11:09am: Me Tarzan, Olympic Gold Medal Swimmer
Click Photo For Ed Stephan's Great Tarzan Website
This is a day late and a dollar short, but I didn't want to forget Johnny Weismuller's birthday, which was yesterday, June 2. Though dozens of actors have protrayed Edgar Rice Burrough's famous "Tarzan" character, Weismuller was, and continues to be, the only truly definitive Hollywood Tarzan. He made his films during a 16-year stretch from 1932-1948, and brought some kind of magical realism to the fictional character, alternating as he did between heartwarming kindness and athletic, scene-stealing stunts on the one hand, and a foreboding and hostile sneer toward outsiders and poachers on the other. Weismuller had won 5 swimming gold medals in the 1924 and '28 Olympics, and though he was no actor, he was a natural in front of the camera with his charismatic smile and trademark raspy voice. And too, his films were bolstered with great performances by Maureen O'Sullivan (Jane) and Johnny Sheffield (Boy). Maureen O'Sullivan made 10 Tarzan films with Weismuller, the last being my favorite, Tarzan's New York Adventure (1942), which features an unforgettable scene in which Weismuller is chased by police to the George Washington Bridge, which he scales and then dives off of, into the Hudson, and lives! The following is borrowed from Those Were The Days:
"He was born on this day in 1904 in Freidorf, near Timisoara, Romania. From the age of three, he was raised in the asphalt jungle of Chicago, but reached the pinnacle of his fame in a tropical jungle. Johnny Weissmuller played the role of Tarzan more than any other actor in a decade of Tarzan films.
Weissmuller was a star athlete, however, way before he became a Hollywood star. An Olympic Gold Medalist, Johnny Weissmuller won a total of five gold medals in swimming in the 1924 and 1928 Olympics. He also collected 52 U.S. and 67 world swimming records.
Without much competition in the swimming pool or in the Tarzan movies, we could say that Weismullers only competition was his co-star, Maureen OSullivan. Their first [1932] Tarzan movie was Tarzan the Ape Man; the last together was in 1942, titled, Tarzans New York Adventure."
Posted by cronish at June 03, 2002 11:35 AM