The Front Page News
SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED
I’ve covered four corners of the country on my book tour, but there have been plenty of places I haven’t been able to go. So I’ve decided to do a virtual book-signing for those of you who’d like signed and/or personalized copies of RIN TIN TIN.
If you already have a copy or prefer buying it at your local store, mail it (or send via UPS or FEDEX) with a self-addressed, prepaid return envelope and a note telling me how you’d like it inscribed to
SUSAN ORLEAN
c/o WORD MONKEY
3940 Laurel Canyon Blvd. #252
Studio City CA 91604
Otherwise, you can buy one from me directly via the Paypal button below. Once you hit the "buy now" button, you can pay with a credit card or a Paypal account. You will specify how you'd like your book signed (i.e., "Just your signature" or "For Uncle Bob, a dog lover") after you enter your payment information. (There will be a place where you'll hit "add" to your order; you will then have a text box saying "How would you like your book signed?" The price for the book is $29, which includes USPS Priority Mail shipping. I will try to get these out as quickly as possible, in time for the holidays. If you are buying more than one copy, make it clear how you want each copy signed. If you want more than four copies -- and I love you for that! -- the shipping becomes more complicated, so please contact me directly via the "contact me" button on my website. I'm happy to be able to do this! I have a limited number of books, so do order soon. Only domestic US shipping, please.
Here's the button!
Book tour
Thank goodness I just bought new luggage, because this book tour might just kill me. But I am so excited to take Rin Tin Tin out in the world (and can't help but be reminded of the strange parallel with Lee Duncan, who took the real Rin Tin Tin out on the road many times...). Here's the line-up so far. More dates will be added, and I'll refresh this list as that happens. I hope you can join me! Many of these dates will include a screening of "Clash of the Wolves" as well as a reading and talk and Q&A and book signing. Many theaters are having live music to accompany the film -- it'll be wonderful. Please come! For direct links to the websites for tickets and more information, check the calendar to the right.
October 1, 2011 – Los Angeles, CA
AMERICAN HUMANE HERO DOG AWARDS, Beverly Wilshire
5:30 pm local time reception, 7:00 pm local time event begins
October 4, 2011 – New York, NY
NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL
6:00 pm local time – talk/screening/Q&A/signing LIVE MUSIC!
October 6, 2011 – New York, NY
PALEY CENTER NEW YORK
6:30 pm local time – conversation with David Carr/screening/Q&A/signing
We'll be screening clips from "The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin" as well as some never-before-seen footage of Bert Leonard.
October 8, 2011 – Chicago, IL
CHICAGO MUSIC BOX THEATER
5:30 pm local time – talk/screening/Q&A/signing
October 9, 2011 – San Francisco, CA
SAN FRANCISCO FILM SOCIETY
7:30 pm local time – talk/screening/Q&A/signing
October 12, 2011 – Los Angeles, CA
PALEY CENTER LOS ANGELES
7:00 pm local time – talk/screening/Q&A/signing
October 17, 2011 – Detroit, MI
DETROIT BOOK & AUTHOR LUNCHEON
12:00 noon local time – talk/Q&A/signing
October 18, 2011 – Ann Arbor, MI
MICHIGAN THEATER
7:30 pm local time – talk/screening/Q&A/signing
October 20, 2011 – Iowa City, IA
ENGLERT THEATER
8 pm local time – talk/screening/Q&A/signing
October 21-22, 2011 – Austin, TX
TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL
October 21, 6:00 pm local time, Gala at the Four Seasons, reception/talk/signing
October 22, 12:30 pm local time, talk/Q&A/signing at the House Chamber
October 22, 8:00 pm local time, Lit Crawl at the Blue Starlite Drive-In
October 23, 2011 – Mesilla, NM
MESILLA VALLEY FILM SOCIETY
7:30 pm local time – talk/screening/Q&A/signing
October 27, 2011 – Portland, OR
HOLLYWOOD THEATRE
7:00 pm local time – talk/screening/Q&A/signing
October 28, 2011 – Seattle, WA
SIFF FILM CENTER
7:00 pm local time – talk/screening/Q&A/signing
November 2, 2011 – Los Angeles, CA
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
7:00 pm local time – moderated talk/Q&A/signing
November 3, 2011 – Riverside, CA
RIVERSIDE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM
5:00 pm local time – talk/Q&A/signing
November 6, 2011 – San Diego, CA
LAWRENCE FAMILY JCC
12:00 noon local time – talk/Q&A/signing
November 7, 2011 – New York, NY
NYU SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM
7:00 pm local time – unticketed talk/Q&A/signing
November 8, 2011 – Stamford, CT
AVON THEATER
7:00 pm local time – talk/screening/Q&A/signing
November 9, 2011 – Pleasantville, NY
JACOB BURNS FILM CENTER
7:30 pm local time – moderated conversation/screening/Q&A/signing
November 10, 2011 – New York, NY
NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
12:30 pm local time – “Live at NYPL” Friends Luncheon
November 12, 2011 – Washington, DC
AFI SILVER THEATRE
3 pm local time – talk/screening/Q&A/signing
November 13, 2011 – Cleveland, OH
CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART
1:30 pm local time – talk/screening/Q&A/signing
November 15, 2011 – Winona, MN
FROZEN RIVER FILM FESTIVAL
Time TBD – talk/screening/Q&A/signing
November 16, 2011 – St. Paul, MN
ST. PAUL JCC
7:00 pm local time – talk/Q&A/signing
November 18, 2011 – St. Louis, MO
ST. LOUIS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
7:00 pm local time – talk/screening/Q&A/signing
November 19-20, 2011 – Miami, FL
MIAMI BOOK FAIR INTERNATIONAL
Date and time TBD – talk/Q&A/signing
November 21, 2011 – Key West, FL
TROPIC CINEMA
3:00 pm local time – talk/screening/Q&A/signing
December 5, 2011 – Philadelphia, PA
FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA
7:30 pm local time – moderated talk/Q&A/signing
December 15, 2011
PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL @ UC-RIVERSIDE
Booklist review
Just got this review in Booklist for RIN TIN TIN and I'm ECSTATIC! Here's the text:
Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend.
