Tarzan of the Apes
by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com
Tarzan of the Apes
Six letters. __ A __ __ A N. Clue: Considered a superhero but has no superpowers. Protector of a dangerous, labyrinthian, jungle environment and its citizenry.
Batman?
No. Although Gotham City is an urban, concrete, and steel jungle and the Dark Knight fits the description, the correct answer is Tarzan. King of teh Jungle. Guardian of its wilds, inhabitants, and health.
Edgar Rice Burroughs created the jungle hero in 1912. He spurred an enduring legacy in popular culture.
Tarzan a.k.a. Lord Greystoke first appeared in the October 1912 issue of All-Story magazine. Burroughs explains the story’s genesis matter-of-factly in the October 27, 1929 issue of The Washington Post in the article How I Wrote the Tarzan Books.
With the success of my first story, I decided to make writing a career, though I was canny enough not to give up my job. But the job did not pay expenses and we had a recurrence of great poverty, sustained only by the thread of hope that I might make a living writing fiction. I cast about for a better job and landed one as a department manager for a business magazine. While I was working there, I wrote Tarzan of the Apes, evenings and holidays. I wrote it in longhand on the backs of old letterheads and odd pieces of paper. I did not think it was a very good story and I doubted if it would sell. But Bob Davis saw its possibilities for magazine publication and I got a check...this time, I think, for $700.
Tarzan of the Apes soon evolved into a book. It was the next logical step for the still struggling writer who also detailed this watershed event in the Post article.
I had been trying to find a publisher who would put some of my stuff into book form, but I met with no encouragement. Every well-known publisher in the United States turned down Tarzan of the Apes, including A.C. McClurg & Co., who finally issued it, my first story in book form.
Its popularity and its final appearance as a book was due to the vision of J.H. Tennant, editor of the New York Evening World. He saw its possibilities as a newspaper serial and ran it in the Evening World, and the result was that other papers followed suit. This made the story widely known, and resulted in a demand from readers for the story in book form, which was so insistent that A.C. McClurg & Co. finally came to me after they rejected it and asked to be allowed to publish it.
From an historical standpoint, Tarzan of the Apes reveals vital information about the Lord of the Jungle. Did you ever wonder about Tarzan’s origin? The meaning of his name? Why he is an English lord?
John and Alice Clayton a.k.a. Lord and Lady Greystoke embark on a trip for Africa on a ‘bright May morning in 1888.’ Burroughs begins the novel with a first person narrative in Out To Sea (Chapter 1). The narrative explains the altering of main characters’ names for the story. I do not say the story is true, for I did not witness the happenings which it portrays, but the fact that in the telling of it to you I have taken fictitious names for the principal characters quite sufficiently evidences the sincerity of my own belief that it may be true.
In addition, the Claytons’ reason for travel becomes clear. And so the Colonial Office appointed John Clayton to a new post in British West Africa, but his confidential instructions centered on a thorough investigation of the unfair treatment of black British subjects by the officers of a friendly European power.
Unfortunately, the Claytons’ mere existence interferes with the plans of mutineers. The mutineers force the Claytons to exit the ship. They subsequently settle in Africa.
After Lady Alice encounters a beast, the shock proves too much for her to handle and causes delirium. It’s an added pressure for John because he cannot alleviate his wife’s mental strain. Their son’s birth later that evening also cannot counter the effects of the horrific event, detailed in Life and Death (Chapter 3).
Lady Greystoke never recovered from the shock of the great ape’s attack, and, though she lived for a year after her baby was born, she was never again outside the cabin, nor did she ever fully realize that she was not in England.
