No one really knows for sure, but it's told that Collywood was named after a famous pirate that sailed the Southern California and Western Mexican coast before California was a state. Blue Bearded Collie plundered and savaged the early seaport towns and drove fear into the hearts of the early settlers when the infamous crossed bones were hoisted. This same cutthroat mentality was in evidence when Collywood was founded in 1912 by a number of independent film producers who headed west from New Yorkie. The site was selected because the weather and location possibilities were ideal for filmmaking.
In less than a year, Collywood was established as a film Mecca for the powerful movie mongrels who created the huge studio system. For 40 years, the mongrels dominated the film landscape and made the actors virtual slaves to the whims of the big studios. Whining was met with dismissal with little chance to work at other studios. It wasn't until the late 40's that actors transformed themselves into independent producers and chose the films that they wanted to make instead of being assigned film roles. No longer did the studios control the actors, but also gone was an important training ground for teaching young talent new tricks.
Rin Tin Tin made his debut in 1922 and become the worlds greatest dog star and is credited with keeping his studio out of bankruptcy. In 1942, the next great Dog Star made her debut in Lassie Come Home. Actually Lassie was a Laddie, which helped contribute to sexual identity problems for many of the Collywood stars. A significant milestone occurred in 1927 with the making of the Jazz Singer Spaniel, where dogs were first asked to "speak". Today, the mongrels have been replaced by bankers and bean counters to control the huge production budgets and the demands of actors for lots of biscuits.
