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Presents
Volume 7739
ERBzine Intro Notes: 
From our Lost Words of ERB Seriers
THE BIRTH OF TARZAN
by His Poppa
Edgar Rice Burroughs
June 29, 1932
Burroughs contributed several articles for Script Magazine, one of these resulting from a correspondence with Homer Croy, who was temporarily editing the magazine while Wagner was on vacation. Burroughs, in a bantering exchange, had mentioned his acquaintance with the lovely movie star Thelma Todd.On June 29, 1932, he sent a brief article to Croy and noted the enclosed "photographic proof" that he was "not kidding." The "proof" was a photo of Thelma Todd and Burroughs; he wrote on an attached slip, "Thelma Todd being looked after by Ed Burroughs while Rob Wagner is fishing for tall blondes at Tahoe." The 400-word article, titled "The Birth of Tarzan, by his poppa," was supposed to contain the familiar information Ed had supplied to numerous magazines, but instead he jokingly made Thelma Todd the main topic. In the article he creates the impression that he is trying to write about Tarzan but is unable to keep from thinking about more exciting subjects.
This hurts me worse than it does you, but don't blame me. Blame Homer Croy. I'd much rather write about Thelma Todd. You see, I'm looking after her while Rob Wagner is away, and he needn't hurry back on my account.
Homer has to get out an issue of Script; and evidently he doesn't give a damn what he puts in it, just so he gets it filled. Furthermore, he shares the popular conception that I can't write about anything but Tarzan -- an erroneous conception. I am an authority on she-pulchritude. The older we get, the more we get that way. It won't e long now before I'm in Rob's class; and even now, young as I am, I don't care what color they are so long as they're blond.
Oh, yes, I almost forgot Homer. It was twenty year, come Michaelmas, that Tarzan first broke into print. We were living in Chicago then, and I had just taken up golf. And speaking of golf reminds me of the hit Thelma made a week ago Sunday when she came out to Tarzana Gold Course to present the trophies to the winners in her tournament (adv). Every one fell in love with her.
We hear a lot of yapping about the unequal distribution of wealth, but it seems to be one of the immutable laws of nature. Consider Thelma, for example. Some girls have this, some have that, and some have it; but Thelma has 'em all-- beauty, brains, personality, and figger. of course it is her intellect that appeals to me.
I trust that I have not bored you with these intimate details concerning the birth of Tarzan, but when I get to writing about him I just don't know when to stop. As to just how I happened to conceive the idea, I may say that I have been accused by numerous English reviewers of stealing it rom Kipling. The truth is that we both stole an identical idea from the same source, a source that antedates the founding of Rome; but being a less conscienceless plagiarist than Rudyard, I substituted a she-ape for the she-wolf.
I have written seventeen Tarzan novels from which a lot of lousy pictures and one good one have been made (adv. for M.G.M.). You know , speaking of pictures somehow reminds me of Thelma. I have seen a lot of girls who are beautiful on the screen yet look like a one-holer-in-a-fog off the screen. But Thelma she is gorgeous on and gorgeouser off.
If there is anything further that I can tell your readers about Tarzan, Homer, please don't hesitate to call me, for there is no one I more enjoy writing about than Th-Tarzan.
The ERB / Thelma Todd Connection ERB submitted the 400-word article, "The Birth of Tarzan, by his Poppa," to Script magazine. He jokingly makes movie actress, Thelma Todd, the main topic.
From our ERB Bio Timeline: 1932 ~ June 29From our ERBzine Eclectica Series Biographer Fenton felt that ERB's "City Of Gold" might symbolize Hollywood, and that the queen of the city might represent a "movie queen". He felt that the name "Nemone" was derived from "Nemesis", who represented retribution or vengeansce in Greek mythology. And he suggested that Thelma Todd might have been one of the sources of inspiration for this character. After Burroughs separated from his first wife and before he married again, he was said to have been infatuated with the actress Thelma Todd.
Thelma Alice Todd (July 29, 1906 – December 16, 1935) Thelma was an American actress and businesswoman who carried the nicknames "The Ice Cream Blonde" and "Hot Toddy". Appearing in about 120 feature films and shorts between 1926 and 1935, she is remembered for her comedic roles opposite ZaSu Pitts, and in films such as Marx Brothers' Monkey Business and Horse Feathers and a number of Charley Chase's short comedies. She co-starred with Buster Keaton and Jimmy Durante in Speak Easily. She also had roles in several Wheeler and Woolsey and Laurel and Hardy films, the last of which (The Bohemian Girl) featured her in a part that was cut short by her sudden death in 1935 at the age of 29.
THELMA TODD PHOTO GALLERY 
Johnny Weissmuller, Thelma Todd, and Santa Monica life guard,
outside the Santa Monica Life Saving Club in California 1935.
Thelma Todd, the "ice cream blonde," was found dead under mysterious circumstances on December 16, 1935. The beautiful and zany comdienne, who starred in many Hal Roach films, was found in her sports car, parked in the garage of movie director, Roland West, near Malibu. Los Angeles police were baffled -- murder or suicide? Officially, her death was listed as "due to carbon monoxide asphyxiation," but her clothing was disarrayed, there was blood on her lips and witnesses claimed to have seen the actress riding about in her sports car the day after police claimed she had died! ~ Fenton
REFERENCES
Lost Words of ERB
https://www.erbzine.com/mag2/0219.html
The Danton Burroughs Family Collection
https://www.dantonburroughs.com
THE BIG SWINGERS by Robert W. FentonThelma Todd Garage - Roland West's House ~ The World's Last Mysteries
https://www.marvinjwolf.com/blog/thelma-todds-death-solved Roland West in IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base): Bio and Trivia
In 1952 he allegedly made a deathbed confession to his friend, Chester Morris,
that it was indeed he who murdered Thelma Todd in 1935.
He was involved and living with actress Thelma Todd in Santa Monica
at the time of her still-unsolved death in 1935.
Neighbors heard them quarreling the night before she was found in her garage,
overcome by carbon monoxide poisoning.
Though a suspect, he was never arrested.
Roland West in Wikipedia
