Basil with Happy, Leo, and Judy |
 |
Basil holding Bunty and Cullum |
Basil and Ouida Rathbone loved
dogs. In fact, Basil may have
been first attracted to Ouida because she owned dogs. Before Basil and
Ouida were married, Ouida owned a German Shepherd named Lutz, a greyhound
named Sans Souci, and an Airedale named Scottie.
Ouida and Scottie |
Ouida and Scottie |
Ouida and Lutz |
| |
|
| The
first dog that Basil and Ouida bought together was Moritz, a black German
shepherd. They met three-year-old Moritz the week before Christmas, 1924,
when Basil and Ouida were in New York to see a show. They went backstage
to visit an old friend. "We were prevented from entering his dressing
room by the most beautiful black German shepherd dog I have ever
seen." Learning that Moritz was going to be euthanized for having
killed a sheep, the Rathbones paid their friend and took Moritz with them.
Moritz lived with the Rathbones for eight years and was Basil's constant
companion. "Our friends soon learned that an invitation to us
automatically included Moritz."1 |
Basil and Moritz |
Basil, Ouida and Moritz |
Basil, Ouida and Moritz |
Basil and Moritz, the black German shepherd |
This early photo of Basil holding a kitten proves that
he liked cats, too! |
Moritz died of cancer in 1933. The Rathbones buried him in a small animal
cemetery in back of the home of Mike Bartlett
in Oxford, Massachusetts. On the night that Moritz died, Basil wrote these
words:
Come winter time and summer time,
Come sweet and cleansing rain,
Come spring time and the autumn,
Both sun and moon shall wane,
Come seed time and flowering,
And harvesting the grain,
The Earth will cease and time grow old,
But we shall meet again.
'Twas not for naught we walked the fields,
The sidewalks and the lanes,
Sharing our hopes, our fears, our doubts,
Beliefs, our joys and pains.
And though I, with human weakness,
Have not always understood,
You with your dog devotion
Blindly believed me good.
Now you will sleep a little while
And dream in peace, please God,
Then one day I shall follow you
And sleep too beneath the sod,
To rise with you and walk again
With a vague sense of remembering
That we had loved in other lives,
Before this new ascending. 2 |
MORITZ
WITH RESPECT
ADMIRATION AND
EVERLASTING LOVE
OUIDA AND BASIL
Moritz |
|
.
Basil wrote an article about Moritz, which was published in the
December 1936 issue of Hollywood magazine. You can read the article "He
Was My Friend" here:
Download the article "He Was My
Friend."
(PDF file)
When the Rathbones moved to California in the mid 1930s, they
acquired seven dogs:
- Judy — white bull terrier
- Toni — black poodle (male)
- Bunty Moore — a female West Highland terrier (Ouida's favorite)
- Cullum Moore — a male West Highland terrier
- Happy — a Springer spaniel
- Leo — a red Cocker spaniel (the favorite of Jack Miltern, a close friend
of the Rathbones who was hit by a car while walking the dogs)
- Moritza — black German Shepherd (successor to Moritz, and also Rathbone's favorite)
|
Rathbone with five of his dogs. Left, next to Basil's leg: Toni, then Bunty and Cullum, Happy and Leo. |
In his autobiography, Rathbone describes how these dogs came to live
with them at the house on Los Feliz Blvd. in Hollywood.
 |
What a haven it was for dogs! We bought three—"Bunty"
and her brother "Cullum" Moore, two West Highland terriers, and a sad-eyed springer spaniel who had incongruously been christened
"Happy." But these three soon grew to seven! One day Ouida
came home with a red cocker in her coat pocket, a baby of a few
weeks old—"Leo"— and that made it four. Then a friend asked us
to take care of a magnificent big black poodle called "Toni," and
never came back for him—that made it five. Then Ouida
"just couldn't resist" buying a beautiful black German shepherd
puppy, who we christened "Moritza"—and now there were six. Lastly, one
afternoon Ouida heard a dog whimpering on our front doorstep.
