Official Edgar Rice Burroughs Tribute and Weekly Webzine Site Since 1996 ~ Over 15,000 Webpages in Archive Volume 7026

1954-07-16 CA Los Angeles Times  picture Cyril Ralph Rothmond_crop

roth02

1960-10-27 CA Los Angeles Times  picture Cyril Ralph Rothmond_crop
 

roth03

1948-12-10 CA Los Angeles Times  picture Cyril Ralph Rothmond_crop

Longtime ERB, Inc. Secretaries: Mildred Jensen and Ralph Rothmund

Ralph and Ed

Cyril Ralph Rothmund Signature ~ ERB, Inc. Secretary

*** 1931: Ralph Rothmund, ERB, Inc. secretary, wrote to United Features again attacking the childish atmosphere of the Sunday pages. Rex Maxon was the artist working on the project. Maxon's series ran from March 15, 1931 through September 20, 1931. At the end of Maxon's run Harold Foster, who had produced a series of daily strips in 1929, was hired to do the Sundays and did an amazing job until May 1937. Maxon carried on with the daily Tarzan strips until August 1947.
    In June of 1927 Cyril Ralph Rothmund, an astute and taciturn Scotsman, had assumed the position of Burroughs secretary and eventually general manager for ERB, Inc. In answering the ad for a secretary, Rothmund believed the organization was the Burroughs Adding Machine Company. In the coming years Ed's dependence upon Rothmund in business matters and in family affairs steadily increased.
    Expanding activities at the Tarzana offices and the increasing complexity of business dealings led to the delegating of increasingly more responsibility to secretary Rothmund.
    By 1933 these duties had grown too heavy for Rothmund alone, and on August 13th of that year a new assistant, Mildred Bernard Jensen, was hired. The presence of these two signaled the end of the old Burroughs tendency to use temporary help and brought in many years of permanence and reliability. Mrs. Jensen worked as stenographer and secretary for ERB for many years. She even  transcribed many of ERB's stories from the wax cylinders of his ediphone and dictaphone.
    ERB had even included Ralph in one of his novels. Burroughs, himself appears in the opening chapter of the first book of his Venus/Amtor series. Carson Napier visits him and secretary Ralph Rothmund in the ERB, Inc. offices in Tarzana. Napier presented his original plan to travel to John Carter's Mars in a rocket ship.
Rex Maxon Sunday Pages
http://www.ERBzine.com/mag8/0819.html
Guide to all the Maxon Tarzan Strips
http://www.ERBzine.com/maxon
Guide to all the Hal Foster Tarzan Strips
http://www.ERBzine.com/foster
ERB Bio Timeline
https://www.ERBzine.com/bio
 

Earlier, probably because ofhis health problems and the occurrence of several heart attacks, Ed wrote an unusual letter to Rothmund.
Dated April 19, 1941, the letter, a mixture of the sentimental and coldly practical, first expressed appreciation for Ralph's friendship and spoke of "what a pleasure it has been to work with you all these years." Ed added, "I often wonder how in Hell you have put up with me."
He then gave instructions to be followed after his death:
My personal desire is that there shall be no funeral and no services. . . . I do insist, though, on cremation and that my ashes be not retained. I think it is possible to carry cremation to a point where no ashes remain. If this is true, that is what I wish; but if there be any residue, I suggest that it be buried under one of the live oak trees in the back pasture; the children will know the one. . . . If my mother's ashes have not been previously disposed of, it might be a good idea to inter them with mine. . . . If arrangements cannot be made to bury my ashes in the back pasture, bury them under the big black walnut tree on my pet lot.
At the bottom of the letter was a brief note, dated four years later:
9 May 1945:
Bury them beside my Mother's under the tree in the office yard.
What I wrote in the first person above more than four years ago about my appreciation of your enduring friendship not only holds today, but could be greatly amplified. Outside of my children, you are unquestionably the bestfriend that I have.
On August 1 2
Ed sent a request to his children, urging them to elect Ralph Rothmund president of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., "and, if the means are available, pay him a salary commensurate with his worth."
He had first considered leaving some stock in the corporation to Ralph, he explained, but had decided the stock should remain in family control. In lieu of this, he suggested that Ralph receive salary increases and bonuses each year, and in the event of his death, that provision be made for his wife.
~ Porges p. 621

 Burroughs, himself appears in the opening chapter of the first book of the series. Carson Napier visits him and secretary Ralph Rothmund in the ERB, Inc. offices in Tarzana. Napier's original plan is to travel to John Carter's Mars in a rocket ship.

Two suggestions:

1) Rather than title this as just some ERB newspaper clippings, I'd title it as newspaper articles related to and helping to inspire the paperback revival of ERB.

2) Put the articles in chronological order and comment that the key ones appeared in many newspapers nationally because they are from syndicated wire services (NY Times, Herald Tribune News Service, etc). In some cases I had a couple copies of a particular article, but just provided the one that looked the best. Supposedly the national story about the librarian accusing Tarzan and Jane of being unmarried was the spark that initiated the revival of interest in ERB in the early 1960's. I have attached pages 2-7 from "The Big Swingers" by Robert W. Fenton, which tells the story of the paperback revival in that way (starting with the paragraph that begins "The three Burroughs heirs..."). In his notes he says that the quotes in footnotes 1 and 2 are from Tarzan and the Golden Lion, and that footnotes 3 & 4 are from "personal information".

Actually I think you could grab the OCR of the Fenton pages to put the text as part of your HTML web page. I think that falls under "fair use".

If you did that your web page would tell the story and be more relevant to the big picture or ERB and his books.

I suppose ERB fans may be old enough and recall reading some of these articles when first published!