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Volume 1991

ERB ECLECTICA
MOTES and QUOTES 2007.08

Mike Chapman honored at Wrestling Hall of Fame
National Wrestling Hall of Fame ~ June 3, 2007 Author Mike Chapman and his friend Dan "The Beast" Severn
Mike Chapman of Newton, Iowa has been elected to receive the Order of Merit from the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum in Stillwater, Okla. The Order of Merit is presented to an individual who has made significant contribution to the advancement of wrestling, other than success as an athlete or coach. The winner is selected by a vote of the Distinguished Members of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Chapman, a professional journalist with a passion for wrestling, has been a leader within the sport for decades with a focus on the promotion of the sport. His involvement has been at many levels, including as a publisher, author, historian, publicist and speaker. Gifted as a writer and communicator, Chapman has used those skills to tell the stories of wrestling’s heroes and bring the excitement and drama of the sport to millions of people worldwide.

Chapman was born and raised in Waterloo, Iowa, hometown of Dan Gable and a wrestling hotbed. His interest and passion for the sport learned at an early age helped guide the rest of his life. Chapman had a 35-year career as a journalist and reached the top of his profession. He held sports editor positions at the Dixon Telegraph (Ill.), Iowa City Press Citizen (Iowa), The Coloradoan (Colo.) and the Cedar Rapids Gazette (Iowa), as well as serving as Editor for the Voice of the Hawkeyes, a newspaper covering the Univ. of Iowa athletics. Chapman was also the Managing Editor of the Daily Sentinel (Ill.), Executive Editor of the Sauk Valley Newspapers (Ill.) and the Publisher of the Newton Daily News (Iowa). For two years (1986-88), Chapman served as Director of Communications for USA Wrestling, the national governing body for amateur wrestling in the United States.

Throughout his professional journey, on his own time, Chapman was involved writing and communicating about wrestling, using all of his skills in a variety of mediums. He became the most prolific author about wrestling in history, penning 13 books about the sport. Each book was meticulously researched. The books told in rich language the personal stories of wrestling heroes, with a dramatic presentation that described the intensity and excitement of the sport. Chapman’s respect for wrestling is evident in each book, as he takes efforts to explain the values that the sport teaches.

The books that he authored with wrestling as a theme were: Two Guys Named Dan in 1976; From Gotch To Gable: A History of Iowa Wrestling, in 1981; Toughest Men in Sports in 1982; Nick and the Cyclones, in 1988; The New Breed: Living Iowa Wrestling, in 1985, (co-author with Lou Banach); The Encyclopedia of American Wrestling, in 1988; Gotch: World’s Greatest Wrestler, in 1989; Fighting Back, The Bob Steenlage Story, in 1993; GOTCH: An American Hero, in 1999; Wrestling Tough in 2005; Achilles: Son of Peleus, Scourge of Troy in 2005; Legends of the Mat in 2006 and The Sport of Lincoln.

In 1993, Mike created W.I.N. Magazine, a wrestling newspaper dedicated to covering all levels of the sport. The magazine was immediately recognized for its depth of coverage, outstanding columnists and timely delivery. He has since sold it but is still a columnist for the paper. While at W.I.N. Magazine, Chapman created the Dan Hodge Trophy, given each year to the top collegiate wrestler in the nation. The Hodge Trophy has been called "the Heisman Trophy of wrestling,” and has become one of the most coveted honors in the sport.

He was the creator of the International Wrestling Institute and Museum, which opened in Newton, Iowa, in 1998 and had over 40,000 fans visit before moving to Waterloo, Iowa, in 2007. The museum is now named in the honor of wrestling legend Dan Gable and housed in his hometown. Visitors to the museum are impressed with the large variety and detail of the exhibits, which are displayed in an entertaining and educational way. He also created the WIN Memorabilia Show, an annual showcase of wrestling memorabilia, products and services, which has been held annually during the week of the NCAA Div. I Wrestling Championships for 18 years. Numerous past wrestling champions make appearances at the show to meet with fans, bringing the history of the sport to life for new generations. Chapman also developed the Museum Show, which has appeared at nearly 100 wrestling tournaments.

