A persistent Hollywood myth claims a German shepherd received the most votes for the first Best Actor Oscar in 1929 and the Academy re-ran the vote to ensure a human won. It never happened, but the fact that people still believe it says everything about the fame of Rin Tin Tin. This episode follows the true story from a bombed-out German army kennel in the French village of Fluery in September 1918, where Corporal Lee Duncan found a starving mother and five puppies less than a week old.

The conversation covers the dog's smuggled voyage to America, a crushed leg from a bundle of newspapers and the nine-month rehabilitation that left him leaping to remarkable heights, slow-motion footage that convinced Duncan he had an athlete, and the Poverty Row hustle that led to a role replacing an uncooperative wolf. It explains how Where the North Begin ...