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Who was the first movie Tarzan?
Elmo Lincoln is often given that title because he starred in the
earliest of the Tarzan movies, Tarzan of the Apes,
released in 1918. An argument could also be made that the honor
should go to Gordon Griffith, the twelve-year-old boy who played
Tarzan as a youth, approximately the first third of the movie.
The purpose of these webpages is to suggest a still prior claim.
The man first contracted to play the movie role of Tarzan, and
the first to actually be filmed in the part, was Stellan Sven
Windrow of Chicago.
Stellan Windrow prior to Tarzan
Stellan Windrow
(anglicization of the Swedish Vindruvva) was
born September 2, 1893, in Chicago, Illinois. His father, Sven Vindruvva, was a physician in Sweden. His mother, Anna Malmqvist Holm, was also a physician, in an age when women rarely pursued such a calling. She obtained a post as an obstetrician with Chicago's Memorial Hospital, gave birth to Stellan, then divorced Sven in absentia.
He attended the University of Chicago, receiving the Associate in
Philosophy in 1915. While there he excelled in athletics, winning
events in swimming and track and field, medalling in discus and
shotput in both 1915 and 1916. He was photographer for the Cap
and Gown in 1916; he was a member of Alpha Tau Omega, the
Society of Tiger Head and the Blackfriars Drama Society. He
worked summer jobs at Chicago's Essanay Studio and there became
friends with Wallace Beery, Ruth Stonehouse and Francis X.
Bushman.
Tarzan — from magazine to movie *
Edgar Rice
Burroughs began writing Tarzan of the
Apes at 8 pm, December 1, 1911. The work was completed at 10:25
pm, May 14 of the following year. On June 11 he submitted the manuscript
to All-Story
magazine; June 26 he received $700 for it. Tarzan was published
complete in the October issue with illustrations by Clinton Pettee.
On October 5 Burroughs submitted the story to A. C. McClurg & Co.
for publication as a book; they declined. November 3 he submitted
it to The Bobbs-Merrill Co., Reilly & Britton, and Dodd, Mead and
Co. -- none would accept it. Between January 6 and February 27 of
1913 the Evening World Daily Magazine published an
extremely popular serialization of the novel. May 23 Rand McNally
turned it down. The following year, May 1, 1914, A. C. McClurg &
Co. asked for the publication rights. It was released June 17
with the famous silhouette by Fred J. Arting on the dustjacket,
$1.30 for the first edition with later reprints at 50 cents.
Burroughs had been exploring film production for Tarzan of the Apes
ever since 1913 when a New York play broker had suggested it. After many
rejections, he signed a personal contract with Chicago insurance salesman
Bill Parsons, June 6, 1916, granting him the film rights for $5,000 in
advance on royalties, plus $50,000 in common stock in the company Parsons
would form to raise the money needed for production. By the end of the
year Burroughs was Director General of Parsons' National Film Corporation
of America.
Stellan Window signs on as Tarzan
When Stellan Windrow met "Smiling Bill" Parsons, his six-foot,
four-inch (the news article here is incorrect), 200-pound frame led Parsons to exclaim "If we had met
you three months ago we could have saved some money searching for
the right man [to play Tarzan]." He was signed, with filming to
wait until graduation that June.
MOTION PICTURE NEWS
August 4, 1917
On August 11, 1917, Moving Picture World reported that the
National Film's Los Angeles studio "is preparing for the
production of Tarzan of the Apes and is making ape costumes."
Director Scott Sidney started filming "Tarzan of the Apes" on a
barren California desert. After only two days of shooting, however, they
decided to move the project to Louisiana's Bayou Teche, to match
stock jungle footage from Brazil.
A special five-car
train hauled Company executives, cast, crew and equipment the four
days' journey to Tarzan's "jungle" near Morgan City, Louisiana. On the
way Stellan (often called "Steamship" Windrow due to his use of the name
S. S. Windrow - and as "Ukulele Swede" because he accompanied his
multi-lingual singing with that instrument) trained with the
professional acrobatic team of DeGarro and DeComa.
