Official Edgar Rice Burroughs Tribute Site Since 1996 ~ Over 10,000 Webpages and Webzines in Archive |
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Official Edgar Rice Burroughs Tribute Site Since 1996 ~ Over 10,000 Webpages and Webzines in Archive |
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From The Den Of The Old Tiger DARRELL C. RICHARDSON ECLECTICA |
REMEMBERING THE BURROUGHS FAMILY IN OAK PARK
When I was a kid I knew Edgar Rice Burroughs. They lived in a house, really a mansion, with a ballroom, a garage for three or four cars out back. That was one door south of our home on Grove Avenue. But the Burroughs house was on Oak Park Avenue. They had three children: Joanne, about my sister Florence's age; Jack, about my age; and Hulbert in the middle. Well, Joanne, Jack and Hulbert Burroughs had a big airedale called Tarzan. We used to go over there and play with them. Edgar Rice Burroughs was famous because he was writing books at that time, and we played in their house, particularly upstairs in the ballroom. A bunch of neighborhood kids played there. The dog would be up there with a rope, pulling us all over that slippery floor. Then we played out in the yard, and they had a horse that Joanne (sic) and Edgar Rice used to ride. I remember Mr. Burroughs dressed up in a riding outfit, riding that horse around on the front lawn on Oak Park Avenue. I remember the day they pulled out of the driveway in 1920 when they were on their way to California, and I still have the sled in the basement that Jack Burroughs gave me when he left, because he figured he would nave any use for a sled in California. They backed out of the driveway in their big old touring car and off they went, so the house stood empty for some length of time , and eventually fell into disrepair."From an interview with Mr. and Mrs. David Kettlestrings,
taken from the book "Yesterday When I Was Younger" by Lee Brooke.
From Collier's ~ July 4, 1953
Letter to the Editor from Vernell Coriell, Pekin, Ill.
DCR Note: Being a lifelong Burroughs and Tarzan fan, I greatly enjoyed Thomas Wood's article "He Tarzan -- You Fan" (May 9th). However, I've often wondered where the authors of the various Tarzan articles, and I don't mean just Mr. Wood, got their misinformation. So I've decided to use Mr. Wood's article to do a bit of fact finding.
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1. Collier's and Mr. Coriell agree on the 10 Tarzans, but there have been 14 Janes. Mr. Coriell forgot Ula Holt, who came between Miss Wells and Miss Holm. It was indeed Dorothy Dunbar who played Jane in the picture mentioned. Edna Murphy had the ingenue lead. . . . |
| 2. Universal made the first Tarzan film with sound in 1930, Tarzan the Tiger, and Frank Merrill gave voice to the first Tarzan scream on a sound track. The old fable of the Tarzan cry being a combination of several different sounds was proved false to me when I heard Johnny Weissmuller, disgusted about these reports, give the blood-curdling yell himself. | 2. A recheck of our information discloses that, in spite of Mr. Weissmuller's
demonstration, the Tarzan yell is produced by sound-track tricks. (For
more on this controversy see ERBzine 1482)
. . |
| 3. Elmo Lincoln was not a circus strong man, but a protégé of the late D. W. Griffith. Lincoln appeared in many of the late producer's early film epics prior to his role as Tarzan in the original film, Tarzan of the Apes. Lincoln made three Tarzan films and went on to star in many serial dramas prior to talking pictures. His last part was in a scene with Sir Lawrence Olivier in Carrie. | 3. Reader Coriell is correct.
. . . . . |
| 4. Burroughs did not give James H. Pierce a Tarzan story as a wedding present when he married "one of the author's daughters." Edgar Rice Burroughs had only one daughter, Joan Burroughs Pierce. | 4. Correct again. Mrs. Pierce was the only daughter, and the story of the wedding present, which Tarzan producer Sol Lesser told to Thomas Wood, was the result of misinformation. What Burroughs did give the newlyweds was a house and a lot. |
| 5. Tarzan has been married on the screen, in The Son of Tarzan. Here is a scene from the film picturing Tarzan in marriage to Jane Porter, as portrayed by P. Dempsey Tabler and Karla Schramm. | 5. Below, thanks to Mr. Coriell, is photographic proof of Tarzan's
nuptials. The film was made made in 1922.
. |
REVIVAL OF THE TARZAN MYTH by JERRY BUCK
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle ~ Wednesday, November 14, 1972
TARZANA, Calif (AP) -- Tarzan is 60 years old and going stronger than ever.The Edgar Rice Burroughs creation of the ape man is in the midst of a revival that started in France, spread to other European countries, to Japan, and back to the United States.
New reprints of the 26 Tarzan books in 16 languages, an art book edition of Tarzan of the Apes, comic strips, merchandising, toys and advertising gimmicks will push the royalty payments to Burroughs' heirs to several million dollars this year. In addition, numerous magazines are published by Tarzan cultists.
The 1972 income will be the highest ever since the first Tarzan book in 1912, said Bob Hodes, general manager of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., located in a section of Los Angeles named for the ape man in 1930.
