Johnny Weissmuller

Johnny Weissmuller

Weissmuller in 1924
Personal information
Height	6 ft 3 in (191 cm)[10]
Weight	190 lb (86 kg)[10]
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Club	Illinois Athletic Club[11]
Medal record Representing the  United States Olympic Games 1924 Paris 100 m freestyle 1924 Paris 400 m freestyle 1924 Paris 4×200 m freestyle 1928 Amsterdam 100 m freestyle 1928 Amsterdam 4×200 m freestyle Water polo 1924 Paris Team

As a teen, Weissmuller attended Lane Technical College Prep High School before dropping out to work various jobs including a stint as a lifeguard at Oak Street Beach on Lake Michigan. While working as an elevator operator and bellboy at the Illinois Athletic Club, Weissmuller caught the eye of swim coach William Bachrach, who trained Weissmuller; in August 1921, Weissmuller won the national championships in the 50-yard and 220-yard distances. Although foreign-born, Weissmuller gave his birthplace as Tanneryville, Cambria County, Pennsylvania, and his birth date as that of his younger brother, Peter Weissmuller. This was to ensure his eligibility to compete as part of the United States Olympic team, and was a critical issue in being issued a United States passport.[8]

On July 9, 1922, Weissmuller broke Duke Kahanamoku's world record in the 100-meter freestyle, swimming it in 58.6 seconds.[12] He won the title for that distance at the 1924 Summer Olympics, beating Kahanamoku for the gold medal.[13] He also won the 400-meter freestyle and was a member of the winning U.S. team in the 4×200-meter relay.[14]

As a member of the U.S. water polo team, he won a bronze medal. Four years later, at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, he won another two gold medals.[15][11] It was during this period that Weissmuller became an enthusiast for John Harvey Kellogg's holistic lifestyle views on nutrition, enemas and exercise. He came to Kellogg's Battle Creek, Michigan sanatorium to dedicate its new 120-foot swimming pool, and break one of his own previous swimming records after adopting the vegetarian diet prescribed by Kellogg.[16]

In 1927, Weissmuller set a new world record of 51.0 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle, which stood for 17 years. He improved it to 48.5 seconds at Billy Rose World's Fair Aquacade in 1940, aged 36, but this result was discounted, as he was competing as a professional.[1][11]

In all, Weissmuller won five Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal, 52 United States national championships,[1] and set 67 world records. He was the first man to swim the 100-meter freestyle under one minute and the 440-yard freestyle under five minutes.[upper-alpha 1] He never lost a race and retired with an unbeaten amateur record.[1][11][17] In 1950, he was selected by the Associated Press as the greatest swimmer of the first half of the 20th century.[1]

Upon moving to the prosperous Bel Air section of Los Angeles (specifically to an area known today as East Gate Bel Air), Weissmuller later famously commissioned architect Paul Williams to design a large home with a 300-foot serpentine swimming pool that curled around the house, and which still exists.[18]

In 1929, Weissmuller signed a contract with BVD to be a model and representative. He traveled throughout the country doing swim shows, handing out leaflets promoting that brand of swimwear, signing autographs and going on radio. In that same year, he made his first motion picture appearance as an Adonis, wearing only a fig leaf, in a movie entitled Glorifying the American Girl. He appeared as himself in the first of several Crystal Champions movie shorts featuring Weissmuller and other Olympic champions at Silver Springs, Florida. He co-starred with Esther Williams in Billy Rose's Aquacade during the New York World's Fair 1939–41, pursuing her for two years.[19]

Weissmüller (Tarzan) with Maureen O'Sullivan (Jane) in Tarzan's Secret Treasure

His acting career began when he signed a seven-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and played the role of Tarzan in Tarzan the Ape Man (1932). The movie was a huge success and Weissmuller became an overnight international sensation. The author of Tarzan, Edgar Rice Burroughs, was pleased with Weissmuller, although he so hated the studio's depiction of a Tarzan who barely spoke English that he created his own concurrent Tarzan series filmed on location in Central American jungles and starring Herman Brix as a suitably articulate version of the character.

Weissmuller starred in six Tarzan movies for MGM with actress Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane and Cheeta the Chimpanzee. The last three also included Johnny Sheffield as Boy. Then, in 1942, Weissmuller went to RKO and starred in six more Tarzan movies with markedly reduced production values. Sheffield also appeared as Boy in the first five features for RKO. Brenda Joyce took over the role of Jane in Weissmuller's last four Tarzan movies (the first two RKO films had not featured Jane). Unlike MGM, RKO allowed Weissmuller to play other roles, though a three-picture contract with Pine-Thomas Productions led to only one film, Swamp Fire, being made, co-starring Buster Crabbe. In a total of 12 Tarzan films, Weissmuller earned an estimated $2,000,000 and established himself as what many movie historians consider the definitive Tarzan. Although not the first Tarzan in movies (that was Elmo Lincoln), he was the first to be associated with the now traditional ululating, yodeling Tarzan yell. During an appearance on television's The Mike Douglas Show in the 1970s, Weissmuller explained how the famous yell was created. Recordings of three vocalists were spliced together to get the effect‍—‌a soprano, an alto and a hog caller.