Oct 2011. 288 p. Simon & Schuster, hardcover, $26.99. (9781439190135). 790.
Rin Tin Tin, the smart, athletic German shepherd who became “the archetypal dog hero,” was born on a battlefield in France in 1918 and rescued by Lee Duncan, an American soldier. Duncan, whose love for animals was rooted in a childhood of abandonment, brought Rin Tin Tin to California, where diligent training, talent, and luck turned “Rinty” into a universally beloved movie star. The Rin Tin Tin character lived on after the original dog’s death in 1932 (the world mourned) as Duncan, utterly devoted to his creation, worked with a series of German shepherds to keep Rin Tin Tin in the movies and on television for nearly four more decades. In her first from-scratch investigative book since The Orchid Thief (1999), New Yorker staff writer Orlean incisively chronicles every facet of the never-before-told, surprisingly consequential, and roller-coaster–like Rin Tin Tin saga, including the rapid evolution of the film and television industries, the rise of American pet culture, how Americans heeded the military’s call and sent their dogs into combat during WWII, and even what the courageous canine meant to her own family.
Orlean’s engrossing, dynamic, and affecting biography of a dog who became an icon of loyalty and valor will reignite Rin Tin Tin fever in yet another time when heroes are in acute demand.
HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Move over Seabiscuit, Rin Tin Tin will be the most-talked-about animal hero of the year and beyond as best-selling Orlean presents a spectacularly compelling portrait.
— Donna Seaman
First review
Well, the first review of RIN TIN TIN: The Life and the Legend came out today, featured as a Buzz Review in Publisher's Lunch. It came as a total surprise to me -- the book isn't being published until October -- but a very nice surprise indeed. Here it is:
Buzz Reviews: Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend, by Susan Orlean
Review by Edward Champion
Susan Orlean's work has long circled the eccentric cauldron bubbling above the dutiful fire of American life. Orlean's journalistic gifts have led her to souls who socialize on Saturday nights, the intoxicating originality of misunderstood artists like The Shaggs, and the wayward passions of orchid collectors. Now Orlean has discovered another effervescent subject hiding in plain sight: a cultural canine with a remarkably resilient heritage.
You don't have to be a dog enthusiast or a couch potato to appreciate this hearty tale, for Rin Tin Tin's ascent and duration coincides with several high points throughout the 20th century. The original Rin Tin Tin, plucked from the Great War battlefield, was limber and acrobatic enough to attract Hollywood's newsreel cameras. He proved so popular that he incited a national spike in German Shepherds as postwar pets.
Like many animals of the silver screen, Rinty had several advantages as a performer. He didn't need to be paid. He didn't require dialogue. He could be manipulated easily. But Rinty had the help of an appreciative public, who flocked to flicks that the critics condemned. “It may seem absurd to claim that Rin Tin Tin was a good actor,” writes Orlean, reckoning with Rinty's enduring endearment as an adult, “but after you see this scene, it's hard to deny.”
It took two febrile men -- actor Lee Duncan and producer Bert Leonard -- to keep Rin Tin Tin in the limelight after the original dog died in 1932. Duncan, the sensitive soldier who went from working the basement of a sporting goods store to regaling crowds on and off screen, proved so devoted to the dog that it was a wonder that he married at all. When Rinty's successors appeared in cut-rate Westerns and money was tight, Duncan made a move for television. The gamble paid off, with the newly minted Rinty capturing the hearts of the next generation.
According to Orlean, the combative Leonard proved equally stubborn in preserving Rinty's legacy. Leonard had actors appear in multiple roles to cut down on costs, enjoyed getting into impromptu fistfights, and made several efforts to revive Rin Tin Tin in the less receptive post-Nixon era. He even attempted to work with Pat Robertson, with unsurprisingly disastrous results. Leonard's protective instinct led to several lawsuits, which obliterated the finances of the key players and has put a stop to recent attempts to reboot Rinty.
Yet Rin Tin Tin mania has also galvanized a middle-aged man to visit conventions, pretending to be former child actor and Rinty co-star Lee Aaker. Why would a fictional dog inspire such obsession? Indeed, why would it inspire Orlean herself to deliver a puppy with the Rin Tin Tin pedigree to Boston? She concludes that Rinty has endured because “there will always be stories,” but this is something of an understatement. In telling Rin Tin Tin's story, Orlean makes a persuasive case that placing your heart in a singular pursuit eventually reveals the human essence.
Edward Champion is the creator and host of The Bat Segundo Show and runs Reluctant Habits, a cultural website, athttp://www.edrants.com.
Simon & Schuster
320 pp.
$26.99
ISBN: 9781439190135
October 4, 2011
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