Carl Spitz (August 26, 1894 – September 15, 1976) was a

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

dog trainer, most famous for owning and training the female

Cairn Terrier The Cairn Terrier is a terrier breed originating in the Scottish Highlands and recognised as one of Scotland's earliest working dogs. The name "Cairn Terrier" was a compromise suggestion when the breed was brought to official shows in the Unite ...

Terry Terry is a unisex diminutive nickname for the given names Teresa or Theresa (feminine) or Terence (given name), Terence, Terrance (masculine). People Male * Terry A. Canales, American politician * Terry A. Doughty (born 1959), American district ...

, who portrayed Toto in the 1939

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

fantasy film Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually Magic (paranormal), magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The Film genre, genre is considered a form of speculative fic ...

The Wizard of Oz ''The Wizard of Oz'' is a 1939 American Musical film, musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Based on the 1900 novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' by L. Frank Baum, it was primarily directed by Victor Fleming, who left pro ...

''. Spitz developed the method of using silent hand signals to direct an animal.Daryl Chen
"56 Weird and Wonderful Facts about ‘The Wizard of Oz’"
''

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wi ...

'', accessed July 12, 2018.

Career

Spitz was born in Germany where he trained military and police dogs in

WWI World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in Europe and th ...

.Robin R. Cutler
"Scholarly Munchkins, an Encounter with Clark Gable, and More Surprises from the Set of The Wizard of Oz"
'' Vanity Fair'', September 12, 2016. He trained under Konrad Most, a pioneer of dog training.Gail Fisher
"A Brief History of Dog Training - 70 years of Clicker Training"AllDogsGym.com
retrieved July 12, 2018. Spitz emigrated to the United States in 1926 and opened the Hollywood Dog Training School.
via the

TimesMachine ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

,''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', November 13, 1958. According to screenwriter Jane Hall, Spitz went through the book ''

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' is a 1900 children's novel written by author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. It is the first novel in the Oz series of books. A Kansas farm girl named Dorothy ends up in the ma ...

'', “picking out whatever tricks or mannerisms Toto was supposed to have” and trained Terry accordingly. Spitz also trained Buck, the St. Bernard from the movie '' Call of the Wild'', starring

Clark Gable William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901November 16, 1960) was an American actor often referred to as the "King of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". He appeared in more than 60 Film, motion pictures across a variety of Film genre, genres dur ...

."Kings of the Cinema Kennels,"
via the

,''

'', May 11, 1952. Spitz would later go on to become the man responsible for setting up

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

WWII World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

War-Dog Program. He appeared on

You Bet Your Life ''You Bet Your Life'' is an American comedy quiz series that has aired on both radioHeidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

". He died in 1976, in

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the List of United States counties and county equivalents, most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 202 ...

at the age of 82 and was buried in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in the Great Mausoleum in the Iris Columbarium section.

References

External links

* * Dog trainers German emigrants to the United States 1894 births 1976 deaths Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) {{Germany-film-bio-stub