This article was published in Gold Key comic #65, in 1965. The author is unknown.
It is © 1965 Wrather Corporation
Back to ComicsRudd Weatherwax, owner of Lassie, would have indeed been a giant among prognosticators had he known that his entire life would be dedicated to the furtherance of Lassie's fame and well-being, and his own personal fortune.
A chain of circumstances began when Rudd was a mere six-year-old. On the Weatherwax not-too-prosperous New Mexico ranch, Rudd developed a facility with animals. He first house-trained a pet lamb, and taught it to open and close a gate. Next, he astonished the household by training a white rat to chase mice out of the house.
When Rudd was in his teens his family moved to Los Angeles, and soon after his arrival he acquired a nondescript mutt named Jiggs. He taught him to fetch and carry. He became fascinated by movie making and one day got a job to play the part of a Western Union boy delivering a telegram. When the cameras rolled, Rudd and Jiggs were both in the scene, with Jiggs carrying the telegram in his mouth. "From that time on," Rudd relates, "I always worked with a dog. First Jiggs, then others, until I had dogs working in all the studios, some days in half-dozen different studios."
Rudd and his brothers pooled their savings and opened a kennel to train other people's dogs as well as their own, and this is what brought the original Lassie and Rudd together.
"This collie chased cars," Rudd recalls, "and was brought in to be cured of the habit. The owner didn't care much for the dog. He didn't even come back; he just phoned and said to keep the dog for the bill." In 1939 when MGM decided to film Eric Knight's novel "Lassie Come Home," they called Rudd and he brought in the collie. But Lassie had no papers and studio heads, sensing the future importance the canine character could assume on release of the film, insisted on a pedigree dog owned by another trainer. Rudd and his collie were shunted to the sidelines as lowly stand-ins.
As the script developed, there were many intricate routines the starring dog could not handle. Here Rudd and Lassie would step into the gap, and come through with flying colors. The studio finally threw registration requirements to the winds and let Lassie take over the part.
"Lassie Come Home" swept the nation and the world; and the studio decided to make a series of motion pictures, which made Lassie the highest paid dog in entertainment history.
After seven hit movies with Lassie, the studio decided the series had run itself out. Rudd had money due him, several thousand dollars, and he was called in to "make a settlement." He surprised and relieved studio heads by saying, "We don't need to deal. Just give me all rights to Lassie and you keep the money owed." The studio quickly agreed.
The rest is entertainment history, for Lassie has gone on to win even greater fame in ten successive years on television as well as in books and comic books.