The company is housed in an old Spanish-style building Burroughs built on the 550-acre Tarzana Ranch -- since broken up -- and is controlled by his children, John Coleman Burroughs, Hulbert Burroughs and Joan Burroughs Pierce, and a grandson, Danton Burroughs. The copyright would have expired in 1986, but Congress, in the process of reviving the Copyright Act, has extended all copyrights.
Not only is the myth of Tarzan undergoing a revival, but Burroughs himself is being elevated to a critical position he never enjoyed before his death in 1950.
In his lifetime Burroughs was regarded as a pulp writer of escapism, and many libraries banned his books. Hulbert Burroughs said, "During the important years of his life when he was writing, Dad had the hell panned out of him by the critics. He never took himself seriously, but I felt the things the critics said hurt him."
But critics are beginning to find new meaning in his works. Some French critics have compared Tarzan to Rousseau's concept of "the natural man." The works of Burne Hogarth, who drew the Tarzan comic strip from 1937 to the mid-50s and was the artist for the new art book, have been displayed at the Museum of Decorative Arts at the Louvre in Paris.
Burroughs also is being taken seriously as a writer of science fiction books. Sam Moscovitz, writing in his book Under the Moons of Mars, the original title of Burroughs' A Princess of Mars, said Burroughs humanized science fiction, brought story-telling qualities to it and turned it away from the "flashing light" school of science fiction.
A new book, Tarzan Lives, contends that Burroughs was not writing fiction at all. And Esquire magazine published an article this year with the real Tarzan, Lord Greystoke. In the books, Tarzan was an English peer raised by apes and given the name Tarzan, meaning "white skin" in the language of the great anthropoid apes.
The myth of Tarzan, the escapism and Burroughs' concept of a man living at peace with nature apparently are striking a responsive chord around the world.
"The only explanation I can give is that he's the man we'd all like to be," said Hodes.
"He's become a myth rather than superman because we know we can never be superman. But there is absolutely nothing in Burroughs' concept that couldn't be.
"And a lot of kids today are trying to be like that. Not just kids. People are trying to get away from it, finding a new meaning for civilization and living in accordance with the laws of nature.
"Tarzan never tried to change nature to fit his desires. He looked for his own place. That's what's happening to a lot of people today."
Danton Burroughs, 28-year-old grandson of the writer, said, "I envy Tarzan. His freedom and the romantic figure that he is. And the acute command of his senses."
Hulbert Burroughs said, "My dad always told me he got the idea from the Romulus and Remus legend. But he told other people he was influenced by Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book
"But what he basically was interested in was how the son of a well-educated lord and lady of England would be raised by the apes. He wanted to see the effect of inheritance and environment.
HUNGARIAN BOOK BAN
VIENNA -- (INS) -- Reports from Budapest said the Communist regime has banned 10,000 books, including several popular American best sellers. Among these are the Tarzan stories and Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People.From Budapest comes word that the Hungarian Government has banned 10,000 books written by foreign authors, and has confiscated copies of them found in libraries and book stores. Compensation for all books seized is at the rate of 50 cents a pound, to give the dealers money with which to buy Government-approved Communist literature.
The list of authors whose works are outlawed includes Louis Bromfield, A.J. Cronin, Edna Ferber, Fannie Hurst, John P. Marquand and P.G. Wodehouse. Books specifically banned are James Hilton's Lost Horizon, Richard Wright's Native Son, and Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan stories. The heavy hand of Hungarian censorship falls even on Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People, presumably because the Communist hierarchy does not want its subjects to form a friendship for any American.
There is no reason to think the authors blacklisted will be disturbed, and the ban on them in Hungary may create among Americans a demand for their books. That may also be the case with intelligent Hungarians. The Communists cannot be too certain of the subservience of the people if they think a Wodehouse story would seduce them.
WHY I WROTE THE BANTAN NOVELS
by Maurice B. Gardner
The Pulp Era ~ Issue No. 62 ~ Nov-Dec 1965
I have been asked by the editor of the Pulp Era how and why I have written ten Bantan novels to date -- eight of which have appeared between hard covers. Also, if any, what affect reading the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs had on my writing. First of all, since the age of 13, when I first read the serial installments of Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar in the old All Story Weekly -- and I enjoyed this story very much -- I then proceeded to obtain the other similar weeklies, also the old All Story Monthlies that contained the author's works. Meanwhile, I was following his current serialized works as well. What I appreciated mostly about his stories was his vivid imagination, and his manner of telling the stories made them plausible.Before my father died -- this happened when I was midway ten and eleven -- he used to tell me stories of a highly imaginative nature -- not the type Mr. Burroughs wrote, however -- and in my developing mind I hoped one day I might be able to write stories that would be interesting to readers.
Because of a widowed mother to support, my education was curtailed in high school, but excessive reading taught me how different authors went about telling a story. I used to read these stories not only for entertainment value, but also to further my education in grammar. When I came across a word I didn't know the meaning of, there was always a dictionary handy.
