Cinematic Canines: Dogs and Their Work in the Fiction Film

Chapter 3: Asta the Screwball Dog: Hollywood’s Canine Sidekick

78 3 Asta the Screwball Dog Hollywood’s Canine Sidekick SARA ROSS AND JAMES CASTONGUAY In late October 1937, newspaper readers in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, learned that “a dog’s life is not so tough when the dog works in the movies.” A syndicated article recounted publicity about the “home” of Skippy, the canine star who played Asta in the popular Thin Man films, along with a number of other iconic screwball roles. Skippy/Asta was said to be the resident of “a full-sized building, with human-sized doors and windows, hot and cold running water, boneburying pits, automatic vacuum flea removers and mechanical cats to chase” (Gettysburg Times, October 30, 1937, 8). At the time this article appeared, during the Great Depression, Pennsylvania had received more federal relief than any other state, and “jobless army” protests and labor unrest were widespread (see Coode and Bauman 1981). The star narrative developed for Skippy/Asta had a great deal in common with those of his human counterparts in Hollywood, right down to the detailed description of the privileged life that he led as a star. Like much that was written about movie stars, of course, Skippy’s life of luxury was a fantasy created by studio publicists. In fact, animal stars like Skippy provide the ultimate example of the disconnect between the escapist construct that is the Hollywood star narrative and the actual labor of the film performer. As an animal actor Skippy Asta the Screwball Dog • 79 was not in a position to demand better pay or working conditions or to interfere with how studios and filmmakers might choose to represent him, either in publicity or in his performances themselves. His role was purely one of laborer, commodity, and manipulable image. In fact, unlike his human co-stars, even Skippy’s death had little impact on “Asta,” the star. In spite of his status as a beloved Hollywood icon and his ongoing popularity, when the hardworking flesh-and-blood dog who first brought the Asta character to life on the screen died in 1944, his passing went unmentioned in the press. With a little bit of makeup to adjust the placement of patches on their coats, new “Astas” were brought in to take his place. If human stars were a replaceable and malleable commodity in Hollywood, how much more so were dog actors, whose star personae could be almost wholly independent of their physical existence? The exaggerated gap between the star “Asta” and the real dogs whose labor brought him to life indicates the relevance to star Skippy on the set of After the Thin Man (W. S. Van Dyke, MGM, 1936). Collection of the authors. 80 • Cinematic Canines studies generally of close examination of animal as well as human stars. Animal star biographies and screen performances provide useful insights into the promotional and publicity machinery that Hollywood also employed to construct much of the public’s understanding of human stars of the 1930s and 1940s. In this essay we explore Asta, the canine star, in order to understand his extraordinary and enduring presence within U.S. popular culture. As we will show, the flexibility of Asta’s identity onscreen and in various intertexts is key to his cultural meaning, particularly with regard to charged issues that are salient in the screwball comedy, such as class, labor, gender, romance, and marital dynamics. First we examine how Skippy/Asta was constructed as a canine star; then we analyze his roles in individual films. This close look at the making of Asta the dog star not only provides insights into his place in film history but also refreshes our understanding of the constructedness of all star narratives. The Asta Phenomenon Commenting on the phenomenal popularity of MGM’s The Thin Man (1934), William Powell’s biographer Roger Bryant (2006) observes that “audiences loved Nick and Nora [played by Powell and Myrna Loy] . . . [but the] moviegoing public also loved Asta, [whose] popularity spawned a national craze for wire-haired fox terriers” (10).1 According to a Loy biographer, during the 1930s “the threesome [Loy, Powell, and Asta]—elegant, bantering couple plus winsome , mischievous dog—had become emblems of a brand, like Coca-Cola. Their likenesses, on display everywhere, could not be escaped, unless you stayed home day and night with the shades drawn” (Leider 2012, 133). The popular press reported that the canine actor “receiv[ed] fan letters by the hundreds...