Rin Tin Tin or Rin-Tin-Tin?

[Lokke Heiss]

Well, which is it?

The books about the amazing Rinty leave the dashes out, but the movies themselves seem to often put them in, at least in the advertising.

Does anyone have an official ruling on this, or is it just personal preference?

I'd like to say 'I don't have a dog in this fight,' but that's probably the wrong maxim to use for this situation.

[Jim Roots]

When in doubt, go with the source. In this case, that would be the films.

No dogs were harmed in the making of this posting. At least, none that I'm aware of.

Jim

[Lokke Heiss]

Sounds good, but from what I can see, some films use the hyphens and some don't.

The one film where I can find a photo of the title credits shows his name hyphenated, so I'm going with that unless someone comes up with a better answer.

[Jim Roots]

Ephraim Katz spells it without the hyphens, if you consider him authoritative.

Jim

[Saint-Just]

Ephraim Katz spells it without the hyphens, if you consider him authoritative.

Jim

Can Katz be authoritative about dogs?

[bobfells]

The original Rinty of the 1920s always seemed to be billed with hyphens. I've never checked for certain but this seems to be pretty consistent.

[Hamilton's Grandson]

Film Year Books and Standard Casting Directories have it spelled Rin-Tin-Tin.

Just think if he was thoroughbred or had full breed pedigree what the cost of is offspring might go for at that time compared to today.

[Mike Gebert]

I searched "Rin Tin Tin posters" and you see it both ways. I don't think there's much consistency.

Here's two examples for the original Rinty, both Warner Bros. silents:

[Lokke Heiss]

With all this confusion, I channeled the spirit of Rinty to ask this question, figuring him to be the final authority. His response was brief:

"Am I the name above the title?"

"You sure are."

"Am I the star?"

"Of course, Rinty. You are THE star."

"Then they can put dashes or daffodils, or whatever they want. I don't care. They're not coming to see how my name's spelled, they're coming to see ME."

And that is that.