Old Yeller is a 1956 children's novel written by Fred Gipson [1] and illustrated by Carl Burger. [2] It received a Newbery Honor in 1957. [3] In 1957, Walt Disney released a film adaptation starring Tommy Kirk, Fess Parker, Dorothy McGuire, Kevin Corcoran, Jeff York, and Beverly Washburn.
Travis Coates has been working to take care of his family ranch in the late 1860s in the fictional town of Salt Licks, Texas, with his mother and younger brother Arliss, while his father goes off on a cattle drive. A "dingy yellow" dog comes to the family and Travis reluctantly takes it in; they name him Old Yeller. The name has a double meaning: the fur color yellow pronounced as "yeller", and the fact that its bark sounds more like a human yell.
Travis initially loathes the "rascal" and at first tries to get rid of it, but the dog eventually proves his worth, saving the family on several occasions: rescuing Arliss from a bear, Travis from a bunch of wild hogs, and Mama and their friend Lisbeth from a wolf. Travis grows to love Old Yeller, and they become great friends. The rightful owner of Yeller shows up looking for his dog. He recognizes that the family has become attached to Yeller, so he trades the dog to Arliss for a horned toad and a home-cooked meal prepared by Travis' mother.
Old Yeller is bitten while saving his family from a rabid wolf. Travis cannot risk Old Yeller becoming rabid and turning on the family, and has to kill the dog. Old Yeller had puppies, and one of them helps Travis get over Old Yeller's death. They take in the new dog and try to make a fresh start.
Old Yeller in the novel is described as being a "yellow cur". [4] [5] It has been claimed that the dog was actually modeled after the Yellow or Southern Black Mouth Cur or a Blue Lacy, the state dog of Texas. [6] In the Disney film adaptation Yeller was portrayed by a yellow Labrador Retriever/Mastiff mix. [7]
The new puppy becomes the title character of the follow-up book Savage Sam (1962) [8] and 1963 film adaptation. A third book, Little Arliss (1978), is set after the first two and features Travis' younger brother. [9]
The Hundred and One Dalmatians is a 1956 children's novel by Dodie Smith about the kidnapping of a family of Dalmatian puppies. It was originally serialized in Woman's Day as The Great Dog Robbery, and details the adventures of two dalmatians named Pongo and Missis as they rescue their puppies from a fur farm. A 1967 sequel, The Starlight Barking, continues from the end of the novel.
Katherine Alice Applegate, known professionally as K. A. Applegate, is an American young adult and children's fiction writer, best known as the author of the Animorphs, Remnants, and Everworld book series. She won the 2013 Newbery Medal for her 2012 children's novel The One and Only Ivan. Applegate's most popular books are science fiction, fantasy, and adventure novels. She won the Best New Children's Book Series Award in 1997 in Publishers Weekly. Her book Home of the Brave has won several awards. She also wrote a chapter book series in 2008–09 called Roscoe Riley Rules.
The Shaggy Dog is a 1959 American fantasy comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and loosely based on the 1923 novel The Hound of Florence by Felix Salten. Directed by Charles Barton from a screenplay by Lillie Hayward and Bill Walsh, the film stars Fred MacMurray, Tommy Kirk, Jean Hagen, Kevin Corcoran, Tim Considine, Roberta Shore, and Annette Funicello. The film follows a teenage boy named Wilby Daniels who, by the power of an enchanted ring of the Borgias, is transformed into a shaggy Old English Sheepdog.
Thomas Lee Kirk was an American actor, best known for his performances in films made by Walt Disney Studios such as Old Yeller, The Shaggy Dog, Swiss Family Robinson, The Absent-Minded Professor, and The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, as well as the beach party films of the mid-1960s. He frequently appeared as a love interest for Annette Funicello or as part of a family with Kevin Corcoran as his younger brother and Fred MacMurray as his father.
Meindert De Jong, sometimes spelled de Jong, DeJong or Dejong was a Dutch-born American writer of children's books. He won the international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1962 for his contributions as a children's writer.
Old Yeller is a 1957 American Western drama film directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by Walt Disney. It stars Dorothy McGuire and Fess Parker, with Tommy Kirk, and Kevin Corcoran. It is about a boy and a stray dog in post-Civil War Texas. The film is based upon the 1956 novel of the same name by Fred Gipson. Gipson also co-wrote the screenplay along with William Tunberg.
