'Or-Ee-Or, Tarzan Boh Cheng Kor'

Apparently, we carry within us "memory triggers"; these triggers set off recollections of past experiences, smells, sounds, etc.

So, this Washington Post story (in ST) on Tarzan's 100th anniversary set off all sorts of childhood recollections. First, the story:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/books-conferences-and-a-hot-new-jane-mark-100th-anniversary-of-tarzan/2012/10/25/c35b06f0-1ded-11e2-b647-bb1668e64058_story.html

It's a lovely read, so do click on the link.

What did I recall? Growing up on Pulau Bukom, I must have seen, probably more than once -- at the local open-air movie amphitheatre -- the black-and-white era Gordon Scott portrayal (1958) of the Lord of the Apes. I was way too young (ie not even born yet) to have seen the all-time classic Johnny Weismuller version (1932). Of course, I did catch, as an adult, the 1984 movie Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes.

In between my childhood and adulthood, I followed the Tarzan TV series and devoured the comics series too. ST used this set of pictures below when it ran the Washingtion Post (WP) piece:

But none of the various actors who played Tarzan throughout these 100 years, it seems, could match Weissmuller's famous "ape call". An excerpt from the WP article says:

Gore Vidal, in 1963, on the prevalence of Tarzan in this country: “There is hardly an American male of my generation who has not at one time or another tried to master the victory cry of the great ape as it issued from the androgynous chest of Johnny Weissmuller.”

Go ahead, click on the link to YouTube above... you MUST hear it!

That famous cry "triggered" two of my funnier memories. The first is this boyhood/primary schoolboy chant: "Or-Ee-Or, Tarzan Boh Cheng Kor". The Coxsford Singlish Dictionary has helpfully provided a citation:   

OR-EE-OR-EE-OR TARZAN BOH CHENG KOR (contributed by Edwin)
Derived from Johnny Weismuller's version of Tarzan's call, this is a cry used by older brothers to tease their younger brothers (2-4 years old) when they come out of the shower butt-naked. Literally, "Or-ee-or-ee-or, tarzan has no pants on!"

The other memory is an equally silly and indelibly-etched TV and radio ad (1960s? 1970s?) for Hacks sweets. It went like this:

"Or-Ee-Or... Hacks!"

I think the TV ad version had a Tarzan-like character zooming down from the trees. I hope someone has a recording of it. If so, it should be donated to the Singapore Memory Project.

Finally, I suppose the headline writer for the ST reproduction of the WP story is too young to know that "swings" can have a certain connotation: