So Pal Brook came across one of these at the local swap meet, and brought it by the shop for me to take a look. This pinback button featuring Tarzan was a giveaway at the Valley Federal Savings bank, Tarzana branch, in 1982:
…which, as you can see, still retains the somewhat worse for wear explanatory letter.
Here’s a closer look at the button and its Hal Foster artwork:
Interesting that there’s no mention of the specific connnection between Tarzan and Tarzana (that the area was built upon the site of Tarzan creator Edar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzana ranch), but maybe that’s just common knowledge amongst Tarzana residents of the time. I know I wouldn’t forget that!
Even though this button giveaway was in 1982, the buttons themselves were produced in 1975 “in a limited quantity” it says there in the letter. That has me wondering how many were made versus how many were given away at the bank and under what criteria. Did you get one for opening an account? Making a certain size deposit? Just for walking in the door (which would eat up the button supply right quick, I’d imagine).
Looking on the eBays revealed several similar Tarzan buttons from the time period, nearly all of them being offered for…optimistic pricing. One lot had the button pictured above, include with a button with art by Russ Heath. I don’t know if multiple variations were offered via this bank giveaway, which would have required different letters identifying the different artists and seems like more bother than it was worth to them.
Anyway, no idea if that bank is even still around…Google searches seem to suggest “no,” and I doubt even if it still existed, there’d probably be nobody there to call and ask “hey, can you tell me about those Tarzan buttons?
Regardless of its specific origins, it’s still a neat item that at no time did I say I was going to sneak into Brook’s house and take, you’ve got nothing on me, copper.
Google AI says:
In addition to the Tarzan pinback button, the Valley Federal Savings and Loan’s Tarzana branch museum featured other memorabilia, including:
Movie posters for various Tarzan films.
Book editions, both new and old, of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ books.
Photographs of nearly every actor who portrayed Tarzan in movies and on television.
A photocopy of the first page of the original Tarzan manuscript.
Blowups of Sunday comic strips featuring Tarzan.
Rare oddities, such as a meerschaum pipe carved with the image of Tarzan and a friendly lion.
The collection was present and the small museum was active at the Tarzana branch at least between 1982 (the year of the giveaway) and 1985, as it was mentioned in a 1985 article.
Valley Federal Savings was acquired by American Savings Bank in April 1992 in a deal arranged by federal regulators.
It is likely the collection was removed or dispersed around the time of this 1992 acquisition and subsequent branch consolidation, as the new owners made changes to the branches.
Cool Tarzan button, but agreed that instead of “…Tarzan flying through the air …” it would have been better if it had be written as: “…Tarzan leaping between jungle trees…”.
And, not that it would be a good thing to alter the great Hal Foster’s work or anything, but it sort of bugs me, aesthetically speaking, that there is no line separating Tarzan’s middle finger from his ring finger on his right hand. If Hal Foster had passed away by 1975, maybe the E R Burroughs estate should have called on Russ Manning to fix the fingers…
What a great button. There’s something about that newspaper-adventure-hero art style that I really like. Maybe it’s the thin lines and relatively open forms? The particular ratio of realistic v. stylized? In any case, a very cool find.
Speaking of buttons, I can’t seem to let go of my ’80s X-Men buttons by Paul Smith. Remember those?