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Show Tarzan (Weissmuller) 4 Swimming Star From Boy Weakling Johnny Weissmuller, whose name is synonomous with the fictional fic-tional hero, Tarzan, was born In Windbar, Pennsylvania, on a June 2. His father was an engineer whose professional travels landed young Johnny in Chicago, where he attended Lane Technical High school. Oddly enough, this strapping star of "Tarzan Triumphs," Sol Leaser's new RKO Radio Picture, was a sickly youngster, and started start-ed swimming as a prescribed routine rou-tine to build him up physcially. Growing stronger, he tried the YMCA pool where his unusual speed brought him to the patronage patron-age of Coach William Bachrach of the Illinois Athletic club. Weissmuller entered the Olympic Olym-pic Games competition in 1924 in Paris. He was feted for his performances per-formances there as an American hero. Here started his real fame. Four years later, at the games in Amesterdam, Holland, he once more broke records. Johnny's travels were many, following his amateur success. His first workouts in Lake Michigan eventually landed him into exhibitions exhibi-tions on the East Coast, then to the Pacific and the Hawaiian Islands. Is-lands. The Gulf of Mexico also became a spot for him when he was invited to participate in competitions com-petitions in the Southeast.. In Europe he performed in the English Eng-lish Channel, thence to France and the Seine, Germany and the Rhine and the Danube. In Italy, he showed the people of that country how an American boy could perform per-form in the blue Mediterranean. Furthest from Johnny's mind at this time was the possibility that he might become a screen actor. His first appearance before the cameras was a strictly non-professional one in a Grantland Rice short. His first feature assignment assign-ment was "Tarzan, the Ape Man." In 1937 he starred in the Great Lakes Exposition in Cleveland and in 1939 he augmented his newly found screen fame with another hit performance as the star of Billy Rose's Aquacade at the New York World's Fair. Weissmuller towers 6 feet, and three inches; and he weighs 195 pounds. |