!8: The Wizard Of Oz Munchkin Hanging Best: November 2011

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

The Cairn Terrier in Hollywood

!±8± The Cairn Terrier in Hollywood

Movies and television have featured animal actors for close to a century now. Moviegoers and television programming fans alike respond to animals in roles in their favorite movies. Equines, felines, and even one special killer wale have made it into our hearts and homes via the big and small screen, but no animal has made such an impact on Hollywood as the dog. The Cairn Terrier in particular has been used for many roles, including one that has often resulted in its canine actor being referred to as the most famous dog in the world.

That role was the role of Toto in the Wizard of Oz, released in the 1930s. Toto was played by Terry, the Cairn Terrier and acted opposite the infamous Judy Garland in the role of Dorothy. Though both had acted before, Garland and Terry were both skyrocketed to fame because of the film. Though Terry was handled by her owner (and, coincidentally, rescuer) Carl Spitz, she spent a good portion of the shooting schedule actually living with Garland. This living arrangement was used so that Terry and Garland could have adequate time to bond, and so that their affection for one another would be translated efficiently in the film.

In the 1930s, budgeting for movies was far different from what it is today, even taking inflation into consideration. For the time in which the film was produced, Terry and her owner's pay for the week was more than double that of what the extras playing the Munchkins made!

While The Wizard of Oz was undoubtedly Terry and Carl Spitz's largest and most famous role, it was not the first or the last film she appeared in! Several years prior to filming The Wizard of Oz, Terry made her debut in Bright Eyes, starring Shirley Temple. Besides Bright Eyes and The Wizard of Oz, Terry appeared in over a dozen other movies during her lifetime. After she passed away in the mid-1940s, her biography "I, Toto" was released to the public. While already famous, this biography solidified her role in Hollywood history even moreso.

Though Terry the Cairn Terrier is obviously the most famous Cairn Terrier actor in history, many other movies have featured the breed. Unfortunately, Hollywood has only recently taken to acknowledging these canine actors in the credits or billing of movies or television programs. In the past, the trainer and/or handler were the only ones to receive mention or credit for the films these dogs starred in.

The height of the Cairn Terrier's popularity on the silver and small screen was in the late 1930s through the 1940s, due in no small part to Terry's role as Toto in The Wizard of Oz. However, using Cairn Terriers as a chosen breed for canine acting has experienced a resurgence of popularity since the 1990s, with the dogs appearing as featured roles in nearly ten different films.

The most well-known small screen role for a Cairn Terrier would undoubtedly have to be the canine actor "Fred", a Cairn Terrier who portrayed the character of Lucy Ricardo's pet in several seasons of I Love Lucy.

The Cairn Terrier in Hollywood

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Saturday, November 26, 2011

Faith in Yourself and Faith in Others - the Best You Embraced

!±8± Faith in Yourself and Faith in Others - the Best You Embraced

Faith is an abiding confidence in you and your support network as well as an enduring conviction that the journey is worth the outcome.

First if you are going to attain your highest potential you must have faith in your own self. If you do not deem yourself worthy of the prize you will not give your best shot at achieving it.

You are valuable and worth the extra effort to attain the best you. If you are going to thrive and soar within and beyond your circumstances, you must believe that you have it within yourself to make it happen.

In order to see your own worth, try this exercise: take a few minutes to write down the milestones you completed in your life thus far. Don't worry about the size of the accomplishments and do not try to compare them with someone else's list. Simply list every one of your own achievements small, medium or large. For instance, jot down the title of every book you've read; each meal you have prepared; the school grades you have completed, etc... The list could include an endless number of things. Chances are you have done much more than you allow yourself to imagine. Taking the time to list even your most mundane achievements will give you confidence and faith that you are able to attain a new vision for your life.

Beyond faith in yourself you must have faith in others.

In the classic tail The Wizard of Oz young Dorothy and her dog Toto find themselves far away from Kansas in a strange land of good and evil witches and funny looking small people called munchkins. Lost and confused Dorothy so desperately wants to go home but has no clue about how to escape her new surroundings. Gently, she is told by the inhabitants of the land that only one person had the power to send her back: the Wizard of OZ in Emerald City. Unfortunately this news did not calm the little girl's confused mind. Dorothy continued to fret because she did not know this strange wizard nor the way to the unfamiliar place called the Emerald City. Kindly, the Good Witch of the North points and tells the young lost girl to simply follow the Yellow Brick Road.

At this point Dorothy had to make a choice. She had to decide whether she would believe the friendly witch or not. Dorothy did not know these people. She did know whether they were trustworthy or not. As such Dorothy could have succumbed to her debilitating fears and simply sat down refusing to budge from her current spot. Or, she could welled up with pride, picked herself up by her boot straps and forged her own trail to the unknown destination. In either case, Dorothy would have never found her way to the Wizard of Oz let alone home.

If Dorothy was ever going to see her loved ones again she had to have faith in the kind witch and her munchkin friends.

Likewise, if you and I want to rise to our highest potential we must have faith in others.

In the fall of 2007 I coached soccer for the first time. I had an awesome time. The reason I had an awesome time was not because our team won, which we did, but because of the team effort involved. I was fortunate to have a group of parents who were experienced and knew much about soccer. I had five fathers who were or had been coaches. Of course, as "the coach" I could have waved them off and said, "No thanks I'll take it from here." On the other hand, I could have allowed them to dominate the practices and ride me through the season. Instead, we chose to trust each other. Especially, four of us worked together designing and executing practices in order to instill in the players new skills and techniques they could use in the next game. Because we had faith in each other, we had a great time and so did the kids.

Michael Phelps will soon be the most decorated Olympian in the history of the global games. As I write he is competing at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China where he is expected to break the record for the most individual gold medals ever won by any athlete in any Olympic sport since they were revived in 1896. He is also poised to win the most gold medals in one single Olympics held by fellow American swimmer Mark Spitz. In order to reach his goal to win eight gold medals Phelps will need to have faith in himself and equal faith in his teammates.

Five of the medals will be won in individual events; the other three in team relays. In each case Phelps has to swim with all his might if he wants a shot at the record. This means he must believe in himself. Yet in the relays he is not alone. He cannot swim all four legs of each respective event and hope to win the top prize. Phelps must give his best effort and then trust that his teammates will come through as well.

The same is true for you. If you desire to thrive and soar above your circumstances you must have faith in yourself and others. Then and only then will you become the best you. Becoming the best you requires a worthwhile and inspiring vision, tenacity and hard work, and a deep and abiding faith in yourself and others.