Friday, July 14, 2006

Tarzan's son in fight for loincloth

Tarzan's loincloth is at the centre of a bitter custody dispute.

The material used by Johnny Weissmuller, who played the ape man role on film 12 times in the 1930s and 1940s, has been on display at the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for decades.

But now his terminally ill son Johnny Weissmuller Jnr, 65, is demanding it back so he can pass it on to his heirs. The loincloth is among a collection of mementoes that Weissmuller, who was an Olympic swimmer in the 1920s, gave to the museum after he became its founding chairman in 1965.

The family also wants the star’s five gold and one bronze Olympic medals and swimming trunks that he wore at the 1928 Games.

“They are mine,” Mr Weissmuller Jnr said.

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