First and Only Weekly Online Fanzine Devoted to the Life & Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs
Since 1996 ~ Over 10,000 Web Pages in Archive
presents
Volume 2874

Tarzan: Lord of the Louisiana Jungle
AL BOHL DOCUMENTARY FILM PROJECT
Q & A
Questions posed by Al Bohl
Answers supplied by
Bill Hillman
(Unreleased work in progress)
1.204.728.4673
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
Central Time Zone

A white man is called a TARMANGANI
(white ape)
A black man is call a GOMANGANI
(black ape)

ERB invented the mangani or ape language and sprinkled the words throughout his Tarzan novels.
In the late ‘30s he formed a young peoples club – THE TARZAN CLAN
http://www.erbzine.com/mag8/0864.html
- based somewhat on the Boy Scout movement.
http://www.erbzine.com/mag17/1795.html

The inspiration for Tarzan was ERB's first hero - John Carter of Mars. . . and of course these two heroes set the mould for a multitude of pulp, comics, radio, TV, film, etc. heroes to come.
The original version of Superman did not fly. Like John Carter he was an alien with muscles better developed and was able to leap great heights as did John Carter on Mars.
Even the Star Wars films were inspired by the ERB heroes.
African fiction, documents by African explorers as well as experiences of real-life feral children may have been some inspiration for the creation of ERB's jungle hero.
http://www.erbzine.com/feral

One big difference is that ERB's two heroes did not rely upon "super" powers or supernatural qualities as many of the others superheroes such as Superman, Captain Marvel and The Shadow evolved into.

Actors portraying Tarzan - in the authorized productions. . . there were numerous other actors in unauthorized films done around the world.
Movies
    * Gordon Griffith 1918 (young Tarzan)
    * Elmo Lincoln 1918, 1918, 1921
    * Gene Pollar 1920
    * P. Dempsey Tabler 1920
    * James Pierce 1927
    * Frank Merrill 1928, 1929
    * Johnny Weissmuller 1932, 1934, 1936, 1939, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1943, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948
    * Buster Crabbe 1933
    * Herman Brix later billed as Bruce Bennett 1935, 1938
    * Glenn Morris 1938
    * Lex Barker 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953
    * Clint Walker 1954 (uncredited, in "Jungle Gents," a Bowery Boys movie)
    * Gordon Scott 1955, 1957, 1958, 1958, 1959, 1960
    * Denny Miller 1959
    * Jock Mahoney 1962, 1963
    * Ron Ely 1966, 1967, 1968, 1970
    * Mike Henry 1966, 1967, 1968
    * Miles O'Keeffe 1981
    * Christophe Lambert 1984
    * Casper Van Dien 1998
    * Tony Goldwyn 1999 (voice of animated Tarzan)
    * Alex D. Linz 1999 (voice of young animated Tarzan)

Radio
    * James Pierce 1932-1934
    * Carlton KaDell 1934-1936
    * Lamont Johnson 1950-1951

TV
    * Gordon Scott 1958
    * Ron Ely 1966
    * Robert Ridgely 1976 (voice, Filmation animated series ~ Danton Burroughs did the Tarzan yell in this series)
    * Joe Lara 1989
    * Wolf Larson 1991
    * Travis Fimmel 2003

STAGE
    * Josh Strickland 2006-2007
    * Ron Link 2007-2009 in the Dutch production
    * Anton Zetterhom 2008. . .

A weekly Webzine/fanzine appears at the site, which features 10-20 new distinct Webpages each week.
These features are displayed in archive
http://www.ERBzine.com/all
This massive site is the largest single tribute site I know of dedicated to a single author's life and works.
The entire site may be searched by inserting appropriate keywords in the internal Google search engine displayed on the opening and archive pages.

About 10 years ago Danton Burroughs of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. in Tarzana, California discovered the work I was doing on the ERBzine Tribute site and enlisted me to create and maintain the official ERB, Inc. Websites which now include:
http://www.dantonburroughs.com
http://www.tarzan.com
http://www.tarzan.org
http://www.barsoom.com
http://www.pellucidar.org
http://www.erbzine.com/edgarriceburroughs
http://www.johncolemanburroughs.com
etc.
In addition to the ERBzine weekly fanzine I also publish two weekly and one monthly zine at the Danton, JCB and Tarzan sites.

