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Volume 1975


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The Edgar Rice Burroughs / Cubeb Cigarettes Connection

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Edgar Rice Burroughs liked to smoke cubeb cigarettes. As a student at Harvard School in Chicago during 1888, he and a friend felt quite devilish when they snuck down to the breakwater to smoke. Burroughs didn't study English, but Latin and Greek. Later in life, the famous creator of Tarzan was asked to reminiscence for a school yearbook. Tongue-in-cheek, he stated that if he had studied English grammar, and had not smoked so many cubebs, there might never have been a Tarzan. Marshall's Prepared Cubeb Cigarettes (1881-1940s) was a popular brand with enough sales to still be made during World War Two. Blosser's Cigarettes, Dr. R. Schiffmann's Asthmador Cigarettes, and Requa Cigarettes were also non-tobacco medicinal brands smoked as a treatment for asthma and other bronchial problems.

Reprinted from ERBzine 0717
When Tarzan Went to Harvard
By Edgar Rice Burrroughs
From the Hyde Park Historical Society newsletter -- Spring 2001
Over the years, the Harvard (later Harvard-St. George) School Yearbook
has published the reminiscences of several former students. We reprint one below...     Because I attended Harvard School sometime between the Pliocene and Pleistocene eras, Miss Schobinger has suggested that I write a little article for the School Annual and call it Before the Birth of Tarzan.... It was in 1888 that I entered the old Harvard School at 21st Street and Indiana Avenue, where my brother, Coleman, had been a student for a year. I was never a student -- I just went to school there.

    I lived over on the West Side where everybody made his money in those days and then moved to the South Side to show off. I kept my pony in a livery stable on Madison Street west of Robey Street... and in good weather I rode to school. In inclement weather, I took the Madison Street horse-cars to Wabash, a cable-car to 18th Street, and another horse-car to school. Sometimes, returning from school, I used to run down Madison Street from State Street to Lincoln Street, a matter of some three miles, to see how many horse-cars I could beat in that direction. It tires me all out even to think of it now. I must have been long on energy, if a trifle short on brains.

I cannot recall much about my classmates. Mancel Clark, Bennie Marshall, and I came over to Harvard together from Miss Coolie's Maplehurst School for Girls on the West Side -- and were we glad to escape that blot on our escutcheons! There had been a diphtheria epidemic in the public schools the previous year, and our fond parents had prevailed upon Miss Coolie to take us in...

Bennie Marshall and I used to sneak down to the breakwater and smoke cubeb cigarettes and feel real devilish. I imagine we even chewed gum too. He became a very famous Chicago architect (with Charles Eli Fox, he designed the Drake Hotel). I can see him now sitting at his desk drawing pictures and chewing his tongue when he should have been studying.

    At Harvard School I studied Greek and Latin because someone believed that they should be taught before English
    grammar was taken up; then I went to Andover and studied Greek and Latin all over again. So, having never studied
    English, I conceived the brilliant idea of taking up writing as my profession. Perhaps, had I studied English grammar, I
    would have known better, but then there would have been no Tarzan...

There should be a moral to this. Perhaps it is that one should not smoke cubeb cigarettes.
 
 
 

Cubeb (kyu'beb') Oil A tropical southeast Asian shrubby climbing vine (Piper cubeba of the pepper family Piperaceae) having spicy, berrylike fruits, heart-shaped leaves, and small flowers in cylindrical spikes. The dried, unripe, berrylike fruit of this plant, used in perfumery, pharmaceuticals, and commercial flavorings. This species is native to eastern India and Indomalaysia. The crushed berries are smoked, and the inhaled smoke produces a soothing effect in certain respiratory ailments. Cubebs are used in medicine as a stimulant, expectorant, and diuretic. Medicinal properties of cubeb are due to the presence of a volatile oil which formerly was thought to stimulate healing of mucous membranes. The dried, unripe, berrylike fruit of this plant, used in perfumery, pharmaceuticals, and commercial flavorings.

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OTHER POPULAR NON-TOBACCO CIGARETTES FROM THE PAST

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MEDICINAL

COCARETTES

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The woman in the above ad is smoking a Cocarette cigarette, which is a tobacco and cocaine mixture made by Cocabacco Co. of St. Louis. The package displays much testimony as to the benefits of the combination by a U. S. Navy Lieutenant, the president of the British Medical Association, etc." ...proper proportions the genuine Bolivian Coca Leaves and the finest Virginia Tobacco." There is a list of 10 reasons to use Cocarettes including the suggestion that Coca neutralizes the depressing effects of the nicotine in the tobacco. Also touted is the use of May Bros. rice paper rolling papers which leave no ash.

