If you put a group of Tarzan fans together in a room
inevitably a debate will break out about the Lord of the Jungle's
physique and how Tarzan should be built. The reason there is a debate is
because Edgar Rice Burroughs never wrote how much Tarzan weighed. He
said that he was slightly over six feet tall. But never gave his
literary hero an approximate weight. One group declares that since
Tarzan is strong enough to wrestle a gorilla he should look strong
enough to wrestle a gorilla. To many that means being built like a Mr.
Olympia winner. The members of the other group imagine Tarzan being
built like a decathlete. I'm a member of the latter group.
Tarzan of the Apes was first published in 1912.That was the year
legendary Native-American athlete Jim Thorpe earned the unofficial title
of the " World's Greatest Athlete " for himself and generations of
Olympic decathlon champions to follow. He placed first in four of the
decathlon's ten events. And never placed lower than third in any of the
other events. He also won the pentathlon. In that competition he won
four of the five events while placing third in the javelin.My point
being Burroughs described Tarzan as being the " world's greatest athlete
". Thorpe stood 6' 1" and weighed 200 pounds depending on what he ate
for breakfast.
You want someone who was a bit larger? How about heavyweight champion
Jack Johnson? In 1912 Johnson was in the fourth year of his reign as
world champion. Johnson is listed in his prime as standing 6' 2" and
weighing 215 pounds.
And then there was Eugene Sandow a.k.a The Great
Sandow. A professional
strongman who was even better known for his
physique. Sandow looked as if he had been carved out of marble. If the
5' 9" 190 pound strongman had been taller he might have been a match for
Tarzan. Charles Atlas could have fit the bill as well. But like Sandow
the " World's Most Perfectly Developed Man " at 5' 10" might have been a
bit too short to portray Burroughs' jungle hero. I guess the point I'm
trying to make is that in 1912 you were not going to find someone built
like a Mr. Olympia. So why would you expect Burroughs to create a
character who looked like one.
I'm not saying Tarzan shouldn't be muscular. He should be. I just
don't think he should be hugely muscled. Look at Mike Henry. I mean
seriously look at him. Considered to be one of the best built actors to
play Tarzan he doesn't have 18" arms outside of the dreams of a size
queen or a studio publicist. But the former NFL linebacker is very
muscular. He reminds one of the illustrations of Tarzan comic strip
artist Burne Hogarth.
I think Mr.America, Mr.World, and Mr.Universe winner, Steve Reeves,
could have been great posing as Tarzan for paperback photo covers. He
did portray Kimbar , a Tarzan-like hero in a television pilot. Standing
6' 1 1/2" tall and weighing 215 pounds he was known for his symmetrical
physique. Like Sandow , Reeves sought to obtain the " Grecian ideal "
and not size for size sake. Burroughs describes Tarzan as being more
Apollo than Hercules. That's a description that fits Reeves perfectly.
Which is kind of funny when you consider that Steve Reeves is most
famous for portraying the demigod Hercules on the big screen.
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At 6' 6" he was quite a bit taller than Burroughs described the "Ape Man". But otherwise he'd be a perfect fit. And he was cast more or less as Tarzan in his very first screen role. Under the name Jett Norman he appeared in a leopard-skin in a scene in the Bowery Boys comedy JUNGLE GENTS (1954).
