FRANCE: Museum visitors in Paris invited to explore the myths of Tarzan

Record ID: 862745

  • Title: FRANCE: Museum visitors in Paris invited to explore the myths of Tarzan
  • Date: 18th June 2009
  • Summary: BOY PARTICIPATING IN TARZAN YELL COMPETITION
  • Embargoed: 3rd July 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • City:
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVAAULB21RSZ6J0ZNNSI2P8M1NQH
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  • Story Text: A new Tarzan exposition in Paris offers a free trip to Africa to the visitor who best imitates the mythical ape man's famous yell.
    The exposition opened on Tuesday (June 16) at the Quai Branly Museum, in the shadows of the Eiffel Tower. The museum features indigenous art, cultures and civilizations from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas.
    Tarzan was introduced to the world in 1912 by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs. Since then Burroughs' series has sold more than 15 million copies and inspired 15,000 comics, 42 feature films and several TV series.
    The exposition looks at the origins of Tarzan as a myth, and redefines the character as a modern hero fighting for the protection of nature, according to the program notes.
    Visitors are invited to step into a makeshift tent outside the museum and give their best imitation of the yell made famous by actor Johnny Weissmuller in the 1932 classic "Tarzan the Ape Man."
    The origins of the famous cry remain a mystery.
    "No one knows where the yell came from. Maybe [exposition organiser] Roger Boulay knows but each time he tells it differently, so I don't know. I think it was Johnny Weissmuller who just yelled and it came out like that and it stuck. I have no idea," said Pascal Debie, Ethnographer and author of the exposition catalogue.
    The winner of the Tarzan yell contest, who will be chosen at the close of the exposition in late September, will receive a trip for two to Mali.
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