Everything about Johnny Weissmuller totally explained
Johnny Weissmuller (
June 2,
1904 –
January 20,
1984) was an
American swimmer and
actor who was one of the world's best swimmers in the
1920s, winning five
Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal. He won fifty-two US National Championships and set sixty-seven
world records. After his swimming career, he became the sixth actor to portray
Tarzan in films, a role he played in twelve motion pictures. Dozens of other actors have also played Tarzan, but Weissmuller is by far the best known. His character's distinctive,
ululating Tarzan yell is still often used in films.
Early life
He was registered as
Peter Johann Weissmüller, baptized as
János Weissmüller. Some sources cite his birthplace as
Jászalsószentgyörgy in central Hungary but other as
Freidorf (now a district of
Timişoara,
Romania), then a part of
Austria-Hungary, whereas, according to other sources, he was born in the village of Pardanj (today
Međa), in
Austria-Hungary (today
Serbia, near the Romanian border). He was the son of
German-speaking parents of Roman Catholic Petrus Weißmüller and Elisabeth Kersch, according to his birth and (Catholic) baptismal records.
It has been claimed that he was actually named Peter by his parents, but when he arrived in the US he used his brother's name, Johnny, because it was more American. However, János [Hungarianequivalent of Johannes], son of Peter Weissmuller and Elizabeth Kersch, had been baptized 6 May 1904 at St Rochus Church in Freidorf. This matches the names of his parents given in his autobiography. The passenger manifest of the "Rotterdam", which arrived in New York on 26 Jan 1905, lists Peter Weissmuller, a 29yo laborer, his 24yo wife El--iabeth (unclear), and 7mo Johann, The family is listed as Hungarian Germans, last residence: Szabadfalu (Hungarian equivalent of
Freidorf) . They are going to join bril [brother-in-law] Johann Ott of Windber, Pa. On 5 Nov 1905, Johann Peter Weissmuller was baptized at St John Cantius Church in Windber. In the 1910 census, Peter and Elizabeth Weisenmuller as well as John and Eva Ott were living at 1521 Cleveland Ave in the 22nd Ward of Chicago, with sons John, age 6, born in "Hun-German" and Peter Jr, age 5, born in Illinois. Peter Weissmuler and John Ott were both brewers, Ott immigrating in 1902, Weismuller in 1904.
The group known as
Banat Swabians -
ethnic Germans who had lived for centuries in that beautiful region and developed a distinctive dialect and cultural traits of their own - counts Weissmuller as one of its most well-known sons. When Johnny was seven months old, the family
emigrated to the United States aboard the
S.S. Rotterdam as
steerage passengers. They left
Rotterdam on
January 14 1905, and arrived at
Ellis Island in
New York harbor twelve days later as Peter, Elisabeth and Johann Weissmuller. The passenger lists records them as
ethnic Germans and citizens of Hungary. After a brief stay in
Chicago, visiting relatives, they moved to the
coal mining town of
Windber, Pennsylvania. (For most of Weissmuller's career, show business biographies incorrectly listed him as having been born in Pennsylvania. Some sources state that Weissmuller lied about his birthplace in order to ensure his place in the U.S. Olympic swimming team.) Peter Weissmuller worked as a miner, and his youngest son, Peter Weissmuller, Jr., was born in Windber on
September 3 1905. Peter Jr is listed on one census as born in Illinois.
After several years in Western Pennsylvania, they moved to Chicago. Johnny's father owned a
bar for a time and his mother became head cook at a famed restaurant. His father worked as a brewer for the United States brewery in Chicago. His parents were later divorced, as is shown by the divorce document filed in Chicago by Elizabeth Weissmuller, although a lot of sources state incorrectly that Weissmuller's father died of
tuberculosis contracted from working in coal mines and left her a widow. Peter actually lived to old age and had sired another large family. By 1930 he'd married his second wife, Anna, with whom he'd a son named Edward and a daughter Ruth, and a grandson named Peter. Elizabeth Weissmuller appears with her sons on the Cook County census claiming to be a widow.
From an early age, Johnny and his brother were aggressive swimmers. The beaches of
Lake Michigan became their favorite
summer recreation place. He then joined the Stanton Park pool, where he won all the junior swim meets. At the age of twelve he earned a spot on the
YMCA swim team.