Kerchak, chief of an ape tribe, leads his members on a rampage. He soon eliminates John Clayton. Tribe member Kala, a she-ape, rescues the Clayton baby from Kerchak’s temper. Kala’s maternal instinct is honed, strong, and intensified because Kerchak caused the death of her child ape just moments before the attack on John Clayton. With fierce, unyielding, and loving, protectiveness, Kala raises the Clayton baby. He becomes known as Tarzan because in her tribe language, ‘Tarzan’ means ‘White-Skin’
As the story progresses, Tarzan discovers the Claytons’ hut. He finds books and teaches himself to read, though he can still only speak his adoptive tribe’s language. D’Arnot, a French colleague of Jane Porter (yes, that Jane!) and William Cecil Clayton (a cousin of John Clayton) teach Tarzan to speak English and French as repayment for Tarzan tending to D’Arnot’s injuries. This story point contrasts heavily with the well-known ‘Me Tarzan, You Jane’ dialogue trademark in Tarzan movies.
Tarzan’s distinct yells also originate in Burroughs’ first Tarzan novels. Like a baby’s cry, Tarzan’s cries have different meanings -- distress, warning, triumph. As referenced above, Jane also debuts in Tarzan of the Apes. Whether Jane will be with Tarzan or her fiance, though, is a matter left unresolved in this first Tarzan story.
Tarzan of the Movies
Burroughs’ Tarzan novels coincided with the era’s medium of choice -- silent films. It also expanded to comic strips, debuting on January 7, 1929 under the aegis of Harold Foster. Buck Rogers’ comic strip also premiered on this date. The difference between the two heroes is striking. Tarzan fights in the primeval world with nature providing sustenance, shelter, and weapons. Buck Rogers battles in the future with gadgets, inventions, and space weapons.
Tarzan of the Apes (1918) is the first Tarzan movie. It showcases Elmo Lincoln (Otto Elmo Linkenhelt) in the title role. However, Lincoln was not the first actor to portray Tarzan on the silver screen. How can this be true if Tarzan of the Apes is the first Tarzan movie? Technically, ten-year old Gordon Griffith was the first movie Tarzan, playing the character as a boy in the movie’s early scenes.
In the silent film serial Son of Tarzan (1920), a flashback storytelling technique first appeared. It gained popularity among filmmakers. Donald F. Glut and Jim Harmon explain the significance of this National Film Corporation film consisting of fifteen segments in their book The Great Movie Serials: Their Sound and Fury (1973).
Son of Tarzan established a precedent for movie serials. Previously, there had been no pictorial retelling of earlier chapters, orienting the viewers who had not seen those installments as to the plot development. In Son of Tarzan, a pictorial recounting of the entire Tarzan legend preceded the first chapter’s action. Producers immediately realized the potential in this technique created by director Harry Revier and continued it in future serials.
Several actors portrayed the jungle hero in the silent films, but the best known and widely considered ‘authentic’ Tarzan actor also originated the famous live-action Tarzan yell after the silent era -- Johnny Weissmuller. Indeed, Weissmuller’s yell is the voiceprint used by subsequent Tarzan portrayers, though it was not the first Tarzan yell. Frank Merrill gave Tarzan his first yell in Tarzan the Tiger (1929), the only film to use Merrill’s interpretation.
Weissmuller, an Olympic champion, portrayed Tarzan in films including Tarzan’s New York Adventure (1942). He enjoyed the rare distinction of being a world class athlete admired for his accomplishments in the sports arena while also experiencing fame, reverence, and idol worship for his depiction of a beloved character in popular culture.
Three other Olympic medal winners portrayed the Lord of the Jungle in films -- Herman Brix, Glenn Morris, Buster Crabbe. Flash Gordon also benefited from Buster Crabbe’s portrayal on the silver screen, giving Crabbe a two-to-one lead over Weissmuller for Olympic victors turned actors who portray fictional icons in movies. If you count Don Bragg’s unauthorized 1964 Tarzan, the total number of Olympic Tarzans is five.
Other Tarzan appearances in films include Clint Walker’s unauthorized portrayal in Jungle Gents (1954), a film featuring the Bowery Boys. John Derek showcased babe bride Bo in Tarzan the Ape Man (1981). Christopher Lambert starred in Greystoke (1984), though the film does not mention the Tarzan name. Andie Macdowell plays Jane.