There are often spin-off meets at the various science fiction/comics/pulp magazine conventions around the world.
The two official annual ERB conventions are ECOF and the Dum-Dum
The doings of both conventions are reported at:
http://www.erbzine.com/dumdum
The Dum-Dum the largest and is hosted by the Burroughs Bibliophiles.
I also maintain and host the Burroughs Bibliophiles Web site at:
http://www.burroughsbibliophiles.com

The Official publication of the Burroughs Bibliophiles is the Burroughs Bulletin which is issued to Bibliophile members four times a year. It is a large attractive glossy publication edited by George McWhorter, curator of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Memorial Collection at the Ekstrom Library - Rare Books in the University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky.
http://www.erbzine.com/bb

George also issues a monthly newsletter - The Gridley Wave - which I release online a month after the print release.
http://www.ERBzine.com/gw
http://www.burroughsbibliophiles.com/gw
Mr. McWhorter also sends content information for each month's Bulletin release which I adapt to an online data base which makes searches of back issues easier.
http://www.burroughsbibliophiles.com/bbindex/

1891-95:  Student, Michigan Military Academy, Orchard Lake, Michigan.
            During summers he worked on his brothers' ranch in Idaho as a cowhand, mail carrier, miner, etc.
1895-96:  Assistant Commandant, Tactical Officer and Cavalry instructor, Orchard Lake.
1896-97:  Private, 7th U.S. Cavalry, Fort Grant, Arizona. Discharged by favor.
1898-99:   Retail book and stationery business, Pocatallo, Idaho.
1899-1902:  Treasurer, American Battery Co., Chicago.
1903-04  Gold mining in the Sweetser-Burroughs operation in Idaho and Oregon.
1904-1905:  Railway Policeman, Salt Lake City, Utah.
1904 to 1908 Temporary jobs included time-keeper ~ light bulb, pencil sharperner and candy sales ~ peddling Stoddard's lectures, Alcola, etc.
1905-1906:  "Expert Accountant," T.J. Winslow Co., Chicago.
1906-1908:  Stenographic Department, Sears, Roebuck Co., Chicago.
1908:  Sales Agency Business, Chicago - including many door-to-door sales jobs
1908-1909:  Magazine ad buyer for Physicians' Co-Operative Association, Chicago.
1909-1911:  Secretary-treasurer, Stace, Burroughs & Co., Chicago
1911:  Secretary and advertising manager, Champlin-Yardley Co., Chicago
 

On May 24, 1896: New recruit, Ed Burroughs,  arrived at Fort Grant, Arizona Territory to join Troop B, 7th U.S. Cavalry. The "Bloody Seventh" had seen action at the Little Bighorn, Wounded Knee and the Chicago Pullman strike. This was the start of many adventures, including a search for the Apache Kid,  separated by long periods of  boredom. He had expected to spend most of his time chasing Apaches but much of his time was spent on guard duty and digging ditches. He passed much of his time sketching and soaking up knowledge about the geography and history of the area.

"There was always a lot of excitement at Fort Grant. The Apaches were coralled at a post not far distant and there were constant rumors of an uprising similar to those led by old Geronimo. The Apache Kid and his band of renegades were giving trouble in the south and Black Jack, the famous bandit, was raiding towns in our vicinity." ~ ERB quote from a 1949 article:
http://www.erbzine.com/mag17/1757.html

On August 29, 1896, after being hospitalized for two weeks and still suffering from dysentery and having been diagnosed with a "tobacco heart" condition, ERB rode out with Troop B in pursuit of the Apache Kid and other renegade Apaches.
 

ERB has been criticized for being long on fantasy and displaying little emphasis on actual science. I dispute this and have listed the many scientific inventions and prophecies that he put into his novels. An examination of this list will show that much of the "fantasy" science that he wrote about has come true.
See:
Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Prophet: Predictions and Images of Future Innovations and Inventions.
Compiled by Bill Hillman
Part I: The Mars Series
http://www.erbzine.com/mag4/0459.html

Part II: The Venus Series
The Fantastic Inventions and Prophesies  Gleaned from the Novels of  Edgar Rice Burroughs
http://www.erbzine.com/mag15/1561.html

The books most likely used by ERB in his research before he brought Tarzan of the Apes to life:
Heroes of the Dark Continent by J.W. Buel (1889)
http://www.erbzine.com/mag18/buel1a.htm
and
How I Found Livingstone in Central Africa by Henry Morton Stanley.   Although this was not a work of fiction, the historic events leading up to his meeting of the great Victorian explorer, Livingstone, seemed almost fantastic. Stanley followed this book with Through the Dark Continent. See the ERB Personal Library section:
http://www.erbzine.com/dan/s4.html
and
Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa (1861) by Paul Du Chaillu
http://www.erbzine.com/mag11/1151.html

