I remember watching the old Weissmuller Tarzan movies on Saturday Matinees on TV as a kid..loved 'em! The movies always used to incorporate some sort of water/swimming scene in them to capitalize on his successes as an Olympian~
Seeing the first ever Bikini again was fun too. I remember seeing something on that when it happened.
My husband stayed at one of the Sheraton Hotels in Los Angeles when he was a boy. He recounted the story once that he met Bert Brown there. Bert had trained for the Olympics with Johnny, and was a world class swimmer himself. He told Fred that the reason Johnny cold swim so fast was because he had size 16 feet and it was like using swim fins to propel himself. Fred also recounted a story that he had read about Johnny's swims in some of the movies. In clips where you do not see Johnny's feet kicking, is when he was in a stage pool that only came up to Johnny's chest. He was actually running through the water and pretending to be swimming. Ah Hollywood.
I remember watching the old Weissmuller Tarzan movies on Saturday Matinees on TV as a kid..loved 'em! The movies always used to incorporate some sort of water/swimming scene in them to capitalize on his successes as an Olympian~
ReplyDeleteWhat a great article! From posh to decay and back to posh again...with all the history in between - Amazing! Thanks so much for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure Pam WhimsicalVintage
ReplyDeleteSeeing the first ever Bikini again was fun too. I remember seeing something on that when it happened.
ReplyDeleteMy husband stayed at one of the Sheraton Hotels in Los Angeles when he was a boy. He recounted the story once that he met Bert Brown there. Bert had trained for the Olympics with Johnny, and was a world class swimmer himself. He told Fred that the reason Johnny cold swim so fast was because he had size 16 feet and it was like using swim fins to propel himself. Fred also recounted a story that he had read about Johnny's swims in some of the movies. In clips where you do not see Johnny's feet kicking, is when he was in a stage pool that only came up to Johnny's chest. He was actually running through the water and pretending to be swimming. Ah Hollywood.
I enjoyed reading (and learning) about something with so much history. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete