Please Don't Call Me Tarzan

Newton IA: Culture House Books. Fine in Near Fine dj. 2001. First Edition. Hardcover. [very nice copy, no discernible wear to book; the jacket shows just the slightest traces of surface wear]. (B&W photographs) Biography of Herman Brix, an outstanding college athlete (and medal-winning shot-putter at the 1928 Olympics), who had been a bit actor in Hollywood for several years when he was tapped by the Burroughs-Tarzan Corporation for the role of Tarzan in their 1935 serial THE NEW ADVENTURES OF TARZAN. (Edgar Rice Burroughs himself had been unhappy with the screen portrayals of his jungle hero by Johnny Weissmuller and, especially, Buster Crabbe, and had set up a company to make a Tarzan film "the right way.") The serial launched him on a career as an action star, but eventually he found that his identification with the Tarzan role was hindering his career, so he changed his name to Bruce Bennett and re-invented himself as a versatile and reliable character actor, turning in memorable performances in such films as MILDRED PIERCE and THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, and on various television shows well into the 1960s. .