Since I like mysteries with amateur detectives and sleuths, it’s surprising that I’ve never read Dashiell Hammet’s The Thin Man. I’m putting it on my list. Back in the age when VCRs were the thing and you actually went to a store and rented VHS tapes for them, Tom and I spied the movie one night, rented it, and fell hard for Nick and Nora Charles (as played by William Powell and Myrna Loy) and their funny dog Asta. In the novel, Asta is a female schnauzer. But when the film was made, the best available actor was a male wire fox terrier (also called a wirehaired terrier) named Skippy. Skippy was hired for the role of Asta and was actually renamed Asta. A relative of Asta’s was hired to play the part in the Thin Man television series. You can learn a lot about Asta’s film career and why the Thin Man films were so popular at the I Love Asta website.
One Christmas I gave this DVD set to Tom, so we can laugh at Asta, drink vicariously, and listen to witty banter anytime we wish. I gave a little nod to the Thin Man franchise in The Deal in a conversation between characters Aaron and Heath.
Wirehairs are a high-energy breed who need good training from a strong human companion. They are super smart and love to perform for praise and rewards. Two of them were reasons why I loved to visit my college roommate Debbie’s parents’ house: Their names were Habebe and Sabe.
They had a wide range of actions they performed, including sit, stay, lie down, roll over, and BANG! which of course meant playing dead, all four paws up in the air.
Sabe would get so greedy for a treat that he’d often run through his entire repertoire without waiting for commands. He also would do this if Habebe was a little more relaxed with her follow-through.
ETA: I went back and corrected the spellings of the dogs’ names after I asked Debbie about them. She said my memory is pretty accurate. She also recalled that Sabe allowed her to dress him in silly costumes and played hide-and-seek with her.
So was one of their tricks hiding under those bell bottoms?
Ha! No, but there was a squirrel on the Quad who’d run up the inside of your pants legs. Life would have been so different for him in the era of skinny jeans.
i love the thin man series…
We don’t have enough time for them to go on The List.