Don the Talking Dog

[1] In April 1911 The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Don had been examined by “a number of the most eminent zoologists” and that they had declared him “a genuine prodigy”.

[4] Animal acts were particularly popular as entertainment in the United States at the turn of the 18th and 19th Centuries and Don is highlighted as being a particular “sensation” in his native Germany.

[1] Don and his owners travelled in July 1912 aboard the passenger liner SS Kronprinz Wilhelm with New York newspaper The Evening World reporting at the time that the dog “was too seasick on the way over to converse with anybody”.

[2] Don performed at Hammerstein's Paradise Roof Garden on 42nd Street in New York City with vaudeville veteran Loney Haskell fielding questions and acting as his interpreter.

After a short return to Germany in the Autumn of 1912, Don went back to New York and performed alongside young comedian Sophie Tucker, a major star in the making.