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Tarzan the Fearless, the 1933 Robert F. Hill jungle adventure serial ("Romance! Thrills! Adventure!"; "12 thrilling chapters"; "A New Edgar Rice Burroughs Story") starring Buster Crabbe (in the title role as Tarzan), Julie Bishop (billed as "Jacqueline Wells"), Edward Woods, Philo McCullough, Mischa Auer, Carlotta Monti, Jack Leonard (as the man in the gorilla suit), "and a great cast". Note that Jack Leonard was one of the first men to play gorillas in movies. He was an extra in Tarzan the Ape Man, and the director did not like the way the men in ape suits were performing, and Jack Leonard said he could do better, and he was given the part! He and his wife made his gorilla suit and he studied real life gorillas to see how they moved and the sounds they made. He appeared in a dozen movies between 1932 and 1940, nine times of them as an ape! We don't know what happened to him after that (perhaps he passed away). If anyone knows more about Jack Leonard, please e-mail us and we will post it here. Also note that Ray 'Crash' Corrigan and Charles Gemora were two actors who played lots of gorillas in movies in the 1930s and 1940s. Emil Van Horn and Jack Leonard each played around a dozen gorillas, and interestingly, that was all they did (no doubt all four of them owned a gorilla suit!). Also note that master showman Sol Lesser produced this movie. In addition to releasing it as a regular serial in 12 chapters, he did not create a "feature version" by editing down the 12 chapters into a single film, as producers of many 1930s serials did. Instead, he sent theaters a wacky "feature version" consisting of the first four chapters as a single film, with a separate "trailer" at the end advising patrons to return to the theater to see the other chapters! Apparently, this went over really poorly with film-goers, who were quite naturally very disappointed to only see one-third of a movie! Also, note that this is a "lost" serial which means that no surviving copies are thought to exist (only the "feature version" survives).
NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography.

Important Added Info: Note that, as noted above, this movie was also released in an odd "feature version" that consisted of just the first four chapters. Since this lobby card does not have chapter information in the bottom center, we strongly suspect it is from that wacky release, but of course, it could also be from the first chapter, as it is full-color. We have only seen chapter lobby cards from chapters 5 through 12, and never from 1 to 4, and that certainly seems unusual. If anyone knows more about this, please e-mail us and we will post it here.

Note that this card has been "gel backed". What does that mean? It means that a talented restorer backed the card onto a gel material, and they then performed restoration to the above defects, and then removed the gel backing, and afterward the card still looks and feels like an original card (and it is!), with no backing at all. Many collectors prefer this method of restoration to paperbacking or linenbacking, because with those methods the card no longer looks like it was not backed. Gel backing can't be used with cards that have major paper loss or other major defects, but for the cards it can be used on, it is really an excellent method of restoration! Also note that we have a scan of both the front and the back of this lobby card, which should greatly help you see what defects it has.

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