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Please Don't Call Me Tarzan

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Please Don't Call Me Tarzan is the story of Bruce Bennett a Hollywood survivor for forty years. He starred in several major Hollywood films, but somehow that elusive goal of super stardom stayed out of his reach. He was a handsome, versatile actor and why he didn't obtain his goal his anyone's guess. This book finds some of the answers. Bruce Bennett was born Herman Brix in Tacoma, Washington in 1906 and we follow his teenage life in the rugged lumber camps of that state, where he developed his work ethic along with a well built physique. To the University of Washington where he excelled in track and football, culminating in the Rose Ball in 1926 and the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam where he won the silver medal in the Shot Put. You will feel his anguish, in the many disappointments that lay in store for him, until he landed his first major film role in The New Adventures of Tarzan. Which in itself was a more grueling experience than any that had gone before, and you will read many of the misadventures of the Tarzan crew. But his performance in this film has become legend, it was heralded as the only time in the sound era when Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan was brought to film exactly as Burroughs created him. He still receives fan mail from this film sixty-five years later. Typecasting was to rear it's ugly head, but he survived the next five years making quickie films for Sam Katzman and serials for Republic, until he reinvented himself as Bruce Bennett and signed a contract with Columbia and later, Warner Brothers. The rest of the story is as engrossing, his friendship with Doug Fairbanks, Harold Lloyd, Humphrey Bogart and others and you will get a look at Hollywood from the Depression to the Golden Age. Included is a filmography of the actor's 113 films and several are covered in detail in the main text. Also of interest is a sample of fan letters from various corners of the world. It is a well written book, illustrated with over 90 stills from Bruce Bennett's personal files. Highly recommended. A must for anyone interested in Bruce Bennett, the history of Hollywood, serials, or Tarzan films.

Book contains very little description of Bennett's quality films or analysis of them - concentrating only on the Tarzan films and serials. Much of the bio is written like a fanclub puffery piece - painting Bennett as a superhero. Numerous photos sections, from private holdings, are excellent and worth the price of the book - if not the main reason to do so.

Michael Chapman has done a magnificent job of compiling the pictorial biography of BRUCE BENNETT, a highly accomplished actor and athlete, whose life spans nearly a century. We can all learn from such a man, and I salute Mr. Chapman for giving us this chance to explore the life and times of a hitherto unrecognized American superstar.

George McWhorter, Curator, Burroughs Memorial Collection; Editor: BURROUGHS BULLETIN

Mike Chapman is a disciple of the work ethic, strong character and Tarzan. In Herman Brix/Bruce Bennett, he found a person associated with all three elements, and the book Mike produced, Please Don't Call Me Tarzan, reflects that. Mike enthusiatically endorses Brix as the ultimate Tarzan, but also details his subsequent--and important--film career as well. This makes a really good read, and is supplemented by many rarely-seen photos. The beautiful dust jacket is bound to become a collectors item as well. Great job, Mike! -- Jack Bender

Please Don't Call Me Tarzan, and there you are standing there in that outfit. good luck.
(Just kidding around here...but really, don't call me cookie crumbs just because......)

This publication is a comprehensive life story of Herman Brix/Bruce Bennett. This book contains professional and personal photos reflecting the athlete and actor through his life and career that spanned 90 years from a seven year old boy to 2001. Well presented and very interesting.