Posted
on September 1, 2015
He didn't particularly yearn to be a writer.
It
seems to me that he wasn't totally driven to be anything in
particular!
Born
on this date way back in 1875, Edgar Rice Burroughs failed the
entrance exam for the prestigious West Point Military Academy, so he
became an enlisted soldier with the U.S. Cavalry. However, just two
years later he was discharged because he had a health problem.
Burroughs
worked a bunch of different jobs. According to Wikipedia, he
drifted. He worked on a ranch. He got a job at his father's company.
He got a low paying job as a pencil-sharpener wholesaler. Apparently,
he worked less than regularly – even though, at that point, he had
a wife and two kids!
Because
he wasn't working tons of hours, he had a lot of time to read what
many people considered “junk”: pulp fiction magazines.
And
he thought to himself, “...if
people were paid for writing rot such as I read in some of those
magazines, that I could write stories just as rotten. As a matter of
fact, although I had never written a story, I knew absolutely that I
could write stories just as entertaining and probably a whole lot
more so than any I chanced to read in those magazines.”
So
he began to write for pulp magazines – science fiction, mostly.
Some of his writings were popular enough to be published as books.
His most popular and timeless character was “Tarzan of the Apes.”
Even
though Burroughs didn't seem to me to be very ambitious before
Tarzan, he jumped on the chance to make money once he realized how
popular his character was. He laid some plans to do more than just
Tarzan books – he wanted to do a Tarzan comic strip, movies, and
even merchandise.
The
experts gave the advice they gave back then to every author of
popular series: No, don't do that. If you put too much on one character out there, the public will soon tire of that character. The different products will compete with one another. You
won't be able to sell more Tarzan books once there's a Tarzan movie.
Does
that advice seem strange to you?
Well,
we have Edgar Rice Burroughs to thank for the fact that we all feel
strongly that the advice is foolish – because it was he who ignored
all the experts, wheeled and “dealed” until Tarzan was in every
sort of medium, and proved the experts wrong.
It
turned out that the public wanted Tarzan in every way they could get
Tarzan!
Now,
of course, experts advise exploiting a popular character or series by
pushing into multiple products and media. And creators of cultural
sensations have a lot more ways to push products, these days,
including webpages, video games, and TV shows!
By
the way, Burroughs was able to sell 24 different books starring
Tarzan!
 |
| Burroughs wrote a lot of books and stories besides for his Tarzan books! |
Did
you know...?
- There are more than 200 movies with “Tarzan” in the title!
- I counted 10 different TV shows about Tarzan.
- Tarzan has even hit Broadway and musical theatre!
Tarzan
has also starred in comic strips and comic books, in video and
computer games; also, there have been Tarzan action figures,
View-Master reels, coloring books, and other toys.
 |
| Tarzan's name is used for non-Tarzan related products, too - like glue! |
- Burroughs bought a ranch north of Los Angeles; he named his ranch Tarzana. The people who settled and built a community around his ranch adopted the name Tarzana for the whole community, and it is now one of the posher neighborhoods of L.A.!
 |
| Notice that this poster says that Edgar Rice Burroughs is the "first citizen of Tarzana." |
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