Growing up with Lassie – a Rye visitor on living with a movie legend

Rye attracts some amazingly interesting visitors and two weeks ago, Paul Goring introduced me to his sister Caroline’s best friend, Salene Weatherwax, who was visiting from the States. We caught up with each other at The Mermaid Inn and I found out that as a child she grew up with Lassie, the dog, (well dogs, as there were nine of them), who starred in the well-known 1943 film Lassie Come Home and long-running tv series. Salene had so many stories to tell and here I share a few of them with Rye News readers.

Where did you grow up?
I grew up in a modest house in the San Fernando valley with an Olympic pool, a trampoline and about twenty dogs to play with.

Why did you have so many dogs?
My father Frank was a dog trainer, along with his brother and partner Rudd Weatherwax. They formed “Studio Dog training School” which was held in high esteem in the film world. I didn’t mind not having any kids around to play with – I would rather help my dad train dogs. It was in my DNA.

How often did you see and play with Lassie?
My Uncle Rudd would come over often and bring Lassie. One day he wanted to show my mom a trick he taught Lassie which included jumping over an object. As Lassie leapt over my mom’s coffee table he didn’t quite clear it and left a big scratch. My uncle just smiled at my mom and declared: “Now that table is worth something.” My uncle Rudd was a character and a half.

As the films were made over many years there must have been lots of dogs who played Lassie.
There were eleven films and nine Lassie dogs. The original Lassie, Pal lived to be nineteen and we always had a Lassie Jr in training. The interesting fact was that the dogs were always played by a male but Lassie was a female dog.

What other famous dogs did you and your family train?
In our kennel my father had Old Yeller aka Spike along with many other dogs that worked in countless television shows and movies. He bought Old Yeller at the animal shelter around the corner from us for $3.50. I loved to ride around on Spike’s back. He was a big lovable dog and I was five, and a five-year tomboy.

What did you want to be when you grew up?
By an early age I knew I wanted to be a dog trainer. I had trained my little dog Sally to roll a barrel down our long driveway. When I got older dad sent me on a few studio jobs when he couldn’t find a male handler to do the job. In 1971 dad and I went to Amsterdam with a Beagle named Dusty, a cat, a rabbit and two roosters to film a children’s movie called The Little Ark starring Theodor Bikel. I was in my element; nineteen years old and in Amsterdam. My dad was seventy and had always let me do pretty much what I wanted and mom was on another continent. At the weekends I would go and listen to rock music at the nearby clubs and hang out with my new Dutch friends in Vondel park. It was a hippy heaven We lived in an apartment on Beethovenstraat for three months while filming. The roosters were quickly banned from the apartment because the neighbours complained about all the crowing. Later that same year we went to Louisiana with our hound dog named Swampy and two raccoons to work on the movie Sounder with Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield, two of the greatest actors that ever lived: and the nicest people. That low budget movie was nominated for an academy award.

You changed your career to something exciting: how did that come about?
I found out our neighbour was an animator for Hanna Barbera. I thought that might be a fun summer job so I introduced myself to her and as luck would have it they had just started a training programme and she was able to get me in. Twenty-five years and several animation studios later I tearfully said goodbye to animation and started my own business calling it Lassie’s Sister.

How is the business going?
Now I train and take care of dogs when their owners go on vacation at my loft by the beach. I also draw cartoons of them because they inspire the funniest things. My years in animation were some of the best times of my life and I learned so much and made life-long friends. I will be forever grateful to my neighbour. The best advice I ever got was from my mother who said, “Keep that job in animation.”

On your latest travels you came to Rye and had a fascinating walk through the town. Why Rye?
In the last seventeen days I have visited three countries: at my age I thought it would be a good learning experience. Well I learned, don’t do that again. It was a blast from the past and I went to all the places in Amsterdam I had gone to in 1971. It was way cooler back then but isn’t everything when you are nineteen. Barcelona was also amazing. I am a big fan of Gaudí architecture and would love to go back.

The best part of the trip was getting to spend some time with my best friend Caroline who now lives in Hastings. We got to be friends when we were neighbours in West Hollywood, California. I want to thank her brother Paul Goring, your amazing town crier, for giving me the best private tour of Rye.

Until next time this dog training / artist/ traveller is off to safari or maybe the pyramids. Not sure yet, but it’s back to the dogs for now.

Image Credits: Salene Weatherwax , Kt bruce , Salene Weatherwax .