Indiana Was Once Home to Not One But Four(!) Tarzans

In 1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs unleashed an iconic literary character on the world with the publication of Tarzan of the Apes. Twenty-five more books, countless movies, and multiple television series followed. We will always have Tarzan in one form or another.

An Indiana Tarzan Who Never Made It Onto the Big or Small Screen

As a Tarzan fan, I was fascinated to learn of a man from Indiana who, in the 1950s, roamed the Hoosier State in a pair of black trunks with a black knife hanging from his side. On a page called History of Warrick County Indiana and Its Families, Linda Powers Morphis published old photos of this man that she discovered in her dad's photo album. His name was Otto Herr, and, at the time of the posted photos, had been living the role of Tarzan for 14 years. He was 49 at the time.

Little did Otto Herr know that he was but ONE Tarzan from Indiana. There were three more. Well, he may have known about two of the others since they played Tarzan in his lifetime.

Indiana Native Elmo Lincoln -- the First Movie Tarzan

In 1918, the first Tarzan movie, an adaptation of the first novel, landed on the big screen. Or maybe the screen wasn't so big at the time, the film industry being in its infancy and all. But it was Rochester IN native Elmo Lincoln who was the first of many to don the trademark loin cloth. In 1952, Lincoln appeared on television and gave us his version of the iconic Tarzan yell. Prepare yourself, though.

Paging Carol Burnett...PLEASE.

James Pierce -- the Unknown Tarzan?

The last silent Tarzan film--Tarzan and the Golden Lion--was the only one that featured James Hubert "Babe" Pierce in the title role. He was born in a town called Freedom and played football for Indiana University. And until I researched this story, I had never heard of him in my lifetime.

Denny Miller -- a Relatively Modern Tarzan

Fast forward to 1959 when Bloomington IN native Denny Miller was cast as Tarzan in Tarzan the Ape Man. It was a poorly-reviewed film but may still have been immortalized--maybe, just maybe--a few years later on an episode of Gilligan's Island in which Miller portrayed Tongo the Ape Man.

Like the rest of them, that Gilligan episode is etched in my memory banks.

Oh, and then there's this. Hungarian-born Johnny Weismuller, perhaps the most famous Tarzan of them all, won four gold medals for swimming at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. He won two more at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. Weismuller's expertise in the water led to his being cast in 12 Tarzan movies from 1932 through 1948. And where did he train for the Olympics? At Broad Ripple Park in Indianapolis.

It's pure happenstance that FOUR actors who portrayed Tarzan had some kind of connection to Indiana. Throw in Otto Herr, and it's a real head-scratcher.