PUSHING THE ENVELOPE NO.
231
It was 100 years ago today, July 9, 1922, when Johnny
Weissmuller became the first man to swim the 100m freestyle in less than
a minute. In a salt water pool in Alameda, California, he was clocked at
58.6 seconds, breaking a record set by Duke Kahanamoku, star Hawaiian swimmer
and surfer and an Olymics champion.
When Johnny and Duke met in the 1924 Olympics in Paris,
it was Johnny who won the gold while Duke captured the silver medal for
second place. Before the race started, Duke told his favored competitor:
“Johnny, good luck. The most important thing in this race is to get the
American flag up there three times. Let’s do it!”
Johnny Weissmuller won a total of five Olympics medals
in his career, the same number as Duke. Johnny also won a Bronze in a team
event. Duke became known as "The Father of Modern Surfing" and was at home
on the big waves of Hawaii. Johnny, of course, played Tarzan and Jungle
Jim. Duke had an occasional acting opportunity as well, in movies such
as "Mister Roberts" and "Wake of the Red Witch."
I made the drive to the Galvin, Washington, Post Office
this morning to obtain today's cancellation on these covers. One of them
has the Silver Surfer stamp, which certainly describes Duke, and the other
has the stamp showing a Silver Surfer comic book cover. DC's Aquaman stamp
filled in for Johnny
PUSHING THE ENVELOPE NO.
232
PUSHING THE ENVELOPE NO.
233
Foster Miller, membership chairman of the American First
Day Cover Society, sent me this Edgar Rice Burroughs stamp first-day cover
recently. It is one of five like this made by John Romppainen, New Berlin,
Wisconsin, as part of his Romp Cachets line.
The cachet is of the art of longtime ERB illustrator
J. Allen St. John and was originally used for "Tarzan at the Earth's Core"
and later for an omnibus edition of several Tarzan books, including "Tarzan
of the Apes."
PUSHING THE ENVELOPE NOS.
234 & 235: JUNGLE MAIL
Tarzan postal covers swung into my mailbox
the other day from two of my fellow members of the Art Cover Exchange.
Robin Sparrow, of New Zealand, made one using a page
from a old Tarzan annual. I showed the back as well, for "the rest of the
story," which happens about the time in "Apes" where he was determined
to take the step from apehood to humanhood!
Back side of a Tarzan cover
from Robin Sparrow, New Zealand. Robin included some Disney Tarzan stickers
inside and I used one to temporarily cover up her return address for this
scan.
The Cover Monster of Ohio,
meanwhile, continued his relentless effort to send me Tarzan covers. Two
he sent recently are first-days, one with Ron Ely on a first-day cover
with cancellation from Tarzana, Calif., and the other with the Elyria Post
Office "First-Day of Sale" postmark and a Joe Jusko trading card image.
PUSHING THE ENVELOPE #236
- REMEMBRANCE: December 7, 1941
ERB AT PEARL HARBOR
We know that on Dec. 7, 1941 Edgar Rice Burroughs was
watching with others from a tennis court as Japanese planes attacked U.S.
Naval installations at Pearl Harbor. This group at first assumed they were
watching planned military exercises. The truth would build a fire of patriotism
among them and across the U.S. Burroughs was too old to join the service
per se but he was able to sign up as a war correspondent and was the oldest
with such duties in the Pacific Theatre.
PUSHING THE ENVELOPE #237
A special postal cancellation
was available in Palm Springs to tie in with the unveiling of the Edgar
Rice Burroughs star on the Walk of the Stars. The star was the vision
of dedicated ERB fan Scott Tracy Griffin, who obtained approval
for a star for ERB from the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce and then organized
a campaign to raise the $15,000 needed to fund the star and its placement.
Many ERB fans contributed to the fund-raiser.
In addition to the placement of the Star, those fans
who went to Palm Springs were able to enjoy an Edgar Rice Burroughs
Chain of Friendship gathering for two days afterward, which featured
guest of honor Tommy Cook, who played Kimba in "Tarzan and the Leopard
Women," the 1946 film that starred Johnny Weissmuller and Brenda Joyce
as Tarzan and Jane.
Cook was also in the "Jungle Girl" serial of 1941,
which took its title from an Edgar Rice Burroughs story. Cook also played
Little Beaver in the 1940 serial, "Adventures of Red Ryder."
The special postal cancellation was envisioned and designed
by Henry Franke, editor of The Burroughs Bulletin, who worked
with the U.S. Postal Service to arrange for approval of the special, temporary
postmark.
Although the date on the postmark is April 4, the day
of the star ceremony, it is available for 30 days after that date (up until
about May 3) for any who either visit the Palm Springs post office or who
mail stamped envelopes there and ask for the cancellation. The address
is:
Star Dedication Station
Postmaster
Palm Springs, CA 92262.
Place the envelopes you want canceled inside a larger envelope
and mail them to the post office. You can address them to yourself or others
or, if you want to receive them back unaddressed, enclose a large, self-addressed,
stamped envelope for them to be returned to you.
I did not attend the ceremony or ECOF but I thank Bill
Ross for offering to take postal covers there for me and have them canceled.
I made three designs, one featuring the large Marilyn Monroe
statue which stands at the Walk of the Stars, one featuring Reed Crandall's
illustration of ERB and his characters, and one focused on "Tarzan
and the Leopard Woman" and Tommy Cook.
Some of the covers were placed in
the auction to help fund the ECOF and some were sold individually
for donations to The Burroughs Bibliophiles.
The "Leopard Woman" cover posted here
was signed by Tommy Cook by special arrangement with an ERB fan,
to whom I will be sending the cover.
A big thank-you to Scott Tracy Griffin, who put
in many hours to make sure everything ran smoothly. Tracy demonstrated
what one energetic fan can do for the legacy of Edgar Rice Burroughs.
This well-known Reed Crandall
illustration depicts the Master of Adventure surrounded by his characters
and
this cover makes yet one more place where this illustration
has turned up.
I made several covers to
honor the ECOF guest of honor, Tommy Cook.
He signed this one for an ERB fan.
This cover was more meaningful
than I thought when I made it, since
the ERB star is located to the right front of the
Forever Marilyn statue in Palm Springs.
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