Lou Gehrig as Tarzan
 

Just came across this photo while surfing the Internet. The following caption describes the photo.

Here's baseball great Lou Gehrig as we never seen him before, posing in a lion cloth while dressed as Tarzan. Gehrig was setting his sights to move beyond baseball and be in the movies. Most of all, he wanted to play Tarzan and even auditioned for the role - taking time to pose for some publicity shows. Tarzan author, Edgar Rice Burroughs, was not impressed. He sent Gehrig a telegram with the backhanded compliment, "Having seen several pictures of you as Tarzan...I want to congratulate you on being a swell first baseman."

Well, at least he didn't inspire the character of Fred Flintstone... ;-) Thanks for the post.

you mean BAM BAM!!!!

He did make it into the movies eventually, in a cruddy oater called "Rawhide" (1938). Here is a Coney Island arcade card showing the New York City-born and bred cowboy:

http://photos.imageevent.com/exhibit...e%20Gehrig.jpg

And here are some photos from the movie, including one of Gehrig signing the contract for it:


http://photos.imageevent.com/exhibit...ide%201_1.jpeg

Movie Lobby Card approx. 11" x 14"
 

Gehrig in Rawhide, 1938

http://luckeycards.com/gehrigmovie.jpg

I was rummaging through some old threads and found this one....

Then I got these in the mail along with 8 others from the same film so figured I would show them. They are 8x10 movie stills with Campy from 1954....they are sort of kind of cards (maybe closer to photos) and at least close to before WWII :) ..

http://luckeycards.com/roogie1.jpg
http://luckeycards.com/roogie2.jpg

Lou was about as well suited for Hollywood as Mike Trout would be. As in not all all.