Johnny Weissmuller

1904-1984

American swimmer

One of the most outstanding swimmers of all time, Johnny Weissmuller won five Olympic gold medals and set dozens of national and world records. His stellar performance as a competitive swimmer helped to focus the attention of Americans on the health benefits of the sport. However, he is perhaps best remembered by most Americans for his portrayals of author Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes and Jungle Jim on the screen from the early 1930s through the mid-1950s. After his retirement from work in motion pictures and television, Weissmuller lent his name to a swimming pool company and became a spokesman for the product.

Born in Austria-Hungary

Not until after his death in 1984 did the full truth about Weissmuller's origins emerge. Throughout his lifetime, he claimed to have been born Peter John Weissmuller, the son of recent immigrants from Eastern Europe, on July 2, 1904, in the small Pennsylvania mining town of Windber, near Johnstown. Olympic historian David Wallechinsky uncovered credible evidence in the 1980s that Weissmuller had in fact been born in Freidorf, Austria-Hungary, now a part of Romania, and was brought to the United States shortly after his birth. Wallechinsky further contended that Weissmuller's parents later switched his identity with that of his Americanborn brother, Peter, to qualify their older son to compete on the U.S. Olympic swimming team.

The Weissmullers did not linger long in Windber, where Johnny's father toiled in the coal mines to scratch out an existence for his family. By 1908 they had relocated to Chicago, where Weissmuller's father owned and operated a neighborhood tavern while his mother cooked in the city's famous Turn-Verein restaurant. Johnny was enrolled in St. Michael's Parochial School. He later attended Chicago's Menier Public School but quit after completing the eighth grade when his father died of tuberculosis, probably contracted during his years as a coal miner in Pennsylvania.

To help support his family, Weissmuller worked as a bellhop and elevator operator at Chicago's Plaza Hotel. In his spare time, he and younger brother Peter, both avid swimmers, joined the Stanton Park pool, where Johnny won all the junior swim meets in which he competed. At the age of twelve, he lied about his age to win a berth on the local YMCA swim team. During the summer, he spent every spare moment at Chicago's Oak Street Beach, where he and Peter pulled twenty people from the waters of Lake Michigan after a boating accident. Only eleven of those they rescued survived the

mishap. The incident impressed upon Weissmuller the importance of learning to swim at an early age.

Trains under "Big Bill"

Not long after the death of his father, Weissmuller came under the influence of a new father figure when he began to train at the Illinois Athletic Club under the guidance of William "Big Bill" Bachrach, already famous as the trainer of several Olympic swimming champions. According to Ralph Hickok, author of A Who's Who of Sports Champions, the red-mustachioed Bachrach, an imposing figure at 340 pounds, was a tough taskmaster. When Weissmuller asked Bachrach to train him, "Big Bill" laid out his conditions for doing so: "Swear that you'll work a year with me without question, and I'll take you on. You won't swim against anybody. You'll just be a slave, and you'll hate my guts, but in the end you just might break every record there is."

Bachrach's promise seemed strangely prophetic. In Weissmuller's first major competition, the 1921 Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) outdoor championship, he handily won his very first race, the 50-yard freestyle swim. But that was just the beginning. Over the next three years, he won every race he entered. In the run-up to the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris, twenty-year-old Weissmuller looked unbeatable. He was already the world record-holder for the 100-meter freestyle. In Paris he would compete with the defending Olympic champion, Duke Kahanamoku , who also represented the United States, and his younger brother, Sam. According to biographer David Fury, before the 100-meter event, Duke turned to Weissmuller and said: "Johnny, good luck. The most important thing in this race is to get the American flag up there three times. Let's do it!" And do it, they did. Weissmuller won the race, finishing in 59 seconds flat, winning the gold medal, followed closely by Duke and Sam Kahanamoku, who took the silver and bronze medals, respectively.

Two days before the 100-meter freestyle event in Paris, Weissmuller had taken gold in the 400-meter freestyle race. Later in the day of his 100-meter win, he swam as part of the winning U.S. team in the 800-meter relay. Weissmuller left Paris with three gold medals around his neck. Four years later at the summer games in Amsterdam, he carried the American flag at the opening ceremonies and went on to repeat his wins in the 100-meter freestyle and the 800-meter relay for a total of five gold medals at the two Olympics. Throughout the 1920s, Weissmuller was invincible in amateur competition, winning thirty-six national individual AAU championships and sixty-seven world championships. In 1924 he set a world record in the 100-meter freestyle, finishing in 57.4 seconds, and became the first swimmer to break the one-minute mark. His record in this event lasted for a decade. He was named American Swimmer of the Year in 1922, won the Helms Trophy in 1923, and was elected to the Helms Swimming Hall of Fame in 1949.

