Sy Weintraub

Sy Weintraub (May 28, 1923 – April 4, 2000) was a movie and television producer best known for his series of Tarzan films and television episodes between 1959 and 1968. Weintraub broke with the Johnny Weissmuller formula of portraying Tarzan as a pidgin-speaking noble savage who lives in a treehouse with Jane and Boy. Instead, his Tarzan was an educated loner, much closer to Edgar Rice Burroughs's original conception of the character. Weintraub also produced two Sherlock Holmes films for television and was an owner of Panavision.

After World War II service in the US Army, he formed Flamingo Films with David L. Wolper, who acquired the television rights to Eagle-Lion Films in 1951. Starting in 1958, Weintraub took over the Tarzan franchise from Sol Lesser and began producing Tarzan films made on actual locations (most previous Tarzan films had been shot on studio sets, with stock jungle footage edited in). He decided to drop the character of Jane and portray Tarzan as a well-spoken lone adventurer. Weintraub started with Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959) and its follow-up, Tarzan the Magnificent (1960), both with Gordon Scott. Weintraub then produced Tarzan Goes to India and Tarzan's Three Challenges (filmed in Thailand), both with Jock Mahoney. In 1965 Weintraub filmed three Tarzan films back to back with former Los Angeles Rams football star Mike Henry: Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (Mexico), Tarzan and the Great River and Tarzan and the Jungle Boy both filmed in Brazil. When Henry was tired of his grueling Tarzan work and refused to do the television series, Weintraub hired Ron Ely for the role.

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