June 2 Johnny Weissmuller

Happy Birthday Jerry Mathers, Marvin Hamlish, Sally Kellerman and Johnny Weissmuller.

To celebrate Johnny Weissmuller’s birthday I watched Tarzan’s New York Adventure. Johnny plays Tarzan and Maureen O’Sullivan in her last Jane role. A plane expedition comes to Africa. Tarzan gives them a day to get out. The next day Boy goes to see the plane. One of the men wants to take him back, but the pilot tells Boy to leave. Boy saves one of the men’s life. They are attacked by natives. Boy calls for Tarzan. Tarzan and Jane go to Boy. The natives break the chain and they fall 20-100 feet. Natives then set fire to the area where they fell. Boy goes with the men thinking his parents are dead. Cheetah rescues Tarzan and Jane and tell them that Boy is gone. Tarzan, Jane and Cheetah walk across Africa to the closest city to find the plane. Pilot is headed for New York City. They exchange gold for money. Get clothing, Tarzan has to have his special made, being twice the size of the natives. The tape measure is not long enough to go from wrist to wrist. He finds it itchy. They take a mail plane to New York City, the stone jungle. In a cab Cheetah turns on the radio where Tarzan thinks the opera singer is crying for help. In the hotel room, Tarzan takes a shower with his cloths on. At a restaurant Tarzan opens the door for Jane, that is modern manners not something learned in the jungle. They track Boy down to a circus. Another circus offered a lot of money for Boy. The man who took Boy takes him away so that Tarzan can’t get him. Legally Boy belongs to the man who brought him in the country. They have to fight in court. Tarzan has to take the stand. The judge states that Tarzan “no savage, uniquely civilized”. When the attorney starts to badger Jane, Tarzan gets upset and picks up the lawyer and throws him in the empty jury box. He is held for contempt of court in another room.

Tarzan has to get Boy. He goes through a closed window, out the ledge to climb up to the roof. While being chased around roofs by police he climbs down a drain pipe to the ground. He gets a cab to take him to the circus. The police stop him at the Brooklyn Bridge. Tarzan climbs up the side with bystanders cheering him on. When he is surrounded by police, he takes off his jacket (the crowd gasps) he jumps in the water. I don’t know if this was a stuntman, dummy or staged, but there was a little splash. Tarzan gets to the circus and climbs the top of the outside of the tent. Tarzan gets trapped in the safety net. He is put in an empty animal cage. He calls to the elephants. They are chained. They pull up their stakes and pull at the bars of the cage. Tarzan has the elephants stampede to stop the car with the men who have taken Boy. Tarzan gets Boy from the car right before the car crashes.

Johnny played Tarzan 11 times in 16 years. During his run as Tarzan he could not play any other role. Wbshop.com/archive has recently released some of his non Tarzan films.