Meet Tarzan of The Apes at The Quai Branly Museum in ParisPrepared by Harold Stephens
Travel Correspondent for Thai Airways International
The Mus?e du quai Branly, known in English as the Quai Branly Museum, nicknamed MQB, is a museum in Paris, France, that features indigenous art, cultures and civilizations from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. The museum is located at 37, quai Branly situated close to the Eiffel Tower. It is named after its location, not after the physicist ?douard Branly.
It’s not an old museum––not by Paris standards––having been opened on June 23, 2006. French President Jacques Chirac was a very influential proponent of the project. The museum contains 267,000 objects in its permanent collection, of which 3,500 items from the collection are on display.
I have not been to the museum but I intend to go very shortly, for a very special reason. Its exhibit, which went on display recently and will last until September 30th, is the story of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan of the Apes—and, like many youngsters, I grew up under the Tarzan spell. But for me it’s more than a spell. I have another reason,
As a boy, raised on a farm in Middle America, I became fascinated with the books of Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The books, to me, were more than a wild adventure tale. They became a psychological study that took me on a real life journey. It was only natural when I wrote my most recent book, The Education of a Travel Writer, that I wrote how Edgar Rice Burrough’s books had been a great influence on me.
It came at a cost, however. A book critic wrote, after reading my references to Tarzan, that perhaps I had never escaped my youth.
I can’t help wondering if that critic has heard of the exhibition at the Mus?e du quai Branly––the story of Tarzan.
I guess I have been vindicated, not that I feel I have to be. Writer Gore Vidal defended Tarzan books in a series of articles written in 1963. Anthropologist Jane Woodall admitted that Tarzan had a great influence upon her, and admitted she would have made a better Jane than Maureen O'Sullivan. There appeared a Tarzan musical on Broadway with music by Phil Collins and when I checked the Internet Movie Database I found it lists 89 movies with Tarzan in the title between 1918 and 2008. The first Tarzan movies were silent pictures with Elmo Lincoln generally credited as the first movie Tarzan. With the advent of talking pictures came Johnny Weissm?ller, which lasted from the 1930s through the 1960s. Tarzan films from the 1930s on often featured Tarzan's chimpanzee companion, Cheeta, which, incidentally just celebrated his 75 birthday and has outlasted all the actors.
So I have been asked, why Tarzan. To answer that I will quote what I wrote in The Education of a Travel Writer.
“Having read all the Tarzan books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, I tried to imagine the life of a boy growing up in the jungle, with only apes and wild beasts for friends to guide him. I built tree houses and made swings of vines. But I was discovering that Edgar Rice Burroughs’ books were more than fantasy. They were a study of anthropology, of human nature. Edgar Rice Burroughs has stayed with me all my life.
“Tarzan of the Apes sounds so simple, even juvenile, but as a young lad, it got my mind working. I had to hide the fact from my peers that I was reading Tarzan. Many looked upon him as a comic book hero. But for me, he took on a real meaning. Could a boy raised by apes ever learn to talk like a human? Tarzan did. How did that happen? The ship, which carried his mother and father, was shipwrecked on the coast of Africa. His father was Lord Greystoke, and his wife was expecting a child, thus they were carrying children’s books and learners. Lord Graystoke and his wife were the sole survivors and he was able to salvage much of their belongings. As castaways, he built a cabin at the edge of the jungle. It was there that Tarzan was born. His mother died in childbirth, and his father was killed by great apes. Tarzan was carried off into the jungle and raised by the apes. When he was in his teens he discovered his father and mother’s cabin, and by studying the pictures in the books he taught himself to read and write. Was this possible, especially when he couldn’t speak? It was all so intriguing, and great food for thought. Today, I can’t look at a tree without thinking about a child swinging through its branches who could read and write but not talk.”
Tarzan movies are a culture all their own. Elmo Lincoln is generally credited as the first silent movie Tarzan of the Apes, released in 1918. With the advent of talking pictures, a popular Tarzan movie franchise was developed, anchored at first by actor Johnny Weissm?ller in the title role, which lasted from the 1930s through the 1960s. Tarzan films from the 1930s on often featured Tarzan's chimpanzee companion, Cheeta, which, incidentally, just celebrated his 75th birthday, outlasting all the other actors. Later Tarzan films have been occasional and somewhat idiosyncratic. Disney’s animated Tarzan (1999) marked a new beginning for the ape man, taking its inspiration equally from Burroughs and the fictitious Greystoke.
Tarzan the Fearless, filmed in 1933, was a 12-chapter film serial starring Buster Crabbe in his only appearance as Tarzan. It was also released as a 71-minute feature film which comprised the first four chapters of the serial version. Co-starring was actress Jacqueline Wells, who later changed her name to Julie Bishop. I remember as a kid seeing this series on Saturday afternoon matinees, for ten US cents. There was so much noise from a theater packed with kids shouting and yelling you could hardly hear the sounds. I never did see the last part of the series, and most of the other kids didn’t either. The movie came out just before Hollywood cracked down on screen sensuality and our mothers didn’t mind a screen filled with powerful animals and muscular men but when they found out what the series was all about they objected to the near-naked women running around. I believe a strong part of the success of Tarzan movies was the physical appeal Tarzan and Jane had, or Johnny Weissm?ller for Maureen O'Sullivan.
Roger Boulay, the curator at the Quai Branly Museum, is an anthropologist and a specialist in the art of Oceania. The exhibition looks at the origins and nature of Tarzan, as a character as well as a myth, and redefines the character as a modern hero fighting for the protection of nature. ““Tarzan,” he said, “is the fragile frontier between the primitive and the civilized.”
The Tarzan exhibition dedicated to an icon of popular culture allows the public to discover how the hero was created and decipher the myth that he embodies. It looks at the origins and nature of Tarzan, as a character as well as a myth (from Saturnin Farandoul, a 1914 documentary, to Greystoke in 1983), and redefines the character as a modern hero fighting for the protection of nature.
Next week, with Thai Airways opening up a new route from Bangkok to Oslo, Norway, I will be telling readers something about that destination.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERSQ. Hi there, I’m approaching my retirement years and have for many years wondered what it must be like to sail around the South Asian seas on one of those exotic Chinese or Siamese junks. I’m guessing that Thailand would have trips like that. Do you know any websites or companies I could enquire to? I’d love to take my wife somewhere special when my working days draw to an end. Many thanks, Ren Weiscoff. Detroit, Michigan.
A. Dear Ren, You are in luck. A company called Thai Marine Leisure operates a fleet of authentic junks in Phuket. The other good news is that you can book a junk cruise through Royal Orchid Holidays. There’s a four days, three nights that departs Saturday (ROHA4A) and Tuesdays (ROHA4B). Marine Leisure also has a one-day trip aboard the Bahtra. I haven’t made the junk trip but I am looking forward to it one day. I wrote in detail about junk trips in my book TAKE CHINA that you may enjoy. I did take a photo of Suwan Macha, the junk for the four-day voyage, when I was in Phuket last. It looks like a fun trip and I know you will enjoy it. Happy retirement. —HS
Harold Stephens
Bangkok
E-mail: ROH Weekly Travel (booking@inet.co.th)
Note: The article is the personal view of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the view of Thai Airways International Public Company Limited. | 
