Erbzine.com Homepage
Official Edgar Rice Burroughs Tribute and Weekly Webzine Site
Since 1996 ~ Over 10,000 Web Pages in Archive
Presents
Volume 5365

Eclectica Archive
Edgar Rice Burroughs

ECLECTICA v.2015.06

Eclectica Archive
All-New Illustrated ERB Adventures ~ Subscribe Now

www.edgarriceburroughs.com/comics

www.ERBzine.com/dumdum
Order Now!

The Martian Legion
Order Now!

Back to the Stone Age ~ ERB, Inc. Ed.
Order Now!

.Amazon.com
Order Now!

Amazon.com
ART
For more see our ERB Art Encyclopedia
www.ERBzine.com/art 
Korak cover art from Europe

Art by by Lopez Espi  ~  Submitted by Ron de Laat


From the  Neal Adams Portfolio series.


Frank Frazetta's Anatomy Sketchbook

Art by Virgil Finlay


ARTICLES
A New Home for Tarzan History in Oak Park and River Forest
oprfhistory.org

https://youtu.be/7B5LxmLwJxk
Tarzan of the Apes.  You know the guy.  Hangs out in the jungle with Jane.  Yells a lot.  Well, the two have had enough (sorry Cheetah!).  The tree house is packed up, and they’re heading home to the western suburbs of Chicago. We’re creating new digs for the two in a cool, historic firehouse that will be home for lots of major hometown celebs with cool stories of their own.  Some are alive (Ludacris), some not (Ernest Hemingway), some animated (D’oh!) and a few are just downright yummy (Twinkies, anyone?).

The Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest (that’s us!) needs your help to finish rehabbing the landmark Cicero Fire House.  We are seeking $200,000 to pay for a cleaner, greener geothermal energy HVAC system and fire protection for the building.  The funds will offset the loss of two Illinois Department of Natural Resources grants suspended due to the state's financial crisis.  The funds will help us complete a fitting showcase for our amazingly long list of legendary locals, including:
Edgar Rice Burroughs – writer and Tarzan’s creator
Joe Tinker – Cubs shortstop from the team’s last World Series win in 1908
Cecily Strong – Saturday Night Live cast member
Ray Kroc – the man behind McDonald’s fast food empire
Dan Castellaneta – actor and voice of Homer Simpson
Dr. Carl Rogers – world-renowned psychologist
Doris Humphrey – innovator of American modern dance
Chris Ware – widely regarded cartoonist and graphic novelist
Frank Lloyd Wright – legendary Prairie School architect
Percy Julian – groundbreaking chemist and civil-rights pioneer

Demo inside is almost complete, and in the process we’ve uncovered plenty of finds that have been hidden for decades.  We found the original holes in the ceiling for the two fire poles, but not the poles themselves (have a fire pole handy you’re not using?). Also discovered the original bead board on the ceiling and walls, covered up by drop ceilings and plaster.

Once we’re down to the interior essentials, work will begin on the critical building systems and improvements that will transform the firehouse into a modern museum space for learning and storytelling.  Phase two of the restoration moves outside for the restoration of missing 1898 exterior elements like the massive fire doors and hinges, the ornate pediment at the top of the fire house displaying “Cicero Fire Co. No. 2”, as well as the decorative cornice and brick driveway.

History on Fire: A New Home for History in Oak Park and River Forest– from firehouse to history museum.  Join us as we build a home for the amazing legends of Oak Park & River Forest—it’s time to share their stories with the world.

For more info go to:  oprfhistory.org

 Demolition begins on unfounded Lake Elsinore 'Tarzan House'
The Associated Press ~ June 19, 2015
Demolition has begun on the crumbling ranch house known as the "Tarzan House" in Lake Elsinore. The Riverside Press-Enterprise reports (http://bit.ly/1BnpuNM ) that the graffiti-ravaged house that local legend said was visited or lived in by Johnny Weissmuller, who starred in Tarzan movies in the 1930s and '40s is being dismantled. An architectural historian found no tangible evidence that Weismuller was ever at the home. The City Council in April reversed its previous position that the house should be preserved. The property owner, Spyglass Ranch, is razing the 80-year-old home and other old buildings in return for building a park for the community. Spyglass plans to erect more than 1,000 homes on the hillsides surrounding the decaying buildings.
LAKE ELSINORE LANDMARK DEMOLITION
What: Removal of ranch house, known locally as the "Tarzan House," and related structures
When: Work started Wednesday, June 17, and should continue for 7 to 9 working days
Where: Hilltops overlooking Interstate 15/Main Street junction
Why: 80-year-old building and out structures are dilapidated, continually vandalized and deemed historically insignificant
Legend: Locals associated the property with Olympics swimming hero and Tazan actor Johnny Weissmuller, though the connection cannot be proven “Tarzan House” is finally coming down.