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The World’s largest Walk-in Tarzan Sculpture
http://www.tarzanskulptur.de/en/en_index.html

A project by Johannes Gramm and Alwin Titzrath
The sculpture will be approximately 4 metres high, made of bronze and the portrayal realistic. It will be erected at ground level, without a pedestal. The inside of its head will be shaped like a megaphone, using the shape of the hands as a sound-projecting bell, while the smaller hole at the back of the head will serve as an opening for the speaker (fig,01). It is therefore possible to stand behind Tarzan on a small platform and call or speak through his head, the sound being amplified. The depicted figure is built like an average man, no muscular superhero, a Tarzan like you or me. Otherwise, he is clearly identifiable as Tarzan, being barefoot and wearing a characteristic loincloth.
You like to have a sculpture in your town? Buy a edition or buy a sculpture... www.tarzanskulptur.de

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GUINEA: This complete set of 4 stamps from 1969 features
"Tarzan" who was a Guinean Chimpanzee with superior intelligence and Ability.

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TARZAN VIDEO WALL
http://tarzan.videowall.sytes.org/

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DISNEY REPORT FROM WAYNE & EDIE JAMES

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Edie ran the Disney 5K Family Fun Run last Sunday and we stayed over Monday to visit the Happiest Place on Earth.

I captured the following from Autopia's little light board. Here is one of the coming attractions.

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 Kamuela's Tantor
A sad, sad tale

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In 1986, Mike Searle was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University. On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Searle approached it very carefully. He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant's foot and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it.

As carefully and as gently as he could, Searle worked the wood out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments. Searle stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away.

Searle never forgot that elephant or the events of that day. Twenty years later, Searle was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenaged son, Jack. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Searle and his son Jack were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Searle, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man. Remembering the encounter in 1986, Searle couldn't help wondering if this was the same elephant.

Searle summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Searle' s legs and raised him high into the air and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly.

Probably wasn't the same elephant.

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Two SciFi Greats in Conversation

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Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen reunite to share remembrances of two legendary lives
Ref: SciFi Weekly
In hindsight, 1920 was a very good year for science fiction and fantasy. Of course, at the time, no one could have guessed that in the summer of that fortuitous year, a mere two months apart, the inauspicious births of two babies would someday change the creative landscape of film, television, writing and special effects forever. Those children grew up to become Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen—pioneers in their prospective professions, literature and visual effects. With their mighty imaginations, they have changed the world with their creative visions, rare achievements that have only strengthened their lifelong friendship as kindred spirits of innovation. Today their combined ages give them more than 170 years of incredible experience and stories to share with contemporary audiences, who are still captivated by these titans of creative expression. Happily, even into their advanced 80s, both Rays are still animated, enthused and plenty feisty when traveling down memory lane together. The two living legends sat down with SCI FI Weekly in San Diego recently for a conversation about their friendship, their creative inspirations and the secret key to artistic success. More>>>

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BARSOOMIAN GAME BOOKS

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Two 1978 game rule books published by Heritage Models Inc. based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter, Warlord of Mars.
1. Barsoomian Battle Manual written by Scott Bizar with rules for Barsoom adventure gaming.
2. Adventure Gaming Handbook with painting guide, fictional ethnic descriptions, and man-to-man action rules.

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UNAUTHORIZED NOVEL CASHING IN ON THE TARZAN^®  NAME

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Me Tarzan, You Jewel By Titania Ladley
Sequel to Jennie In a Bottle
The last thing Jewel Dublin wants is to be stranded on a deserted island with her former flame. But when she wakes up one morning to find a strange bottle on her dresser, she discovers she has no choice. Whisked away to Carnal Island by a genie, she's forced to face demons of both the erotic and painful kind. But luckily, Jewel holds one trump card. Due to a horrible disfiguring auto accident years ago, her ex-boyfriend doesn't recognize her—at first.

Vince Santiago's life is just fine the way it is, women at his beck and call, a posh condo in Denver and a fat bank account. At least that's what he thinks… Then a sexy genie dumps him on a deserted tropical island with a woman who seems vaguely familiar to him. Forced to drag up a long-buried past, "Tarzan" comes face-to-face with "Jane", who's hell-bent on driving him mad with lust. He's beginning to think he's got a terrible case of jungle fever!
 

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TRADING CARDS FROM JAPAN

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MAILSTROM

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QUERY:
Hello!
I live in Erie, Pennsylvania and I was visiting a pet cemetery yesterday.
I ran into a man who told me that Bonzo the Chimp is buried here and showed me the mausoleum?sp? he is in and that he became ill in our town and died while passing through and here he has been since! Do you know any solidity to that?
Thanks so much!
Lisa Kosmatine

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Hello Bill,
I thought you might be interested in the brand new official Thomas Yeates website at http://www.ThomasYeates.com.
We included many of his ERB and Tarzan artwork and will update the art portfolio from month to month. In afew weeks Thomas will offer original art tu buy online.
So it would be nice if you can help to spread the word about ThomasYeates.com.
Best regards
Uwe (I'm running the Website of Thomas)

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----- Original Message -----
From: Marko Ajdaric
To: tarzan@westman.wave.ca
Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2007 7:18 AM
Subject: A newseries of Tarzan albums is being printed in Spain
Hope you will appreciate the tip from Neorama dos Quadrinhos,
The widest 9th art newsletter in the world
http://www.neorama.com.br/
The number 1, here
http://www.neorama.com.br/q_frame0axi.html
Best wishes
Marko Ajdaric - editor

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