The story of the Louisiana Tarzan begins not in a distant rainforest but in the moss-draped swamps of Morgan City, where the very first Tarzan movie was filmed more than a century ago. Long before Louisiana branded itself as “Hollywood South,” a 1918 silent feature—Tarzan of the Apes—brought Hollywood to the banks of the Atchafalaya Basin and produced one of the earliest American blockbuster hits.
In the century-old black and white film, jungle trees are covered with Spanish moss, not something you would find in an African jungle. “That’s where they shot a lot of the hut scenes,” recalled filmmaker Al Bohl, pointing to Lake End Park, a waterfront site with moss-draped trees that once held palmetto huts built for the production. Some of the primitive structures existed before filming; others were constructed by the crew—and later dramatically burned for the camera.
Al Bohl, a Shreveport filmmaker and his daughter Allison Bohl produced a documentary to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first Tarzan movie. The Bohl’s 2012 documentary, “Tarzan: Lord of the Louisiana Jungle”, looks at the history of the landmark film. Click here to see a trailer of the documentary.
tarzan in a louisiana jungle
Morgan City was chosen for practical reasons as well as aesthetics. Easy rail access made transporting equipment cheaper and faster than traveling to Florida or California. Carrie Stansbury of the Cajun Coast Visitors Bureau notes that filmmakers also relied on the city’s sizable Black population. “It was the first movie where actually Black people played Black people,” she said, a historic break from the era’s standard of white actors in blackface.
A downtown hardware store—Shannon Hardware—served as a prop studio. “They used it to build these costumes and the sets and everything they needed,” Bohl said. The production stayed nine weeks before shifting the remainder of filming to California, stitching scenes together so seamlessly that audiences could not tell one coast from the other.
Myths, monkeys, and movie legends
With a century of distance, myths have become part of the film’s legacy. Rumors long circulated that monkeys were released into the Morgan City swamp after production wrapped. Bohl casts doubt on the wilder tales. “They didn’t really release the chimps. Chimps are very dangerous,” he said, though he concedes smaller monkeys may have been set free.
The film also sparked debate over whether actor Elmo Lincoln truly killed a lion on camera. According to Bohl, “Elmo Lincoln said he killed the lion… he had a knife,” a claim repeated often enough that Bohl believes it.
tarzan – a faint louisiana memory
Today, little remains of the original sets. Yet Morgan City still embraces its place in cinema history. Visitors may occasionally board swamp tours and let out Tarzan’s iconic yell. As Stansbury put it simply, “Anytime someone mentions Tarzan, you know, Morgan City was the first place that it was filmed.”
Morgan city’s link to tarzan featured on tv
mORGAN CITY’S LAKE END PARK
Lake End Park is located at 2300 LA Hwy 70, Morgan City, LA.
2300 LA-70, Morgan City, LA 70380
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