When I was fifteen I started to write my first novel in long hand -- that was the beginning. I followed with four more. When I was twenty, I rented a typewriter and copied the five novels. Even though I realized they did not contain literary merit, I've retained them to this very day. Occasionally I look them over with the realization how I served my apprenticeship and compare how I improved with each effort.
After a few more years and a few more novels, one summer day while swimming in a river near where I lived at the time, as from out of nowhere the thought came to me to write my first Bantan novel. It would concern a young man who loved to swim as I did. Perhaps that is where my imagination had its initial testing -- having been fostered by having read the Tarzan books, and the other novels Mr. Burroughs had written. Previously, my stories for the most part had been of material things I was more or less familiar with, but somehow they seemed to lack reality. So now, at long last so it seemed to me, I decided to let my imagination take the reins.
The novel concerned a boy of three, born of American parents, marooned upon an island in the South Pacific, adopted and reared to young manhood by natives. When it was completed I titled i just "Bantan." Later, I appended, "God-like Islander" to the singular title to infer my fiction character had god-like attributes. At a later time I regretted this appendage and retitled the novel, "Bantan of the Islands," when the third edition was published.
After the novel was written I had no immediate intention of making a series based on my island character, but, since the book sold fairly well, I began to wonder if I might write another of sufficient interest - remembering as I did, how successful Mr. Burroughs had been with his Tarzan series. As well, some of my reviewers had mentioned Bantan as somewhat of a "South Seas Tarzan."
And so I wrote "Bantan and the Island Goddess" -- which I consider a better novel than its predecessor.
World War II furthered my interest in my island character, since I had a nephew in active service in the South Pacific aboard a destroyer. I dedicated this third novel to him, naming it "Bantan Defiant". In this book Bantan first meets the Japs and engages them with his primitive weapons -- and does a fine job of it.
I realized one book on that subject was insufficient to take care of matters as they should be, and so "Bantan Valiant" followed. By this time I was taking a serious interest in the bronzed giant. I remembered once reading that Mr. Burroughs admitted the only mistake he made in the famed Tarzan series was to have Tarzan married at the end of the second book. Thus far I had written four Bantan books, and through various reasons had managed to keep him unmated. I wondered how long I could continue this procedure without my readers complaining.
Then I wrote the fifth novel, "Bantan's Island Peril," and once more a possible romance was shattered as death in the form of an enemy spear removed the heroine.
The sixth novel, "Bantan Incredible," followed, and this time Bantan's love is for a young white woman who had been injected with the serum of longevity by her father, who was a scientist. In a fit of rage, when learning his daughter and Bantan planned to flee the island he injected a counter-acting serum that caused his daughter to age a year for each hour she lived thereafter. When Bantan overcomes obstacles to rescue her, she is then over two hundred years of age in appearance and near death.
In the seventh novel, "Bantan Primeval," in the company of a beautiful native girl by name of Mauria -- who appeared briefly in the preceding novel and who loves Bantan very much -- they come to an island surrounded by an unscalable cliff. Within, they discover that stone age conditions exist, also that a long-lost white race lived there. Bantan rescues a white girl by the name of Mena. After numerous adventures, at the end of the book it would appear that Mena would be his mate.
However in the eighth novel, "Bantan Fearless," Mena appeared to have lost her life in a pool of quicksand. The bronzed giant almost immediately rescues another white girl of the same race, but reared by aborigines. She looks enough like Mena to be her twin sister, though they are not related. This girl's name is Nulu, and in her mind Bantan is the one whom she wishes to mate with. She proves to be daring as the book recounts, and because of her Bantan and two companions are able to leave the primeval island.
At this juncture in Bantan's adventures, I decided to release a volume of ten stories of varying length. Included in the volume are some shorter stories of Bantan's youth. Also two groups of stories "The Loves of Bantan" and "Dream Fantasies of Bantan's Creator," both of which appeared in "Norb's Notes," complete the volume. The readers of the "Notes" hailed the latter series, since it leaned toward fantasy.
Two more completed Bantan novels are awaiting their turn in book form. "Bantan and the Mermaids" is the ninth of the series, and probably will appear in hard covers in late 1965. The success of "Island Paradise and Others," my 1964 release, will determine whether it is feasible to issue another volume of shorter stories under the title "More Island Paradises." The last Bantan novel to be written to date and completed, which is the tenth of the series, is titled, "Bantan's Quest."
Undoubtedly Dave Prosser will be the artist, since many of the readers enjoy his artwork in my books.