Among the ways that Chapman has helped promote wrestling is through the development and marketing of posters. Among the dozen posters which he has produced are “America Needs Wrestling,” which lists 40 famous men who have wrestled, “Train Like A Madman” with Alexander Karelin, “Train Like A Madman 2” with Tom and Terry Brands and “Making History” with Pat Smith. Chapman has also produced two feature length videos about wrestling, and has created three different wrestling card sets. Mike has given speeches on wrestling history to hundreds of groups, offering a stirring and passionate presentation about man’s oldest sport. Considered one of the nation’s experts on wrestling, he has appeared on numerous radio talk shows to talk about the sport, and has been interviewed by many national and regional television networks on the topic.

Mike has won many awards in journalism. He has been named National Wrestling Writer of the Year five times and was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002 by the Cauliflower Alley Club, an organization of former boxers, wrestlers and movie actors. He is a member of four halls of fame recognizing his efforts involving wrestling. He was co-winner (with wife Bev) of the Impact of Year award by WIN magazine in 1988.

Mike did not wrestle in high school but wrestled three years in the U.S. Navy, and has also competed in judo, sombo, weightlifting contests and even several races. He once bench pressed 440 pounds weighing 202 and won the Iowa State Masters Bench Press contest (over age 55) in 2001.

Wrestling is not his only passion. He has also written a novel called Lowell Park, about Ronald Reagan as a lifeguard at age 22 in Lowell Park, and biographies of three movie stars from the past – Herman Brix, Glenn Morris and Tom Tyler. His book Iowans of Impact has biographical chapters of 25 famous Iowans, from Herbert Hoover to John Wayne to Frank Gotch and Bob Feller and Dan Gable. Because of his interest in Tarzan, Chapman received the Golden Lion Award, given annually to a person who has helped further the worldwide popularity of Tarzan. Chapman has been honored by the wrestling community to recognize his lifelong service to wrestling, based upon his detailed knowledge of the sport, his creativity in marketing and his passion for telling the stories of its heroes.

More about Mike Chapman in ERBzine 7018
 www.ERBzine.com/mag70/7018.html

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The MUCKERS have a long history.
While in prep-school, prior to attending Harvard (pronounced “HAH-vahd”), JFK formed a club with other miscreants. They termed themselves “The Muckers”.  Their use of the term came from the headmaster’s usage; he evidently called trouble makers “Muckers”

John F. Kennedy with fellow members of the Muckers Club at the Choate School.
Left to right: Ralph Horton, Lem Billings, Butch Schriber, and John F. Kennedy. (c.1934)

Submitted by Dick Spargur

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Entrance to Barsoom Interior
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Site
Black spots have been discovered on Mars that are so dark that nothing inside can be seen. Quite possibly, the spots are entrances to deep underground caves capable of protecting Martian life, were it to exist. The unusual hole pictured above was found on the slopes of the giant Martian volcano Arsia Mons. The above image was captured  by the HiRISE instrument onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter currently circling Mars. The holes were originally identified on lower resolution images from the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, The above hole is about the size of a football field and is so deep that it is completely unilluminated by the Sun. Such holes and underground caves might be prime targets for future spacecraft, robots, and even the next generation of human interplanetary explorers.

Man Clad In Underwear Pins Leopard
Yahoo! News ~ May 29, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070529/ap_on_fe_st/israel_cat_call&printer=1;_ylt=Au702UOvABzLesi2f05gL_UuQE4F
A man clad only in underwear and a T-shirt wrestled a wild leopard to the floor and pinned it for 20 minutes after the cat leapt through a window of his home and hopped into bed with his sleeping family. "This kind of thing doesn't happen every day," said 49-year-old Arthur Du Mosch, a nature guide. "I don't know why I did it. I wasn't thinking, I just acted." Authorities said it was probably food that lured the big cat. Du Mosch's pet cat was in the bed with him at the time, along with his young daughter who had been frightened by a mosquito in her own room.  The leopard was very weak when park rangers arrived at Du Mosch's home after the surprise late-night visit. He said nature officials would likely release it back into the wild. More>>>

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THE ITALIAN JUNGLE COLLECTION -
A Eurotrash Double Feature of Tarzan Clones On DVD
Luana and Karzan

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Reference: Turner Classic Movies Site

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Retromedia Entertainment’s “Italian Jungle Collection” DVD features two European bush adventures patterned after Hollywood’s hugely successful Tarzan franchise. Edgar Rice Burroughs published his first Tarzan novel in 1912 and there were nine Tarzan films in the silent era alone. The heroic character didn’t become a going cinematic concern until Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s Johnny Weissmuller vehicles of the 1930s and 40s. Over the next few decades, the King of the Apes’ loincloth would pass to a number of actors and athletes, among them Buster Crabbe, Herman Brix, Lex Barker, Denny Miller, Gordon Scott, Jock Mahoney, Mike Henry and Ron Ely. It was inevitable that Italy, having exhausted the sundry possibilities of such shirtless Greco-Roman titans as Hercules, Maciste, Ursus, Samson and Goliath, would want to give the more cost effective Tarzan game a go.

