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Eclectica Archive

ECLECTICA v.2016.11

Eclectica Archive

Actor and director Lamont Johnson was born in Stockton, CA on September 30, 1922. He began his acting career as a child actor on Let’s Pretend.

One of his biggest roles was as Tarzan in the 1951 radio series. Johnson could also be heard on Dragnet, Escape, and The Whistler. In the late 1950s, Johnson embarked on a new chapter of his career as a director.

He helmed episodes of Peter Gunn, The Twilight Zone, and The Name of the Game, among others. Johnson won two Emmy Awards for directing the miniseries Wallenberg: A Hero’s Story and Lincoln. His directing career extended from 1955 to 2000.

Listen to his Interview on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XEN_m3wf5o

Alexander Skarsgard and Mother

Jock Mahoney, Joe Lara, Denny Miller, Kim Crosby (Jane)  and Gordon Scott promoting Lara's new series

Today's Jane

Sporty Johnny in Colour

YESTERYEAR

How John Carter reached Mars www.johncarterofmars.ca

Dejah of Old

FAMILAR FACES

Happy Birthday Cathy Mann Wilbanks A Thomas Yeates Original Birthday gift from Janet Mann www.tarzan.org/yeates

Danton Burroughs  At the Burroughs home on Catalina www.DantonBurroughs.com

Princess Cathy Photo by Martin Powell

Al and Doris Bohl from a few years back Long-time ERB fans, researchers and filmmakers www.erbzine.com/mag28/2892.html

James of Helium www.erbzine.com/mag35/3557.html

Ray Palmer www.erbzine.com/mag19/1930.html

Bradbury by Caniff www.erbzine.com/mag37/3734.html

Serial Heroes

Pirates of Venus by Samuel Cahan in Argosy


Trip back to Va-Nah

Mike Hoffman www.erbzine.com/mag39/3948.html

Manuel Sanjulian

Video preview of the Regis Moulun HEROIC sketchbook HERE:

. . . DEEP MEANING IN TARZAN? . . .
Column by Nick Clooney
Cincinnati Post ~ Online Edition
July 2, 2001 A line I wrote six weeks ago has put me crossways of a literary buzzsaw which doubtless carved out a new San Andreas Fault on its path from the left coast to Augusta. The sentence is, ''The passion to find deep meaning in "Superman,' "Batman' and "Tarzan' has escaped me.''

The reference was to the remarkable theater production of ''The Lion King'' which Nina and I had seen in New York. I was decrying the fact that there were so few children in the audience for what is, after all, a children's story. There were several responses to that point of view, some agreeing and others disagreeing, but none had the impact of the letter from my friend Charles Edward Pogue, a fine writer and successful screenwriter in that most difficult of all arenas, Hollywood, Calif. I know him well enough to call him Chuck, and we have shared a panel or two at seminars in recent years.

Chuck sat down and spent a great deal of his time constructing a dissenting point of view. The points are so well-taken and the text so well-written that I will quote extensively from his opinion.

''Allow me to speak a few words on behalf of my pal, Tarzan. I'm not going to quote various scholarly sources or authors as esteemed as Ray Bradbury or Gore Vidal to explain or justify the cultural and literary resonance, the visceral - almost mythical - hold this character has had on our imagination since his inception in 1912.

''While I think there are many riches to be mined from reading Edgar Rice Burroughs, I'll be the first to admit that he was not a great prose stylist, . . . but he was a great storyteller with a fervoured and boundless imagination.

''The deep meaning I found in him is personal. I owe both my literary and cinematic career to Edgar Rice Burroughs.

''When I was about nine or ten, one of the local stations in Cincinnati started showing the old Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies every Saturday afternoon. I was mesmerized. This led me to the books, which I found even better.

''Burroughs led me to Rider Haggard, who led me to Errol Flynn, who led me to Warner Brothers movies which led me to Bogart, who led me to (Raymond) Chandler and (Dashiell) Hammet, who led me to William Powell and Myrna Loy. . . . You get the idea.

''When I wasn't watching a dozen to 20 movies a week, I was prowling through Acres of Books, Ohio Book Store and Neville's Antiques down on Main Street, parting with a precious buck fifty of my allowance to purchase an old Tarzan novel, still in its dust jacket, from the '30s and '40s. . . .

''Today my book collection stands at about six thousand books. The heart of it is fiction - late 19th century to mid 20th century fantasy, adventure, mystery, histories. But Dickens and Twain and Shakespeare and Shaw and Theater and History and Biography and Mythology all proudly share space with Mr. Burroughs. . . .