Tarzan on Television
Tarzan benefited from the superhero craze of the mid-1960’s ignited by the 1966 launch of the camp television show Batman. On September 8, 1966, Ron Ely debuted as the Lord of the Jungle in NBC’s Tarzan. Jane did not appear in the show. It lasted two seasons.
Twenty-five years later, Wolf Larson played the role in Tarzan, a syndicated version premiering in 1991. This Tarzan incarnation lasted one season. It differed from the 1960’s show. Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh explain in The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946 -- Present.
There were a number of differences between this environmentally correct series and the first TV version of the Edgar Rice Burroughs classic. Unlike his glib predecessor, this Tarzan had had no formal schooling and spoke halting English. Episodes dealt with polluters, smugglers, and other criminals; natural disasters; injured and sick travelers; and the wild animals, including Tarzan’s pet chimp Cheetah, with which he had a unique way of communicating.
In Fall 1996, SeaGull Entertainment unveiled Tarzan: The Epic Adventures. It was the latest in syndicated television portrayals of mythical heroes, following the success of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess. Joe Lara reprises the title role he first played seven years prior in the CBS tv-movie of the week, Tarzan In Manhattan (1989).
Tarzan: The Epic Adventures adds to a Tarzan revival of sorts during this period. It came on the heels of Dark Horse Comics’ Tarzan stories.
Tarzanimation
Saturday morning animation incarnations of Tarzan aired on CBS during the 1970’s and 1980’s. Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle (1976-77) aired for one season as did the Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour (1977-78). Hal Erickson details the former show in his 1995 book Television Cartoon Shows, 1949-1993.
To allow for reasonable smoothness of movement (at least in the opening-credits sequence), Filmation traced its artwork over live-action footage of a male athlete; this extra care was complemented by above-average background art. In keeping with the dramatic value of his physique, the cartoon Tarzan was cast in the cartoon-superhero mode, fighting on the side of Virtue with the obligatory animal mascot, Nikima the spider monkey. Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle was consistently fun to look at, but less enjoyable when it came to its penny-dreadful dialogue and plotlines.
Tarzan and the Super 7 (1978-80), a ninety-minute program, consisted of the following seven segments:
* Tarzan
* Batman and Robin
* Freedom Force (featuring Hercules, Isis, Super Samurai, Merlin, Sinbad)
* Superstretch and Microwoan
* Moray & Manta (underwater crimefighters)
* Web Woman
* Jason of Star Command (live-action segment set in outer space featuring Jason, a trainee with interplanetary police force Star Command)
In the early 1980’s, the Lord of the Jungle combined with the Masked Rider of the Plains for an animated, action-packed hour. The Tarzan/Lone Ranger Adventure Hour (1980-81) and The Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour both aired on CBS.
Tarzan, King of the Jungle
Steve Armstrong once maintained the Edgar Rice Burroughs web site www.tarzan.com. Armstrong opined, Tarzan is a moral hero. If someone crosses him or his environs, Tarzan seeks justice. Audiences respond to these types of characters. They want justice to prevail -- for the bad guys to lose and for the hero to get the girl.
Like most creators of icons, Burroughs had not even an inkling about the marketing potential. Simply, he tried to sell stories. In How I Wrote the Tarzan Books, Burroughs somewhat humbly explains.
I had good reason for thinking I could sell what I wrote. I had gone thoroughly through some of the all-fiction magazines and I made up my mind that if people were paid for writing such rot as I read I could write stories just as rotten. Although I had never written a story, I knew absolutely that I could write stories just as entertaining and probably a lot more so than any I chanced to read in those magazines.
I knew nothing about the technique of story writing, and now, after eighteen years of writing, I still know nothing about the technique, although with the publication of my new novel, Tarzan and the Lost Empire, there are 31 books on my list. I had never met and editor, or an author or a publisher. I had no idea of how to submit a story or what I could expect in payment. Had I known anything about it at all I would never have thought of submitting half a novel; but that is what I did.