Shooting began August 14, 1917. The troupe arose at 4:30 am, had
breakfast, then took a small steamboat to nearby Bayou Teche to
begin filming at 6:00. They worked until 9:30, breaking for lunch
and – because of the intense heat – not returning to
filming until 3:00 pm, continuing then until 6:00.
The heat meant that those performing as apes could only work for
a minute, then snatch off their masks to gasp for breath. In
addition to the heat there were chiggers, red bugs, wasps, aligators,
snakes, lizards, flies and mosquitoes. Stellan used a ground
level trampoline to make fourteen foot leaps into the trees,
there to execute death-defying swings in the tree tops over sharp
boulders on slippery hemp hawsers constructed to resemble natural
vines.
Stellan leaves Tarzan, joins the Navy
After five weeks of shooting, the treetop work nearly completed,
his country called Stellan Windrow to World War I, in which he
served as an ensign in the Navy. National Film paid him $1000 for
his film rights, meaning he would not be credited in the film. A
frantic search began for his replacement, ending a few weeks
later when D.W.
Griffith discovery Elmo Lincoln arrived from Los
Angeles. His stocky five-foot, eleven-inch, 200-pound frame,
together with his fear of heights, kept Lincoln from doing any
tree-work. As a result the final movie shows two adult
Tarzans — the limber,
athletic Stellan-Tarzan flying through the jungle canopy, barrel-chested
Elmo-Tarzan fighting lions and other hostiles on the ground.
On December 2, dissatisfied with the motion picture industry and
the progress made on adapting his writings, Edgar Rice Burroughs
dumped his shares of capital stock in National Film. January 16,
1919, the Company invited Burroughs to the January 27 premiere of
Tarzan of the Apes, but he declined. Stellan attended the
Broadway opening, sitting in William Parsons' box. The eight-reel
movie became one of the first movies to gross over one million
dollars.
The New York Times, February 3, 1918, reported that the
production had used 60 ape suits, 1100 native extras, 40 aerial
acrobats, four lions, six tigers, several elephants, and 18 apes.
Stellan after Tarzan
Later in 1918, in London, Stellan married Marjorie Desborough (born May 7,
1895 in London). They returned to the United States prior to 1920 when
their daughter Marjorie Ann (Midge) Windrow was born. They returned to
Europe as a result of a job offer from Wahl-Eversharp (fountain pen
company). Their second daughter Patricia was born in London in 1923. He left
Eversharp to work for Paramount Pictures, Swedish Division (dubbing, as well as playing bit parts in numerous movies), moving in 1923 to LeVesinet, a suburb of Paris, working at the film studio in another suburb, Joinville. They remained through the 1930s, both girls educated in French schools.
Toward the end of the decade Stellan returned to the United States where he
did some work as a freelance newspaper/magazine photographer and became a
partner in the firm of Underwood & Underwood Studios (NYC). After some
delay, hoping to be able to remain in Paris but mindful of the changes
taking place in Europe, Marjorie and their daughters also returned to the
U.S. During World War II he served in North Africa with the American Red
Cross, staying with the ARC as a photographer after the war. Stellan died
of "hardening of the arteries" November 25, 1958 in New York.
Stellan's wife died at the Babylon, New York, home of her daughter
Marjorie, October of 1967. Marjorie, born January 6, 1920, passed away
January 13, 1999. Her sons are Robin (Bob) Stephens, Paul Wormser and
Peter Wormser. Stellan's second daughter Patricia Windrow-Klein, born
September 12, 1923, is the mother of Kenneth (Ken) Perez, Adam Klein, and
Lawrence (Moondi) Klein.
* the source for most of the Edgar Rice Burroughs information is Bill
Hillman's ERB Lifelines
BIO: 1910-1919
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