Every Day With Edgar Rice Burroughs - April 30, 2025

 

April 30, 2025 and 22 years ago on this day in 2007, the Tarzan of my childhood and still my favorite, Actor Gordon Scott, died. Scott, who was born as  Gordon Merrill Werschkul, appeared as Tarzan in the films: Tarzan’s Hidden Jungle, Tarzan and the Lost Safari, Tarzan’s Fight for Life, Tarzan and the Trappers, Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure, Tarzan the Magnificent. After concluding his career as Tarzan Scott moved to Italy where he made several spaghetti sword and sandals films including, Goliath, Remus, Hercules, Zorro, Julius Caesar, and Sampson.

He was the only Tarzan to marry his co-star from a Tarzan film, “Tarzan’s Hidden Jungle,” He married Vera Miles, who played Jill Hardy, not Jane.

Details about Scott and several photographs: https://www.erbzine.com/mag17/1793.html

After his film career ended, Scott lived his final years in obscurity.

The 100-word drabble, “Star Power,” for today is a series of quotations credited to Gordon Scott.

I was exercising near the pool when an agent said producer Sol Lesser was looking for a new Tarzan.  I said, ‘Fine, let’s do it.’ Being an actor is one thing I never thought about, but once you're in it, it spoils you for anything else if you're successful. The money's so easy, you meet beautiful people. My God, that's the ideal situation - kind of a fantasy world. It's the best way to travel too. First class, and you get to see a lot of interesting places. Tarzan was ideal for me because I didn't have too much dialogue.

On this day with Edgar Rice Burroughs April 29, 2025

 

April 29, 2025 and ninety years ago on this day in 1935, Argosy Weekly rejected the novel with the working title, “Tarzan and Jane.” The story was promptly purchased by Blue Book Magazine and serialized under the title “Tarzan’s Quest.” The first Blue Book installment featured a cover illustration by Herbert Morton Stoops.

This story features Jane’s last appearance in a Tarzan novel and a successful search for an immortality drug.

Details about the book’s publishing history, several illustrations, reviews, and an electronic version of the novel: https://www.erbzine.com/mag7/0727.html

The 100 word drabble, “Forever is a Long Time,  for today was inspired by the novel, Jane’s departure from the series, the immortality drug, and the song “Paradise by the Dashboard Lights,” written by Jim Steinman and recorded by Meatloaf. The drabble is excerpted from the song. I’m sure that Steinman didn’t plan the verse as a comment on immortality, but here it is.

I couldn't take it any longer
Good Lord I was crazed
And when the feeling came upon me
Like a tidal wave
I swore that I would love you to the end of time!
So now I'm praying for the end of time
To hurry up and arrive
' Cause if I gotta spend another minute with you
I don't think that I can really survive
I'll never break my promise or forget my vow
But God only knows what I can do right now
I'm praying for the end of time
So I can end my time with you!

 

 

 

On this day with Edgar Rice Burroughs - April 28, 2025

 April 28. 2025. The 2500 entry in the “On This Day With Edgar Rice Burroughs” series and on this day forty years ago in 1985, the New York Times published the article, “You Not Tarzan, Me Not Jane.” The "Me Tarzan" non-quote will ever be haunting the hallways of the world of ERB. This article, at least, got it right, with an extensive discussion of what Tarzan and Jane actually said to each other that long ago day in the jungle. The “Me, Tarzan, You Jane” quote attributed to Weissmuller’s Tarzan was never actually spoken. Another famous quote that was not in the film is “Play it again, Sam.” The line was not actually in “Casablanca.”

A third example is the line often misquoted as "Luke, I am your father" is actually "No, I am your father". This iconic line is spoken by Darth Vader to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back.

Details about the film, “Tarzan the Ape Man:”  https://www.erbzine.com/mag6/0611.html

The drabble today, “Out of Context,” is excerpted from that New York Times article and is attributed to “Judge Newman.”

This is the most widely used quotation of a nonexistent line from movie dialogue exceeding in frequency the well-known and equally nonexistent line 'Play it again, Sam.' Recently, a case in our court brought to our attention the exact lines from the original 1932 film 'Tarzan, the Ape Man.'

This obscure but significant judicial footnote –doesn’t merely show the difficulty of teaching language to apemen, but provides irrefutable proof that a phrase our society has come to believe was once said, was not said. It’s a superb specimen of ''near-miss quotation,'' and we thank the Federal bench's record-straightening Second Circuit.