Tarzan: a box-office winner that spans almost a century

WITH The Legend of Tarzan, starring Alexander Skarsgard, opening on Thursday, it is 98 years since Elmo Lincoln brought Edgar Rice Burroughs’ jungle-boy orphan to life for silent movie audiences.

Elmo Lincoln and Enid Markey star as Tarzan and Jane in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ silent movie Tarzan Of The Apes in 1918.

BEING slammed into the ground by an elephant and accidentally being set alight while tied up almost killed two of the 16 actors who played in the many film versions of Tarzan. Steve Sipek’s fiery escape on the set of a 1972 Spanish-language Tarzan film inspired him to create a big cat refuge in Florida. And Hawaiian-born Samuel (Kamuela) Cooper Searle was so badly injured in 1920 when slammed into the ground by an elephant, carrying him while he was bound to a stake, that it was rumoured he died on the set of the 15-part serial titled The Son of Tarzan

Although a double had to complete filming, Searle completed another film, Fool’s Paradise with Cecil B. DeMille in 1921 before retiring as a painter and sculptor in Hawaii, where he died in 1924, aged 33.

With The Legend of Tarzan, starring Alexander Skarsgard, opening on Thursday, it is 98 years since Elmo Lincoln brought Edgar Rice Burroughs’ jungle-boy orphan to life for silent movie audiences. Burroughs had introduced Tarzan of the Apes in a 1912 issue of The All Story Magazine and joined director Scott Sidney to create a screen version in 1918.

Although Burroughs supervised filming of bulky Lincoln, he preferred actor Stellen Windrow, who gave up acting at the outbreak of World War I. Tarzan producer William Parsons had cast actor Winslow Wilson, who completed vine-swinging “aerial” scenes in mid-1917 before being called up with the US Naval Reserve.

Maureen O'Sullivan and Johnny Weissmuller in Tarzan The Ape Man in 1932.

Rumours that Lincoln stabbed an old, drugged lion when it attacked him likely helped the film become one of the first to earn $1 million. Lincoln returned in Romance of Tarzan (1918) then made Elmo The Mighty (1919) and Elmo The Fearless (1920) for Great Western-Universal and refused an approach from Numa Pictures to make another Tarzan film. Numa then cast New York City firefighter, Joseph Pohler, who at 28 stood 1.9m and weighed 97.5kg. Working as Gene Pollar, he earned $100 a week for The Revenge of Tarzan. Offered a film contract with Universal, when Numa refused to release him, Pollar went back to fighting fires.

Lincoln reappeared in a 15-part movie serial The Adventures of Tarzan in 1921. After several small and uncredited parts, he quit films and in 1927 went into a salvage business, returning to Hollywood in 1939 when he appeared in Tarzan’s New York Adventure (1942) with Johnny Weissmuller and Tarzan’s Magic Fountain (1949) with Lex Barker.

Burroughs’ vision of his jungle hero as a buff muscle-man was enhanced when Indiana University footballer James Pierce, a part-time actor, met Burroughs’ daughter Joan at a party, where the author offered him $75 a week for Tarzan and The Golden Lion (1927). Although popular with audiences, critics panned the production. However Pierce married Joan in 1928, and the couple were the radio voices of Tarzan and Jane between 1932 and 1934.

Shot-put silver medallist at the 1928 Olympics Herman Brix arrived in Hollywood in 1929, when Douglas Fairbanks Jr arranged his screen test. Identified by MGM as the next Tarzan, Brix was also cast in Touchdown, but when he injured his shoulder during filming, Tarzan went to Weissmuller. However Burroughs later cast Brix as a cultured, educated Tarzan in The New Adventures of Tarzan (1935).

Actor Buster Crabbe as Tarzan in 1933.

Swimmer Weissmuller won five Olympic gold medals and one bronze for the US in the 1920s before he signed a contract to model men’s underwear in 1929, leading to his first movie role, wearing a fig leaf to play Adonis in Glorifying the American Girl.

Weissmuller was signed as the lead in Tarzan The Ape Man (1932) which was a huge box-office success. Burroughs felt Hollywood had dumbed down his noble jungle hero, although he approved of Weissmuller’s physical attributes and the actor went on to play Tarzan in 12 films before hanging up his loincloth to don a safari suit in 13 Jungle Jim movies, based on a 1934 newspaper comic strip. He died in 1984 aged 79.

Buster Crabbe, who won an Olympic swimming gold in 1932, was considered as a replacement for Weismuller, but made only Tarzan The Fearless (1933) before appearing in King of the Jungle (1933), Jungle Man (1941), and winning fame as Flash Gordon in 1936.

Croatian-born Sipek suffered serious burns while working on Tarzan and the Brown Prince in Florida. He was tied down for a scene when spilt fuel caught fire, panicking the crew. Sipek escaped when a lion, trained to remove his bonds, freed him. He vowed to repay the lion by looking after big cats.

He opened an animal sanctuary at Loxahatchee, Florida, where a Bengal tiger escaped and was shot in 2007. Sipek’s animals were confiscated in 2012, when he was arrested for failing to comply with animal permits.

Originally published as Tarzan: a box-office winner that spans almost a century