Acclaimed writer Susan Orlean has local ties, in that the Cleveland native attended college at the University of Michigan.

But when Orlean called Michigan Theater executive director and CEO Russ Collins, it had nothing to do with re-visiting a place from her past, and everything to do with promoting her new book, “Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend”—which she’ll do on Tuesday, Oct. 18 at 7:30 p.m. at the Michigan Theater.

“It was funny,” said Collins. “She called me up and said, ‘You’re the art-house guy, right?’”

Specifically, Collins is co-chair of the Sundance Institute’s Art House Project, which involves art house movie theaters from across the country. And since Orlean is forging a new kind of book tour, wherein a discussion of her book often happens alongside a screening of Rin Tin Tin’s breakthrough silent film, “Clash of the Wolves” (as it will at the Michigan on Tuesday), she sought out Collins to plan specific stops on her book tour.

“Rin Tin Tin” tells the fascinating story of a German shepherd puppy, born on a World War I battlefied in France, who was adopted by a lonely American G.I. who had a penchant for animal training.

The dog’s Hollywood career began in silent films, but the character went on to appear in radio shows, talkies, comics, and television. So despite the fact that the original dog was eventually replaced by a series of descendants, the beloved figure of Rin Tin Tin managed to span nearly a century—a time when the role of dogs in American life changed dramatically.

In a recent New York Times article, Orlean noted: “In the ’20s, people attributed a kind of superhumanness to dogs. And in silent film, dogs and people had the same exact ability to speak, which was zero. If you watch those Rin Tin Tin films, his performance is in a certain way more convincing — there’s nothing missing, whereas with people, speech is missing. It seems much more artificial.

“Dogs were not as common pets back then. They lived on farms, and they had serious jobs. They were very prominent in World War I, not so much on the American side, but the Germans, French and British all used thousands and thousands of dogs. Their appearance in film was very serious. They were largely heroic characters, and not comic. By the time the TV show came around in 1954, America had changed so dramatically. The population had moved from rural areas to suburban and urban ones, and the role of a pet dog is so different from a dog who lives on a farm, who works with you and for you. And so our perception changed: they became more like children.”

The book is packed with intriguing bits of history, including the fact that Rin Tin Tin garnered the most votes for the first-ever best actor Academy Award (the nascent Academy thought this would undermine its gravitas, however, so they re-calculated the results and granted the award to a human actor); and that many Americans enlisted their dogs during World War II.

“I was flabbergasted (to learn that),” Orleans told the Times. “I remember coming home after I came across some of this material. I said to my husband, 'Did you know that people gave their pets to the Army?' I knew that dogs were used in the military, but this drive was a fascinating reflection of what the war effort was like in World War II. People who didn’t live through it would have trouble imagining.

“But of course, it’s logical. If the war began, where is the Army going to get adult dogs? You can’t take puppies to be in a war. You need grown dogs that are already a bit trained. But the whole thing blew my mind. The scale of it, that it was a widespread national effort, that people would take Rover and send him to Camp Haan! It was just amazing.”

Orlean reached the pinnacle of her fame when her previous book, “The Orchid Thief,” served as the inspiration for the fanciful, 2002 Spike Jonze film “Adaptation,” starring Nicolas Cage in a dual role and Meryl Streep as Orlean.

But Orlean confesses to having a deeply personal connection to her newest book, which took 10 years to research and write.

“What has always fascinated me and what's very emotional to me is the question of what lasts,” Orlean told Oprah.com. “People want to, if not live forever, have evidence of their existence live forever. And I think that part of what happened for me was that my dad died in the course of my writing this, and I started thinking about memory, the idea that things come and go and then they're gone and forgotten. But Rin Tin Tin, by being reinvented over and over in people's imaginations, became kind of a timeless model: He just keeps going and going; his story outlives everybody. I feel great tenderness toward the people who devoted themselves to Rin Tin Tin and his history because I think everybody wants to have had their existence noted by the universe.”

Have any favorite memories of Rin Tin Tin, in movies or TV? Leave a comment below:

Here’s a video of Orlean talking about Rin Tin Tin’s performance in “Clash of the Wolves.”

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.