Thursday, October 06, 2011

Tarzan The Ape Man #3

TARZAN THE APE MAN was the first Tarzan film to use a chimpanzee as one of the principal characters. (Weissmuller would work with a total of 8 chimps during his film career.) Legend has it that, when he was introduced to the first Cheetah in 1931, the animal bared its teeth, growled, and lunged as if to attack him. Weissmuller took out his Tarzan knife and held it in front of the chimp's nose to make sure he saw and smelled it. He then slammed the chimp on the side of the head with the knife’s handle before putting it back into its sheath. He then held out his hand to the chimp. After first glaring at him and baring his teeth, Cheetah jumped up and hugged him. Weissmuller never had any further problems with the chimp, although other members of the cast and crew did.
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Posted by Buckles at 10/06/2011 04:58:00 AM

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd bet a good buck that is NOT
Weismuller in this photo.

06 October, 2011 10:05
Eric said...

Depending upon your source, the chimp’s name can be spelled several different ways. It’s correct spelling is actually C-H-E-E-T-A, but it also appears as Cheetah, Cheta, and Chita. This is totally an MGM creation, as no animal by that name appears in any of the original Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan books. (There IS a little monkey named Nkima.) Cheeta became so much a fixture that Tarzan films produced by other studios had to also include a chimp.

06 October, 2011 12:51
Little John said...

Once upon a time at the Ringling Park, Myron the clown built a rickshaw that was pulled behind a cool tiny Honda 50 mini motorbike. Frank and Johnny his chimp would kick back in the rickshaw and be pulled through the parade in the park. Johnny did not like clowns, but Myron was not your typical looking clown, and I think that Frank needed to get Johnny around clowns. Johnny and I had a similar talent for roller skating and I roller skated in the parade. I also was not your typical looking clown and one of Johnny’s tricks was to shake hands and then kiss the back of your hand. Frank told me to shake hands with Johnny, and so I did. Johnny clamped down like a vice grip and just before the bones were crushed Frank got Johnny’s attention. To this day I attribute Johnny reaction to the fact that I was on roller skates. Frank commanded me to shake Johnny’s hand again, and Jonny took my hand and examined it carefully. The hairs, my knuckles, my finger nails,his big black hands gentle pinched and probed my shocked right hand. Johnny was now being the nice monkey and then he kissed the back of my hand. But the whole time he maintained that shit eating grin.

06 October, 2011 18:10
Little John said...

I was sharing my limited knowledge of primates at work with a friend who has an impressive military history. My friend told me that while he was being train in a jungle somewhere a gorilla pounced out of a high tree and stood in his path. I think the story goes that he was on point and his buddies came to his aid and the gorilla backed off. The next day that gorilla lay dead on the path killed and left by his band for backing down.

07 October, 2011 21:08

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