Rescued From a WWI Battlefield, This Dog Became Hollywood's Biggest Star and Saved Warner Bros.

On Sept. 15, 1918, Corporal Lee Duncan walked through the bombed-out ruins of a German camp near Flirey, France. There, he found a kennel that housed military-working dogs meant for the German army. Most were dead, but he discovered a starving German shepherd mother with her litter of five newborn puppies. Their eyes hadn't even opened yet.

Duncan had no idea that one of those puppies would soon become the face of Hollywood and save a then-unknown film studio called Warner Bros. from bankruptcy.

WWI Soldier Rescues a Battlefield Puppy

Born in 1892 into a poor family in California, Duncan's father abandoned the family soon after. In 1898, his mother placed him and his sister in an orphanage, unable to support them. He spent five years there before his mother was able to retrieve them.

Due to his upbringing, Duncan jumped at the opportunity to join the military when the U.S. entered World War I. He was one of the first Americans sent to France in late 1917 with the U.S. Army Air Service's 135th Aero Squadron.