Modern Screen (Dec 1931 - Nov 1932 (assorted issues))

A GIRL LAUGHED (Right) With Maureen O'Sulli'van and an "extra" in "Tarzan, the Ape Man." Johnny is hoping that his work in this picture will secure for him a permanent place in films. (Below) Dozens of Hollywood he-men were tested and found unsuitable for the role of Tarzan. No wonder Johnny got it. was crowded the casual contempt of a girl for a man with an unprepossessing physique, Johnny Weissmuller owes his place as a world's champion swimmer, his selection for the role of Tarzan and the culmination of his romance with Bobbe Arnst, the beautiful girl who is now his wife and his love. Let us go back a few short years to the crowded lake front beaches of Chicago where it all began. "I will never forget that afternoon," said Johnny, his white teeth flashing, "if I live to be a hundred. I don't even remember the girl's name now but if she reads this, she'll know how grateful I am to her. "When the doctor told my parents that swimming was the only thing which might give me back my health and put some flesh on my bones, I'd never swum a stroke in my life," continued Johnny. "My parents were Austrian and neither they nor any of my ancestors had ever swum a stroke either, so far as we knew. I was afraid of the water but I did manage to paddle a bit in the Des Plaines river, near where we lived. My brother Peter had become quite a swimmer and had a job as a life guard on one of the beaches on Lake Michigan and as I learned how to swim a little, I began hanging around the beach where Pete worked. I was tall for my age but I looked like a bean pole in my bathing suit and although I began to take notice, as a kid will, of the good looking girls who came there to swim, I didn't get a tumble from them. All the girls were crazy about Pete who was husky and better looking than I'll ever be. j THERE was one girl on whom I got quite a case. O f course, I didn't let her know it for I was ashamed of my thin body. She used to hang around Pete a good deal and I would watch her and worship her from a distance. I had become a pretty fair swimmer by that time, even if I didn't look like much out of the water, and whenever I'd get a chance, I'd show off in front of this girl. She wasn't but maybe a year older than I was but she was a good looker and well matured for a girl of her age. "Then, one day, she and a group of boys and girls had swum out to a raft not far from shore. I swam out and pulled myself up on the raft beside her. Somehow I managed to mumble : "'Gee! You've certainly got beautiful hair!' "She looked quickly at me and laughed. Then, when she realized she must be hurting my feelings, she cut short her laugh and made some polite remark like, 'Do you think so?' "I dove off that raft and struck out for shore — that thoughtless laugh still ringing in my ears. I never had anything hurt me like that did. I dressed and went home. Up to that time I had been swimming because the doctor told me to and I was beginning to enjoy it a little. But when Pete came home that night I asked him : " 'Pete, if I stick to my swimming and train hard will it make me big and husky and give me hard muscles like yours ?' " 'Sure kid, if you stick to it,' said Pete, 'why?' " 'Oh nothing,' I told him, 'only I was just wondering.' " Johnny Weismuller began to swim in earnest. Soon he began to frequent the city pools and so sincerely did he devote himself to the sport that he began to attract attention. Still tall, lanky and shy, he went through high school with the fear of being hurt again still preventing him from having much to do with girls. He finished high school and entered college. Soon after this, he met William Bachrach, head coach of the United States Olympic swimming team. Bachrach was searching for a youth whom he could develop (Continued on page 102) 47