Lassie: about a Pal (no joke)

Pal was the real name of Lassie in the 1943 movie Lassie Come Home with stars Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor. He was a beautiful California dog and 2 of his owners were the brothers, Rudd and Frank Weatherwax. In 1950, the book, The story of Lassie, his discovery and training from puppyhood to stardom came out. It was co-written by Rudd. Of course, Pal had to have offspring so that Lassie would continue to exist, so he was provided with ‘girlfriends’. Also, the Lassie “look” in the movies is a trademark.
Now more than 8 generations of Pal and his descendants have played the ever-popular collie in more than 10 movies and 2 TV series. All the dogs were owned by the 2 Weatherwax brothers then later by Rudd’s son, Robert. Three of the dog-descendants were named Howard, Hey Hey II, and Rockie.
In the 2005-2006 remake of the first Lassie movie a collie named Mason was used. He was not a direct descendant of the Pal-Lassie we know of 1943. Certain Lassie fans objected to Mason. This protest caused a return to the practice of using a direct Pal descendant (named Rockie, 10th generation) for some filming that was completed later. Many many films, books and toys have been enjoyed by people of all ages for more than 70 years now, thanks to British-born writer Eric Knight, who wrote the short story, “Lassie Come-Home”, all those years ago. It was published by the Saturday Evening Post in 1938. Eric, unfortunately, was killed in an airplane crash in South America in 1943 (he was 46 years old). “Lassie,” of course, will never die. Thanks for reading!