Frederick Benjamin Gipson was an American writer and screenwriter. He is best known for writing the 1956 novel Old Yeller, which became a popular 1957 Walt Disney film. Gipson was born on a farm near Mason in the Texas Hill Country, the son of Beck Gipson and Emma Deishler. After working at a variety of farming and ranching jobs, he enrolled in 1933 at the University of Texas at Austin. There he wrote for the Daily Texan and The Ranger, but he left school before graduating to become a newspaper journalist.
Rachel Lyman Field was an American novelist, poet, and children's fiction writer. She is best known for her work Hitty, Her First Hundred Years. Field also won a National Book Award, Newbery Honor award and two of her books are on the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award list.
Savage Sam is a 1963 American Western film sequel to Old Yeller based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Fred Gipson. Norman Tokar directed the live-action film, which was released by Walt Disney Productions on June 1, 1963. It did not enjoy the success of the original.
Walt Disney's Treasury of Classic Tales is an American Disney comic strip, which ran on Sundays in newspapers from July 13, 1952, until February 15, 1987. It was distributed by King Features Syndicate. Each story adapted a different Disney film, such as Darby O'Gill and the Little People, Peter Pan, or Davy Crockett. It was run in relatively few papers, with 58 in 1957 and 55 in 1966, and was principally a vehicle for promoting new and re-released Disney films.
Kevin Anthony "Moochie" Corcoran was an American child actor, director and producer. He appeared in numerous Disney projects between 1957 and 1963, leading him to be honored as a Disney Legend in 2006. His nickname, Moochie, established him as an irrepressible character in film.
The Black Mouth Cur, also known as the Southern Cur, Southern Black Mouth Cur and the Yellow Black Mouth Cur, is a medium to large sized breed of cur-type dog from the United States. Originating in the south of the country, the breed is a popular hunting companion used to hunt a large variety of game.
The Graveyard Book is a young adult novel written by the English author Neil Gaiman, simultaneously published in Britain and America in 2008. The Graveyard Book traces the story of the boy Nobody "Bod" Owens, who is adopted and reared by the supernatural occupants of a graveyard after his family is brutally murdered.
Bob Smiley is an American TV/film writer-producer and partner in the Humble Picture Company. He is a Writers Guild of America-award winner for his work in kids' TV and the author of two books, the 2008 memoir Follow the Roar and the 2012 novel Don't Mess with Travis. He has also been a contributing writer to espn.com.
Spike (1952–1962) was a lop-eared yellow Mastador and a dog actor best known for his performance as the title character in the 1957 film Old Yeller, in which he co-starred with Tommy Kirk, Beverly Washburn, Dorothy McGuire, Fess Parker, and Kevin Corcoran. Spike was rescued as a pup from a shelter in Van Nuys, California, and became the pet and pupil of animal trainer Frank Weatherwax.
Hound-Dog Man is a 1959 American musical comedy drama film directed by Don Siegel, based on the 1947 novel by Fred Gipson, and starring Fabian, Carol Lynley, and Stuart Whitman.
Rabies has been the main plot device or a significant theme in many fictional works. Due to the long history of the virus as well as its neurotropic nature, rabies has been a potent symbol of madness, irrationalism, or an unstoppable plague in numerous fictional works, in many genres. Many notable examples are listed below.
Carl V. Burger was an American "artist and writer of children's books about animals and natural history." He is known for his children's and youth literature illustrations of The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford and the Newbery Medal honor novels Old Yeller by Fred Gipson and Little Rascal by Sterling North.
Little Arliss (1978) is the third book centered on the Coates family of frontier Texas by Fred Gipson. It follows Old Yeller (1956) and Savage Sam (1962), and focuses on Little Arliss, the youngest member of the family. Like the first two novels, it is told in the first person, this time by Arliss, instead of Travis.
Savage Sam is a 1962 children's novel written by Fred Gipson, his second book concerning the Coates family of frontier Texas in the late 1860s. It is a sequel to 1956's Old Yeller. It was inspired by the story of former Apache captive Herman Lehmann, whom Gipson had seen give an exhibition when he was a child. It was adapted into a motion picture of the same name.
