33. THREE AMERICAN TALKING DOGS
As regular readers will know, talking dogs were all the rage in Edwardian times: their doyen was the German dog Don (FT282:32-37) who had a vocabulary of nine words and was said to sometimes use them intelligently. A star of the Berlin music hall in the 1910s, he later crossed the Atlantic and spent some considerable time in New York. But in America, Don had three later rivals, who all issued postcards to advertise their loquacious exploits.
In the 1930s, the American housewife Mrs Hilda Lenhart, of Roselle Park, New Jersey, amused herself by teaching her two mongrel dogs to imitate the human voice. In September 1938, she on the local radio station. The six-year-old Buddie was the mother of five-year-old Brownie, who soon became quite proficient, frequently appearing on the children’s show. In November 1938, when Mrs Lenhart was taking Brownie for a walk, an unmuzzled stray dog came running up, taking an immediate dislike to the great performer. When Mrs Lenhart tried to defend the talking dog, she was herself bitten hard by the other animal. Her injuries did not prevent her from appearing on the radio a few days later: Brownie was in good form and said “Hello!”, “How are you?”, “Aunt Mary” and “I love you!” Performing at the show in 1939, the talking dog astonished the audience by exclaiming “Goddamit, I have had enough of this baloney!” The person responsible was a ventriloquist in the audience, who wanted to poke fun at the talking dog. Mrs Lenhart’s proudest moment came when she and Brownie appeared before a scientific committee: the talking dog went through his entire repertoire, being photographed as he exclaimed “I want my mama!” Their final newsworthy exploit was giving an interview to the in May 1942.