''(That is part of) of man's discovery of deeper meaning to Tarzan. If you need more, I suggest you jaunt down the road to Louisville.

''The University of Louisville Library has one of the largest Edgar Rice Burroughs collections in the world, and George McWhorter, its curator and publisher of the "Burroughs Bulletin,' can whip up an eloquent defense for Tarzan's literacy merits. . . .''

Tarzan needs no defense, though, if he did, yours is eloquent enough, Chuck. Our entryways into literature were different. I devoured historical novels and, when they got too thin, histories and biographies. My tastes in fiction, not as eclectic as yours, are also, I'm afraid, more pedestrian. Perhaps that is why your writing crackles with imagination while mine is more likely to trace the anatomy of the movies we both love than to break new ground.

But in one particular I better you: My wife has a cousin in central Kentucky whose parents were so caught up in the Burroughs story that they named him Tarzan. Go top that one.

We have a few quibbles with this article but still an interesting look at ERB's influence on Star Wars.
 Why John Carter of Mars
is the original Star Wars film
inafarawaygalaxy ~ March 2, 2014

While Star Wars was really inspired by George Lucas’s love of the Flash Gordon serial, the real inspiration comes from science fiction author Edgar Rice Burroughs. His nearly 100 year old stories about a human that travels to Mars and falls in love with a beautiful princess are often argued as being responsible for the whole ‘green men from mars’ thing and Star Wars...

It is irrelevant that the recent 'based on the books' movie called John Carter flopped at the box office ( I enjoyed it). Of the film itself, Forrest Gump director Robert Zemeckis apparently turned down the chance to direct, quipping "George already pillaged all of that" with the "Star Wars" films. In other words, most of the best elements of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars fantasies had already been "borrowed" for George Lucas' space saga, and just because the film was dismissed by many people, the source material cannot be so easily rejected.

Lucas made no bones about how he was inspired by Rice's work and said in 1977 “Originally, I wanted to make a Flash Gordon movie, with all the trimmings, but I couldn’t obtain all the rights. So I began researching and found where (Flash Gordon creator) Alex Raymond got his idea: The works of Edgar Rice, especially his John Carter series of books."

Indeed, the first draft of the Star Wars follow up, The Empire Strikes Back was written by science fiction author Leigh Bracket. She was quoted as saying “I was introduced to Edgar Rice Burroughs at a very young age . . . That changed the course of my life . . . My fascination for Mars came from the fascination for his Mars.” It's hard then not to see how her influence shaped Star Wars by way of Burroughs.

Some of the influences are plot based. Some are style. Check out this comparison:

Dejah versus Leia
Dejah Thoris, the Princess Of Mars herself, was commonly described and depicted as wearing golden bikinis and showing a lot of skin. Is it a surprise then that ANOTHER princess wore a golden bikini in Return of the Jedi? Probably not, so Good one George.

George also took a bit of 'naming' help from Burroughs. Ever wonder where the word Jedi came from? While it may have an asian language link, the monarchs found on the planet of  Mars are a titled Jed (king), Jeddak (emperor) and Jeddara (empress) respectively. So one can assume Jedi may have come from Edgar Rice. On Barsoom a 'padwar' is a low-ranking officer. This is not too far a stretch from 'padawan', an apprentice Jedi, is it not?

Carter vs Clones

Did you ever see Attack of the Clones? At the end it featured a pretty epic Colosseum battle where Yoda swooped in with his merry band of Clone Troopers so save the luckless Jedi from certain defeat. Did you notice that the John Carter had a similar scene where the hero had to battle chained alien beasts? If you thought John Carter was ripping off Star Wars, think again, Burroughs wrote this scene over 100 years ago!

So, if we accept these elements found in Star Wars are indeed nicked from the stories that Burroughs set on Mars, then it would seem only fair to Disney's John Carter of Mars that it should be recognized as the original Star Wars movie. Or not....

If you want an expert's take, read this.

ERBzine Refs
Leigh Brackett
John Carter of Mars - The Movie
Alex Raymond - Flash Gordon: ERB Connection
A Princess of Mars

https://www.fandompost.com/2016/10/27/tarzan-on-the-planet-of-the-apes-2-review/

Mechanical beast to start parade  The girl meets the Elephant BBC News ~ 5 May 2006 The Sultan's Elephant

Final day of 'elephant' spectacle  Giant mechanical elephant in the Mall BBC News ~ 7 May 2006 The Sultan's Elephant

Parts of central London came to a standstill as crowds flocked to see the climax of a four-day street theatre spectacle that has gripped the city. The tale of the Sultan's Elephant featured a mechanical "time-travelling" elephant, the size of a three-storey house, and a huge puppet girl. She brought the event to an end when she blasted off in a rocket as the elephant bowed before her. The story was played before a backdrop of some famous London landmarks. The departure at Horse Guards Parade was the final twist in an event that has brought delight to adults and children alike.

