Simba/Burroughs

[Sojourner]

At 12:45 PM 8/5/97 -0400, El Jefe de Richmond escribe:
 
>> yah, and as i remember, ERB never went to Africa..  purely
>> an old frizzle of a man tinkering in his head on how an as
>> yet unborn Johnny Weismuller could fit into a Wyld and
>> Exotick Adventure in Blackest Afrika.
>
>Aw, he was just carrying on the Buntline tradition...
>
>..penny dreadfuls, dime novels, buck-a-car-nights at the drive-in
>theatre...
>

According to a certain ahem small town library, most of the Tarzan
novels were published 1915-1932.  Little early for drive in theaters, 
much less cars (least the early part).

Hmm... here's an ERB quote:

"I have often been asked how I came to write. The best answer is that
I needed the money. When I started I was 35, and had failed in every 
enterprise I had ever attempted."

Seems to fit with my memory that Tarzan was popular, but he had
to describe the wylde Jungle on pure imagination due to his extreme
need at the time to make a living.  I don't blame the guy, but still
hurts me to think that various Tarzan movies are how a lot of people
view Africa.

Oh, per my earlier Simba/Sambo thinking, here's what ye old D says:

Sam"bo, n. [Sp. zambo, sambo.] A colloquial or humorous appelation 
for a negro; sometimes, the offspring of a black person and a mulatto; 
a zambo. -- Deprecatory

Makes me wonder a little this does... last few Disney movies about
Africa and/or places where the native peoples are not of European
descent, aka Jungle2Jungle, George of the Jungle etc., where the
entire cast of significant characters is ALWAYS people of European
descent. 

It makes me sick.  Doesn't surprise me that they stole a Japanese
story, slapped on the old Simba (which i only know means lion
because my coworker's last name is Simba) which rings Sambo in my
ears, ugh...

Disney is the Devil only because we love it so.