Work crews this week began dismantling the 80-year-old adandoned ranch house overlooking downtown Lake Elsinore, an edifice long mythologized by locals as a haunt of legendary Tarzan actor and 1920s Olympics swimming hero Johnny Weissmuller. “I think it’s about time. It’s in disrepair,” said Dennis Feidner, project manager for SoCal Sandbags Inc., which has overseen the property for at least a decade and is performing the demolition. “It gets graffitied nonstop,” he said. “It’s an eyesore.”

Situated on property earmarked for suburban development, the residence and related structures, including a swimming pool, were built by oilman A.J. Delaney in the 1930s and owned by a series of subsequent investors. They had been designated until recently for preservation. But a historical analysis concluded there was no proof of a connection to Weissmuller and the brick and stucco architecture had no enduring significance. The city agreed to let the property owner, Spyglass Ranch, tear them down, a project that will take place over the next week or so. Spyglass plans to erect more than 1,000 homes on the hillsides surrounding the decaying buildings. Spyglass representatives have agreed to incorporate a 6.5 acre park, including numerous recreational features, into their project as compensation for razing the structures.

The buildings still strike a nostalgic chord among longtime residents. The property, featuring extraordinary views of the lake and mountains, conjures up the city’s past grandeur, when investors envisioned the area as a resort akin to what Palm Springs would eventually become. “It’s really a beautiful property,” said SoCal employee Don Casas. “I would have loved to see this place in its glory day.”

The ranch house still evidences some of its original design features, such as Mission-inspired archways, chain-operated window panels, a food and wine cellar and outdoor baking ovens. The walls, however, are marred by graffiti both inside and out. “We had to come up here about every week to cover it up,” said company owner Peter Rasinski, estimating tens of thousands of dollars were spent on the effort.

Feidner said all the materials except the foundations would be removed and recycled, including the roofs’ clay tiles. They will most likely be ground into material used on the dirt sections of baseball infields, he said. The slabs must stay in place to prevent slope collapse.

Save the Tarzan House
Web Ref

Effort Started to Stop Demolition of Legendary Tarzan’s Home says Save Tarzan’s House founder Elsinore, California, USA – April 21, 2014 – Renewed effort to preserve local legends is the new effort to Save Tarzan’s House in Elsinore, California.

“This legendary Tarzan hang is worth preserving in any way possible” says Roy Jimenez, founder of the “Save Tarzan’s House” Support Fund via Rockethub.com. 62-year-old Roy Jimenez has been spending his attention in saving the Legendary Tarzan’s house atop a hill, about to be developed into 1,035 homes.

Everybody wants to save legends and historic buildings, but latest word is that developers want to tear down Tarzan’s house to make way for a home development. "There comes a time when legends and Americana crosses path with developers”, says Mr. Jimenez, "but when it comes to saving older historical or places of legend, it easier to tear them down or let the place catch on fire”,”than to preserve legends of which history is made of and about”. ” I have started a Direct Public Support Fund via Crowdfunding portal “Rockethub.com”.

In recent years, historical and legendary places of Pop Culture have disappeared by fire or demolition; due to lack of funds. Such is the case for Tarzan’s house for over 20 years: no funds to preserve this old house of a legend. Recent efforts in late April, 2014, include an offer to purchase the old Tarzan’s house by Roy Jimenez. As of this date no written response from the developer Spyglass Ranch,LLC. Jimenez, decided to lend a helping hand by spearheading to preserve the Tarzan’s house legend. Recent regulatory guidelines on Direct Public Offering/Crowdfunding, would allow for direct public support (donations) of a great cause or social project. There are rules, full disclosure up front, no exchange of ownership, gifts of appreciation are commonly given upon the close of the funding period.

Roy further reveals, there are three options to Save Tarzan’s house: 1. Purchase and preserve Tarzan’s house where it now sits on three acres. 2) Relocates the house to another historical or willing site to rebuild Tarzan’s house or 3) the developer will demolish Tarzan’s house and plant a green zone over it. I prefer to “save Tarzan’s house”, says Roy Jimenez, “this international social experiment is what legends are made of” “the legend of Tarzan’s house is worth preserving: at all cost”

The funds can be raised via the Rockethub.com portal; with the peoples support: together we can “save Tarzan’s house” and preserve for future generations.
 
