Cinematic Canines: Dogs and Their Work in the Fiction Film

Acknowledgments

ix Acknowledgments This project began as a panel that Joanna Rapf organized for the Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference in 2009. Rutgers University Press immediately expressed interest in a volume on the topic, and Joanna turned the editing duties over to me, one of the panelists. In no small measure this book rests on her prescience and enthusiasm, for which I am extremely grateful . I also extend heartfelt thanks to the contributors for their excellent work, especially those who paid attention to deadlines; you had to wait longer than should have been necessary to see the volume in print, but I appreciate your diligence and, especially, your grace and consideration. I am very thankful for the assistance of superlative archivists Barbara Hall and Val Almendarez and all the staff members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences library in Beverly Hills, and the extraordinarily generous Ned Comstock of the Cinematic Arts Library at the University of Southern California , as well as Jonathon Auxier and Sandra Aguilar, curators of the Warner Bros. Archives housed at USC—your research expertise was invaluable, and help was always cheerfully offered. Among other colleagues and friends to whom I owe thanks are Cosmas Demetriou, for providing resources on digital imaging; Monica Evans, of the University of Texas at Dallas, for information on dogs and computer gaming; also at UTD, Dean Dennis Kratz, for the Special Faculty Development Award, part of which went toward the preparation of this volume, and Michael Wilson, Deborah Stott, and Erin A. Smith, who are always a source of advice and support; and Pierson Blaetz and Shannon Fry (and of course Isadora), whose hospitality enabled my dogs and me to travel and work (and play!) in Los Angeles. I also could not have managed without all of my many dog friends and teachers, and their wonderful animals, for helping my academic and personal worlds to collide so x • Acknowledgments fruitfully. And finally, a giant thank you to the staff at Rutgers University Press, especially Marilyn Campbell, Lisa Boyajian, Joe Abbott for his superb copyediting, and, as always, Leslie Mitchner, who continues to influence and support my work in all sorts of psychological and emotional, as well as material, ways. Cinematic Canines Rin Tin Tin in a Warner Bros. publicity shot in the 1920s. Movie Star News. ...