The African adventure stories of H. Rider Haggard, including King Solomon's Mines were also most likely an influence.
http://www.erbzine.com/mag6/0665.html

A major influence that has been overlooked was General Charles King who served as commandant at the Michigan Military Academy while ERB was a cadet at that institution. King was a best-selling writer of adventure stories documenting wild west adventures of the US military and the Indian Wars.
See the ERB/King Connection
http://www.erbzine.com/mag12/1268.html

In ERB's own words from the 1932 article: The Tarzan Theme
http://www.erbzine.com/mag0/0058.html
"I recall that when I wrote the first Tarzan story twenty years ago, I was mainly interested in playing with the idea of a contest between heredity and environment. For this purpose I selected an infant child of a race strongly marked by hereditary characteristics of the finer and nobler sort; and at an age at which he could not have been influenced by association with creatures of his own kind. I threw him into an environment as diametrically opposite that to which he had been born as I might well conceive. . . ."

See the personal correspondence between ERB and All-Story editor, Thomas Metcalf at:
http://www.erbzine.com/mag28/2832.html
http://www.erbzine.com/mag28/2833.html
http://www.erbzine.com/mag28/2834.html
http://www.erbzine.com/mag28/2835.html
 

What animal in the story is not indigenous to Africa?
ERB came under considerable flack for placing "tigers" in Africa. He came by this mistake honestly. Since he had never been to Africa his knowledge of the Dark Continent came through his library research. At that time the Boers in Africa call all large cats, tigers. ERB corrected his mistake in the book edition. Sabor, the mangani name he had used to identify the tiger, became the name for a lioness. The male lion was numa.

2009 Dum-Dum host, Richard Spargur, published a book in which he did a line-by-line comparison between the pulp and hardcover versions of Tarzan of the Apes.

He was strongly critical of Hitler and the Nazi's idea of "the master race". . . and wrote a biting satire of these concepts in the Venus novel, Carson of Venus.
His description of the "Zanis" is a biting satire of Hitler's Nazis that would plunge the world into global conflict a few years later.
Unfortunately dull or malicious critics of ERB have taken this satire at face value and have accused him of being a racist.
 

The changes to the book script were modest - mainly the removal of hyphenated adjectives and other words, alternate spellings and punctuation, slight grammatical revisions, added words and sentences for clarity, as well as different or more adverbs and adjectives. In ERB's handwritten manuscript, Lord Greystoke was originally Lord Bloomstoke.

2009 Dum-Dum host, Richard Spargur, published a book in which he did a line-by-line comparison between the pulp and hardcover versions of Tarzan of the Apes.
 

It was reported that 60 ape suits were made from specifications supplied by Darwinian students and Tarzan of the Apes location teams travelled to Manaos, Brazil - Iquitos, Peru - Banff, Canada and  Louisiana. Gathered at the shooting locations were native huts, 1100 native extras, 40 aerial acrobats, four lions, six tigers, several elephants, and 18 apes.  He had to have been impressed and must have felt pride that so much planning and effort were being put into the adaptation of his novel. Ed's dissatisfaction and threatened legal actions over the business dealings with the movie company were assuaged somewhat by substantial royalties and cash advances. Much later after years of frustration he eventually formed his own production company.

"The only animal we had in the whole picture was "Old Charlie," a lion, and I killed him. Other a nimal footage was added to the film when it was edited. The lion I killed was in a scene where the lion was trying to get into a cabin to devour Jane. The lion was doped and tied up. I was supposed to jump on his back and stab him with a knife, but they gave me an old butcher knife to use and the damned thing broke when I tried to stab it.

The next day the tough hided old cat was doped again and they did a retake. That's when I started using a bayonet that I had filed down. This time I was successful in getting through the lions hide with the bayonet. The next scene was to show Tarzan with his foot on the dead lion and pounding his chest as he yelled his victory cry. Then he was supposed to leap across the lion. This caused the dead animal to make a sound which sounded like a roar. I thought "Old Charley" was still alive. I set a new record for the broad jump trying to get away.

Note: Vern Coriell doubted the accuracy of this story until he asked Enid Markey about it and she substantiated the whole thing. Another report has it that Enid Markey, who continued to work in film and TV into the 1960s, had no recollection of the event and it is possible that Lincoln concocted the story at a later date when he had fallen on hard times.

