Pal was the name of a famous dog owned by animal trainers Frank and Rudd Weatherwax who was the first to portray Lassie, a famous Rough Collie. The dog was whelped on June 20, 1940.
Pal's big break into the movies came in 1943 during the filing of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) film Lassie Come Home. The studios had decided to use a show collie trained by Frank Inn in the movie. However, a decision was made to take advantage of a massive flooding of the Sacramento River in northern California to obtain some spectacular footage for the film. Their fancy collie was still in training, so MGM hired Pal as a stand-in for the river scene. Although the work was actually considered complicated for an animal actor, the dog performed exceptionally well.
According to legend, after seeing the first prints, the head of MGM, Louis B. Mayer, stated that Pal had entered the water, but Lassie had come out, and a new star was born.
A long list of Pal's descendants have continued to portray Lassie over more than 60 years.
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