nPostednon September 1, 2015
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n Hendidn’t particularly yearn to be a writer.
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nItnseems to me that he wasn’t totally driven to be anything innparticular!
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nBornnon this date way back in 1875, Edgar Rice Burroughs failed thenentrance exam for the prestigious West Point Military Academy, so henbecame an enlisted soldier with the U.S. Cavalry. However, just twonyears later he was discharged because he had a health problem.
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nBurroughsnworked a bunch of different jobs. According to Wikipedia, hendrifted. He worked on a ranch. He got a job at his father’s company.nHe got a low paying job as a pencil-sharpener wholesaler. Apparently,nhe worked less than regularly – even though, at that point, he hadna wife and two kids!
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nBecausenhe wasn’t working tons of hours, he had a lot of time to read whatnmany people considered “junk”: pulp fiction magazines.
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nAndnhe thought to himself, “…ifnpeople were paid for writing rot such as I read in some of thosenmagazines, that I could write stories just as rotten. As a matter ofnfact, although I had never written a story, I knew absolutely that Incould write stories just as entertaining and probably a whole lotnmore so than any I chanced to read in those magazines.”
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nSonhe began to write for pulp magazines – science fiction, mostly.nSome of his writings were popular enough to be published as books.nHis most popular and timeless character was “Tarzan of the Apes.”
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nEvennthough Burroughs didn’t seem to me to be very ambitious beforenTarzan, he jumped on the chance to make money once he realized hownpopular his character was. He laid some plans to do more than justnTarzan books – he wanted to do a Tarzan comic strip, movies, andneven merchandise. n
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nThenexperts gave the advice they gave back then to every author ofnpopular 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. Younwon’t be able to sell more Tarzan books once there’s a Tarzan movie.
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nDoesnthat advice seem strange to you? n
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nWell,nwe have Edgar Rice Burroughs to thank for the fact that we all feelnstrongly that the advice is foolish – because it was he who ignorednall the experts, wheeled and “dealed” until Tarzan was in everynsort of medium, and proved the experts wrong. n
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nItnturned out that the public wanted Tarzan in every way they could getnTarzan!
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nNow,nof course, experts advise exploiting a popular character or series bynpushing into multiple products and media. And creators of culturalnsensations have a lot more ways to push products, these days,nincluding webpages, video games, and TV shows!
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nBynthe way, Burroughs was able to sell 24 different books starringnTarzan!
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Burroughs wrote a lot of books and stories besides for his Tarzan books! |
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nDidnyou know…?
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nTheren are more than 200 movies with “Tarzan” in the title!
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nIn counted 10 different TV shows about Tarzan.
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nTarzann has even hit Broadway and musical theatre!
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nTarzann has also starred in comic strips and comic books, in video andn computer games; also, there have been Tarzan action figures,n View-Master reels, coloring books, and other toys.
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Tarzan’s name is used for non-Tarzan related products, too – like glue! |
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nBurroughsn bought a ranch north of Los Angeles; he named his ranch Tarzana. n The people who settled and built a community around his ranchn adopted the name Tarzana for the whole community, and it is now onen of the posher neighborhoods of L.A.!
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Notice that this poster says that Edgar Rice Burroughs is the “first citizen of Tarzana.” |
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nAlsonon this date:
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nProtestsnover Taiji’s dolphin hunt
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nSelf-UniversitynWeek Begins
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nAnniversarynof the extinction of the passenger pigeon
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nIndependencenDay in Uzbekistan
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nPlannahead:
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nChecknout my Pinterest boards for:
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nSeptembern holidays
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nSeptembern birthdays
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nHistoricaln anniversaries in September
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nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for:
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