A co-production of Italy and West Germany, Luana (Luana la figlia delle foresta vergine, 1968) stars Netherlands-born actor Glenn Saxson, who had played the title roles in Umberto Lenzi’s Kriminal (1966) and Alberto de Martino’s Django Shoots First (Django spara per primo, 1966). Sporting a two-day growth of beard, Saxson rocks a pre-Indiana Jones world-weary grubbiness as explorer George Barrett, a self-professed beachcomber and “friend to all and none” hired by beautiful Isobel Donovan (Evi Marandi, of Mario Bava’s Planet of the Vampires). The expedition to find the remains of Isobel’s scientist father, whose plane went down fifteen years earlier in the jungles of Darkest Africa while searching for a rare plant, is joined by the late Derek Donovan’s business partner, Norman Albright (Pietro Tordi), who has designs on the plant that are less than scientific. As bad luck plagues the expedition, Barrett finds himself falling for Isobel, whose wears a charm bracelet identical to one he had seen on a mysterious jungle girl who once saved him from certain death.

Luana commits the cardinal sin of giving away too much information early on and having very little to fill its interminable second act. It’s no mystery that Isobel and the tree-swinging Luana (Mei Chen, from Jean Rollin’s Rape of the Vampire) will turn out to be half sisters or that Albright will be revealed as a world class bastard with no regard for human life. The bulk of the film is taken up with safari stock footage while the principals tramp around about a potted jungle constructed within a corner of a cramped studio soundstage. Interest picks up a bit when the elusive plant turns out to be a monstrously proportioned man-eater (think the love child of Audrey II and Caltiki the Immortal Monster) but the wrong villain gets swallowed too early and the actual denouement (a dive on the submerged wreckage of Donovan’s airplane) is anticlimactic. Mei Chen may not be a very compelling “daughter of the virgin forest” but Evi Marandi does get a couple of near-nude scenes that surely made male moviegoers stand up and take notice forty years ago.

Although the keepcase for this all-region “flipper” DVD claims the presentation of Luana is full frame (1.33:1), the transfer is actually letterboxed closer to 1.66:1. The image is slightly better than bootleg quality, and on par for most Retromedia releases. Colors are never vibrant but as long as viewers don’t have their hearts set on verdant jungle greens, the image is serviceable – especially for a forgotten film with a very narrow appeal. The monaural English dub is the only soundtrack option (even Luana’s chimp companion sounds like he was revoiced by the English Language Dubber’s Association).

A hardbodied non-entity named Johnny Kissmuller, Jr. is Karzan, Jungle Lord (Karzan, il favoloso uomo della jungla, 1972) but doesn’t turn up until the thing is more than halfway over. The bulk of this tedious trek across the Serengheti is taken up with an expedition to find a specimen of “white ape” glimpsed on a remote plateau – a safari underwritten by titled scientist Lord Carter (Roger Browne, also on hand for Guido Malatesta’s similar Samoa, Queen of the Jungle) and guided by avaricious explorer Captain Fox (former Italian matinee idol Ettore Manni). Also along for the ride are photojournalist Steve Wood (Jerry Ross) and the dark-eyed Dr. Monica Cromwell (Melù Valente), who finds the washboard-abbed Karzan far less favoloso than his slinky treehousemate Shiran (Simonetta Vitelli, daughter of director Demofilo Fidani). When Carter et al grab Shiran as a specimen and beat it back to civilization, Lord Karzan gives chase, enduring a gauntlet of jungle predators to recapture his lady love.

Karzan, Jungle Lord benefits from greater location photography and less reliance on studio interiors, giving the production a slightly more expensive feel. The hunting party is also given an interesting delineation between those in it for the thrill of the hunt and those out to serve science and humanity; the risibly verbose dialogue seems to be a commentary on the superficial over-refinement of civilized characters whom we suspect will soon prove to be baser than the jungle dwellers they track. Frustratingly, Karzan never really makes good on the promise of this stylistic choice, dropping character development for asides of rote slaughter (African aboriginals pop up as foot-stomping, ooga-booga-spouting shooting gallery targets) and lame comic relief (at least we think Karzan’s battle with an Italian stuntman in a gorilla suit is supposed to be funny). Suspicions that all of the above was written by monkeys is actually confirmed by the film’s closing shot.