Jules Verne inspiration
The show began on Thursday morning with the appearance of a crashed spaceship - out of which the 5m tall mechanical girl emerged -- in Waterloo Place, off Pall Mall. Since then the girl puppet and the 42-tonne giant elephant, made of hundreds of moving parts, have paraded through the streets of London, wowing spectators with life-like movements and their intricate design.

Elephant showers girl
The girl takes an outdoor shower watched by hundreds. Visitors could even hear the girl snore and see the elephant breathe as the odd couple slept. The project is the brainchild of one of France's leading street arts company, Royal de Luxe. The Sultan's Elephant has been four years in the planning and is said to be inspired by the stories of Jules Verne, author of Around the World in 80 Days. The event was funded mainly by Arts Council England and the London Development Agency.

---

Crowds have watched a giant mechanical elephant weighing 42 tonnes plodding through the streets of London as part of a four-day street theatre. The 12m (40ft) has marched past landmarks including the London Eye and Trafalgar Square.

It then met up with a 5m tall "girl" in Horse Guards' Parade on Friday afternoon. Several roads will be closed and thousands of people are expected to follow the spectacular procession.

The show began on Thursday morning with the appearance of a crashed spaceship in Waterloo Place, off Pall Mall. It has taken two years to negotiate with all the authorities involved to bring The Sultan's Elephant show to London. Traffic is expected to come to a standstill and roads will be closed as the elephant passes through.

The show, by French arts company Royal de Luxe, tells the story of a sultan and his magical time travelling mechanical elephant. The elephant consists of hundreds of moving parts and is made largely of wood. It will thunder through streets, squares and public spaces, along with scores of performers and some large-scale puppets.

Police advise motorists not to use the routes around Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly and Regent Street over the weekend and some closures are also likely in The Mall and Horseguards Road.

Mechanical elephant  visit looms BBC News ~  4 May 2006 The 'spaceship' in Waterloo Place

Final day of 'elephant' spectacle Giant mechanical elephant in the Mall BBC News ~ May 7, 2006 The Sultan's Elephant

The event began with a spaceship landing in Waterloo Place. A huge mechanical elephant weighing 42 tonnes is due to thunder through central London, closing roads and drawing thousands of spectators. The 40ft elephant will start parading through streets on Friday, part of a four-day street theatre show by French arts company Royal de Luxe. The show began on Thursday morning with the appearance of a crashed spaceship in Waterloo Place, off Pall Mall. "Most people have been intrigued by what's going on," said organisers.

It has taken two years to negotiate with all the authorities involved to bring The Sultan's Elephant show to London. The elephant will make its first appearance on Friday The show tells the story of a sultan from "far off lands" and his magical time travelling mechanical elephant. The elephant is made up of hundreds of moving parts and is made largely of wood. It will thunder through streets, squares and public spaces, along with scores of performers and some large-scale puppets.

Nikki Webb, of Artichoke, which is putting on the event, said the spaceship structure had already caused a stir with Londoners. "I think they have been amazed and there have been plenty of open mouths - one man nearly drove into a lamppost. Most people have been intrigued by what's going on...It's a piece of magic." The show is being funded by the Arts Council England and the London Development Agency, with support from some private funders. It can be really annoying for the city, but at the same time it's a real excitement for the audience.Traffic is expected to come to a standstill and roads will be closed as the elephant passes through.

Jean Luc Courcoult, who set up Royal de Luxe nearly 30 years ago, said putting on a show in London was difficult because they had to seek permission from so many people. He told BBC London: "It can be really annoying for the city, but at the same time it's a real excitement for the audience. "One of the main things in art in general is to create sights and images that remain printed in people's minds." Police advise motorists not to use the routes around Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly and Regent Street over the weekend and some closures are also likely to be closed in The Mall and Horse Guards Road.

Parts of central London came to a standstill as crowds flocked to see the climax of a four-day street theatre spectacle that has gripped the city. The tale of the Sultan's Elephant featured a mechanical "time-travelling" elephant, the size of a three-storey house, and a huge puppet girl. She brought the event to an end when she blasted off in a rocket as the elephant bowed before her. The girl took an outdoor shower watched by hundreds. Visitors could even hear the girl snore and see the elephant breathe as the odd couple slept.

The Sultan's Elephant

Elephant showers girl

Thanks to John Martin for sharing many of these cartoons

BILL HILLMAN
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