 

On Sunday, June 14, 1914, the New York Times mentioned Edgar Rice Burroughs and Tarzan for the first time. "The New York Times Review of Books: One Hundred Books for Summer Reading" included ERB’s forthcoming TARZAN OF THE APES. Of course, TARZAN OF THE APES had appeared in "The All-Story" magazine in 1912, but the book was due for release on June 17, 1914. The Times would publish a more formal (but hardly longer) review on July 5.
The Times paragraph suggested a certain skepticism: “The author has evidently tried to see how far he could go without exceeding the limits of possibility.” Nevertheless, there it is.
~ Submitted by Rick Barry
Tarzana: The suburban home of a famous jungle lord
lacartemag.com ~ June 3, 2015 ~ J.R. McConvey
Photo: Tarzana Cultural Centre
Despite his leopard-skin loincloth and taste for raw meat, Tarzan is one of our culture’s most enduring characters. The muscled vine swinger was introduced to the world in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 1912 novel, Tarzan of the Apes. Since then, more than 50 million Tarzan books have been sold worldwide, and to this day the silver screen is never without him for long: 2013 saw the release of an animated Tarzan film, and there’s a new live-action version slated for 2016, starring Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård.

Yet few people know that the king of the jungle grew up in a quiet suburb of Los Angeles.

Tarzana is a pleasant little town in the San Fernando Valley, about 40 kilometres from downtown L.A. In the early 20th century, it was primarily a farming and cattle ranching area, 550 acres of which belonged to General Harrison Gray Otis, the first publisher of the Los Angeles Times.

The town’s modern history, however, began in 1919, when Burroughs bought those acres from Otis, and began building his home and writing quarters, which he named Tarzana Ranch in honor of his creation. In 1922, the author started subdividing the remaining land into plots for sale, promoting the “Tarzana Tract” as “the pride of the beautiful San Fernando Valley,” with everything to make an “ideal home life: High elevation, water, gas, electricity, paved streets …”

By 1928, the town had enough residents to vote on a name for the community. Taking a cue from its most famous export, they settled on Tarzana.

Today, Tarzana is worth a look if you’re in need of respite from L.A.’s glitzier neighbourhoods. Nestled along Ventura Boulevard, just west of Encino, it’s a short drive to Topanga Canyon State Park, which extends south to the Pacific Coast Highway and the beach communities of Malibu and Santa Monica. On Tarzana’s main strip, fans of the Coen Brothers’ movie The Big Lebowski can grab an In-N-Out Burger (technically in adjacent Woodland Hills) and head over to the Corbin Bowl to throw a few rocks. Star-gazers might haunt local spots such as The Little Café or Sol y Luna, in hopes of glimpsing famous denizens like Iggy Azalea, Selena Gomez, filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson or the model Fabio (who’s appeared as Tarzan on six book covers). You can cruise by the old Can-Am Recorders building on Oxnard Street, where Guns N’ Roses recorded part of Appetite for Destruction, and which for a time in the mid-1990s was the home of Death Row Records.

The best way to spend an afternoon in Tarzana, though, is visit the Tarzana Community and Cultural Centre, a small Spanish-style building on a piece of unlikely parkland at the southeast corner of Ventura and Vanalden avenues.

The centre is home to the Tarzan Museum, a modest but fascinating collection of memorabilia related to the town’s namesake. Here, you can find old Tarzan action figures, board games, VHS tapes, publicity stills and dozens of editions of Burroughs’ many Tarzan books. (Tarzan the Magnificent!Tarzan Triumphant! Tarzan and the Ant Men!) There’s even a framed $75 cheque that Burroughs wrote to establish the Tarzana Post Office.

Kevin Taylor, executive director of the centre, says it’s a common misconception that Burroughs actually lived in the house where the museum is located. (The author’s hacienda was further south, in the hills of what’s now Tarzana’s most affluent residential area.) With tongue in cheek, Taylor also points out that Tarzan himself never swung from the branches of the centre’s tall pines. People in town have fun with its history, though: While I’m visiting, a member of the local business association pops in, her cellphone playing a jungle-ready bongo ring tone.

In fact, this humble monument to the mighty ape lord only exists thanks to the efforts of Tarzana residents. For much of the 1980s, the land on which the centre stands was a commercial statuary. In the early ’90s, it was sold to developers who planned to build a huge storage facility on site. That didn’t sit well with locals, who thought it wouldn’t fit with the town’s character. A sizable charitable donation allowed for the establishment of a foundation, which in turn raised enough money to buy the property and set up the Tarzana Community and Cultural Centre.

Today, it’s a not-for-profit venture that hosts community events, art shows and garden tours. One of the latest projects is cultivating a garden of native plants, as a symbolic way to join efforts to conserve water in the drought-stricken state.

You have to assume that Tarzan — who, after all, was a defender of nature long before it was de rigueur — would be proud.

More about Tarzana on our Companion Site
www.tarzana.ca 


PHOTOS


Reunion of the Tarzan Actors


From 1953-1962, the French Editions Mondiales had their own magnificent Tarzan publicity vehicle
following the famous annual prestigious bicycle race "Tour De France", from town to town.
Two large loudspeakers, situated under the lions paws, produced the Tarzan yell over and over.
The driver and his companion were dressed up in safari outfits.
The gigantic Tarzan figure was made out of glass fibre.

