From Richard Reynolds #1

9991, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. Dear Bess - - - Yes, I've seen Richard Weigl's paper (regarding Tarzan's chimpanzee) which could also be entitled "Debunking the Cheeta Myth." In fact he shared it with me beforehand. We had communicated several times about the animal in question. Looks like the supposedly flawless Guinness Book of World Records will have to do some more digging or else live with egg on their face. I wonder what documentation or stream of evidence/authentication the chap who keeps Cheeta could show us to prove his claim that the animal is of 70+ years. If you look at the MGM Tarzan series, you can see that Cheeta is played by several different chimps. I had not realized that one of Mae Noel's chimps has now set the verifiable longevity record for the species at over 60. So, among mammals, only the chimp, Asian elephant, and common hippo have made 60 years in captivity. A few years ago I got the DVD set of MGM's six Tarzan films released between 1932 and 1942. They starred Johnny Weissmuller (June 2, 1904 – January 20, 1984). MGM was the best of the numerous Tarzan producers and Weissmuller was the best in the Tarzan role. He was a splendid swimmer - -Olympic Gold medal winner in 1924 and again in 1928. The MGM DVD set includes an extra disc which shows how they made the films - -very interesting. MGM actually purchased a female black rhino, Mary, for the charge scenes in Tarzan and His Mate (1934). Thousands of feet of her were shot and used in that and two other Tarzan films. I've got all the facts about Mary. When I was a child, I saw three of the MGM Tarzan films at the movie theaters. They were my favorites. To heck with all that Wizard of OZ, Snow White , and Gone With the Wind uproar. My grand kids love the Tarzan films as well. Today it is hard to realize it, but when I was growing up in the 1930s and 1940s one could not simply turn on the TV and watch nature or wildlife films at will - -at almost any time of the day. Tarzan and a few other films like those of Frank Buck, Armand Denis, and Martin and Osa Johnson were just about the only way to see animals in action on film. I called all of them "Jungle Movies." I relished them, but they only came around to the theaters occasionally and I could not always get my folks to take me, plus some played theaters in neighborhoods we did not frequent. When I was a kid, I only saw only one of the M &O Johnson films in a theater (I Married Adventure - 1940). I later saw several others. In 1945 I managed to catch Denis' great Dangerous Journey (1944). Wow! - - It had the chilling sequence of a ritual of some sort in which a small Burmese woman kissed the head of a king cobra who had risen to the striking position and, in such, was a tall as she. As a child I never did see any of the Frank Buck films but now have them on VHS tapes. There is a Martin and Osa Johnson Museum in Chanute, Kansas. They were true pioneers in filming wildlife. I Married Adventure is a composite of earlier Johnson films shot in both Africa and Southeastern Asia. Here is a poster - -