A complete list of my books to date, publisher, artist, etc. is listed herewith:
| Book Title | Publisher | Year | Artist |
| Bantan, God-Like Islander | Meador | Sep 1, 1936 | Not known |
| This Man | Meador | Aug 7, 1937 | Not known |
| Son of the Wilderness | Meador | Jan 1, 1939 | Not known |
| Bantan, God-Like Islander | 2nd Ed Meador | Feb 1, 39 | Not known |
| Bantan and the Island Goddess | Meador | Sep 1, 42 | Not known |
| Bantan Defiant | Greenwich | Sep 19, 1955 | Vern Coriell |
| Bantan Valiant | Meador | Sep 19, 1957 | Not known |
| Bantan's Island Peril | Meador | Apr 24, 1959 | Jim Cawthorn |
| Bantan Incredible | Meador | Sep 26, 1960 | Dave Prossner |
| Bantan Primeval | Forum (same as Meador) | Jan 1, 1961 | Dave Prossner |
| Horrors of Smiling Manor | Meador | June 5, 1962 | Bob Horvath |
| Bantan Fearless | Meador | Sep 13, 1963 | Dave Prossner |
| Island Paradise and Others | Meador | Nov 1964 | Dave Prossner |
A Miscellaneous Clipping from the Richardson News File Collection
THE BURROUGHS REVIVAL
Not only is the myth of Tarzan undergoing a revival, but Burroughs himself is being elevated to a critical position he never enjoyed before his death in 1950.PANNED BY CRITICS
In his lifetime, Burroughs was regarded as a pulp writer of escapism, and many libraries banned his books. Hulbert Burroughs said, "During the important years of his life when he was writing, Dad was panned by critics. He never took himself seriously, but I felt the things the critics said hurt him."But critics are beginning to find new meaning in his works. Some French critics have compared Tarzan to Rousseau's concept of "the natural man." The works of Burne Hogarth, who drew the Tarzan comic strip from 1937 to the mid-50s and was the artist for the new art book, have been displayed at the Museum of Decorative Arts at the Louvre in Paris.
Burroughs also is being taken seriously as a writer of science-fiction books. Sam Moscowitz, writing in his book, Under the Moons of Mars, the original title of Burroughs' A Princess of Mars, said Burroughs humanized science fiction, brought story-telling qualities to it, and turned it away from the "flashing light" school of science fiction.
A new book, Tarzan Lives, contends that Burroughs was not writing fiction at all. And Esquire magazine published an article this year that purported to be an interview with the real Tarzan, Lord Greystoke. In the books, Tarzan was an English peer raised by the apes and given the name Tarzan, meaning "white skin" in the language of the great anthropoid apes.
SIMILAR FEELINGS
The myth of Tarzan, the escapism, and Burroughs' concept of a man living at peace with nature apparently are striking a chord around the world."The only explanation I can give is that he's the man we'd all like to be," said Hodes. "He's become a myth rather than superman because we know we can never be superman. But there is absolutely nothing in Burroughs' concept that can't be.
"And a lot of kids today are trying to be like that. Not just kids. People are trying to get away from it, finding a new meaning for civilization and living in accordance with the laws of nature.
"Tarzan never tried to change nature to fit his desires. He looked for his own place. That's what's happening to a lot of people today."
Hulbert Burroughs said, "My dad always told me he got the idea from the Romulus and Remus legend. But he told other people he was influenced by Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book.
"But what he basically was interested in was how the son of a well-educated lord and lady of England would be raised by the apes. He wanted to see the effect of inheritance and environment."
THE LEGENDARY LETTER ~ By R. Brunkhorst ~ September 8, 1966
DCR Note:
I never did have any correspondence with the knowledgeable California ERB fan, R. Brunkhorst. I do not even know if he is alive or dead. I wrote Camille E. Cazedessus about him and Caz said he had no memory of him. I have forgotten how I came by this letter, or how sent it to me. I have had it in my files for 40 years. It is a unique and interesting document and I thought I would share it with other ERB fans.~Darrell C. Richardson
Mr. Hulbert Burroughs, Inc.
P.O. Box 277
Tarzana, California 91356Mr. Camille E. Cazedessus, Jr. ~ ERB-dom
7182 Wolff St.
Westminster, Colorado 80030Gentlemen:
All this while . . . for these many years, I've resignedly accepted my humble niche in the Second Circle of the priesthood simply because my:
Dk Red ~ McClurg ~ Chicago ~ 1914 ~ OE ~ TARZAN OF THE APES
didn't sport an ACORN on the spine the way the laureate CABAL - Heins, Reston, Vinson, et al -- said that it should.All this while . . . I figured that I'd best piddle 'round the edges, and mind my own business -- and leave handling of the heavy stuff to the other fellows. But ERB-dom No 18 has been published and thetemplecurtainis riven top tobottom, the CABAL is flyingly seeking SANCTUARY to the four winds, and ORTHODOXY lies a shattered bauble on the OCHER MOSS.
I just wonder: could it be - belatedly - the vengeance of ISSUS?! Were we a bit too smug when we closed GODS OF MARS, put it into the bookcase, and said: "Well, that takes care of that."? Has there been a resurgence in the VALLEY DOR? Do doomed souls again embark upon the cold bosom of the RIVER ISS? Does the long sword of JOHN CARTER once more drip red with blood; is he at it again, slashing his way the length and breadth of a planet to free a people once more from a cruel superstition.? Are things once again haywire . . . under the moons of Mars?
