The Croods Inspired Dog Names

The most dog-like of the Crood clan is the youngest; Sandy, a wild red-headed child with a penchant for biting. Fortunately for the cast of the Broadway show Annie, the dog that nineteen-year-old Bill Berloni adopted in 1976 to play the role of Sandy, was not quite so wild. Bill had been tasked with the job of both finding and training a dog for the role without spending any more of the production’s funds, and in return, he would be able to earn his Actors’ Equity card by playing a few bit parts in the summer shows. While the young man had owned a dog in his youth, he had never had any formal education in training, and he had no idea what would constitute an easily trainable dog. There were far fewer shelters in the 1970s than there are currently, and Bill visited police stations in several towns looking for just the right mutt before he was directed towards the Humane Society shelter in Connecticut. There he found a sandy colored dog cowering in the corner of its kennel. He was informed that the dog had been badly abused and that he was quite afraid of people. When attendants left to get a leash for the pooch, Bill opened up the kennel, and the dog crept forward on its belly, overcoming his fear to inspect the aspiring actor. Bill didn’t have the full seven dollar adoption fee with him at the time, however, and the dog was slated for euthanasia in the morning. He scrambled to scrape the funds together by the next morning and was waiting out front to adopt the dog half an hour before the shelter even opened up. 

Bill gave the dog the name Sandy and began the arduous job of socializing a very fearful dog to the chaotic and confusing environment of a theater. He worked closely with the dog, and by the time the curtain rose on the first performance of Annie at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, Sandy was a skilled canine actor who was thriving with all of the excitement. When the show was preparing to open on Broadway in 1977, the dog was asked to reprise his role by Mike Nichols. He played Sandy on Broadway during the entire six-year run, acting alongside six different Annies and amassing 2,363 performances, and two appearances at the Tony Awards. Sandy also performed for Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan at the White House a total of six times, and a book was penned outlining his experiences and published by Simon & Schuster in 1978. While Sandy passed over the rainbow bridge in 1990, at around sixteen years old, Bill Berloni continued to train dogs and other animals for stage and screen, and all of them are rescues. As of December of 2013, he was quoted as having thirty-one canine actors living on his ninety-acre farm in Connecticut, and all of them have had important roles in theater productions including Annie, the Wizard of Oz, Legally Blonde, and Rancho Viejo.