Dateline Jasoom: Joan Bledig on Princess play

In 2006, Joan Bledig and I traveled from Chicago to Minneapolis to see “A Princess of Mars” performed on stage by Hardcover Theater. This is our discussion of the play on the drive home. My friend of more than 25 years died Jan. 18, 2024. RIP, Joan – J the V.

Episode 42. Opening clip: “Tarzan, Silver Screen King of the Jungle,” featuring ERB fan and scholar Tracy Griffin. Tracy joins Chicago Muckers Jim Hadac, Joan Bledig and Elmo for a tour of Oak Park and Chicago sites related to Edgar Rice Burroughs. Elmo interviews Frank Lipo, who heads the Oak Park historical society. Burroughs lived in four homes in Oak Park and rented an office there during his early prolific period. Tracy and some of the Muckers use the same bathroom ERB would have used in that office building. They also visit 414 Augusta Avenue in Oak Park, where Burroughs wrote Thuvia, Cave Girl, Mad King, Pellucidar, The Mucker and others; and 700 Linden, where he wrote The Oakdale Affair and The Land That Time Forgot. In Chicago, they visit Billy Byrne's neighborhood and 3 Tree Studios, a former artists colony where J. Allen St. John worked.

Episode 31. Opening Bit: The Sari Sabertooths baseball team opens its season against the Caspak Bo-lus at Pellucidar Park. Chicago Muckers Jim Hadac, Greg Phillips, Ken Manson and Joan Bledig play “ERB Jeopardy.” Elmo Trebek hosts. (They “buzz in” with Tarzan yells.) One answer: “Who had brain transfers performed by Ras Thavas?”

Episode 30. Opening Bit: The BBC interviews Hazel Strong. (Laurence Dunn and Joan Bledig.) Jim Hadac and Elmo try to see “The 300” at Navy Pier, but it's sold out. Clip: Johnny Weissmuller appears with Groucho Marx on “You Bet Your Life.” Johnny says the crocodiles he wrestled were real, but Groucho isn't buying it: “How is it when the crocodile turned over, it said Goodrich on the bottom?”

Episode 11. The 2006 ERB / Ray Bradbury discussion in Oak Park, Illinois continues with Chicago Muckers Jerry Spannraft and Joan Bledig. Jerry describes meeting Bradbury, who told him Edgar Rice Burroughs was the greatest American writer ever. In the context of Bradbury's “Fahrenheit 451,” Joan talks about changes to the wording in the paperback editions of the Tarzan books. “The author's words are his alone and should not be subject to change by anyone,” she says.