WITHOUT QUESTION, JOHNNY WEISSMULLER was Larry Rayl’s favorite “Tarzan” actor. Not only was Weissmuller a five times USA gold medal winning swimmer and all around athlete, but he was also a down to earth wholesome hero for us kids to watch at the movies in the fifties.
In our hometown, the local merchants would put on a show for the kids on Saturday morning at a local theater, so that our parents could have a break, and go shopping. They called them “Free Shows”, and boy did we love ’em. The theater was always packed with mostly un-attended kids, lot’s of them– all ages.
After showing your milk bottle cap or an ad from the paper, or whatever they wanted that week in order to get in “Free”; we would stand in line and get our popcorn and soda and find a seat. There would be a few minutes of every kid chattering about something or another, and then the lights would dim and a news-real would come on the silver screen. We always liked the news to some extent, especially the sports news of the day. After a couple of funny ha, ha cartoons, an adventure chapter serial with Commander Cody or Captain Midnight would come on. About 20 minutes after that we would finally get to see a feature film about an hour long. Sometimes it would be a western movie with guys like Roy Rogers or George O’Brien, or it could be a Tarzan movie with Johnny Weissmuller or Lex Barker.
