MORGAN CITY – Known today for its shrimp festivals and ties to the petroleum industry, Morgan City also holds a unique place in film history: it was the birthplace of Tarzan on the big screen.

“Tarzan, he was called king of the jungle, and he was very revered in the jungle by animals as well as the natives and anybody who came there. He was the lord, the king of the jungle. Well, in Louisiana, he is Tarzan, the Lord of the Louisiana jungle,” said filmmaker Al Bohl.

In 1918, Tarzan of the Apes debuted, marking a milestone in cinema. Shot in Morgan City’s Lake End Park, the film brought Edgar Rice Burroughs’ famous character to life years before Hollywood would fully embrace the jungle hero.

“I really believe Tarzan of the Apes was a landmark film that should not only be watched, but it should be studied,” Bohl said.

Bohl and his daughter Allison spent four years chronicling the story in their 2012 documentary Tarzan: Lord of the Louisiana Jungle. The idea first came to him unexpectedly.

“I was having breakfast with a group of men, and one of them said that he used to live in Morgan City, and he said, ‘You know, that’s where they made the first Tarzan movie.’ And he said, when they shot it, they brought in apes and monkeys, and when it was over, they couldn’t get the monkeys to get back in the cages so they just left them. Well, that was like a hook in my jaw.”

Though the story was set in Africa, Morgan City provided the perfect stand-in.

“Lake End Park was a perfect place for three reasons in the film. Number one, the moss — and the Tarzan books said they had moss-laden trees. But in Africa, they don’t have moss,” Bohl explained. “They decided to make the film here, and it became an overnight sensation.”

That sensation made history. Tarzan of the Apes became the first silent film to reach one million dollars at the box office.

“It was a major motion picture. It cost $250,000 to shoot it in 1918, that’s a lot of money in 1918. So you could just tell us talking about it here, how monumental this film was, not only for Louisiana, but for the film world. It really broke a lot of barriers,” Bohl said.

The film also broke social ground, casting African Americans as themselves rather than using white actors in blackface.

“They brought them over on Sunday afternoons. They paid them like $15 a day, which is a lot of money back then, and they got them to play the natives,” said Bohl.

Technically, it was groundbreaking as well.

“They even had some shots that were very unique in the fact that they had built a platform up in a tree so they could get real high angles. That’s something you didn’t see. Plus, most films were shot in a studio of some sort… the fact that this was the first location film,” Bohl explained.

His research with Allison took them across the country to interview Tarzan experts. Along the way, they uncovered fascinating details, including the fact that a lion was killed during filming.

“It really is. And to have such a famous film made here, it’s just an incredible, incredible experience, and I want everybody to know about it,” Bohl said.

When the documentary premiered, Morgan City hosted a Tarzan Festival celebrating its role in film history.

“Working with the local people on the committee and them planning out the festival, I mean, so much kudos go to them, because they were just so much into it, and so they really, they were proud of the fact that the Tarzan movie was made here,” said Bohl.

For Bohl, the project was about preserving Louisiana’s forgotten place in cinema.

“I was shocked to find that no one had ever made a documentary about it. Now to me, I thought, this is mammoth, to have not only the first major film made in Louisiana, but it was one of the very first location films ever made.”

More than a century later, Tarzan remains a global icon with over 70 licensed films produced worldwide.

“They’ve had over 70 films. Now that’s licensed films. They’ve had a lot more made, like in India and Greece and other places like that, which were unlicensed. But it’s really cool to think that the very first Tarzan was made right here in Morgan City in Louisiana,” Bohl said.

For film historians and fans alike, it’s a reminder that before Hollywood became the capital of cinema, the swamps of south Louisiana helped put motion pictures on the map.

“There’s a lot of things that are input into our culture because of Tarzan,” Bohl reflected. “Louisiana should be proud of it. And I think we gave the documentary our whole heart.”

Watch the extended version of this story here: