Shot Put Champ
Was Greatest Tarzan

To the average movie fan, legendary swimmer Johnny Weissmuller is the actor most commonly associated with Tarzan, one of the greatest literary characters of all time.

But according to author Mike Chapman, the actor that "true aficionados" of the Apeman feel is the ideal Tarzan is former shot put star Herman Brix. And it was his training as a world-class putter that molded the physique that made Brix the best of all 18 film Tarzans.

Brix was a multiple national champion who earned a silver medal in the '28 Olympics in Amsterdam. Ironically, he was a teammate of Weissmuller on that team, as was another Olympic swimming Tarzan, Buster Crabbe.

Brix is the subject of a new book called Please Don't Call Me Tarzan. It was written by Chapman, who has been a Tarzan fan for nearly 50 years. It is his 13th book; most of the others have dealt with the sport of wrestling, which is Chapman's passion. He has been named National Wrestling Writer of the Year four times.

So why did a wrestling enthusiast decide to write a book about a former track star who played Tarzan in just two movies?

"I sincerely believe that Herman Brix is one of the most interesting athletes of this century," says Chapman. "There have been 49 Tarzan movies with 18 different actors in the role-and many Tarzan 'experts' believe Herman is the best of the lot. He later changed his name to Bruce Bennett and made over 120 films.

"The more I got to know about him, the more fascinated I became. I finally decided I simply must write his life story."

Brix, born in Tacoma in 1906, grew up in the lumber camps of Washington and developed a rugged physique through plain hard work. At the University of Washington he was a regular on the football team for three years, playing in the '26 Rose Bowl. But he found his greatest successes in track. He won the NCAA shot title as a Husky junior in '27 and also captured four AAU outdoor crowns in a row (1928-31).

Following up on his Olympic silver, Brix was pointing toward the '32 Games in Los Angeles when legendary film star Douglas Fairbanks invited him to train at his personal workout center.

One day, says Chapman, Fairbanks came rushing in and told him to get over to MGM to test for the role of Tarzan. Brix was apparently selected for the role, but first had to fulfill an obligation to play a small role in a football movie called Touchdown. While working on that film he fell and broke his shoulder.

The injury knocked him out of the Tarzan role, and the studio went to its second choice, Weissmuller. The movie was one of the biggest hits of '32, and Weissmuller became a huge star.

But Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan, disliked the way MGM writers had scripted his Apeman. While Burroughs' books portrayed Tarzan as an extremely bright man who eventually mastered several languages and lived on a plantation, MGM opted to place Tarzan in a treehouse, and allowed him to be upstaged (and often outsmarted) by a chimpanzee.

In '35, Burroughs formed a film company with several others and selected Brix to play Tarzan the way Burroughs envisioned him. The film was made in the jungles of Guatemala under tremendous hardships. MGM, determined to protect its stake in the Apeman, boycotted the Burroughs' film, and few Americans saw it when it was released.

In time, however, the film, entitled The New Adventures of Tarzan, became a hit. So did an edited-down version named Tarzan and the Green Goddess.

The two films made Brix a legion of Tarzan fans, but also typecast him as a serial action star. Following Tarzan, he made some of the best serials in Hollywood history, including Hawk of the Wilderness, where he played Kioga, a Tarzan-like character at the North Pole.

But Brix wanted to grow beyond action roles. He changed his name to Bruce Bennett and started over again. He worked his way up the Hollywood ladder, earning a reputation as a character actor.

He starred in a number of smaller movies, and also played in top support roles to such Hollywood legends as Humphrey Bogart (in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Sahara), Joan Crawford (he played her husband in Mildred Pierce, a role that earned her the Oscar for best actress) and Ronald Reagan (in The Last Outpost).

When he retired from film in the '70s, Bennett moved on to a very successful business in real estate. He will turn 96 on May 19.

Please Don't Call Me Tarzan is available from Culture House Books, Box 293, Newton, IA 50208. Or you can call 641-792-3121. The price is $23.95, plus $5 for shipping and handling.

There are some special editions--autographed by both the author and Brix--available for $30 plus $5 shipping and handling.

The book is hardbound, 141pp with 94 photos.