From Richard Reynolds #2

380056_1020_A, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. The stock African wildlife footage in all the MGM Tarzan films was taken from MGM's 1931 "Trader Horn," the first non-documentary film ever shot on location in east Africa. Thousands upon thousands of feet were taken of wildlife, enough to last MGM for many years in other movies. During the filming a native was actually killed in the water by a crocodile and another by a charging rhino, a scene that stayed in the film as released. In addition many in the cast contracted malaria and other diseases. Edwina Booth, the film's female star was one of them. The film was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar in 1931. Here's a poster - - - Owing to the intervening Great Depression and WW II, there was not another dramatic film shot on location in Africa until King Solomon's Mines, MGM, 1950. Of course, all films about sub-Saharan Africa from the 1930s up until fairly recent times were of the "Great White Hunter" genre (see Hatari in 1962). In every one of the MGM Tarzan films there was a safari which stumbled into Tarzan's jungle paradise and in each group of intruding white men there was a villainous sort or two who wanted to plunder this or that. Nowadays, African movies are of the realistic type like Hotel Rwanda. In a sense they show the real results of Colonial era plunder as practiced by the villains in Tarzan's films. Boy when I was 5 to 8 years old I wished I could have a tree house like Tarzan with a wicker elevator pulled upwards by a rope attached to a pet elephant. And when "Boy" (Johnny Sheffield - -only three years older than I am) and Tarzan went swimming with that young elephant I wanted to sign up. It showed them swimming underwater with the elephant paddling alongside. The sequence was filmed in the crystal clear waters of Silver Springs, FL. I think I'll go in and turn it on now! Richard From Ken Kawata Dear Richard, Bess et al. Yes, I too complimented Richard Weigl on the recent IZN article. Someone had to point it up and I'm glad he did. Also, your notes on old movies stirred up childhood memories. I too grew up on MGM Tarzan movies beginning in the late 1940s, and it was my 'game' to figure out zoogeographic inaccuracies (Asian and Neotropical animals in the Tarzan shows) which continued into the 1950s and 1960s. For instance, AFRICAN QUEEN has, I'm sure, Chilean flamingos; HATARI had siamang's calls. You may recall (must have told you a number of times) that in KING SOLOMON'S MINES (which has Carr Hartley's northern white rhino) an Asian elephant tosses up Stuart (spelling?) Granger's African assistant into the air. All these are based on fading memories and could be way off. Anyway, it was fun to look for rare animals in those Great White Hunter movies. For a fraction of a second or so, an okapi appears in WHITE WITCH DOCTOR (I think it was the title with Susan Hayward and Bob Mitchum); a bunch of okapis in ODONGO. And if it's available, take a look at MOGAMBO (MGM, I think it was). Ava Gardner at her sexiest, Grace Kelly and Clark Gable also great, but the point is, there is a brief scene of a group of lowland gorillas in the wild. That cannot be a fake. The group feels threatened and puts out a mock charge; when it does not work the whole group retreats, and you'll see a rear view of a big male. The scene is etched in my mind (but again, I'm relying on my fading memories). So much for nostalgia. Take care, Ken Kawata