Well, anyway: for me no more of that sitting around on the side-lines and watching the controversies being batted back and forth. Because if ". . . conclusive proof that the Acorn was not the true first." does exist, then before I lose this powerful surge of self-confidence, I must make myself heard -- though perhaps but limitedly -- and even though I know that the OBJECTIVISTS -- when once again they gain ascendancy -- will land upon me with a thump!
Right off! the next guy who mean-mouths J. ALLEN ST. JOHN goes first-in-line for a poke in the nose. The feet ST JOHN drew looked like feet to me. And if he put mammalian protuberances on an oviparous female: that's a big deal?! I sincerely hope that that bunch who make up the CABAL also have two as the rest of us do; and if utilitarianism is the fetish, then somebody is going to have to whip up a swinging article which for the life of me, I can't see will be very interesting. Admittedly: resolving of the belly-button enigma is a bit more baffling -- but I'm working on it; and I'd purely enjoy coming up with piercing rapier thrusts which would prove that everyone has been making an inverted mountain out of a very small mole-hill.
Now: if I ever really worried about DEJAH THORIS coming down that staircase - illustration facing page 8, CHESSMEN OF MARS, McClurg -- then I just figured that some nut architect -- around the palace -- had gotten tired of all those inclined ramps, and in a moment of inspiration had dreamed up something radical and different.
In fact -- to be exactingly OBJECTIVE: no one will ever be able to convince me that a people who had come up with the astonishing discovery of the eighth ray, and were making every night bright with an ever-ready radium light, and had a telescopic rifle that could zero-in on a peanut -- or its Martian equivalent -- at a range of 200/300 miles, hadn't at one time or another stumbled up or down something; and said to themselves -- after getting up and brushing themselves off: "Well, I guess I'd better invent a staircase."
Also . . . one time: I planned development of a map of Barsoom ust for my own personal use. And I truly had a lot of business initiating a project like that; because: I'd just lot my third straight argument with the Bank of America, and they weren't even bothering to send me a statement anymore. But I was never one to let a little ol' set-back deter me, and I went ahead: and right off the bat, inevitably! I ran head-on into the MADDENING PARADOX: whether to use EXUM or HORZ as the Base Point. Of course, I felt sure there had to be some solution.
So: in between other calculations, I'd thumb to page 16 of LLANA of GATHOL and then go back to page 250 of THUVIA -- seeking for some clue I'd missed -- but after about the umpteenth time of that I was already so far lost in the GREAT TOONOLIAN MARSHES that it didn't make any difference, anyway. So the project went quietly into limbo, and after looking at some of the notes I've dug up -- which I'd made at the time -- it's probably a very good thing that it did.
Actually: after evaluating all considerations, I don't feel a justifiable perturbation about the PARADOX; and primarily because -- even then as now -- I couldn't find my way from here to Pasadena -- if they hadn't built the Freeway -- and that doesn't leave much for me to raise a fuss about.
OK, so I've been a wise-A; and I hear a hiss and the term recidivist -- ad I guess that's right. But just one more observation, please. May I say this:
TARZAN remains exactly the same for me and though I grow older, he doesn't. And I do which Mr. Fritz Leiber would leave me alone, because: reading of The Valley of Gold was not an adventure for me, but developed into a duteous, ritual obligation.Now: just 1, 2, 3 -- and I promise I'll be finished.
No. 1:
I sincerely hope that the Reverend Heins doesn't get mad at me and request that I return to him the inscribed fly lead of my copy of A GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY BIBLIOGRAPHY OF EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS. Because I respect Reverend Heins too much; not primarily because the BIBLIOGRAPHY is monumental, but because it is so patently a labor of love. I sincerely hope that CAZ doesn't get mad at me and strike my name from the subscriber list of ERB-dom -- because I enjoy ERB-dom too much, and besides I just sent him four bucks for the next eight issues. I sincerely hop that Mr. Hulbert Burroughs doesn't get mad at me and revoke his generous invitation to visit at Tarzana -- my problem in this respect is: working for General Motors, and that's like being a prisoner of the cruel WARHOONS of the SOUTH. But unless I've been digging in the wrong direction to get out of these crummy PITS, I'll make it to Tarzana one of these days -- all 25 miles of the way.No. 2:
I get the impression that CAZ and CORIELL are feuding a little bit, and I wish they weren't. Because: I feel, with no reservations whatsoever, that each of them is separately developing an entirely different extension of BURROUGHSIANA, and that together they form a complete complement.No. 3:
I remember a fifteen year old boy, and a very small town in Missouri. Sometimes there were long afternoons -- when the sky was grey-black -- when the wind with a large hand pressed down, and then in a moment of frenzy: shattered the crests of sturdy, mid-west maples -- and the rain drummed, constant and steady. On those afternoons: JOHN CARTER was alive, and BARSOOM was just outside the rain-wet windows, truly real. Too long ago . . . and afternoons now are filled with fact.But sometimes I stop and read again . . . and feel that I have re-met old friends. For just a few moments, I can again let myself believe that: "With a savage cry of triumph, Thar Ban disappeared down the black canyon of the Avenue of Quays."
