Good news for fans of Lassie! A complete set of the radio scripts were found and presently being scanned into digital format. And this is a major discovery...
The fictional female collie made her debut in a 1938 short story by Eric Knight, which would later be expended into a 1940 full-length novel, Lassie Come Home. In 1943, MGM Studios released a theatrical version of the novel. This led to six additional feature-length movies with the same collie as the hero.
The dog playing the role in those movies was Pal. His owner and trainer, Rudd Weatherwax, then acquired the trademark name of "Lassie" from MGM and began taking the dog on the road for public paid appearances at circuses, rodeos and county fairs. From 1947 to 1950, the character of Lassie was the star subject of a weekly adventure series, sponsored by Red Heart Dog Food. (No surprise as to the sponsor.) To date, very few of the radio broadcasts exist in recorded form but now that we have the complete run of radio scripts, an episode guide can be created.
The radio version has been relatively unexplored and barely documented except in brief entries in encyclopedias. With luck, much more will be documented in the near future.
I have always said that magazine articles first began as slide show presentations. Books first began as magazine articles. And thanks to books, archival materials get scanned digitally for preservation. So in the coming year or two I suspect there will be a slide show presentation about the history of the radio program. Something equally to cheer for on top of this major discovery.
