Mixed emotions coursed through many fans of Edgar Rice Burroughs in the Spring of 1999 as they waited for the premiere of Disney’s “Tarzan” on June 18.

  What would Disney do for Tarzan? Would it further muddle the original story and character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, or would it be true to the legend of Tarzan?

  When the movie finally premiered, each of the fans needed to decide for themselves, but most found some things to like and some things to cringe at in the Disney portrayal.

  But one thing was for sure: The very fact that Disney was giving Tarzan its special touch as a major motion picture rather than a lower budget film, meant that the media took big-time notice.

  And so, as that spring unrolled, ERB fans were treated to the rare experience of being able to open their daily newspapers and find major print spreads on just about every aspect of the upcoming film.

  As a former editor of a small town daily newspaper, I’ve always had a love for newspapers, and I have the good fortune to live halfway between Seattle, Wash., and Portland, Ore., which gave me the ability to purchase four major metropolitan newspapers every day – The Seattle Times, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Tacoma New Tribune, and The Oregonian. Home delivery of The New York Times was available in our area at that time, so I had it coming to my home every morning, too. So whenever they printed a story about Disney’s Tarzan, I was ready with my scissors to clip it out.

  And that June, I was able to travel to Woodland Hills, Calif., for the Dum-Dum, at which we were treated to an advance showing of the film at Disney Studios in Burbank. So, while driving down there, and while in L.A. itself, I also picked up other area newspapers, and added to my collection of clippings, including one from a Spanish language newspaper.

  There were stories about the original Tarzan character as created by ERB, reminisces of past Tarzan movies, special articles about the different actors and actresses who would provide the voices for the animated characters, articles about the music being produced by Phil Collins, articles about the new animation techniques being pioneered by Disney for the film, articles about the toys and other merchandising efforts which would tie in with the film’s release.

  I had plans for those clippings, such as putting them into some kind of a scrapbook. Somehow, it was one of those projects I never got around too. For years, they have rested, flattened out in a box.

  But the 10th anniversary of the release of Disney’s Tarzan seems like a good time to get them out.

  So here, in this ERBZINE spread, see again some of the types of stories which appeared in publications across the U.S. during those heady days of anticipation, and enjoy again the Spring when Tarzan sprang from the pages of America’s newspapers.