If I ponder for a moment on the impossibility that DEJAH THORIS exposes a belly-button when she couldn't have one, I know that such a contradiction could have been brought about only by the machinations of some evil CORPHAL; and that if JOHN CARTER hasn't already delivered some well-deserved, retaliatory lumps on you-know-who . . . just wait around for a bit, and he will because: there's plenty of time on BARSOOM.
And when I read again, then I am truly convinced that I have solved the MADDENING PARADOX, because I am very sure that the distance from HELIUM to HORZ is only as long as it will take me to get there in my imagination.
I guess what I'm trying to say is this, simply: I want the wonder and magic of BURROUGHS neither explained away nor rationalized. I want to know that every now and then I can forget time and the world and the things that are troubling me . . . and let myself be fifteen again.
In all sincerity:
"R. Brunkhorst" (sig)
R. Brunkhorst
11137 State Apt D
Lymwood, California
90262 USADCR: Well, I really have forgotten when and where and how indeed the story behind you getting interested in Tarzan and Burroughs and John Carter. For a physician such as yourself to be interested in such a far-out subject is a little strange.
A Conversation Between Two Veteran Tarzan Collectors
George H. Jones and Darrell C. Richardson
On a Sunday Afternoon in February 1978 in Baton Rouge, LAGJ: Well, when I was about eight years old, a friend whom I still see regularly, named Phillip Jones, carried me to the public library, and he said, "Here's some books that I've been readin' and I like. And you'd like 'em." And he pulled out this book, and it was TARZAN AND THE ANT MEN, so I checked it out and brought it home and read it, and I thought it was great, and all I can say is I'm glad I read that one first, 'cause I think it stinks! It's too much like GULLIVER'S TRAVELS; it's too silly. I know there are not ant men; everything else I can believe. Men with tails, that sounds sensible to me, but not ant men. But anyhow, at that time, that was a real fine book to read.
DCR: Now, I like that story myself. However, it stretched my imagination a little bit when Tarzan became an ant man, too.
GJ: So after I read TARZAN AND THE ANT MEN, the next two things happened. In August 1930 the BLUE BOOK magazine came out with TARZAN, GUARD OF THE JUNGLE, and I got that. I started reading it, and my mother carried me down to the bookstore, Perryman's Book Store. And they had a lending library, but they sold books. They sold three books for a dollar, and I got THUVIA, MAID OF MARS, THE MONSTER MEN, uh and maybe THE SON OF TARZAN. And I liked THE MONSTER MEN. I thought that was a really super book I thought that was a really super. THUVIA, MAID OF MARS, I found out years that about a third of the book was repeated in it, so I always wondered how I thought that story went when I read it the first time. Yeah the pages were repeated. It ran from one to, say, 113, and then it started at 60 and ran again to 113, you know, and it must have made the story pretty interesting, but I didn't seem to notice it. And the funny thing was, the lending library and I wondered how many of those people had noticed it.
DCR: Do you read better now tha n you did then, George? (joke)
GJ: I read a little better now, yes I follow the story a little better. And so from then on I started corresponding with Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., who would send you a notice that Tarzan is now coming out in ARGOSY, and Tarzan is now coming out in LIBERTY, and it was TARZAN AND THE LION MAN.
DCR: Now, I never did get in on that. I got in on the new books that came out, but I never did get any of these letters telling when they came out in magazines.
GJ: Oh, they never let you miss.
DCR: By the way, by coincidence, TARZAN, GUARD OF THE JUNGLE was the first story that I saw in a magazine. I saw it in a drugstore window in a newsstand. Out of the seven serial parts, six of the parts had Tarzan covers.
GJ: Oh yes, they did. But it so happened that all those disappeared through the years, but someone gave me a BLUE BOOK magazine, and it is the exact issue I saw for the first time, which I still have now. I started buying different Tarzan books and collecting them. The first Tarzan book I bought new was the Foster ILLUSTRATED BOOK NO. 1.
DCR: TARZAN OF THE APES, ILLUSTRATED BOOK NO. 1.
GJ: And so I got it. It cost 75 cents. And then I joined the Tarzan Clans of America, and to my knowledge, I have the lowest number that's ever been found. I'm #26.
DCR: See, in many ways, you were a greater fan than I ever was because I never had heard of that Tarzan Clan deal till a few years ago.
