Tarzan at the Olympics

 

With the Olympic Games starting tomorrow in London, we turn our attention to a couple of teammates from the 1928 Amsterdam Games who made it big in the movies -- Johnny Weissmuller and Buster Crabbe.

It is perhaps no coincidence that since swimmers have the best bodies, these two fellows being swimmers would both end up playing Tarzan.

Weissmuller had the greater record both as an Olympic swimmer and as Tarzan. He competed in the 1924 Paris Games and the 1928 Amsterdam Games. In Paris he won 3 gold medals, and a bronze in water polo. In Amsterdam he won two more gold. He set several world records and never lost a race. In 1932, after creating a splash as a spokesman/model for BVD swimwear, he was beckoned to Hollywood and the back lot jungle to play Tarzan in “Tarzan the Ape Man.” He played him in 12 movies, and then went on to the “Jungle Jim” series.

Weissmuller's teammate in the 1928 Amsterdam Games was Buster Crabbe.  Crabbe won the bronze medal for the 1500 metres freestyle swimming event. A two-time Olympian like Weissmuller, Buster Crabbe then went to the 1932 Los Angeles Games and won the gold for the 400 metres freestyle. Like Weissmuller, it was only a short hop for Crabbe from the bathing suit with US team emblem to the loin cloth, and Buster became Tarzan in “Tarzan the Fearless” (1933).

It was Mr. Crabbe’s only stint as the ape man, however. He went on to a number of other jungle movies and then famously to his series as Flash Gordon.

Have a look here at this link for a photo of the two teammates and the two Tarzans together in the pool. No crocodiles appear to be lurking about for them to battle.