LASSIE TRIVIA

Thanks to everyone who played our holiday game of Lassie Trivia!  See a picture of our adorable Grand Prize Winner ojn our Guest Dogs page.

 Meanwhile here are the answers you may have missed.

The Lassie franchise was based on a 1937 short story by Eric Knight, Lassie Come Home, which he later turned into a novel.  In the book, Lassie, a working collie in Yorkshire, England is sold when her family falls upon hard times. Her new owner takes her to Scotland, where she runs away and makes her way back to Yorkshire, having many adventures and touching the lives of many people along the way.  The book became so popular that it was made into a motion picture starring the male rough collie, Pal, who was owned and trained by Rudd Weatherwax.  Legend has it that Pal won the role by performing a scene in which Lassie had to swim a river,  stagger onto the bank, and collapse with exhaustion.  Pal  showed a talent for acting in this scene that blew away his competition.  During the years of the Lassie television show, Lassie lived first with Jeff Miller before going to live with Timmy Martin, who was played by John Provost.   When the studio finally decided that Lassie had run its course, they tried to buy out the contract for a significant sum of money.  Rudd Weatherwax believed so strongly in his dog, however, that he  gave up the money and asked instead for one thing: Lassie.  Because of that, the Lassie brand has survived to this day-- and the rewards to the man who believed in his dog have been more than ample!