Chronology

Turns Pro

Not long after the Amsterdam Olympics, Weissmuller turned professional. He toured Florida resort hotels, putting on exhibition swims in return for enough compensation to cover the costs of his travel expenses. He also signed a lucrative contract (paying $500 weekly) with B.V.D. to promote the company's swimwear. In 1929 he appeared in his first film, making a cameo appearance as himself in Glorifying the American Girl. The following year he teamed with writer Clarence Bush to produce his first book, Swimming the American Crawl and also wrote two articles for the Saturday Evening Post. In 1931, Weissmuller married Bobbe Arnst, the first of his five wives. They were divorced in 1932. The following year, Weismuller wed Latin actress Lupe Velez, whom he divorced in 1938. He married Beryel Scott, his third wife, in 1939. The couple had three children but were divorced in 1948, the same year that Weissmuller married Allene Gates, his fourth wife. He and Gates divorced in 1962. Weissmuller married his fifth and final wife, German-born Maria Bauman, in 1963.

The early 1930s brought a second career for Weissmuller, who in 1932 made his debut as Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan in the film version of Tarzan the Ape Man, opposite Maureen O'Sullivan, who played Jane. For Weissmuller, it was just the first of twelve Tarzan films he starred in over the next decade and a half. Of all of the Tarzan films with or without Weissmuller in the leading role, the swimming champion's second outing, Tarzan and His Mate, is widely considered the best. A compelling romance, the 1934 film, directed by Cedric Gibbons and Jack Conway, costarred Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane. Although the story line at first glance might seem a trifle hokey, the on-screen chemistry between Weissmuller and O'Sullivan is by far the most effective of all their screen pairings. The sudden appearance of Jane's old flame and his hunting chum threatens the idyllic love match between Tarzan and Jane. The two Englishmen try their best to persuade Jane to forsake the jungle and return with them to the delights of London's Mayfair. In the end, Jane's love for Tarzan prevails, and she sends her ivory-hunting former love packing. The performances of both Weissmuller and O'Sullivan in this film are by far the best of all the Tarzan movies they made together. Of the film, the late critic Pauline Kael wrote: "It's cheerful and outrageously preposterous. You are right in the heart of the craziest Africa ever contrived for your entertainment; no wild beast ever misses a cue."

When Weissmuller had grown too old to don Tarzan's trademark loincloth, he took on the screen persona of Jungle Jim for another twelve films, running from the late 1940s through 1953. Although he appeared in a handful of films after the last of the Jungle Jim movies, his career in motion pictures was effectively over by the mid-1950s.

Leaving Hollywood behind, Weissmuller returned to Chicago where he launched his own swimming pool company and lent his name to assorted other business ventures, including health food stores and cocktail lounges. Hardly the world's sharpest businessman, he got himself into some unfortunate business deals, largely because of his inherent naivete. Weissmuller's choices in the business arena cost him dearly, draining away much of his earnings.

In the mid-1960s, Weissmuller moved to Florida to manage the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale. In 1973, he headed west to Las Vegas and worked for a time as a greeter at the MGM Grand Hotel. Beginning in the mid-1970s, Weissmuller's health began to deteriorate significantly. After suffering a series of strokes, he and his wife moved to Acapulco, Mexico, where he died of pulmonary edema on January 20, 1984.

For more than a decade, Weissmuller dominated the international competitive swimming scene, quickly accumulating an impressive array of American and world records. Sportswriters in the 1920s vied with one another to come up with the most creative nickname for the rugged American swimming champion, conjuring up such colorful entries as "Flying Fish," "King of Swimmers," "America's Greatest Waterman," and "Prince of the Waves." Although his fame as a swimmer was eventually overshadowed by his popularity as the star of a dozen Tarzan movies, Weissmuller will forever be remembered as one of the greatest swimmers of all time.

SELECTED WRITINGS BY WEISSMULLER:

(With Clarence A. Bush) Swimming the American Crawl. Grosset & Dunlap, 1930.

Awards and Accomplishments

(With Narda Onyx) Water, World, and Weissmuller. Vion Publishing, 1964.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Books

Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement. Volume 21. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001.

Fury, David A. Johnny Weissmuller: "Twice the Hero." Thorndike, ME: Thorndike Press, 2001.

International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, Volume 3: Actors and Actresses. Detroit: St. James Press, 1996.

St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. five volumes. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000.

Weissmuller, Jr., Johnny, et al. Tarzan, My Father. Toronto, Ontario: ECW Press, 2002.

Periodicals

Fury, David. "Johnny Weissmuller … the Two Career Star." Burroughs Bulletin (April 1993).

"Tarzan, The Ape Man." Magill's Survey of Cinema (June 15, 1995).

Other

Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000.

"Johnny Weissmuller Pools: The Legend of Excellence." Delair Group. http://www.delairgroup.com/pools/jw/history.html (October 4, 2002).

"Tarzan and His Mate." Tarzan en Jane. http://users.skynet.be/sky40152/tarzan6.htm (October 5, 2002).

"Tarzan and His Mate (1934)." At-A-Glance Film Reviews. http://rinkworks.com/movies/m/tarzan.and.his.mate.1934.shtml (October 5, 2002).

"Tarzan and His Mate (1934)." Reel.com. http://www.reel.com/movie.asp?MID=6705 (July 7, 2002).

Sketch by Don Amerman