Poșta Română Birth Centenary of Johnny Weissmuller

POȘTA ROMÂNĂ on 2 June 2004 issued a first day cover stamp honouring native son Johnny Weissmüller on the centenary of his birth. Postmark cancellation originated from Timisoara, Romania

Johnny Weissmüller (born Johann Peter Weißmüller; 2 June 1904 – 20 January 1984) was an American Olympic swimmer, water polo player and actor. He was known for having one of the best competitive swimming records of the 20th century. He won the 100m freestyle and the 4 × 200 m relay team event in the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris and the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. Weissmuller also won gold in the 400m freestyle, as well as a bronze medal in the water polo competition in Paris. In all, Weissmuller won five Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal, 52 United States national championships, and set 67 world records. He was the first man to swim the 100-meter freestyle under one minute and the 440-yard freestyle under five minutes. He never lost a race and retired with an unbeaten amateur record. In 1950, he was selected by the Associated Press as the greatest swimmer of the first half of the 20th century.

Weissmüller saved many peoples' lives throughout his own life. One very notable instance was in 1927 whilst training for the Chicago Marathon, Weissmuller saved 11 people from drowning after a boat accident. On 28 July 1927 sixteen children, ten women, and one man drowned, when the Favorite, a small excursion boat cruising from Lincoln Park to Municipal Pier (Navy Pier), capsized half a mile off North Avenue in a sudden, heavy squall. Seventy-five women and children and a half dozen men sank with the boat when it tipped over, but rescuers saved over fifty of them. Weissmueller was one of the Chicago lifeguards who saved many.

Born in Freidorf, the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary (now  Timisoara, Romania) into an ethnically Banat Swabian family, he was baptized into the Catholic faith by the Hungarian version of his German name, as János. Early the next year on 26 January 1905, he embarked on a twelve-day trip on the S.S. Rotterdam to Ellis Island alongside his father, Peter Weißmüller, and mother, Elisabeth Weißmüller (née Kersch).

Following his retirement from swimming, Weissmüller played Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan in twelve feature films from 1932 to 1948. Weissmüller went on to star in sixteen Jungle Jim movies over an eight year period, then filmed 26 additional half-hour episodes of the Jungle Jim TV series.

On 20 January 20, 1984, Weissmüller died from pulmonary edema at the age of 79. He was buried just outside Acapulco, Valle de La Luz at the Valley of the Light Cemetery. As his coffin was lowered into the ground, a recording of the Tarzan yell he invented was played three times, at his request. He was honored with a 21-gun salute, befitting a head of state, which was arranged by Senator Ted Kennedy and President Ronald Reagan.