Edgar Rice Burroughs ~ Tarzan's Seven Lives ~

SCREEN PLAY Magazine ~ May 1934

The Broadway premier, organized by Harry Reichenbach, was one of the most successful openings in history. Newspaper reviews were glowing describing the film as a daring spectacle, educational, an unusually entertaining picture, the most thrilling picture ever shown, a production nothing short of marvelous, and the greatest film of the age. An estimated 5,000 people were turned away for the first showing.

How many babies were used in the film and who were they?
 
 
 

Doubling Up?: Filming Louisiana
Country Roads Magazine
http://www.countryroadsmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=197%3Adoubling-up&catid=60%3Amain-page-stories&limitstart=1e 1 of 2

This barn on the grounds of Central Hospital in Pineville will make you think you are in Kansas in the soon to be released movie My Own Love Song. Photo courtesy of the Alexandria Mayor’s Office of Economic Development

How cinematic trickery transforms our beloved Louisiana into something else—and often somewhere else. ??

By JEREMY ALFORD

WEB EXTRA: Click here to see photos from the Louisiana set of My Own Love Song, starring Renée Zellwegger and Forest Whitaker.

The first narrative feature film shot and produced in Louisiana had nothing whatsoever to do with Louisiana. It was 1908 and William Selig, a Chicago magician-turned-movie mogul, was moving around the country and shooting in far-flung locales in an effort to outrun Thomas Edison. And Selig wasn’t the only one—Edison, true to form, was completely paranoid of anyone else using celluloid film to create moving pictures since he partly invented the process and his lawyers were filing suit again anyone infringing on his patent.

New Orleans surfaced as a safe haven, like it often has for everyone from pirates to gangsters, and Selig set up a fly-by-night production company in the Big Easy to shoot a single-reel version of the Faust legend entitled “Mephisto and the Maiden.” It’s a classic German tale where the protagonist makes a pact with the devil in exchange for knowledge, but in the 1908 version, the trade off was for two hours with a particular female character. ?

At the time, south Louisiana was viewed as being among the major American regions that could potentially become a hub for the burgeoning motion picture industry. But a number of factors ranging from weather to politics pushed that dream out of the frame. Instead, the Bayou State had to settle for brief glimpses of starlets and only samplings of life on the set—until recent years, that is, which have given birth to a number of aggressive film tax credits to revitalize interest in Louisiana.

Unbeknownst to Selig and his team, they created a foundation for movies that are actually shot in Louisiana, but appear on the screen as somewhere else. Some folks in the industry call it “doubling,” although you could as easily dub it cheating. For instance, some location scouts swear by a small stretch along Baronne Street in New Orleans that can stand in for a New York City from just the right angle, or a nearby alley that can travel back in time after a few clotheslines are thrown up to mask air conditioners.

In short, it’s that proverbial movie magic we hear so much about; it’s the ability to visually transform a place you’ve seen countless times in the flesh, but recognize it as something and somewhere else as you sit in the darkness of a theater or your living room.

Nowhere else is this better exemplified than in the 1917 version of Tarzan of the Apes, which was partly filmed in Morgan City. It was a watershed moment not only for Louisiana film history, but also national cinema, as this Tarzan feature was among the first movies ever to gross more than a million dollars at the box office. The Atchafalaya swamp served as Tarzan’s jungle and more than three hundred locals were hired on as extras—read: cannibals—for a daily rate of $1.75 each.

The original Tarzan flick left such a footprint, in fact, that Bossier City producer Al Bohl is working on a documentary set for release in 2011. He says the silent motion picture is a fascinating story “with more layers than an onion.” Live apes were used for the shoot and many were left behind when the film wrapped—that nugget alone got Bohl hooked. He says his documentary, entitled Tarzan: Lord of the Louisiana Jungle, hopes to not only find out if there were really monkeys running around the bayous, but also if a real lion was killed on screen (a popular myth).

More recently, funny man Jim Carey portrayed a con man in I Love You Phillip Morris, which was shot in Angola, even though the script calls for a Texas prison. In an interview with SpoutBlog, an industry Web site, Carey said he had no idea what kind of “extras” he was working with inside Angola: “At one point I asked the warden, ‘So, who are we talking about here? We’ve got like a hundred people in this room that we’re in the center of. What are these guys, drug infractions or something?’ He goes, ‘Rapists, murderers.’”

