The Kennel Club’s decision to
assumed ownership of all Breed
Standards, publishing their own
versions in booklet form did not
meet with universal approval.
Alterations to the Collie Standard,
which eliminated the simple
colour clause, encouraging
owners and clubs to exert
pressure for change.
After two decades of declining
interest, and the ravages wrought
by six years of war the Collie urgently
needed an icon to boost its popularity, and that icon arrived in the guise of a fictional character by the name of ‘Lassie’. Published in Philadelphia’s ‘Saturday Evening Post’ on the 17th December 1938, the original short story of ‘Lassie Come-Home’, illustrated by Arthur D. Fuller, quickly acquired such a cult following that the author, Eric Mowbray Knight, readily agreed to expand the original into a full length novel, illustrated by Marguerite Kirmse. Sadly the war’s intervention delayed Lassie’s influence in the UK until after MGM had released the film version starring a juvenile Elizabeth Taylor and Roddy McDowell, which encouraged children to pressure their parents for a ‘Lassie Collie’ thereby making the breed once again one of the most popular on the Kennel Club’s register. The ‘Lassie Cult’ remains strong, particularly in the States where copies of the original short story now exchange hands for several hundred dollars.
