Lassie is a fictional female Rough Collie dog and is featured in a

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

by Eric Knight that was later expanded to a full-length novel called '' Lassie Come-Home''. Knight's portrayal of Lassie bears some features in common with another fictional female collie of the same name, featured in the British writer

Elizabeth Gaskell Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (''née'' Stevenson; 29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many st ...

's 1859 short story "The Half Brothers". In "The Half Brothers", Lassie is loved only by her young master and guides the adults back to where two boys are lost in a snowstorm. Published in 1940, Knight's novel was filmed by

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

in 1943 as '' Lassie Come Home'', with a dog named Pal playing Lassie. Pal then appeared with the stage name "Lassie" in six other MGM feature films through 1951. Pal's owner and trainer, Rudd Weatherwax, then acquired the Lassie name and trademark from MGM and appeared with Pal (as "Lassie") at rodeos, fairs, and similar events across America in the early 1950s. In 1954, the long-running

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

-winning television series '' Lassie'' debuted and, over the next 19 years, a succession of Pal's descendants appeared on the series. The "Lassie" character has appeared in radio, television, film, toys, comic books, animated series, juvenile novels, and other media. Pal's descendants continue to play Lassie today.

History

Elizabeth Gaskell short story

An early depiction of Lassie is found in British writer

's 1859 short story "The Half-brothers". In the story, Lassie is described as a female collie with "intelligent, apprehensive eyes" who rescues two half-brothers who are lost and dying in the snow. When the younger brother can no longer carry on, elder brother Gregory, Lassie's master, ties a handkerchief around Lassie's neck and sends her home. Lassie arrives home, and leads the search party to the boys. When they arrive Gregory is dead, but his younger half-brother is saved. Thus, Gaskell apparently originated the character Lassie and, at the same time, defined the "Lassie saves the day" storyline that is the essence of subsequent Lassie tales.

World War I incident

According to writer Nigel Clarke in the "Shipwreck Guide to Dorset and South Devon", the original Lassie that inspired so many films and television episodes was a rough-haired crossbreed who saved the life of a sailor during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. Half collie, Lassie was owned by the landlord of the Pilot Boat, a pub in the port of

Lyme Regis Lyme Regis is a town in west Dorset, England, west of Dorchester and east of Exeter. Sometimes dubbed the "Pearl of Dorset", it lies by the English Channel at the Dorset– Devon border. It has noted fossils in cliffs and beaches on the He ...

. On New Year's Day in 1915 the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

battleship was torpedoed by a German submarine off Start Point in South Devon, with the loss of more than 500 men. In a storm that followed the accident, a life raft containing bodies was blown along the coast to Lyme Regis. In helping to deal with the crisis, the local pub in Lyme Regis, called the Pilot Boat, offered its cellar as a mortuary. When the bodies had been laid out on the stone floor, Lassie, a crossbred collie owned by the pub owner, found her way down amongst the bodies, and she began to lick the face of one of the victims, Able Seaman John Cowan. She stayed beside him for more than half an hour, nuzzling him and keeping him warm with her fur. To everyone's astonishment, Cowan eventually stirred. He was taken to hospital and went on to make a full recovery. He visited Lassie again when he returned to thank all who saved his life. When the officers heard the story of Lassie and what she did to rescue Cowan, they told it again and again to any reporter who would listen as it was inspirational and heart-warming. Hollywood got hold of the story, and so a star was born.

Eric Knight short story and novel

The fictional character of Lassie was created by English author Eric Knight in '' Lassie Come-Home'', first published as a short story in ''

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely ...

'' in 1938 and later as a full-length novel in 1940. Set in the Depression-era

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, the novel depicts the lengthy journey a rough collie makes to be reunited with her young

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

master after her family is forced to sell her for money.

Movies and television

In 1943, the novel was adapted into a feature film, '' Lassie Come Home'', by

(MGM) that starred

Roddy McDowall Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall (17 September 1928 – 4 October 1998) was a British actor, photographer and film director. He began his acting career as a child in England, and then in the United States, in ''How Green Was My Valley'' (1 ...

and

Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...

. The movie was a hit and enjoyed favorable critical response. MGM followed this with several additional films, including a sequel entitled '' Son of Lassie'' (1945), starring Peter Lawford and June Lockhart, and ''

Courage of Lassie ''Courage of Lassie'' is a 1946 Technicolor MGM feature film starring Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Morgan, and dog actor Pal in a story about a collie named Bill and his young companion, Kathie Merrick. When Bill is separated from Kathie following a v ...

'' with Elizabeth Taylor. A

radio series A radio program, radio programme, or radio show is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode. Radio networ ...

, ''Lassie Radio Show'', was also created, airing until 1949. Lassie

Between 1954-1973, the television series '' Lassie'' was broadcast, with Lassie initially residing on a farm with a young male master. In the eleventh season, it changed to

U.S. Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

rangers as her companions, then the collie was on her own for a season before ending the series with Lassie residing at a ranch for orphaned children. The long-running series was the recipient of two Emmy Awards before it was canceled in 1973. Lassie won several PATSY Awards (an award for animal actors). A second series followed in the 1980s. In 1997,

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

production company Cinar Inc. produced a new ''Lassie'' television series for the Animal Planet network in the U.S. and YTV in Canada. It ran until 1999. In 2005, a remake of the original ''Lassie Come Home'' movie was produced in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. Starring

Peter O'Toole Peter Seamus O'Toole (; 2 August 1932 – 14 December 2013) was a British stage and film actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began working in the theatre, gaining recognition as a Shakespearean actor at the Bristol Old V ...

and Samantha Morton, ''Lassie'' was released in 2006. Lassie continues to make personal appearances as well as marketing a line of pet food and a current pet care TV show, '' Lassie's Pet Vet'' on PBS stations in the United States. Lassie is one of only four animals (and one of very few fictional characters, such as Mickey Mouse, Kermit the Frog, and

Bugs Bunny Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character created in the late 1930s by Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) and voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his starring roles in the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merr ...

