Neighborhood News: Johnny Weissmuller, Chicago’s own Olympian and Tarzan

With the Olympics just over, and a record number of U S. medals achieved (126: 40 Gold, 44 Silver, 42 Bronze,)  Neighborhood News thought it would be fun to take a look back at North Sider Johnny Weissmuller,who overcame polio as a child to win five gold medals in two Olympics and cement his mark in Hollywood as the nation’s first Tarzan. 

Immigrant Beginnings and Polio Rehabilitation 

According to JohnnyWeissmuller.com,  Janos (Johann) Peter Weissmuller was born June 2, 1904 to German parents in Freidorf, Romania, at the time part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. In 1908 the family moved west to Chicago, where they reunited with his mother’s parents. The family rented a single floor in a shared house during his youth, four blocks from Lincoln Park. His frequent trips to the nearby zoo helped to instill his love of animals. As part of a city program with horses, he even learned how to ride bareback – a skill which would later serve him well in the role of Tarzan.

At age nine, according to the US Olympic and Paralympic Museum website, he contracted polio. It was suggested that Weissmuller try swimming.  

“My doctor said I should take up some sort of exercise to build myself up,” Weissmuller said. “I got into a swimming pool at the YMCA and liked it. And I found I had a natural flair for it.”

He attended St. Michael’s Schooland served as an altar boy there, up until age twelve when he switched to public school. Johnny had to leave school after his abusive father abandoned the family. He went to work to help support his little brother and mom, who worked as a cook. He delivered packages for a church supply company and hawked produce from a cart. 

Swimming opens doors

At age 8, his love affair with the water began with his first swimming lessons at Fullerton Beachon Lake Michigan. In the next few years he entered and won all of the races he could that were sponsored by the city. He joined the Northside YMCA at the age of 11, lying about his age to gain entry as 12 years old was the minimum. He swam there until he was 14 and won all of the swimming races as well as being a champion at running and high jumping. His swimming skills started to draw attention, and the assistant coach from the Hamilton Club recruited him. He told Johnny that he should be training at the Illinois Athletic Club (IAC), one of the best swim teams in the country. In 1920, he got a tryout with famed coach Bill Bachrach, the head coach of the 1924 Olympics U.S. men’s and women’s swim teams. Impressed with Weissmuller’s raw talent, Weissmuller became his protégé.

Immigration Issues 

Weissmuller’s illustrious career could have been thwarted. His nationality could have become an issue, as Weissmuller applied for an American passport and assumed his younger brother’s identity, who had been born when the family lived in Pennsylvania. It was a deception that came to light only after Weissmuller’s death in 1984. But it’s said that he lived with the guilt of deception the rest of his life.

Swimming Success 

According to Swimworld Magazine, in 1924, Weissmuller won gold in the 100- and 400-meter freestyle in Chamonix, France, as well as the 4×200-meter freestyle relay, and helped the United States win a bronze in water polo. Four years later, at the Amsterdam 1928 Olympic Games, Weissmuller took gold in the 100-meter freestyle and 4×200-meter freestyle relay. The hotly contested 100m race with rival Duke Kahanamoku (previous Gold medal winner and father of surfing) and the 400m contest (with international greats Arne Borg and Andrew Charleton) are still considered two of the greatest races in swimming history.

Me Tarzan: Post-Olympic Stardom

Following his swimming retirement, according to his website, Weissmuller became a model and spokesman for BVD, posing in its underwear and swimsuits. His career took a new twist in 1929, when he took a cameo role in the Ziegfeld Follies film “Glorifying the American Girl.” Playing Adonis, his non-speaking role involved being costumed in “nothing but a fig leaf.” 

Beginning with 1932’s “Tarzan the Ape Man,” Weissmuller would portray the loin-clothed ‘King of the Jungle’ 12 times. He appeared in almost all of those films with Maureen O’Sullivan playing Jane. He appeared in other movies and TV shows, but remained best known as Tarzan.

After retiring from acting, according to Legacy.com, Weissmuller moved back to his boyhood home of Chicago and started a swimming pool company, but it wasn’t much of a success. In 1965 Weissmuller retired to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, though he came out of retirement for a time in to work as a greeter at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.

In 1974, Weissmuller died from respiratory failure at the age of 79. At his request, a recording of his famous Tarzan yell was played as his coffin was lowered into the ground.

Alison Moran-Powers and Dean’s Team Chicago