Karzan, Jungle Lord is presented in its intended Techniscope aspect ration of 2.35:1. The image is somewhat soft but reasonably colorful and the mono English soundtrack, while hardly robust, is at least noise-free. Retromedia’s “rumble in the jungle” (“3 Hours of Savage Thrills”) double feature is attractively packaged, with some cool Frazetta-style cover art carried over to the very spare menu screens. While each feature is chaptered, no chapter list is included and there are no extras.

For more information about The Italian Jungle Collection, visit Image Home Entertainment. To order The Italian Jungle Collection, go to TCM Shopping.

by Richard Harland Smith

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A Princess of Mars - Penguin Classics
Over the years we have provided ERB images and research information for a multitude of publishers, university research projects, advertisements, Disney, Web projects, movie companies, foreign comics, etc., etc. -- all of this at the request or sanction of ERB, Inc.

The latest in this long line of joint projects is with Penguin Classics.
("Image provided by Bill Hillman of ERBzine.com -- Illustration by Dave Cockrum, penciller, and Rudy Nebres, inker) www.penguinclassics.com

Penguin Cover Blurb:
"Might it really be possible -- in fact and not rancy -- to venture with John Carter to the Kingdom of Helium on the Planet Mars?" -- Carl Sagan

"Two years before Edgar Rice Burroughs became a worldwide celebrity with the publication of Tarzan of the Apes in 1914, he published A Princess of Mars. A futuristic sci-fi fantasy romance, A Princess of Mars tells the story of John Carter, a Civil War veteran who inexplicably finds himself held prisoner on the planet Mars by the Green Men of Thark. Together with Dejah Thoris, the princss of another clan on Mars, Carter must fight for his freedom and save the entire planet from destruction as the life-sustaining Atmosphere Factory slowly grinds to a halt."
 
 
 
 

This poster came to me in a private e-mail from regular ERBzine contributor, David "Nkima" Adams.  I thought it too good not to share with ERBzine readers so I persuaded David to let me include it in this edition of ERBzine Motes & Quotes. Letter from David Adams: "Bill I thought you would get a kick out this birthday poster made by my son, Matt.  The Birthday Boy is Truman James David Olcott, my  youngest grandson as Harry Potter.  Hagrid is my son, Matt; Snape is Truman's dad, McGonagall is his mom, our daughter.  Ron is grandson  Quentin and Hermione is granddaughter, Mia.  The owl is their cat, Mary Ann, and of course, Dumbledore is your truly!  (Nkima).  My beard and hair is actually not that long, but maybe I should go that way - Ha. Matt is a computer graphics web designer, so he can do these things fast, which is completely amazing to me." Nkima See the many other David Adams features in ERBzine at:  www.erbzine.com/mag3/0396.html

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Gridley Wave Notes from Europe

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To the ERBzine Weekly Online Fanzine...
Subject: Reading ERBzine in Rome!
Dear Mister Bill Hillman
I'm writing you from Italy, my name is Antonio Farina. Excuse me if my english is not perfect, but I think that is enough for to say you "grazie/thancks" for the work that you're doing with your wonderful ERBzine. So special, so total, so complete... great! A real joy for who love the world builded by Mr. Burroughs.
I'm 43 years old and from my youth I'm a big fan of Tarzan: he saved my existence of little "Tarmangani" breaking the empty-boring life in the little town near Genova where I lived. Tarzan gived me a point of view to see the world and the relation between people, and the connection with the nature. And at the end, the love for Justice and a feeling of brotherood with all the creatures.
I meet Tarzan reading the comics by Russ Manning or Burne Hogart. And then I started reading the books of E.B.Burroughs, I was completely captivated but the world of the Jungle: but I could not realize that for me to live the adventures of Tarzan it was a kind of moral
education that help me to be a best person.
Nearly every week I came in your site, reading with my scholastic english the article on the worlds and the works of Mr. Burroughs. But I would like to know if does it exist a mailing list of the visitors of your site, so to reach in the e-mail as newsletter your fantastic ERBzine, because I would like to SUBSCRIBE my name (and my e-mail: farisi@libero.it) between your aficionados readers.... let me know, if you can.
 In every case, I wish you all the best
best regards
Antonio Farina 

