Yo! Rinty!

Paul G. was the first to respond with the correct answer to our trivia question. The TV series The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin first aired in 1954 and starred a descendent of the original Rin-Tin-Tin, who had first appeared in silent films back in the 1920s. His trainer was Lee Duncan who also trained the original Rin-Tin-Tin. For those of you too young to remember this series, “Rinty” and his young master Rusty (played by ten year old Lee Aaker), were the sole survivors of a wagon train massacre. Adopted by the soldiers of the frontier army post Fort Apache, they lived a life of high adventure, accompanying the troopers on patrols and having close encounters with wild animals, outlaws, friendly and unfriendly Indians, and even a crew of displaced pirates. When in danger, Rusty would invariably give the command “Yo, Rinty,” whereupon the dog would run off for help or find some solution to their predicament. One episode that I remember in particular involved a white buffalo that mysteriously appeared in time to save Rusty from a buffalo stampede and then disappeared just as mysteriously. The Fort Apache set was located at the Corriganville Movie Ranch in Simi Valle and was originally built for John Ford’s film Fort Apache. Incidentally, Lee Aaker makes a brief appearance in DeMille’s TGSOE as the little boy seen licking an ice cream cone. The Rin-Tin-Tin television episodes have been colorized and probably are still being shown somewhere. They are also available on DVD. (Check on eBay.) Not bad for a TV series that first aired almost 60 years ago. More trivia: Around 1990, an individual claiming to be Lee Aaker starting making appearances at Western film festivals and nostalgia fans’ conventions, signing autographs and giving interviews. After a few years, and prompted by his friends, the real Lee Aaker came forward to set the record straight. (Apparently the intervening years since his glory days as a child actor had not been kind to him and he had kept a low profile.) Afterwards, and whenever he made an appearance at a film convention, he would be billed as “the real Lee Aaker.” (I never did learn what motivated the imposter or what became of him after he had been “outed.”)