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Brenda Joyce Dies At 92

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Brenda Joyce was a true Hollywood beauty who played in four Tarzan movies from 1945 to 1949. She replaced Maureen O'Sullivan who was scheduled to appear as "Jane" in Tarzan and the Amazons (1945), but Maureen had to take maternity leave to give birth to her daughter Mia Farrow, so RKO hired Brenda Joyce to replace her.

Brenda made her film debut in a 20th Century Fox film of 1939 entitled The Rains Came, starring Tyrone Power and Myrna Loy. One of her fellow cast members was Maria Ouspenskaya, a tiny, wizened, character actress celebrated in horror films such as The Wolf Man, starring Lon Chaney, Jr. She delivered one of my favorite lines in all of cinematic history when she cradled the wolf man's head in her lap, caressed his brow, and murmured in her thick Russian accent: "The way you walk is thorny." Ouspenskaya also appeared as the Amazon Queen in Tarzan and the Amazons which was the first Tarzan film to star Brenda Joyce. The two actresses had been friends for at least six years, and one suspects they were very close. When Brenda left films in 1949 with Tarzan's Magic Fountain starring Lex Barker, she spent many years working for poor immigrants, finding them jobs and places to live.

Brenda's real name was Betty Leabo, and she made two dozen movies under her stage name before retirement. She died on July 4, 2009, of pneumonia at the age of 92, and The New York Times reports, without giving particulars, that she is survived by a son, two daughters, and three grandchildren. Tarzan film buffs will remember her portrayals of "Jane" in three Weissmuller films: Tarzan and the Amazons (1945), Tarzan and the Leopard Woman (1946), and Tarzan and the Mermaids (1948) as well as with Lex Barker in Tarzan's Magic Fountain (1949). Even though her life continued for sixty years after bowing out of films, her fans will remember her as she looked during her film career, young, blond, and beautiful. May she rest in peace. 

... "Ye Editor"

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Tarzan The Mighty Found At Last

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A fifty-year search for the 1928 Tarzan serial Tarzan the Mighty is finally over. A copy was recently found in England and is being sent to the Burroughs Memorial Collection in August, 2009. This rare serial stars Frank Merrill and Natalie Kingston (pictured below), with Bobby Nelson as the little boy.

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Frank R. Paul Art Book Published

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The first and only book on the life and art of the Grandfather of science-fiction illustration. The book is edited with an Introduction by Stephen D. Korshak, a Preface by Sir Arthur C. Clarke, a Foreword by Jerry Weist and Roger Hill, and essays by Gerry de la Ree, Sam Moskowitz, Forrest J Ackerman, and a Paul Bibliography by Frank Wu. 

The book, although not part of a series, is a resurrection by the legendary publisher Erle Melvin Korshak of the original Shasta line of science-fiction books of the 1940s and 1950s. The book can be ordered at shasta-phoenix.com or budsartbooks.com.

Hardcover Trade Edition
Boards with a full cloth binding, dust jacket, and illustrated fullcolor endpapers (128 pages, 1,000 copies).
Hardcover ISBN 978-0-9800931-1-7. $39.95

Deluxe Edition
Includes everything in Hardcover Edition, plus a definitive 12-page Illustrated Index of all Paul’s full-color science-fiction magazine covers and an additional 20 pages of art. The book has a slipcase and deluxe cloth binding (160 pages, 874 copies).
Deluxe ISBN 978-0-9800931-2-4. $59.95

Ultra Deluxe Edition
Includes everything in Deluxe Edition, plus the book comes in a slipcase and is bound in premium leather over 3-mm foam padding and 2-mm board. The Ultra Deluxe Editions has an Illustrated Index of all of Paul's full-color science-fiction magazine covers and 20 pages of additional art. There will be only 126 signed and numbered copies signed by Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen D. Korshak, Jerry Weist and Roger Hill, of which there will be 100 Numbered 1-100 and 26 Alphabetized A-Z. Of the 26 Alphabetized copies, 15 will be available at no additional cost to the first 15 orders received for this Ultra Deluxe Edition. This is the only edition to feature the "Master-Mind of Mars" cover painting as the jacket (shown here) (160 pages, 126 copies).
Ultra Deluxe ISBN 978-0-9800931-3-1. $395.00

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Donald M. Grant (1927-2009)

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Donald M. Grant, publisher of The Golden Anniversary Bibliography of Edgar Rice Burroughs by Henry Hardy Heins, as well as editions of You Lucky Girl! and Marcia of the Doorstep, passed away in Florida on August 19, 2009. The original 1964 edition of the Heins bibliography was revised and republished in 2001, showing Don Grant's devotion to Burroughs fandom. May he rest in peace.