Tarzan was a major player in the nostalgia boom that lasted from the mid-60s to the mid-70s. The original books were reissued twice in that period (with Neal Adams covers the second time) the classic movies were revived, new movies and a new TV series were made. There were even fake Tarzan movies made! The book TARZAN OF THE MOVIES was popular, ERB fandom was at its height and Burne Hogarth's new color Tarzan volumes were actually on the Bestseller lists! Here we see a reunion of 6 surviving Tarzans on THE MIKE DOUGLAS SHOW (with co-host Totie Fields). Reportedly, Crabbe wanted nothing to do with Weissmuller but they both showed up! Once a Tarzan, always a Tarzan.
Born in 1962, I grew up during the Great Nostalgia Craze of the mid-60s to the mid-70s. So much of the pop culture I consumed while growing up was really the pop culture of my parents (and before)! I read Doc Savage and the Shadow and G-8 and His Battle Aces. I watched movie serials like Flash Gordon and Tom Mix. I read compilations of Buck Rogers and Little Orphan Annie and Dick Tracy newspaper comics. I listened to The Shadow and the Green Hornet and the Lone Ranger and Fibber Magee and Molly and Gangbusters every week on WRVR-FM, and collected old time radio on cassette tapes.
ReplyDeleteI lived on old movies – William Powell and Universal horror and jungle pictures and Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies. I dreamt about King Kong. I listened to Joe Franklin and had 78s and loved Bing Crosby and Rudy Vallee and Russ Colombo. I was so … excited about OTR premiums and vintage toys and pulps and the whole experience of growing up in the 30s and 40s.
I read Batman and Superman comic reprints from the 40s,and marveled at Sax Rohmer novels. My interest in the then-current culture was marginal at best … it was like being a displaced person in time.
I think the Nostalgia Craze of the era is an underreported phenomenon, and wish someone would do a comprehensive story on it. Maybe you?