GJ: I have the handbook, but I have the lowest number card. There have been people found that had card #100, but there could only be 25 people earlier than I, and they don't show up, so that's some distinction -- not much, but some. And so from then on, I got into the Mars series. I had read THE GODS OF MARS first, and then of course I read most of them, and then SWORDS OF MARS hadn't come out. It came out in BLUE BOOK, so I read those as they came out. I thought THE PRINCESS OF MARS was one of the slowest stories of all the series. It just doesn't move. Nothing much happens. Too much sociology and all. I never did much like his westerns. Don't know why, just never much liked 'em, and I thought the best book he wrote was THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT. I still do.
DCR: That's one of my real favorites.
GJ: Yeah, it's a super book, and it makes a lot of sense. I think THE MOON MAID is a silly book.
DCR: Now that's where you are different. It's sort of the "in thing," for some of the better-known Burroughs fans claim that THE MOON MAID is his greatest.
GJ: Well, it isn't. It's only a cowboy-and-Indian story. It's just an Indian story, hooked in with that first part all these.
DCR: But they come from the moon.
GJ: Yeah, but they're still Indians. I mean, they act like Indians. They ride horses and all. I found a lot of interesting things, how he connected up ETERNAL LOVER, all these different things. Then I only got those exotic books later, like THE GIRL FROM HOLLYWOOD, just to complete the collection, because it's really one of those sort of Victorian romances, and it's just not very . . . good.
DCR: You know, I think maybe I've never said this before, or I certainly have not ever had enough nerve to put this into print, but there are a considerable number of Burroughs stories which I have collected and read only because the author of Tarzan wrote 'em. THE EFFICIENCY EXPERT, THE GIRL FROM FARRIS'S.
GJ: Like THE GIRL FROM HOLLYWOOD. That's why they were not popular. But I think the firs three Mars books are, the story is told, and then in Tarzan, I think the story is told like I said about after TARZAN THE UNTAMED. After than it's just books about adventures. But the completed story is there. You know, Jane is captured in TARZAN THE TERRIBLE and she's brought back.
DCR: On the other hand, I will have to say that I'm glad that two people agree with me that TARZAN THE TERRIBLE is the greatest of the Tarzan stories. And those two people are Burroughs himself, and J. Allen St. John, the illustrator. Both consider that the greatest Tarzan novel. Although I don't think any of us takes into account the first one of all, which really is in a sense the real Tarzan story. That's TARZAN OF THE APES.
GJ: I always felt like the greatest one was TARZAN AND THE JEWELS OF OPAR. But the reason I did was because it contained elements that I like, not because I'm analyzing the story.
DCR: Really, I understand what you mean.
GJ: It was more of a mystery.
DCR: But in TARZAN THE TERRIBLE, you see, Burroughs actually invents a whole new plausible civilization, and orders of live fauna and flora and the whole works. It's just simply, it seems to me, like an anthropologist could read that story and almost get something out of it. It's pretty good.
GJ: But then the other movies that I saw were TARZAN THE TIGER and TARZAN THE MIGHTY, and they came along as serials about then, and Opar is in that. You saw him carrying these ingots of gold back and forth.
DCR: Now that's an interesting point. There are very few people anywhere around that seem to have ever seen these two Frank Merril Tarzans.
GJ: I saw 'em both!
DRC: OK, you're one of the few that I've ever talked to who has seen 'em both. Uh, can you remember enough about the story? Were both of 'em based on TARZAN AND THE JEWELS OF OPAR, or was just one of them?
GJ: I think TARZAN THE MIGHTY was . . . THE JEWELS OF OPAR and TARZAN THE TIGER was a continuation of the story, and it was loosely based on TARZAN AND THE JEWELS OF OPAR. But you know he wore a leopard headband around and he had this over-the-shoulder leopard skin. I like Frank Merrill as the best Tarzan. I did until, I gotta say, the guy I really liked was Lex Barker. I just think that he made some sense; he didn't talk 'n' mumble, "Me duh, uh, uh, uh . . ."
DCR: Yeah, Lex Barker.
GJ: And I like Ron Ely. I thought Ron Ely did great, but I didn't like the stories. The stories were silly. I mean, all the stuff in South America and all. Now, Herman Brix was super in that thing, but he just didn't have much vehicle. It's not much of a movie to really sit through.
DCR: I should know this, but THE NEW ADVENTURES OF TARZAN was filmed in Guatemala, but the other part of the . . .
GJ: . . . AND THE GREEN GODDESS.
DCR: Was that taken from THE NEW ADVENTURES?
GJ: Well, it was cuts that were taken. It was the same story. It was all the same filming. They didn't go back and film again. They would just use out-takes from the first one, and it's almost the same story. And so they just came up with a second story. Of course, TARZAN THE FEARLESS is just awful. I own a copy of TARZAN THE FEARLESS, and I won a copy of THE NEW ADVENTURES OF TARZAN. THE NEW ADVENTURES -- the first time they filmed it in Tecal, first time any heavy vehicles had gone inland in Guatemala, and had been able to take 'em in. The thing about the Dearholt Ashton, uh, Dearholt-somebody, that's the woman Burroughs ran off from his wife and married. And of course, if it hadn't been for THE NEW ADVENTURES OF TARZAN, they wouldn't have been thrown together, and so on and so on. So what? You know, there's a bit of history in there that's interesting. Now, they didn't have a lot of characters in there and they even had to use some of the producers in parts in there, in the thing, and there are several endings to that. You know, the thing was made as a long, long story and then with say, eight or ten chapters after. Or, you could show it as a fifteen-chapter serial. Or you could show it as just one long show. And there are several different versions.
