EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS (September 1, 1875 - March 19, 1950)

Tarzan^® was born in the jungles of Africa, but his creator -- Edgar Rice Burroughs -- first saw the light of day in a well-to-do neighborhood of Chicago in 1875. Ed Burroughs, before writing the wildly successful Tarzan of the Apes in 1912, had lived an amazingly colorful life -- but had reaped few financial rewards. He received his education in military academies and spent time in the wild west as a cowboy, gold miner, railway policeman, stationery store owner and U.S. Cavalry trooper. He returned to Chicago to marry his childhood sweetheart Emma Centennia Hulbert in 1900 and to try his hand at a long string of largely unsuccessful business enterprises. Following the success of Tarzan, however, he turned out a torrent of imaginative novels in fantastic settings on other worlds and led his ape-man character to many more adventures across the African continent and even to the Earth's core.

In 1919, ERB bought a 550-acre estate in California's San Fernando Valley that he named Tarzana Ranch. The event that prompted this move was the block-buster success of the 1918 film, Tarzan of the Apes. Tarzana was close to Hollywood, but it also fulfilled his dream of becoming a gentleman farmer and allowed him to share his love of the outdoors with Emma and their three children.

Burroughs continued to write two novels a year, but still found the time and energy to evolve into a dynamic businessman, even subdividing some of Tarzana into city lots and a golf & country club. He became one of the first writers to form his own corporation, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., through which he published his own books and supervised his rapidly expanding entertainment empire. The iconic Tarzan went on to set many firsts:  a long series of successful feature films and serials, newspaper adventure strips, Broadway and English stage plays, syndicated radio serials, Tarzan Clan youth clubs, advertising promotions, comic books, and a barrage of merchandising licenses. While doing all this Burroughs bought and flew his own aircraft and supported his children in careers of acting, writing, photography and painting.

In 1940, ERB and his second wife, actress Florence Gilbert, moved to Hawaii, where he witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He immediately drew upon his previous military experience and volunteered to command home guard units on the island. Major Burroughs later flew and sailed for thousands of miles to Pacific islands in his duties as a war correspondent. Following the war he spent his remaining years in poor health and died near his beloved Tarzana in 1950.

Burroughs Bio by Bill Hillman for the Disney Website and Play Promo Booklets
© ERB, Inc. and © Disney. All Rights Reserved.
www.Tarzan.com

 
Tarzan Through the Ages
Lord of the Apes: What causes the continual appeal of Tarzan over 94 years?
Highlights of the ABC News Nightline Feature ~ May 10, 2006 Cynthia McFadden Intro: The premier of the new broadway show about the man among apes reminded us that the story of Tarzan is a uniquely American myth that  has been the object of fascination in this country for almost 100 years -- and Tarzan is still going strong. ABC's Heather Nauert has a sign of the times:

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He's a uniquely American myth -- a jungle-dwelling, loin cloth-wearing hero beloved by Americans for generations. We don't know exactly why -- maybe it's the loin cloth -- maybe it's that trademarked yell.
(Broadway Tarzan and cast swinging to a Weissmuller yell voice over -- followed by footage of New Yorkers on the street giving their versions of the yell.)
We all know the story. A young British orphan is shipwrecked in Africa and raised by apes in the jungle. He grows up to be as much of a man as an animal. Tarzan may be a British lord but he is really the brainchild of Chicago writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, who crafted the tale nearly a century ago. A century later Americans still can't get enough. 
(Coming To Broadway poster for 1918 Tarzan of the Apes film with Elmo Lincoln ~ Still of apes holding baby Tarzan followed by photo of Searle. Camera pans across cover art for Tarzan of the Apes, The Return of Tarzan and Beasts of Tarzan.)

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George McWhorter interviewed with ERB Memorial Collection at the University of Louisville in the background: 
"Tarzan represents the ultimate attainment of an individual."

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(Silhouette of stage Tarzan holding up dead leopard ~ Shot of the Richard Rodgers Theatre Tarzan marquis that pulls back to reporter in fenced area outside theatre)
Tarzan is an entertainment collosus and major moneymaker. His jungle exploits are depicted in scores of books, movies, and now a big budget musical. This version of Tarzan is on Broadway and the production is reportedly one of the most expensive ever with a budget rumoured to be between 15 and 20 million dollars. 
(Clip of silent film Tarzan James Pierce and monkey in a tree with a lion moving in below)
Just as before, Tarzan has changed with the times. Even the yell is new -- in the early years there was no famous jungle call because the films were silent. Tarzan then is constantly evolving as each new director takes a little more creative licence.
(Shots of more movie Tarzans through the years.)

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Danton Burroughs recalls his grandfather's reaction.
(Danton Burroughs speaking outside the Richard Rodgers Theatre.)
"He got frustrated trying to tell them:  Follow the book, Follow the character -- and then he eventually just threw his hands up and said: You know they've paid me good money. They can do whatever they want."

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Watch this as Tarzan calls out to a hippo and talks to an alligator here in Tarzan's Greatest Adventure. Even campier is a scene whre Jane, played by '80s sex symbol, Bo Derek, is rescued from the grips of a giant snake in the remake of Tarzan the Ape Man. In the '30s and '40s an athletic Tarzan saved a voluptuous Jane. They were sex symbols and things got steamy. 
(Gordon Scott fights and alligator ~ Tarzan rescues Jane (Bo) from a giant water snake ~ Still of Weissmuller, O'Sullivan and Sheffield standing together ~ Weissmuller & O'Sullivan make high dives from their tree perch to a jungle pond.)

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(Professor on campus)
"They let loose the idea that the jungle was erotic -- the jungle is the site of eroticism, so that Jane and Tarzan could do things in the jungle they couldn't do in, quote - civilization."

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In the conservative 1950s the couple was far more chaste, living in separate huts with much larger loin cloths. After the 1960s the movies stripped away references to African natives that many viewers considered racist. 
(Shots of Gordon Scott followed by Tarzan from the Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan film.)

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(Professor on campus)
"Now what they do is remove the natives and then Tarzan is just sort of demonstrating his skills among the animals."

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Perhaps that is what audiences want - a yodelling man swinging on a vine.
(Clip of Broadway Tarzan and Jane swinging into camera while giving a Tarzan yell)

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 ©ABC News