OT-Tarzan, Jane (Au Naturale) Swim

[ricki]

Lots of us grew up watching Tarzan movies. It used to be a regular stop Saturday mornings at times for me. Johnny Weissmuller was a personal favorite from the series of 20 feature films. He was born in 1904 in Freidorf, Banat, Austria-Hungary (now Romania). Amazingly, Johnny was a sickly child and pursued swimming at the suggestion of his doctor. Big John grew up to be a 6' 3" world class champion athlete and widely viewed actor. He won five Olympic gold medals, 67 world and 52 national titles and captured every freestyle record from 100 yards to the half-mile.


From: http://www.nndb.com

His power and grace in and under the water were impressive and come out in the following clip from the 1934 movie, Tarzan And His Mate also staring Maureen O'Sullivan. Mareen appeared in six Tarzan movies over the years. I understand this sequence may have been removed from the movie by sensors.



Back in the day, during the last days of the Cuban revolution, Johnny had a brush with the insurrectionists. While playing golf, he and his friends found themselves suddenly surrounded by a group of Fidel Castro's soldiers intent on kidnapping them, or worse. Thinking fast, Weissmuller immediately gave his trademark Tarzan yell. The soldiers immediately recognized it and were so delighted to meet Tarzan that they escorted the group back to a safe area. As an aside, I had a friend who worked as a Russian translator for a time. He was in an elevator in Cuba when a guy sneezed, he rejoined with God bless you in Russian. The guy replied in kind with the admonishment, we're not supposed to speak in Russian! This was a bit before the time of the fall of the island.

Johnny helped to form the Swimming Hall of Fame in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. I remember seeing his personal parking space in front of the museum years back biking around the old neighborhood.


From: http://www.ccyswimming.org/

More about Tarzan, the man and times at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Weissmuller


From: http://growabrain.typepad.com



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