Ashton Dearholt worked with Universal on a number of melodramas during
the 1910s but usually worked outside the studio system, producing a
series of "Pinto Pete" westerns during the 1920s in which he starred
himself. He occasionally acted under the name Richard Holt.
Dearholt is best known to contemporary popular culture, however,
through his association with author
Edgar Rice Burroughs, whom he met
and befriended in 1929. At that time Dearholt was married to
Florence Gilbert, a former stand-in for
Mary Pickford and occasional heroine of
some of his own pictures before their marriage. Burroughs, who was
having marital difficulties and self-doubts at the time, found himself
attracted to Mrs. Dearholt at their first meeting, when Dearholt,
accompanied by Florence, visited Burroughs at his home to discuss
making films of some of Burroughs non-Tarzan novels and stories.
Burroughs refused, being already thoroughly discouraged with
Hollywood's treatment of his "ape-man" character, but developed a
social relationship with Ashton and Florence.
Then in 1934, while on a business trip for RKO to Guatemala, Dearholt
met and fell in love with a young American competitive swimmer,
returned home with her to California and installed her in the Dearholt
household. Florence Dearholt soon left and sought support from
Burroughs, whom she eventually married after divorcing Dearholt.
Florence took custody of her and Ashton's two children.
In 1935 Dearholt finally convinced Burroughs to allow him to make a
Tarzan film. The trick was turned by Dearholt's offering, with two
partners, to set up a single corporation under which Burroughs could
subsume and personally manage his various Tarzan franchises, in
exchange for allowing Dearholt to make a Tarzan serial, set in
Guatemala, with his new love appearing in the lead female role under
the screen name of Ula Holt (it's unclear if
this was her real name, or a name contrived by Dearholt--who, as
already noted, used the name Holt for himself at times and,
additionally, adopted another screen name for himself, Don Costello,
for use in his role as chief villain in the planned Tarzan film). It is
unclear when (or if) he ever actually married Ms. Holt and, if so, how
long the marriage lasted.
Contrary to popular legend, Burroughs had little actual involvement in
the making of the new Tarzan picture, which he viewed as Dearholt's
project. Dearholt selected
Bruce Bennett--then known as
Herman Brix--to play Tarzan: Burroughs only briefly met Bennett after
his contract was signed, to pose for some publicity pictures. Dearholt
commissioned a script, hired a crew and arranged transit to Guatemala.
Burroughs entered the picture only briefly to co-sign a bank loan for
production costs when the necessary credit was denied Dearholt on the
basis of some of his rather unfavorable past bank experiences. The
party eventually set sail for Guatemala in November of 1934 and
returned in March of 1935 with the film only partly completed, due to
cost overruns and numerous physical mishaps in the Guatemalan jungles
under Dearholt's leadership. The script was almost entirely rewritten
at least once: the pressbook, printed by Dearholt's partners back in
California from the original screen treatment, barely resembles the
finished film in its descriptions of the plot line. The serial was
completed within two months of the party's return to California and
faced release under threat from MGM to deny rentals on any of their
future Tarzan pictures with
Johnny Weissmuller to any theaters
that played the Dearholt film. Although the film was fairly popular
abroad, it was unable to recoup its costs and none of the
cast--including the star--or crew were ever paid their salaries. Within
a year, Burroughs-Tarzan Enterprises went bankrupt and Dearholt never
made or appeared in another motion picture. However, he and Burroughs
remained close friends until his (Dearholt's) sudden death in 1942.
