The history of the screen career of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan character is a long and complicated one. His first big screen appearance came in 1918, his most recent 2016. From 1932 to 1936, MGM made three very successful Tarzan films starring Johnny Weissmuller. But then MGM seems to have lost control of the film rights while, in the meantime, Burroughs had sold independent producer Sol Lesser options on his Tarzan novels for films to be produced at 20th Century Fox. Under contract to MGM, Weissmuller was unavailable to continue in the role, so a search began for a replacement, and athletes - like the former Olympic swimmer - were the most likely candidates.
At the instigation of his wife Eleanor - who was said to have had a “vision” for her husband’s career - Gehrig had previously signed on with Babe Ruth’s aggressive agent, Christy Walsh. When the Tarzan role looked up for grabs, Walsh pushed Gehrig to campaign for it. And when the agent suggested the baseball player to Lesser, the producer was receptive to the idea but, considering the character's necessary state of undress, he wanted to have a better idea of what Gehrig looked like out of uniform.
Walsh had the usually rather dignified Gehrig photographed in a leopard skin costume and, not satisfied with sending them to Lesser, also circulated the images to the media, probably hoping to create a public groundswell for Gehrig taking the part. Not surprisingly, the photographs were met with derision. Author Burroughs even snidely telegrammed Gehrig directly, “Having seen several pictures of you as Tarzan and having paid about $50 for newspaper clippings on the subject, I want to congratulate you on being a swell first baseman.”
After viewing the photographs himself, and finding Gehrig’s massive legs “more functional than decorative,” Lesser ruled him out for the role. The producer went on to choose gold medal decathlete Glenn Morris for his new Tarzan. The resulting film, 1938's Tarzan's Revenge, proved to be a flop and Lesser sold the rights back to MGM, where Tarzan and Weissmuller reunited for three more films. Then, Tarzan, Weissmuller, and Lesser all decamped to RKO for a further six films; Lesser would go on to produce nine more Tarzan films after Weissmuller's departure.
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| These three images go a good way toward explaining why he didn't get the part. |
The "Iron Horse" certainly had the brawn...
... But it was probably better utilized wielding a bat.
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