This starts our story at the very beginning, because all underwear began with a simple loincloth, as sported here by Tarzan, though technically his looks more like pants.
A true loincloth is named so because it is a long piece of cloth which is wrapped round the waist and either the front end, or both ends, are allowed to hang down in order to cover your nakedness.
However in some Asian areas the fabric passes between the legs and is tied, and I think this may be what the artist was thinking of when they drew this card.
This series is tied to a live action television series which was first screened on the NBC network in America in 1966, and ran, over two seasons and fifty-seven episodes, until 1968. And we know that because the series was produced by Banner Productions, whose name appears on these cards. We just do not know why they chose to make the cards art drawn and not feature stills from the production, though it may have been to save paying royalties to the actors.
The series was quite a lavish production, and it was filmed on location in Brazil and Mexico, usual for a film, but not so usual for a television series. In that series, Tarzan, who you may remember was raised in the jungle, tires of the Western World and returns to Africa. He was played by Ron Ely, who did most of his own stunts, and was injured through it, including being bitten, several times, by lions.
Oddly, this television Tarzan kept his chimpanzee companion, Cheeta, who was first paired with Johnny Weissmuller in 1932 - but there was no Jane in any of the episodes. Yet she had been part of the films since the first one, "Tarzan of the Apes", released in 1918, in which Tarzan was played by Elmo Lincoln and Jane by Enid Markey.
There were eight silent films/serials, including this one, the last of which was in 1929 released between 1918 and 1929. None of these seem to have been recorded on cards. In fact, the earliest set of cards featuring Tarzan is stated to be the 1934 set of fifty cards entitled "Tarzan and the Crystal Vault of Isis", issued by the Canadian Chewing Gum Company Ltd, and recorded by Jefferson Burdick as V.256. These same cards were also issued, in the same year, by the Schutter Johnson Candy Corporation, of Chicago, and Brooklyn, New York - and they are not that dissimilar to our card today, but this image does not appear. As far as the Crystal Vault of Isis, I cannot find this title as either a film nor a book. That set seems to have been inspired by the success of the first and second sound Tarzan films, starring Johnny Weissmuller, which were released in 1932 and 1934. They definitely had a Jane, Maureen O'Sullivan, who hit the headlines for her scanty attire - and some scenes had even been cut, pre-screening, on order of the censors.
The next set of Tarzan cards was the 1953, three-dimensional one, "Tarzan and the She-Devil", issued by Topps. They credit "Lesser Productions", which had been founded by Sol Lesser, and he had bought the screen rights to the Edgar Rice Burroughs character in 1933. He started to make a film almost immediately, starring Buster Crabbe, then Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan character. A Tarzan the Fearless serial with screen newcomer Buster Crabbe resulted, but Burroughs, deciding to make his own Tarzan films, refused to renegotiate with Lesser. Burroughs's own movie enterprises were short-lived, and the rights passed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Burroughs sold Lesser options on all his Tarzan novels for seven years, with Lesser producing one Tarzan film a year for 20th Century-Fox. Only one Tarzan film was produced under this arrangement: Tarzan's Revenge (1938) featuring athletes Glenn Morris and Eleanor Holm. MGM objected to Lesser competing with its own Tarzan series, and Lesser agreed to sell the rights back to MGM.[3] When MGM relinquished the rights in 1942, Lesser regained the Tarzan property. Lesser's new Tarzan films were produced for RKO and starred Johnny Weissmuller and later Lex Barker and Gordon Scott, and Lesser devoted himself to these jungle adventures for the rest of his career. Lesser sold the Tarzan rights to producer Sy Weintraub in 1958, and retired.[4] "I had reached the age that one either finishes on top or far below. I decided I would end on top, and I was satisfied," he said.
Toward the end of his life he was actively involved in restoring many of his early productions, often in association with film preservationists at Blackhawk Films. Blackhawk reprinted many of Lesser's silent and sound films for the home-movie market.
Sol Lesser died in 1980, and was buried at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, California.
In our original British Trade Index part two, this is the last set to be listed under Anglo Confectionery, simply through them being in alphabetical order. And it is rather scantly described as :
- TARZAN. Lg. 90 x 65. Sectional back. Nd. (66) ... ANF-6
At that time we were still listing Anglo Confectionery cards separate from Anglo-American Chewing Gum Ltd., also of Halifax, and not including the anonymous cards. However, in our updated pre-1970 British Trade Index both these issuers are combined under "Anglo Confectionery Ltd., Halifax", and with a header that tells us "Anglo-American and Anglo Confectionery were the same firm. Issues began as Anglo-American, changed to Anglo Confectionery in the mid-1960s, who then issued up to 1974". Cards issued about 1955-74. In this listing, Anglo-American issues, where known, are identified by (AA) in brackets.". And because of that we do not yet have a home page for this issuer, we are waiting to feature the first set in alphabetical order in that list, which is "Animal World", as a Card of The Day.
Our set is described in that book as :
- TARZAN. 1967. 90 x 65. Nd. (66) Sectional back. ... ANG-370.