Who was Edgar Rice Burroughs?
Edgar Rice Burroughs was one of the most successful American authors of the twentieth century. Although he wrote about several subjects, he will always be mainly remembered for his Tarzan series.
Burroughs was born into a wealthy Chicago family. However, he was considered the black sheep of the family. He took to heart the advice ‘go west, young man’ and spent time working in ranches and prospecting for gold.
He wasn’t successful.
He was thirty five years old when he produced his first successful book, Tarzan of the Apes. His writing career spanned almost forty years, during which he wrote eighty books – twenty six of which featured Tarzan.
As many people know, Tarzan is the story of an aristocratic English baby who is left as an orphan in the African jungle. He was brought up by the apes. This meant that he had a combination of human and ape skills.
If you’ve only seen Tarzan television shows and movies, I recommend the books highly. They are lots of fun and superb period pieces. The character proved to be so popular that the TV and movie industry couldn’t resist the stories but the original books are far more interesting.
Johnny Weissmuller
Johnny Weissmuller was the definitive movie Tarzan. He was originally a successful competitive swimmer. It’s said that the Tarzan movies earned him over $2 million.
When he retired, he moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I live very close to the home he once owned – it’s right on the water, of course. He became the founding chairman of the Fort Lauderdale International Hall of Fame.
There is a wonderful story, or perhaps merely a legend, that when he set off in the morning to go to work at the International Swimming Hall of Fame, he would simply dive into the canal outside his home and swim up the Intracoastal Waterway to work. I sincerely hope that is true 🙂
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
August 27, 2015
My Dad met Johnny when Johnny was in San Francisco. Here is his story about that: “We would swim and dive for money. One time when we were there I met Johnny Weissmuller. He was there for a swim meet. I swam alongside of him from one end to the other, many times. Johnny Weissmuller was famous for portraying Tarzan in a dozen movies.
Dr. Sammy Lee(1) once asked me if I would like to join his diving club and be in the Olympics.
The war* started and they canceled the Olympics where I would have swam and did high diving.
I graduated from Everett Jr. high.
[(1) Two time Olympic Diver Gold Medalist Dr. Sammy Lee]
[*The 1940 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XII Olympiad and originally scheduled to be held from 21 September to 6 October 1940, in Tokyo, Japan, were canceled due to the outbreak of World War II [September 1, 1939] My Dad was age about age 15 at the time. I would not doubt it that Johnny swam in the Intercostal Waterway!
August 27, 2015
That’s fascinating Sherry! Thank you so much. I think that he swam the Intracoastal too 🙂