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Since 1996 ~ Over 10,000 Web Pages in Archive
Volume 3399

ECLECTICA v.2011.03

CONTENTS (Part I) 1. Edgar Rice Burroughs : Life and Works 2. ERB and the Press (3-5 continued in Part II) 3. Comics and Art 4. Stage and Screen 5. Cartoon Gallery

A Tarzan fan in Hitler’s pool
French swimmer Therese Blondeau reminisces on her 1936 experience
Reuters ~ April 3, 2011
Three quarters of a century on, Therese Blondeau recalls perfectly Adolf Hitler by the side of a pool watching the French swimmers train before the 1936 Berlin Olympics. "He came almost every day, in his uniform and surrounded by his bodyguards," said 97-year-old Blondeau, believed to be the the last female survivor among the 203 French athletes from the 1936 Games, the most politicised in the history of the Olympics.

In the previous year, France had beaten Germany at swimming and Therese, in the backstroke, and her sister Renee, in the freestyle, had contributed significantly to the French success. "He moved into the gallery and spent a long time assessing us, to see our fitness and whether we would beat the Germans. It was real spying but it didn't really bother me."

Having also competed in Mussolini's Italy, Blondeau is able to offer a comparision of the two dictators. "Hitler was a fighter who wanted to have everything, win everything. Mussolini swaggered more," she said. After holding power for three years, Hitler wanted to make the 1936 Games a symbol of the superiority of the Aryan race and Nazism. Awarded in 1931 to the capital of what was then a democratic country, the Games were instead held under dictatorship from Aug 1-16 1936.

Favourite in the 100 metres backstroke, Blondeau was not at her best in Berlin, having lost her father suddenly just a few weeks before the Games.  She was eliminated in the heats, despite establishing the fourth fastest qualifying time, so took instead the opportunity to discover a little of Hitler's Berlin. The French swimmer also remembers the camaraderie which prevailed among the athletes in Berlin, whatever their nationality and their skin colour. "We were good friends, there was a lot of affection," she said. Towards the end of the Games, Blondeau was invited with other French athletes to a reception hosted by the Fuehrer, but she refused to go.  "We had to meet for an athletes' farewell party, and there was no question I was missing that."

When asked who in her view was the best swimmer of all time, the answer came without hesitation: "Johnny Weissmuller, of course!" The future Tarzan was the first swimmer to dip under a minute in the 100 freestyle and won five medals in two Olympics in the 1920s.  "He was friendly, very normal and, above all, a beautiful boy," Blondeau said, smiling. More>
 
 

LINCOLN, Calif., and LAS VEGAS, Nev. (March 1, 2011) – Tarzan will soon be swinging into action in royal jungle style because Aristocrat Technologies’ new Tarzan® Lord of the Jungle™ video slot game will be making its world premiere at Thunder Valley Casino Resort. Tarzan will soon be swinging into action in royal jungle style because Aristocrat Technologies' new Tarzan(R) Lord of the Jungle(TM) video slot game will make its world premiere at Thunder Valley Casino Resort on March 3 and 4. An invitation-only celebration is scheduled for March 3, and the public is invited to join the fun on March 4, when Tarzan and Jane will greet the public with a range of fun memorabilia and to pose for photographs. Story, photo and video available HERE

DUM DUM GIRLS PERFORM IN BROOKLYN
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/tag/Dum+Dum+Girls

Dum Dum Girls take their minimalism seriously, from their stripped-down girl-group rock to their decision to limit their stage names to a single invented moniker. Singer Dee Dee, guitarist Jules, bassist Bambi, and drummer Sandy barely acknowledged the sold-out crowd at Johnny Brenda's on Saturday night, or each other, for that matter. Dee Dee, whose real name is Kristin Gundred, parted with a few words at the beginning and end of the hour-long set, but other than that, she was all business.

Business, it turned out, was good, good enough to justify the ferocious buzz that has built around the band since it released its first album, I Will Be, last year." [Philadelphia Inquirer]

OUR FRIENDS THE APES

What We Can Learn From the Bonobo
Business Week ~ February 16, 2011
Three main aspects: playfulness, social tolerance, and female bonding. We have an extraordinary opportunity to learn from bonobos, more about our own evolutionary past on one hand, and on the other the incredible diversity of social organization in animals. Bonobos are our evolutionary cousins, that is, we share a common ancestor with them who lived approximately 6 million years ago. Since all the modern human ancestors are extinct, bonobos and chimpanzees are our living closest relatives, the best window we have into our past.

Most of the narratives around human evolution have been informed by what we know from chimpanzees, not from bonobos—since we know relatively little about them and most studies come from captivity, not from the wild. Chimpanzees are well-known for being toolmakers, hunters, patriarchal, aggressive, political, and strongly hierarchical. Bonobos on the other hand are female-dominated, much more socially tolerant, with lessened and more flexible hierarchies, playful throughout their lives, peaceful both within and between groups.

Bonobos are highly sexual creatures. Their use of sex is multidimensional: It is seen in contexts as varied as highly tense situations around food competition, bonding, play, and so on. A primatologist once said that "chimpanzees resolve sexual issues with power; bonobos resolve power issues with sex." In addition to variety in context, partner combination is also incredibly varied: There is adult male/adult female sex, of course, but in addition there is female-female, male-male, and also adult-infant sex. Much of adult-adult sex happens in stress-related situations (such as just before and during feeding), and a lot of infant sex seems to have elements of playful exploration (such as a game of chase in which a young female held a male literally by the balls as he laughed). But these are generalizations—bonobos' sexual behavior always surprises. More>>>

Isabel Behncke: Evolution's gift of play, from bonobo apes to humans
A Video at TED
With never-before-seen video, primatologist Isabel Behncke Izquierdo (a TED Fellow) shows how bonobo ape society learns from constantly playing -- solo, with friends, even as a prelude to sex. Indeed, play appears to be the bonobos' key to problem-solving and avoiding conflict. If it works for our close cousins, why not for us?

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Jane Goodall at Penn State: 'We Seem to Have Lost Wisdom'  State College ~ March 25, 2011  I do believe we've inherited aggressive tendencies," Goodall said, saying she thinks that humans and chimps share a common ancestor.  Her talk spanned a gamut -- from her youth in England and research in Africa to environmental conservation -- before she opened the floor to 15 minutes of audience questions. She spoke gently but with self-deprecating humor, at one point announcing her onetime love -- as a 10-year-old -- for Tarzan. "And what does he do?" Goodall said. "He married another stupid, wimpy Jane." Accompanied on stage by a small, gray toy animal in the shape of a chimp, she greeted the crowd with a chimp call before launching into her remarks. She began to wind down her presentation with a somber assessment of deforestation, climate change, pollution and consumption of natural resources. More>>>

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The real-life Tarzan of Australia's deep north
BorderMail.com ~ April 2, 2011

Michael Fomenko in Northern Queensland. .

1959 photo showing Michael Fomenko "Tarzan"  with the mission natives who rescued him.

The Secret Language of Elephants
Research To Create An Elephant "Dictionary"
CBS News - 60 Minutes ~ January 10, 2010


Elephant stereoview from the 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition "Elephants communicate in a complicated, sophisticated language that scientists are trying to decipher and compile into the world's first elephant dictionary. When we heard that this is all happening in one of the most magical places on Earth - a remote clearing in Central Africa where forest elephants, the rarest, most mysterious, and most threatened member of the species congregate - we simply had to go. . . . What you can't hear, are the elephants. But that doesn't mean they aren't talking."

More>>>

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