Lots of well-known people come from Utah, like Jack Dempsey, Rhonda Fleming, Larraine Day, and Loretta Young. However, the next man is not famous for his time spent in Utah. But you would know his works. Most of his works have been adapted to novels, Old Time Radio, comic strips and movies (first movie 1917). In fact, I noticed that his movie character is playing at one of our present movie theatres. During World War II he served at the age 66 as a war correspondent in the South Pacific. He died of a heart ailment in 1950.
The year was 1903 when Ed (born in 1875) and
his wife Emma moved to Idaho. He had tried to make a living as a cowboy,
gold dredger on the Snake River and a store clerk, nevertheless, none made
his wages. So when the Oregon Short Line Railroad Company offered Ed a
job in Salt Lake City, the couple pulled up stakes in April 1904 and set
up housekeeping at 111 North Fifth West, Salt Lake City.
He would become part of the law enforcement
community, but with a special job, "railroad policemen." The Oregon Short
Line would pay his wages and the city would furnish a blue uniform with
bright brass buttons. Ed would have to furnish his own six-gun revolver.
In later years Ed reflected about his time
in Salt Lake City and the rail-yards this way: "My beat was in the railroad
yards where after nightfall I rambled off bums off the freight trains.
Kept good hours, but, this regime was not very adventurous, nor encouraging
for a man of ambition. The bums were seldom as hard boiled as they are
painted and only upon two occasions did I ever have to flash my gun."
But without a doubt, it was a hard way to
turn a living. He felt that his life was going nowhere, and one day he
would meet a bum that was a criminal and violence might happen. He still
had family back east in Illinois and sent many letters to them. Within
these letter he confided his lonely feelings about a policeman's life and
being stuck in a no-end-job. After only five months on the job, Ed resigned
the police job, and he and his wife left for Chicago. Perchance a man of
imaginativeness and aspiration could "catch the brass-ringî"back East.
He did make the big-time and Ed did "hitch-his-wagon-to-that-star."
He became an eminent and renowned writer. To some of us, his full name,
Edgar Rice Burroughs will ring a bell, however, to everyone, his works
are world famous, for he is the creator of "Tarzan of the Apes."
While criticized as clumsy writing, Burroughsí
stories share the colorful imagination and superb placing as in the works
of H.G. Wells.
Some fellows dream of worthy accomplishments,
while others stay awake and do them.
Editor's Note: Mr. Anderson is a well versed
Utah historian and it is a delight to listen to his stories. He lives in
St. George, but will travel within Utah to show historical slides and share
his vast knowledge with groups, such as he has done for the Utah Chiefs
Auxiliary for the last two years.