The vibe was considerably less heavy on My Own Love Song, which wrapped up shooting earlier this year. Starring Renée Zellweger and Forest Whitaker, it’s a buddy flick about a wheelchair-bound singer and her best friend’s road trip to Memphis. It could have easily been about a road trip through Louisiana, though. Scenes were shot in Lecompte, Pineville, Cheneyville and Bunkie, all used as backdrops for a story that’s supposed to be told in Kansas—the rolling prairielands were a perfect fit for wheat fields. The crew also filmed for two days in downtown Thibodaux on the corner of Third and Green Street. The so-called paparazzi even caught images, which were well-circulated, of one scene where Whitaker carries Zellweger into and out of Buhlow Lake in Pineville.

Then there are those times where producers and directors are shooting in Louisiana, but it’s the wrong part of the state. Alicia Allain, originally of Brusly, has been there and done that. As a co-producer on The Badge with Billy Bob Thornton in 2001, she had the crew shoot in downtown Baton Rouge with the Mississippi River Bridge in the background when a scene called for downtown New Orleans. Likewise, as a line producer on Lush with Campbell Scott, she pointed her team to the Baton Rouge Garden District when a scene called for NOLA’s Garden District, specifically in the St. Charles Avenue area. “It’s amazing what you can get away with when you put your mind to it,” says Allain.

Louisiana certainly has a rich history of doubling. In Ray with Jamie Foxx, the Louisiana House of Representatives doubled as the Georgia House of Representatives. In The Brooke Ellison Story, Tulane passed for Harvard. In Crazy in Alabama, Houma served as Alabama. A few years ago, there was even an indie film called Anytown that was shot in Baton Rouge—thematically, Red Stick was supposed to be a generic anytown. The picturesque courthouse square in Clinton will soon become for millions of viewers vampire stomping grounds as the ficticious town of Bon Temps in North Louisiana. There was also the forgettable Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, which was shot in Shreveport and made to look like Los Angeles and Cuba at times.

On the horizon, downtown Alexandria becomes Chicago in the thirties for an upcoming production of The Story of Bonnie and Clyde, and additional shooting for the picture is slated for the Felicianas. There’s no doubt that more pictures will be made in Louisiana that aren’t always dependent upon sleepy bayou towns and alligators crossing the road. And that’s a good thing; it shows that Louisiana is a versatile locale to shoot any kind of film, whether it’s a period piece or sci-fi fantastic.

Media Contact: Al Bohl 318-426-8530 al@albohl.com

Tarzan’s Louisiana Connection Explored in Documentary

A documentary film is being made about the 1918 silent motion picture "Tarzan of the Apes" which was shot in Morgan City. Executive producer Al Bohl is working in partnership with the award winning Cinematic Arts Workshop of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette to produce this documentary.  “The making of the original film is a fascinating story,” says Bohl, “with more layers than an onion.”

Mr. Bohl lives in Louisiana and has always been a fan of the Ape man created by Edgar Rice Burroughs.  According to Bohl, years ago a man from Morgan City told him about the film and said live apes had been used in the film and just left behind when the film wrapped. That bit of information was enough to keep the Bossier City native hooked into the story.  However, it wasn’t until the movie industry started coming to Louisiana that Bohl began investigating more into this particular Tarzan film.

“This film was the first feature film made on location in the U.S. and one of the first films to gross one million dollars at the box office,” says Bohl. That is about $25 million in today’s money.  This documentary to be entitled “Tarzan: Lord of the Louisiana Jungle,”  hopes to not only find out if there are monkeys in the bayous but also find out if a real lion was killed on screen and why, of all places, Louisiana was chosen as the place to make the movie.

Bohl and the Cinematic Arts Workshop team will travel throughout the United States interviewing scholars and fans finding these answers and much more.  The project is already stirring interest among Tarzan enthusiasts around the nation and has the blessing of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.  Elmo Lincoln played the part of Tarzan in the first film.  Mr. Lincoln passed away in the 1950s but his daughter has been very excited about this documentary project.

Mr. Bohl would like anyone with first or second hand knowledge of the Morgan City film to contact him through his website www.albohl.com. “I have high hopes that at least one person is still alive and willing to talk to us who was somehow affiliated with the movie made some 90 years ago.  A great find would be an ape costume worn in the movie.  I can always dream,” adds Bohl.
 
 

Tarzan.com	ERBzine.com	DantonBurroughs.com	Tarzan.org
BurroughsBibliophiles.com	JohnColemanBurroughs.com	Tarzan.com/tarzine	JohnCarterOfMars.ca
erbzine.com/edgarriceburroughs	Weekly Webzine	Weekly Webzine	Pellucidar.org
John Carter Film News	ERB, Inc. Corporate Site	ERB Centennial	tarzana.ca