Swimming career
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When Weissmuller left school, he worked as a bellhop and elevator operator at the Plaza Hotel in Chicago and trained for the
Olympics with swim coach William Bachrach at the Illinois Athletic Club, where he developed his revolutionary high-riding front crawl. He made his
amateur debut on
August 6 1921, winning his first
AAU race in the 50-yard
freestyle.
Though he was foreign-born, Weissmuller gave his birthplace as Tanneryville, Pennsylvania, and his birth date as that of his younger brother, Peter Weissmuller. This was to ensure his eligibility to compete as part of the United States Olympic team, and was a critical issue in being issued an
American passport.
On
July 9 1922, Weissmuller broke
Duke Kahanamoku's world record on the 100-meters freestyle, swimming it in 58.6 seconds. He won the title in that distance at the
1924 Summer Olympics, beating Kahanamoku on
February 24,
1924. He also won the 400-meters freestyle and the 4 x 200 meters relay. As a member of the American
water polo team, he also won a bronze medal. Four years later, at the
1928 Summer Olympics in
Amsterdam, he won another two Olympic titles.
In all, he won five Olympic gold medals, one bronze medal, won fifty-two
U.S. National Championships and set sixty-seven
world records. Johnny Weissmuller never lost a race and retired from his amateur swimming
career undefeated.
Motion picture career
In
1929, Weissmuller signed a
contract with
BVD to be a
model and representative. He traveled throughout the country doing swim shows, handing out leaflets promoting that brand of
swimwear, giving his
autograph and going on
talk shows. In that same year, he made his first
motion picture appearance as an
Adonis wearing only a figleaf in a movie titled
Glorifying the American Girl and he appeared as himself in the first of several
Crystal Champions, a movie short featuring Weissmuller and other Olympic champions at
Silver Springs, Florida.
His career really began when he signed a seven year
contract with
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and played the role of
Tarzan in
Tarzan the Ape Man (
1932). The movie was a huge success and the 6'3" Weissmuller became an overnight international sensation. Even the
author,
Edgar Rice Burroughs, who created the character of Tarzan in his books, was pleased with Weissmuller himself, although he hated the studio's decision to present Tarzan as barely speaking English so much that he created his own concurrent Tarzan series filmed on location in Central American jungles and starring
Herman Brix as a suitably articulate version of his character.
Weissmuller starred in six Tarzan movies for
MGM with actress
Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane and
Cheeta the Chimpanzee. The last three also included
Johnny Sheffield as Boy. Then, in
1942, Weissmuller went to
RKO and starred in six more Tarzan movies with markedly reduced production values. Unlike MGM, RKO allowed Weissmuller to play other roles, though a three picture contract with
Pine-Thomas Productions led to only one film being made,
Swamp Fire with
Buster Crabbe. Sheffield appeared as Boy in the first five features for RKO. Another co-star was
Brenda Joyce, who played Jane in Weissmuller's last four Tarzan movies. In a total of twelve Tarzan films, Weissmuller earned an estimated $2,000,000 and established himself as the best-known of all the actors who have ever portrayed Tarzan. Although not the first Tarzan in movies (that honour went to
Elmo Lincoln), he was the first to be associated with the now traditional ululating, yodeling Tarzan yell. (During an appearance on television's Mike Douglas Show in the 1970s, Weissmuller explained how the famous yell was created. Recordings of three vocalists were spliced together to get the effect - a soprano, an alto, and a hog caller!)
When he finally left that role, he immediately traded his loincloth costume for a
slouch hat and
safari for the role of
Jungle Jim (
1948) for
Columbia. He made thirteen Jungle Jim movies between (
1948) and (
1954). Within the next year, he appeared in three more jungle movies playing himself as Screen Gems had the right to the name for their television series.
In
1955, he began production of the
Jungle Jim television adventure series for
Screen Gems, a film subsidiary of
Columbia. The show ran for twenty-six episodes, which played over and over on network and syndicated TV for many years.
Aside from a first screen appearance as Adonis, Weissmuller only played three roles in films: Tarzan, Jungle Jim, and himself, which is astonishing when one considers that he made more than thirty films over a twenty-four year span.