) to be awarded a star on the

Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Calif ...

—the others being silent-film stars Rin Tin Tin,

Uggie Uggie (February 14, 2002 – August 7, 2015) was a trained Parson Russell Terrier famous for his roles in ''Water for Elephants'' and '' The Artist''. His memoir ''Uggie, My Story'' was published in the United States, the UK, and France in Octob ...

and Strongheart. In 2005, the show business journal '' Variety'' named Lassie one of the "100 Icons of the Century"—the only animal star on the list. An animated TV series was made based on the dog. It was called "The New Adventures of Lassie". In this animated TV series Lassie was a dog that was owned by the Parker family in a national park. The animated TV series is mainly a traditionally animated (2D hand-drawn animated) TV series with some CGI animation (vehicles) in it. The TV series was shown on

TVOntario TVO Media Education Group (often abbreviated as TVO and stylized on-air as tvo) is a publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario ...

in Ontario, Canada, from 2013 to 2016. Lassie was an animated TV series entitled: "Lassie's Rescue Rangers" created by Filmation Associates TV-G , 30min , Animation, Adventure, Family , TV Series (1973–1975).

Media

Art

Lassie is featured in '' Our Nation's 200th Birthday, The Telephone's 100th Birthday'' (1976) by

Stanley Meltzoff Stanley Meltzoff (March 27, 1917 - November 9, 2006) was an American painter most known for his marine paintings. Early life and career Born in New York City to father Nathan, a cantor at a Manhattan synagogue, Stanley Meltzoff graduated from t ...

for

Bell System The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America for over one hundr ...

."Stanley Meltzoff Archives: The 1976 Bell System Telephone Book Cover"

JKL Museum of Telephony The American Museum of Telephony, known as the JKL Museum of Telephony, is a private telephone and telephone memorabilia museum originally located in Mountain Ranch, California. The museum was destroyed in 2015 in the Butte Fire The Butte F ...

(December 19, 2015); retrieved March 16, 2021

Films

List of films

Box office performance

Radio

Television

Video games

Books

* '' Lassie Come-Home'' * ''Lassie: The Prize'' * ''Forest Ranger Handbook'' * ''Lassie: A Boy's Best Friend & Buried Treasure'' * ''Lassie: Party Nightmare & Water Watchdog'' * ''Lassie: Skateboard Stunt & Danger Zone''

Seafarer Books

* ''Lassie and the Lost Little Sheep'' * ''Lassie's Forest Adventure''

Whitman Cozy-Corner

* ''Lassie: Rescue in the Storm''

Whitman Novels

* ''Lassie and the Mystery of Blackberry Bog'' * ''Lassie and the Secret of the Summer'' * ''Lassie: Forbidden Valley'' * ''Lassie: Treasure Hunter'' by Charles S. Strong * ''Lassie: the Wild Mountain Trail'' * ''Lassie and the Mystery of Bristlecone Pine'' * ''Lassie and the Secret of the Smelter's Cave'' * ''Lassie: Lost in the Snow'' * ''Lassie: Trouble at Panter's Lake''

Big Little Books

* ''Lassie: Adventure in Alaska'' * ''Lassie and the Shabby Sheik'' * ''Lassie: Old One Eye''

Golden Books

* ''The Adventures of Lassie'' * ''Lassie and Her Day in the Sun'' * ''Lassie and Her Friends'' * ''Lassie and the Big Clean-Up Day'' * ''Lassie and the Daring Rescue'' * ''Lassie and the Lost Explorer'' * ''Lassie Shows the Way'' * ''Lassie: The Great Escape''

Tell-a-Tale Books

* ''Hooray for Lassie!'' * ''Lassie and the Cub Scout'' * ''Lassie and the Deer Mystery'' * ''Lassie and the Firefighters'' * ''Lassie and the Kittens'' * ''Lassie Finds a Friend'' * ''Lassie's Brave Adventure'' * ''Lassie: The Busy Morning''

Tip-Top Books

* ''Lassie: The Sandbar Rescue''

Wonder Books

* ''Lassie's Long Trip''

Marian Bray

* ''Lassie to the Rescue'' * ''Lassie: Hayloft Hideout'' * ''Lassie Under the Big Top'' * ''Lassie: Treasure at Eagle Mountain'' * ''Lassie: Danger at Echo Cliffs''

The New Lassie

* ''The Puppy Problem'' * ''Digging Up Danger'' * ''The Big Blowup'' * ''Water Watchdog'' * ''Skateboard Dare'' * ''Dangerous Party''

References

External links

* {{Authority control Fictional dogs Dog actors Characters in American novels of the 20th century Drama television characters Literary characters introduced in 1940 American film series Film series introduced in 1943 Mass media franchises