Official Edgar Rice Burroughs Tribute and Weekly Webzine Site
Since 1996 ~ Over 15,000 Webpages in Archive
Volume 6259
EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS
THE POET

1. ERB and the Hollywood Breakfast Club

Ed, who through the years had found invitations to join clubs irresistible, on various occasions had composed light verse for club functions.

In 1925 he was quite active in the Breakfast Club, and, as its most creative member, was expected to contribute poetry on demand. This varied from two poems written on August 21 to eulogize Thomas E. Campbell, ex-governor of Arizona, who was being granted honorary membership in the club, to a series of verses or lyrics designed to be sung to the melody of Upidee at a Breakfast Club function, "the passing of the oil can," in tribute to the attending oil company officials. Working on the Advisory Committee with Maurice DeMond, Ed contributed a number of lyrics for group singing.

Two other poems, possibly intended for Breakfast Club affairs, were "Hollywood" and "I'm the Guy That Sowed the Sage Brush in the Hills of Hollywood," subtitled "I Knew Him When"; these were written in October and November 1925. In "Hollywood" Ed writes of the famous heroes and great nations of the past that have long since vanished — Agamemnon, the daring Genoese, Babylon, proud Rome — and comments about Hollywood:

Thy standards flaunt the breeze today
As nationsflock to homage pay
To thee, the darling of a world;
Our Hollywood!

In the second poem, humorous raillery directed at various acquaintances, Ed remarks,

"I could have bought an acre right at Hollywood and Vine
If I had had ten dollars back in eighteen fifty nine" and evokes other memories of the past while noting the changes that had occurred.

Ed's other light verse included "The Wampas," written for the Western Associated Motion Picture Advertisers group attending a Breakfast Club meeting on November 20, 1925.

In a satirical view of the film industry, during the same year, Ed composed a poem (untitled) describing a scene in heaven with St. Peter. A "spook," evidently a Hollywood producer or promoter, approaches St. Peter with a plan to expand and glamorize heaven with "pageants and prologs" and 'The Great Ten Billion Theater," with films being shown for ten dollars a seat. But upon investigation, the producer loses all enthusiasm for the project:

There are plenty of authors in heaven
And orchestra leaders as well;
But people who act,
Directors — in fact
All the rest of the talent's in Hell."

By 1926 the overburdening pressure of business enterprises and writing projects forced Ed to relinquish his Breakfast Club activities. To DeMond, in referring to these responsibilities plus the problems of two lawsuits, Ed, on April 23, explained that he had no time to write the song requested, and in fact no time to do anything beyond his own business "for at least ayear or two."

Poems of a differing type, undated but probably written in the same period, were one in the prosy rhyming style of Walt Mason, whose verses in the Chicago newspapers Ed had long admired. The poem referred jokingly to glamorous movie stars of the times, including Gloria Swanson and Bebe Daniels:

'Twould joy me more than you can guess
to purchase socks for Gloria S., or
lingerie for Bebe D.
In fact my sweet philanthropy
suggests I purchase all their clothes from hats to hose —
especially hose. But several things discourage me
and one of these is Mrs. B

2. THE PATRIOTIC POETRY
OF
EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

"Skunk in Defeat"
Composed on January 15, 1941, ERB describes how revolting he believes the Nazis to be
The skunk came out and looked about and waved his gorgeous tail;
The people ran, each ev'ry man; the bravest there did quail.
The skunk would strut and wave his butt; a chesty skunk was he.
He looked around that well known ground to see what he might see;
Then from on high up in the sky there came a horrid stench;
The skunk did quail and lower his tail, and e'en his face did blench
He held his nose with little toes and ran away from there,
For who could hope to fairly cope the stink that filled the air?
He beat it then to hidden den to lay him down and die;
And what, you think, that awful stink? 'Twas a Nazi flying by!

"A War-Job Striker To A Soldier."
ERB's poem expressing a worker's complaints about the long hours,
and how tired he is at night.
This is contrasted ironically with the soldier's fate.
In this four-stanza poem, the last line sounds a dirgelike refrain,
with the soldier's death made inevitable:
The worker grumbles:

I have to pay a lot of silly taxes
So guys like you can fight the bally Axis.
You, soldier, only have to die.

I have to work for all the coin I get.
My gas and hootch are rationed, yet
I do not ever grouse, not I.
If things aren't run exactly as I like,
Believe me, brother, I can always strike.
You, soldier, only have to die.

Hard as my lot, my friend, I feel, alas,
That you are just a . . . silly ass
Who must have let his chance pass by
To get a cushy job with lots of jack
Instead of one from which you won't come back;
For, soldier, you are going to die.

But if, perchance, you should survive the strife
And come back to your kiddies and your wife,
I promise you that I will try
To force you in the union that I'll run;
And then your one regret will be, my son,
That in the fray you did not die.

MORE ERB POETRY

27 Poems by ERB: The Early Years
https://www.erbzine.com/mag0/0003.html

Genghis Khan: A Rare 10-Page Poem by ERB
https://www.erbzine.com/mag58/5881.html

A First Edition of Two Rare ERB Poems
https://www.erbzine.com/mag62/6284.html
https://www.erbzine.com/mag62/6285.html

The Black Man's Burden: A Parody by ERB
https://www.erbzine.com/mag2/0291.html

ERB The Poet
https://www.erbzine.com/mag62/6259.html

BILL HILLMAN
Visit our thousands of other sites at:
BILL AND SUE-ON HILLMAN ECLECTIC STUDIO
ERB Text, ERB Images and Tarzan® are ©Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.- All Rights Reserved.
All Original Work ©1996-2019/2023 by Bill Hillman and/or Contributing Authors/Owners
No part of this web site may be reproduced without permission from the respective owners.