According to David Wallechinsky's
Complete Book of the Olympics, Weissmuller was playing in a celebrity golf tournament in 1958 when his golf cart was suddenly captured by
rebel soldiers. Weissmuller sized up the situation, got out of the cart and gave his trademark Tarzan yell. The shocked rebels soon began to jump up and down, calling "Tarzan! Welcome to Cuba!" Johnny and his companions were not only not kidnapped, but were given a rebel escort to the golf course.
He had five wives: band and club singer Bobbe Arnst (married
1931-divorced
1933); actress
Lupe Vélez (married
1933-divorced
1939); Beryl Scott (married
1939 - divorced
1948); Allene Gates (married
1948 - divorced
1962); and Maria Bauman (married
1963 - his death
1984).
With his third wife, Beryl, he'd three children,
Johnny Weissmuller, Jr. (b.
September 23 1940 - d.
July 27 2006), Wendy Anne Weissmuller (b.
June 1 1942) and Heidi Elizabeth Weissmuller (b.
July 31 1944 - d.
November 19 1962).
Later life
In the late
1950s, Weissmuller moved back to
Chicago and started a swimming pool company. He also lent his name to other business ventures, but didn't have a great deal of success. He retired in
1965 and moved to
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he was Founding Chairman of the
International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Sometime in the 1960's, Weissmuller built a doomed tourist attraction called
Tropical Wonderland aka
Tarzan's Jungleland on US 1 in
Titusville, Florida.
In September 1966, Weissmuller joined former screen Tarzans
James Pierce and
Jock Mahoney to appear with
Ron Ely as part of the publicity for the upcoming premier of the
TV series. The producers also approached Weissmuller to guest star as Tarzan's father, but nothing came of it.
In
1970, he attended the
British Commonwealth Games in
Edinburgh where he was presented to
Queen Elizabeth II.
He also made a cameo appearance with former co-star
Maureen O'Sullivan in
The Phynx (
1970). His image appeared amongst the crowd on the cover of
The Beatles' album
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Weissmuller lived in Florida until the end of
1973, then moved to
Las Vegas, Nevada, where he was a greeter at the MGM Grand Hotel for a time. In
1974, he broke a hip and leg. While hospitalized he learned that, in spite of his strength and lifelong daily regimen of swimming and exercise, he'd a serious heart condition.
But, according to The Toronto Star, Monday
July 9 1923, Weissmuller was diagnosed with a serious heart condition at that time and it was feared he wouldn't be able to continue as a swimmer.
In
1976, he appeared for the last time in a
motion picture playing a movie crewman who is fired by a movie mogul, played by
Art Carney, in
Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood, and he also made his final public appearance in that year when he was inducted into the
Body Building Guild Hall of Fame.
Weissmuller suffered a series of strokes in
1977. For a time in
1979, he was a patient in the
Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in
Woodland Hills, California. Later he and his last wife, Maria, moved to
Acapulco, Mexico, which was the location of his last Tarzan movie.
Death
Johnny Weissmuller died on
January 20 1984, aged 79, from a pulmonary
edema at his retirement home in
Acapulco. He is buried in the Valley of The Light Cemetery there.
Posthumous
His former co-star and movie son,
Johnny Sheffield, wrote of him, "I can only say that working with Big John was one of the highlights of my life. He was a Star (with a capital "S") and he gave off a special light and some of that light got into me. Knowing and being with Johnny Weissmuller during my formative years had a lasting influence on my life."
At his request, as his coffin was lowered into the ground, a recording of the Tarzan yell he invented was played three times.
Johnny Weissmuller has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6541 Hollywood Boulevard in
Hollywood.
His nephew, Chuck Wissmiller, and Chuck's three daughters, later starred on the
A&E television series
Family Plots, which ran from 2003 to late 2005.
Filmography
Literature
David A. Fury. Johnny Weissmuller: Twice the Hero (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Artist's Press. 2000) ISBN: 0924556021
Johnny Weissmuller Jr., Tarzan My Father, Toronto: ECW Press 2002Further Information
Get more info on 'Johnny Weissmuller'.
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