Summary of Susan Orlean's Rin Tin Tin

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 Lee Duncan believed that his dog, Rin Tin Tin, was immortal. He had no contracts or connections to the television business, but he still tried to get a producer interested in making a show about Rin Tin Tin.

#2 In 1953, a stuntman who knew Lee from his Hollywood days came out to visit him, and together they created the most famous dog in the world, Rin Tin Tin.

#3 Rin Tin Tin was a family trait. Daphne, who had fallen in love with Rin Tin Tin when she saw his early movies, was so determined to have a Rin Tin Tin dog of her own that she tracked down Lee Duncan and sent a letter pleading for a puppy. She promised that if Lee would send a puppy to her in Houston, she would return the shipping crate to him, posthaste, parcel post.

#4 I had wanted a German shepherd dog as a child, and when I was reminded of Rin Tin Tin after decades of forgetting all about him, the first thing I thought of was that mysterious and eternal figurine.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Apr 27, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669395140

IRB Media

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Insights on Susan Orlean's Rin Tin Tin

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Lee Duncan believed that his dog, Rin Tin Tin, was immortal. He had no contracts or connections to the television business, but he still tried to get a producer interested in making a show about Rin Tin Tin.

#2

In 1953, a stuntman who knew Lee from his Hollywood days came out to visit him, and together they created the most famous dog in the world, Rin Tin Tin.

#3

Rin Tin Tin was a family trait. Daphne, who had fallen in love with Rin Tin Tin when she saw his early movies, was so determined to have a Rin Tin Tin dog of her own that she tracked down Lee Duncan and sent a letter pleading for a puppy. She promised that if Lee would send a puppy to her in Houston, she would return the shipping crate to him, posthaste, parcel post.

#4

I had wanted a German shepherd dog as a child, and when I was reminded of Rin Tin Tin after decades of forgetting all about him, the first thing I thought of was that mysterious and eternal figurine.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

Rin Tin Tin was born in 1918, in a war-torn area of France. He was a dark-coated, slim-nosed puppy with unexpectedly dainty feet and the resigned and solemn air of an existentialist. In his most popular portrait, shot in the 1920s, his jaw is set and his eyes are cast downward, as if he was thinking about something very sad.

#2

Lee Duncan was a country boy who was born in 1893. His mother, Elizabeth, left him and his sister at the Fred Finch Children’s Home in Oakland, California, in 1898.

#3

Fred Finch Orphanage was a place where children who needed care could go, and it was a sort of pawnshop where parents could reclaim their children if circumstances improved.

#4

Lee was six years old when he arrived at the orphanage, and he was nine when he left. He was never technically an orphan, since his mother was alive, but in a sense, he came of age in the orphanage.

#5

The Fred Finch Youth Center, where Lee and Marjorie lived, has been torn down and replaced with bland and boxy buildings. The residence building, where the children lived, is now an administrative office.

#6

In 1901, Elizabeth reunited with her parents. They took her and the children in, and she moved in with an uncle of Grant Duncan’s, the husband who had deserted her. She never mentioned that her parents had a daughter.

#7

When the United States entered World War I, it was mainly upper-class pilots who joined the French squadron Lafayette