THE STORY BEHIND THE BOOM

Reference: "The Big Swingers" by Robert W. Fenton

*** By 1961, after over 40 decades of incredible worldwide sales of ERB books there was a drought of Burroughs books.

The three Burroughs heirs—comprising Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.—were living unpretentiously in the San Fernando Valley, near the site of the 540 acre "Tarzana Ranch" that Ed had purchased in 1919: 
    daughterJoan, married to real estate developer and one-time movie Tarzan (Tarzan and the Golden Lion, 1927) James Pierce; 
    son Hulbert, who dabbled in photography; and 
    John Coleman, an artist and illustrator of his father’s books. 

The corporation itself was masterminded by general manager Cyril Ralph Rothmund, an astute and taciturn Scotsman, who thought Burroughs was the business machine company of the same name when he answered an advertisement for "secretary wanted" in 1927.

In 1961 Rothmund was negotiating with Western Printing for publication the Tarzan comic book, when the sluice gates, ironically, were opened by a schoolteacher from nearby Downey. Newspapers caught wind of the story that the teacher had withdrawn two Tarzan books from the school library after a parent had complained that Tarzan and Jane had never married and even had a son! This scandalous story was spread by syndicated columns across the country and appeared for a full week after Christmas 1961:
*** Los Angeles Mirror: 'Tarzan’ Banned in Downey School ~ Ape Man and Jane Never Married
*** Pittsburgh Post Gazette: Me Tarzan, Me Banned

Years before in 1949, Time Magazine's movie critic had made the same uninformed claim in his review of Tarzan and the Slave Girl: "Moviegoers often fret about Tarzan's morals, and write in to ask if he and Jane are married (they are not). . ."

It didn't take long back then for Tarzan fans to set the record straight. Time even printed a letter from Burroughs fan and bibliographer Rev. Henry Hardy Heins correcting the error. Heins went on to author A Golden Anniversary Bibliography of Edgar Rice Burroughs (Donald M. Grant, West Kingston, R. I., 1964.)

Almost immediately after the 1961 accusations, Tarzan fans rose to the Greystokes' defence and informed the media of their mistake:
Baton Rouge (Louisiana) Morning Advocate: Tarzan Book Ban Protested
Santa Ana (California) Register: (Associated Press Story): Tarzan Fans Say Ape Man IS Married
Long Beach (California) Independent: Tarzan, Jane Wed Way Back in 1915

In the Gridley Wave, published by Vernell Coriell, (the House of Greystoke, Kansas City, Missouri), Burroughs bibliophile John Harwood quoted a multitude of passages to indicate that Tarzan and Jane were indeed married. He made it clear that in the second Tarzan novel (The Return of Tarzan, 1915) the couple were married by Jane's father, Professor Porter, an ordained minister.

This rather silly controversy triggered "The Burroughs Boom," but the Boom got off to a bit of a slow start as new fans soon found that Tarzan books were very hard to obtain.

Grosset & Dunlap, which had reprinted Burroughs’ novels since 1918, was near the end of their latest three-year contract and weren't able to provide enough books to meet the demand.

Jack Biblo and Jack Tannen's Canaveral Press were swamped for requests for Tarzan books: “We had written Burroughs, Inc. several times, but never received a reply," so they had checked copyright laws and found that ERB, Inc. had let copyrights lapse on many early titles and they had fallen into public domain. 

Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Hulbert put the corporation lawyers to work and also conferred with the many publishers interesting in cashing in on the demand.

When Burroughs’ attorneys looked into the matter they found that there were renewals of the original magazine copyrights and that these copyrights protected ERB's works. ERB, Inc. was now a player in the boom and there were soon a flood of authorized books by Ballantine, Ace, Dover, and Canaveral. 

On November 26, 1963, The New York Times quoted Hulbert Burroughs as claiming an assortment locked in the safe of “close to forty or fifty pieces that have never been published. This newly discovered treasure trove added fuel to the boom and Burroughs fans, old and new, were soon bombarded with ERB's exciting tales of adventure -- many of them long forgotten or in a series of other newly discovered titles. 

The Edgar Rice Burroughs legacy was given a tremendous boost. ERB's heroes soon saw exciting new life on book shelves and in TV, movies, comics, games, fanzines, merchandising,  Internet, etc. This excitement and interest in the creations of the Master of Fantasy Adventure and Grandfather of American Science Fiction carries on to present day -- largely due to the expert guidance of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. and the many generations of devoted fans worldwide. In fact, ERBzine, the authorized tribute Website receives over 20 million worldwide visits each year. 

Edgar Rice Burroughs Still Lives