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bonjour
je suis un grand fan de TARZAN depuis toujours je vais partir aux usa en californie je voudrais savoir si il y a un musee de tarzan a tarzana
MERCI
merci beaucoup thank you very much
Gilles

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Gridley Waves Received from closer to home

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Dear Bill Hillman,
I wanted to ask you if I could put the letter where Edgar Rice Burroughs refers to Carole Landis in my Carole Landis club on yahoo. The letter is in the second list on your John Coleman Burroughs site, it's the last letter in it. I am very much interested in both Edgar Rice Burroughs and Carole Landis and would like to put this letter in my club.
Yours truly, Benny Drinnon

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Bill,
Thanks for, among other things, the excellent photo feature on the 1893 Columbian Exposition.  That fair is still really big here in Chicago, and many people collect memorabilia.  I have a friend with a frame shop, and one of his specialties is framed photos from the Fair.
I've seen hundreds of photos of it, but had never before seen a picture of the electric car ERB drove around the grounds for his father's company.  This is often reported to be the first car ever driven in Chicago, and even if it's not, it is very significant, and I like it that ERB, at age 17, was the one who got to drive it, at the killer speed of 15 mph.  It was also great to read the background of how this vehicle came to be.
Greg Phillips

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Bill --
First, my thanks for the impressive achievement that is ERBzine.  I've been enjoying it for years, and I'm very glad you're able to keep it going week to week.  I know that's not easy!
I also wanted to let you know that I'm doing a reading of "The God of Tarzan" on my podcast at prometheus.libsyn.com this week and next week.  I know Project Gutenberg offers a complete audio book of Jungle Tales, but it's just a computer generated version.  I don't know if (or when) I'll get to the rest of the tales from the book, but I enjoyed doing this reading, so it's quite possible.  I'd love to have feedback from other ERB fans.  My podcast is usually dedicated to all-original SF/Fantasy  material, but we ran into deadline trouble this week; so I decided to share one of the Master's public domain works with my listeners.
The story should be available indefinitely, and downloading is completely free.  If I ever do the whole book, I'll also submit it to librivox.org, which already has readings of the first two John Carter novels by various readers.
Anyway, just wanted to let you know it was out there.
-- Steve Wilson

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Dear Bill Hillman,
Thank you, I put the letter in the club's files section and I also posted your list of links. The club is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_carolers
in case you are interested. I have another club for Thelma Todd (another movie actress ) where I have talked about Edgar Rice Burroughs because he mentioned Thelma Todd in something else he wrote, "The Birth of Tarzan, by his Poppa". I have been thinking of starting an Edgar Rice Burroughs club, but I hadn't gotten around to it yet.
Yours truly, Benny Drinnon

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I wish to sell an authentic 1926 "Lap Robe" Pierce Arrow fur blanket in pristine condition.
 Robert Fenton

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Mucker Cover from Danny Morris

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Hello,
My name is Dwight Gates and I am interested in any information or correspondence you may have concerning the friendship between Edgar Rice Burroughs and Brigadier General Kendall Jordan Fielder Hawaiian Department G-2 in Hawaii during WWII.  General Fielder is my Grandfather-in law.  ERB dedicated his book Escape On Venus to General Fielder and I have some correspondence, including a poem ERB wrote to Fielder and his wife during the war.  General Fielder also asked ERB to write the column "Laugh It Off", and according to one letter I have he apparently helped with arrangements to get him back to California.
If you are available next week I would like to make arrangements to visit the archives if that is possible and show you copies of the correspondence that I have and perhaps see if you have any correspondence between ERB and Fielder.
Sincerely,
Dwight Gates

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Hello Bill,
Need your help in identifying the 3 people in swimsuits.
Please let me know
if you can place them.
Thank you,
Howard
Howard Bender
Howard Bender ART!!
http://www.howardbenderart.com/
 

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Dear Mr. Hillman,
I was hoping if you can tell me if this painting was done by John Coleman Burroughs? It is signed J.C. Burroughs. I noticed that there several styles of signatures that Mr. Burroughs and was wondering if he sighed them J.C. Burroughs. I saw similar paint on the web site volume 0716. I inherited the a house and this painting was hanging on the wall. I the painting was bought from a public television auction back in 1955. The station is KQED CH9.
Thank you for your time
John Bergman

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Hi, is there a market for a watercolor by Burroughs? - Craig Moyer

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15 square kilometer of rain forest disappears every minute.

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