Although he first achieved fame as a free-style swimmer who won five Olympic gold medals and set 67 world records, Johnny Weissmuller is best known for his film role as Tarzan, King of the Jungle, who had been abandoned in the African wild as an orphaned infant and raised by apes. Weissmuller starred in twelve Tarzan films between 1932 and 1948.

The Tarzan series, written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, became widely popular from the first book, Tarzan of the Apes (1914). More than 25 million copies of Burroughs' books sold worldwide as the public embraced the stories of an English nobleman's son who grew up to be the King of the Jungle. Weissmuller added to the popularity—and added to his own wealth—when his first Tarzan movie, Tarzan of the Apes, was released, leading to spinoffs such as Tarzan radio programs and comic strips. The films co-starred Maureen...