THE TARZAN THAT WASN'T by Dave Goode

When pole-vaulter Don Bragg won the gold medal at the 1960 Olympics in Rome he thought he was on his way to fulfilling a lifelong dream. That of playing Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan of the Apes on the silver screen.


After all swimming
champions...

Johnny Weissmuller



















and Buster Crabbe

 used their gold medal victories
as a springboard into the role.

And Herman Brix

 who was the world record holder in the shot-put and won the silver medal at the 1928 Olympics was handpicked by Tarzan's creator Edgar Rice Burroughs to play the Lord of the Jungle in a movie he produced.


And then there was Glenn Morris

who won the decathlon at the 1936 Olympics earning the title of the "world's greatest athlete". Something Burroughs often described Tarzan as being.

It was while in Rome for the Olympics that LIFE magazine did a photo shoot of Bragg clad only in a loincloth among the Roman ruins. And if anyone looked like Tarzan it was the 6' 2" , 200 lb. Bragg. Growing up Bragg watched Johnny Weissmuller movies and played Tarzan climbing and swinging on ropes near his home. He also was blessed by great genetics. His father had done some professional wrestling. And Bragg grew into an all-around athlete who specialized in pole-vaulting.






In 1964 Bragg was given the chance to portray the king of the jungle in
TARZAN AND THE JEWELS OF OPAR produced by Sandy Howard and filmed in Jamaica. But almost as soon as filming started the production was shutdown. ERB Inc. won an injunction against Jamaica Pictures Ltd. headed up by Sherman S. Krellberg and Sandy Howard. I wonder what the finished product would have looked like? Would the script have had Bragg "aping" Weissmuller? Who would have portrayed La of Opar? Who would have played Jane? It's too bad that the film wasn't completed. Maybe changing the hero's name to Tyger or Zantar or something else. Just looking at pics of Bragg you can see he would have made a great jungle hero of some sort.


  Speaking of low budget jungle flicks, let's see what the Golden Adonis is up to in this brand new strip by Dave Goode and Vance Capley:

See more of the Golden Adonis' exploits in Judo Comics! Available at lulu.com

Watch artist Vance Capley draw a Golden Adonis strip!