Thinking one of our dogs had got out, she went downstairs to find
a white bull terrier puppy that seemed to be lost. We christened
her "Judy." 3 |
|
|
|
Ouida, Basil and Judy, the white bull terrier |
Judy with Basil |
Judy kissing Basil. Moritza
(black German shepherd) can be seen in front. |
Basil with Judy and Moritza |
Basil and his son Rodion with Judy and Happy
(Springer spaniel) |
Happy with her owner
Basil Rathbone and guests |
Basil walking with Happy and Toni (poodle) |
Basil and Toni |
Happy and Toni in a dog-size camper trailer. |
Basil and Toni by the pool |
Basil holding Bunty or Cullum |
Ouida, holding Bunty, and Basil in the garden
of their Bel Air home, California |
Rathbone moving the chaise lounge, on which lie Bunty and Cullum.
It appears that Leo is
also on that chaise lounge. |
Basil with either Bunty or Cullum |
Basil and Bunty |
Basil eating breakfast with Bunty or Cullum |
Basil and Bunty (or is it Cullum?) |
Basil plays the piano for Bunty |
Basil and servant giving treats to Bunty, Cullum and
Toni (the poodle) |
Basil and Ouida with five of the dogs: Leo on the
chaise, Judy by Basil's feet, Moritza standing, Bunty or Cullum
curled up near the tree, and Happy lying in the foreground. (1940) |
This photo from the 1930s shows Rodion,
Ouida, Basil, and two little Japanese spaniels who were not part of the Rathbone menagerie. It was taken in England. |
Rathbone and Nigel Bruce playing with Bruce's
four Dachshund puppies by the pool at Bruce's home. |
Basil and daughter Cynthia with a Pyrenees
mountain dog named Toby, who had been left at the Orphans of
the Storm animal shelter. Photo by Kordick, 1946. |
|
|
Basil, holding Leo, the red cocker. Basil is
looking at another dog, who is partially obscured by a plant.
Perhaps the other dog is Happy. |
Happy (the Springer spaniel) and Ouida
photo by Charles Kerlee |
Ouida (holding Bunty) and Basil greet Happy |
Ouida and Basil with Happy |
Basil and Happy by the side of the pool |
Basil, having a heart-to-heart talk with Happy |
Happy and Bunty (Cullum?) watch Basil swim |
Basil plays with Happy and Leo
(photo by Schuyler Crail) |
Bunty (or Cullum?), Happy and Leo playing ball with
Basil
(photo by Schuyler Crail) |
Leo by the swimming pool |
Bunty (or Cullum), Toni and Leo watch Basil (holding
Happy) |
Ouida, Basil and Bunty, looking at Cynthia and
Leo below ("Kitchen entrance to garden" written on
photo) |
Basil and Judy |
Basil and Moritza
|
Moritza, as she appeared in an advertisement
for Calvert Reserve whiskey |
Basil and Moritza |
A black dog on a white sofa? Basil totally spoiled Moritza! |
Basil and Moritza in 1941 |
More dogs on the sofa! |
Basil, Ouida and the dogs in their garden |
The Rathbones with four of their dogs in the garden |
Happy watching Basil reach for a water lily. Moritza
can barely be seen behind Basil. |
After a hard day's work, an exhausted Basil is joined
by Leo, Moritza and Happy. |
|
In addition to the dogs, there also were:
- Gina and Gita -- two cats
- a canary
|
Ouida with one of the cats, 1939 |
Toni, the poodle, died in 1936 from intestinal poisoning caused by a piece of a rubber bone that Toni had swallowed. By 1946,
when the Rathbones moved to New York, Cullum, Judy and Happy had passed
away and been buried in the garden. Bunty, Leo and Moritza moved to New
York City with the family. The dogs "had never seen snow before and
went wild with excitement. Moritza . . . would charge madly at a snow drift
and then roll over and over in it trying to eat it away!" 4
In 1953 Ginger, a red cocker spaniel, lived with the Rathbones.
Rathbone makes no mention of walking any other dog but Ginger in 1953, so
it is probable that the other dogs had passed away. 5 The two pictures below are from Rathbone's
interview that appeared on Edward R. Murrow's "Person to Person"
in 1957. From the interview it appeared that Ginger was the only dog
in the Rathbone home in 1957.
Ginger (left foreground) watches her master |
Basil pets Ginger at the side of his chair. |
.
| If you have any more information, or any pictures of Rathbone's dogs, cats, or
the canary, and want to see them on this page, please
e-mail
me. |
 |
Endnotes:
1. In and Out of Character,
by Basil Rathbone. (New York: Doubleday), 1962. p. 65
2. Ibid, p. 69
3. Ibid, p. 157
4. Ibid, p. 191
5. Ibid, p. 209
|