DCR: Like a two-hour show?
GJ: Yeah, I have the long show. You go into the other one and it's many repeats and repeats, and the thing all comes out the same, but there's lots of little Indians running around back and forth.
DCR: And TARZAN THE FEARLESS was in 1933.
GJ: And has no talking. Well, he doesn't talk. And you know, he just grunts. He's not a . . .
DCR: Buster Crabbe would have been almost in his physical prime at that time, though.
GJ: Well, he was through here several years ago, and I had a chat with him, and we're both Sigma Chi's and had our pictures made together, and he autographed it for me. He was not particularly tickled to death with that Tarzan picture, but he was with FLASH GORDON, where he made his reputation.
DCR: You know, when I heard him speak in Toronto when he was the guest of honor the same year that he received that famous award I also received from the Burroughs Bibliophiles, I had a little chat with him, and he said his favorite show business role of all times was the CAPTAIN GALLANT TV series.
GJ: But you know why? His son was his sidekick. He liked his son to be in it with him. He enjoyed working with his son.
DCR: Do you happen t remember the title of the very first picture he ever was in? I saw it. He was a lawyer who walked around in a bathing suit all the way through it in a kind of society picture and never said a word. The girl just showed his physique off to her friends, and then as the show ended he was dressed in a beautiful double-breasted suit in whatever 1931 style or '29 style would be, and he had about a dozen lines to say, which he said with a whole bunch of sixteen-cylinder words a real accomplished Harvard law graduate would talk, and it really was a shocker, and that's the way it ended. The big handsome brute of a man who everyone thought was completely dumb turned out to be, of course, a very polished gentleman.
GJ: No, I never heard of it, but now, back to the Burroughs stories. I liked the single stories much better than I did the series stories, outside of the Mars stories. I thought the Venus stories were silly, but I think they were written to be silly. And the Pellucidar stories -- the idea was pretty good and it was the old cave man stuff, but he had so many variations on that theme that it got sort of monotonous, you know. But I like THE MAD KING. I didn't like THE MUCKER too much. I always felt like I was reading a Rudyard Kipling or somebody that had been written too far back. You know, it wasn't modern enough. I remember when THE TERRIBLE TENDERFOOT came out in LIBERTY magazine --
DCR: THRILLING ADVENTURES
GJ: Was it THRILLING ADVENTURES? I didn't like it.
DCR: That was THE DEPUTY SHERIFF OF COMANCHE COUNTY later.
GJ: Apparently not a real popular book. But the books that everybody raves about were THE WAR CHIEF and THE APACHE DEVIL, and I suppose that everybody says they're good Indian stories, and I suppose they are. And there are other -- I'm trying to think of some of the other singles. THE MONSTER MEN I used to dearly love, and I was just so thrilled when Number 13 turned out to be a real guy.
DCR: Didn't you think that THE CAVE GIRL was a pretty good story?
GJ: Pretty good. I think it looked like an early Burroughs potboiler.
DCR: That's what it was. It was an early story.
GJ: Yeah.
DCR: It was two serials put together.
GJ: Yeah. Let's see, what are some of the other singles he had? Let's see now, THE OAKDALE AFFAIR and THE RIDER were picked up later and just put together so they could sell, 'cause it was a follow-up on THE MUCKER and a follow-up on THE MAD KING. But THE MAD KING has been paraphrased so many times -- THE PRISONER OF ZENDA, the Graustark novels, and any number of others -- and if you really don't know, it's hard to get 'em straight in your mind now.
DCR: THE LAD AND THE LION seemed to be a fairly popular book, but it was one of his earlier stories and one of his later books.
GJ: Yeah, well, I don't think they thought it'd sell. It was a take-off on -- you know, a rival of Tarzan.
DCR: Well, yeah, and of course you know it was rewritten for book form. He just added -- every other chapter -- a new one.
GJ: Well, what did you think of I AM A BARBARIAN.
DCR: Well . . .
GJ: Not much, huh?
DCR: I hate to differ with so many people who gave it real raves, but I was expecting and hoping for something really grand, but I've just read so many really good historicals of ancient Rome that I'm afraid -- I'm sorry to have to say it was just kind of a run-of-the-mill type.
GJ: Well, that's why it was never published. Well, what about PIRATE'S BLOOD?
DCR: Well, Burroughs' idea that it probably shouldn't have been published was the right one.
GJ: Well, this last series he came out with looked like he ws maybe gonna have another planet: THE TALES OF THREE PLANETS, you know the one in there . . . I've forgotten the name of the thing now.
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