World War II, right?"

Board Man 2: "No, genius, it was in the First Big War, 1918. The mutt is supposed to have saved Warner Brothers from going belly up!"

Bald Head: "Yeah, he was a sort of canine War Bride or somethin' like that! But we can't put him in a World War or anything like that! People are sick of War! We just finished that Korean "Police Action!" C'mon you guys! Think of somethin'! THINK!"

BOARD MAN 3: "Hell, why don't we put 'em in the Cavalry or somethin' like that?"

BALD HEAD: "The Cavalry!!! Are you nuts!?!?"

...............And thus if not exactly a Legend, a Series is born!

The Series THE ADVENTURES OF RIN TIN TIN successfully combined several popular themes into a highly successful Kiddie Western. We took a Dog, a Kid (an orphan, yet) and had the good Cavalrymen at Fort Apache's "B" Company adopt him and give him their Unit name as his Family or Surname.

They added a good sampling of veteran Hollywood Film Actors to give the thing a certain dependability. Lt. Rip Masters (Former "B" Movie Leading Man and a capable dramatic Actor name of James Brown), Sgt. Biff O'Hara (Joe Sawyer, always cast as the Sergeant, always), Jimmy Lyden (The former Henry Aldrich of the Movies) and a cast of seemingly thousands of guest starring actors; a veritable Who's Who of supporting players available then.

This Fort Apache seemed to have everything a boy could want. Heroes to hero worship, towns folk to rescue, horses to ride. They even had all kinds of Injuns! And not all the Apaches were bad. They had the renegades led by Geronimo and the friendly Apaches headed up by Cochise. Who said that all Hollywood Indians were bad? It certainly wasn't here!

THE ADVENTURES OF RIN TIN TIN provided us with a Western adventure all our own. And thanks to our folks, Clement J. & Bertha F.Ryan (nee Fuerst), we learned of the Origin of the FIRST RINTY and his coming to America from the Western Front in World War I France.

That's the sort of Mom and Dad we had!

NOTE: * From the old World War I Song (as if they're are any new World War I songs)!

Has anyone out there figured out the connection of Rin Tin Tin, the TV series in the 1950s with the Rusty film series of a decade earlier? My hunch is this: The popular TV series which I faithfully watched from 1955-59 (itself spawned by the one year radio show in 1955), is a conflation of the popular Rin Tin Tin canine hero of the post-World War I era in books and movies with the Rusty movie series of eight films produced by Columbia Pictures 1945-1949. In the Rusty movies the German Shepherd is named Rusty and there are various young boys in the lead roles. In the TV series, the dog becomes again Rin Tin Tin and the boy lead becomes Rusty, played by Lee Aakers. Those folks old enough to have been fans in the 1930s and 1940s would have caught the connection at once. But those of us who were 1950s fans would have missed it entirely. Our Rusty for the years 1955-59 (and later in reruns) was a survivor of an Indian raid, who with his dog that he called "Rinty," as in the original books, was rescued by Cavalry to live in the confines and supportive community of Fort Apache. We came to think of characters like Sgt. Biff O'Hara and Lt. Rip Masters as part of our extended family. By the way, James Brown, who played Lt. Rip Masters, showed up again as a regular former policeman-turned J.R. Ewing informant and operative on the Dallas Series in the 1970s.

Forty years ago my French colleague told me that the name Rin Tin Tin was French and should be pronounced "rrrran tan tan", nasally. It's the sound of the drumstick tapping on the drum; it's the cavalry's drum. Presumably this name goes back to the old days when French was spoken in some of the southern states of the US. (This comment really belongs under Trivia; I tried unsuccessfully to put it there.)

This show kept this little kid riveted to the lounge room in the mid 60s after which I would go and play with my 'Timpo Toys' miniature cavalry soldiers. Most memorable aspects of the show for me was how lucky Rusty was to be in the cavalry at his age (mine too) and that bugle call that was played whenever the cavalry, led by Rip and Biff, were coming over the hill to save the day. I used to mimic that bugle call with my toys and drive my mother nuts. Only disappointing thing was that Rusty never carried a gun, although I seem to remember that he did get his hands on one in one episode. Does anybody else remember that? Rusty the orphan found his family in the paternal Lt Rip Masters, the avuncular Sgt Biff O'Hara and the fraternal Cpl Boone (don't know if I ever heard his first name). The show was notable for its dearth of female characters. I would like to hear Quentin Tarantino's comments about that. As a catholic schoolboy I always half expected the nuns to arrive in a wagon one day and try to cart Rusty off to an orphanage. I actually used to pray that that would never happen