Hollywood Called
Not counting the adult live-action films, there have been at least 45 movies about Tarzan, starting with 1918’s silent film ‘Tarzan of the Apes.’ There were a lot of cheesy adventures in the 30s and 40s with Johnny Weissmuller and there was even a frisky movie with Bo Derek in 1981. But the most well-known adaptation is the Disney animated movie from 1999.
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Tarzan’s image has been used to sell everything from t-shirts to vitamins to chest wigs. In Japan, there’s a fitness magazine named after him, and there’s a Southern Californian community named Tarzana where Burroughs built his office in 1926 (and was buried there). No one can deny that Tarzan made his mark on pop culture. But how did it happen?