Scroll down to watch a short clip from the original Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone: The Rip Van Winkle Caper that aired in 1961. Pay particular attention to the scientific criminal mastermind named “Farwell.” The actor who played him will be coming up a little later.

 

 

Allow us to digress from the video for just a moment.

In June 1938, the picture of two Komondorok appeared in Life Magazine that must have gobsmacked its readers as a truly exotic, if not bizarre breed. It would have been even more so had the dogs been older and fully corded. The image is one of many photographs taken at the 1938 Morris & Essex dog show that you can see here  — and it really is worth your time to look as there are many other breeds in the spread.

These weren’t just any Komondorok, however.

“Andrashazi Dorka” and “Pannonia Pandur” were the first two Komondorok imported into the United States. They were registered with the AKC in 1937, and their pictures appeared in Life Magazine the following year. As far as we can tell, the occasion warranting their inclusion in the popular magazine may have been the Morris & Essex Dog Show at Madison Square Garden, the photos taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt. Many great photos of different breeds appeared in that issue with Gertrude Lawrence on the cover. We couldn’t believe our good luck in finding the link to those insides pages.

The first AKC champion Komondor, however, was a dog named, “Hattyu” owned by Oscar Beregi, the actor you saw in the Twilight Zone clip, a Hungarian, and the son of a famous Hungarian heart throb and Shakespearian actor. Hattyu’s championship didn’t come until 1965, and two years after that, the first breed club was formed, the Komondor Club of America.

Its first president? Oscar Beregi.

Top photo by Lenkadan/DepositPhotos