~ From Rob Donkers
FANFIC
For more, click on the FANDOM link in every ERBzine logo
TARZAN: Return to Pal-ul-don
June 4, 2015
Altus Press is proud to announce the first new Tarzan novel in several years!

Written by the prolific adventure writer, Will Murray, author of The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage series, Tarzan: Return to Pal-ul-don is an authorized sequel to one of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ most celebrated Tarzan novels, Tarzan the Terrible. “Having been an Edgar Rice Burroughs fan since 1968,” says Murray, “the opportunity to bring this iconic character back to life means a great deal to me. I’ve pulled out all the stops to faithfully replicate the storytelling style of the great Edgar Rice Burroughs and recreate the original era of Tarzan of the Apes.”

During World War II, John Clayton, Lord Greystoke has just completed flight training with the Royal Air Force when his superiors assign him to a secret mission: Locate the enigmatic British Military Intelligence operative codenamed Ilex, whose plane has gone down in a vast primeval wilderness that only Tarzan of the Apes dares brave. Flying Officer Clayton does not suspect that his superiors harbor an ulterior motive for assigning him this dangerous mission. Before it’s all over, the Lord of the Jungle will plunge into his wild past and confront dangers both familiar and unfamiliar in the prehistoric lost land where carnivorous triceratops and saber-tooth tigers roam.

Jim Sullos, President of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., notes, “We couldn’t be more pleased to have such a talented writer as Will Murray write a sequel to one of Mr. Burroughs’ Tarzan novels. The pace is fast and the suspense never lets up, just what a reader expects when following the adventures of our Ape-Man.”

Tarzan: Return to Pal-ul-don features a startling cover illustration by award-winning artist Joe DeVito, who executes the covers for Altus Press’ Wild Adventures of Doc Savage series.
“It is always a treat painting covers for Will’s Doc Savage adventure yarns,” says DeVito. “And now, Tarzan, the granddaddy of all the great action-adventure characters. After sculpting the Centennial Tarzan statue for ERB, Inc. in 2012, I was hoping to get a crack at a Tarzan painting as well. This book provided an opportunity to combine them both!”

Altus publisher Matt Moring adds, “As a long-time fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs––beginning with the quest to put together a complete collection of ERB's Ace paperbacks many years ago–-it’s almost unbelievable that I’d one day be able to say that I’d actually publish an authorized Tarzan novel. And based on Will's long track record, there can be no doubt that this will be an epic story.”

Tarzan: Return to Pal-ul-don will be released in paperback in June, to be followed by a deluxe hardcover edition with a wraparound cover and a bonus Tarzan short story by Gary A. Buckingham, “Tarzan and the Secret of Katanga,” a sequel which ties into the lead novel. There will also be an e-book edition released in all popular formats.


Find it at your local bookstore or through
Amazon.com



http://www.amazon.com/Edgar-Burroughs-Jungle-Tales-Tarzan/dp/1616557443
Edgar Rice Burroughs' Jungle Tales of Tarzan Hardcover – June 16, 2015
by Martin Powell (Author), Michael R Hudson (Creator), Various (Illustrator), Robin Maxwell (Introduction)

SCREEN
For full coverage of all ERB films see 
ERBzine Silver Screen
www.hillmanweb.com/movies
George McWhorter - instigator and curator of the marvellous Edgar Rice Burroughs Memorial Collection at the University of Louisville -
has a most appropriate namesake:
The main character in the H.G. Wells Comedy: THE MAN WHO COULD WORK MIRACLES is George McWhirter.
Our ERB George has indeed worked miracles throughout his illustrious life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Could_Work_Miracles
The Man Who Could Work Miracles is a 1936 British fantasy-comedy film.
It is a greatly expanded version of H. G. Wells’s story of the same name.
Roland Young as George McWhirter Fotheringay
Watch it on TCM Turner Classic Movies


Now read about the 
REAL GEORGE McWHORTER 
www.ERBzine.com/mcwhorter


The latest update to our Tarzan's Secret Treasure Silver Screen Feature
Lobby Display Page II
http://www.erbzine.com/mag6/0621b.html

CARTOONS
See all our past-featured cartoons at:
www.erbzine.com/cartoons



Thanks to the success of Tarzan: Lost in Pal-ul-Don, a writer is hired to author
a sequel for ERB's Back to the Stone Age:


Many of this edition's cartoons were suggested by contributor John "Bridge" Martin.
BackForward

BILL HILLMAN
Visit our thousands of other sites at:
BILL AND SUE-ON HILLMAN ECLECTIC STUDIO
All ERB Images© and Tarzan® are Copyright ERB, Inc.- All Rights Reserved.
All Original Work © 1996-2015 by Bill Hillman and/or Contributing Authors/Owners
No part of this web site may be reproduced without permission from the respective owners.