Edgar Rice Burroughs himself paid oblique tribute to Weissmuller's powerful screen persona in the last Tarzan novel[20] that he completed, albeit with a misspelling of the actor's name.

But what seemed a long time to them was a matter of seconds only. The tiger's great frame went limp and sank to the ground. And the man rose and put a foot upon it and, raising his face to the heavens, voiced a horrid cry--the victory cry of the bull ape. Corrie was suddenly terrified of this man who had always seemed so civilized and cultured. Even the men were shocked.

Suddenly recognition lighted the eyes of Jerry Lucas. "John Clayton," he said, "Lord Greystoke--Tarzan of the Apes!" Shrimp's jaw dropped. "Is dat Johnny Weismuller? [sic]" he demanded. Tarzan shook his head as though to clear his brain of an obsession. His thin veneer of civilization had been consumed by the fires of battle. ...[21]

When Weissmuller finally left the role of Tarzan, he immediately traded his loincloth costume for a slouch hat and safari suit for the role of Jungle Jim (1948) for Columbia. He made 13 Jungle Jim films between 1948 and 1954. According to actor Michael Fox, Weissmuller shot two Jungle Jim films consecutively with nine days filming for each with a break of two days between, then he would return to his home in Mexico.[22] Within the next year, he appeared in three more jungle movies, playing himself due to the rights of the name "Jungle Jim" being taken by Screen Gems. In 1955, he began production of the Jungle Jim television adventure series for Screen Gems, a film subsidiary of Columbia Pictures. His costars were Martin Huston and Dean Fredericks. The show produced only 26 episodes, which were subsequently played repeatedly on network and syndicated television. Aside from his first screen appearance as Adonis and the role of Johnny Duval in the 1946 film Swamp Fire, Weissmuller played only three roles in films during the heyday of his Hollywood career: Tarzan, Jungle Jim, and himself.

According to the book by Weissmuller's son, Tarzan, My Father, while playing golf in Cuba in 1958 during the Cuban Revolution, Weissmuller's golf cart was suddenly surrounded by rebel soldiers. Weissmuller was unable to communicate who he was until he got out of the cart and attempted the trademark Tarzan yell. The soldiers then recognized him and shouted '"¡Es Tarzán! ¡Es Tarzán de la Jungla!" Johnny and his companions were not only not kidnapped, but the guerillas gave him an escort to his hotel.[23]

1970

Weissmuller was an accomplished amateur golfer and played in two official PGA Tour tournaments, at the 1937 Western Open at Canterbury Golf Club outside Cleveland (87–85=172, missed the cut) and the 1948 Hawaiian Open (79–75–79–76=309) to finish in 37th place.

In the late 1950s, Weissmuller moved back to Chicago and started a swimming pool company. He lent his name to other business ventures, but did not have a great deal of success.

He retired in 1965, moving to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he was founding chairman of the International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF) and was inducted into the ISHOF that same year.[1]

In September 1966, Weissmuller joined former screen Tarzans James Pierce and Jock Mahoney to appear with Ron Ely as part of the publicity for the upcoming premiere of the Tarzan television series.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Weissmuller was involved with a tourist attraction called Tropical/Florida Wonderland, a.k.a. Tarzan's Jungleland, on U.S. Route 1 in Titusville, Florida.

Weissmuller's face is included in the collage on the iconic front cover of The Beatles' 1967 record album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Based on his interest in natural lifestyles, Weissmuller opened a small chain of health food stores called Johnny Weissmuller's American Natural Foods in California in 1969.[24][25]

In 1970, he attended the British Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, where he was presented to Queen Elizabeth II. That same year, he appeared with former co-star Maureen O'Sullivan in The Phynx (1970).

Weissmuller lived in Florida until the end of 1973, then moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he worked as a greeter at Caesars Palace along with boxer Joe Louis for a time.

In 1976, he appeared for the last time in a motion picture, playing a movie crewman who is fired by a movie mogul (played by Art Carney) in Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood, and he also made his final public appearance in that year when he was inducted into the Body Building Guild Hall of Fame.

In 1974, Weissmuller broke both his hip and leg, marking the beginning of years of declining health. While hospitalized he learned that in spite of his strength and lifelong daily regimen of swimming and exercise, he had a serious heart condition. In 1977, Weissmuller suffered a series of strokes. In 1979, he entered the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California for several weeks before moving with his last wife, Maria, to Acapulco, Mexico, the location of his last Tarzan movie.[26]

On January 20, 1984, Weissmuller died from pulmonary edema at the age of 79.[27] He was buried just outside Acapulco, Valle de La Luz at the Valley of the Light Cemetery. As his coffin was lowered into the ground, a recording of the Tarzan yell he invented was played three times, at his request.[26] He was honored with a 21-gun salute, befitting a head-of-state, which was arranged by Senator Ted Kennedy and President Ronald Reagan.