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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.
German Shepherd |
Greyhound |
Airedale |
 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
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:
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MORITZ
WITH RESPECT
ADMIRATION AND
EVERLASTING LOVE
OUIDA AND BASIL
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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 you 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 |
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 (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)
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 |
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| Click
on thumbnail images below to see larger image. |
Rathbone with Bunty and Cullum, and I think Leo is
also on that chaise lounge |
Happy and Toni in a dog-size camper trailer. |
Bunty (or Cullum?), Happy and Leo playing ball with
Basil |
Leo by the swimming pool |
Rathbone with five of his dogs. Left, next to Basil's leg: Toni, then
Bunty and Cullum, Happy and Leo. |
Basil, holding Leo, the red cocker |
Basil and Moritza, the black German shepherd |
Moritza, as she appeared in an advertisement
for Calvert Reserve whiskey |
Ouida, Basil and Judy, the white bull terrier |
Ouida, holding Bunty, and Basil in the garden
of their Bel Air home, California |
Happy, the springer spaniel, and Ouida |
Happy with her owner
Basil Rathbone and guests |
Judy with Basil |
This photo from the late 1930s shows Rodion,
Ouida, Basil, and two little dogs who were not part of the
Rathbone menagerie. |
Rathbone and Nigel Bruce playing with Bruce's
four Dachshund puppies by the pool at Bruce's home. |
Judy (white bull terrier) kissing Basil. Moritza
(black German shepherd) can be seen in front. |
Basil with either Bunty or Cullum |
Basil holding Bunty or Cullum |
Ouida, Basil and Bunty, looking at Cynthia and
Leo below ("Kitchen entrance to garden" written on
photo) |
Basil holding Bunty and Cullum |
Basil and servant giving treats to Bunty, Cullum and
Toni (the poodle) |
Basil with Happy, Leo, and Judy |
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. |
Basil with Happy and one of the Westies
(Bunty or Cullum) |
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In addition to the dogs, there also were:
- Gina and Gita -- two cats
- a canary
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Toni, the poodle, died in 1936 from intestinal poisoning that had
been 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. |
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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
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