Favorite Photo of the Week #22

Larry "Buster" Crabbe as the Lion Man 

Olympic swimmer Crabbe swan in two Olympics, 1928 in Amsterdam (bringing home Bronze) and Gold Medalist in the 400 meter freestyle race in Los Angeles (1932 games).  This feat and his good looks launched his career on the silver screen.  Crabbe was never an A-Lister like Johnny Weismuller in his prime 1930's years as MGM's Tarzan.  Crabbe got his start as The Lion Man in the 1933 film King of the Jungle.  This lower budget serial was based on Tarzan, but, the producers could not call him Tarzan or Edgar Rice Burroughs would have sued the loincloth off him.

Crabbe continued to grind out serials, including my favorite Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe for Universal Studios.  He then moved on to Buck Rogers.  His career continued in westerns and with the coming of television, the Foreign Legion as Captain Gallant.  As his career slowed. Crabbe took after his father and became a successful stock broker.  He also was a spokesman for, what else, swimming pools!

Crabbe never pretended to be a great actor. His good looks and earnestness on screen, even in the most ridiculous of plots endeared him to me.  He was a hero to thousands of young boys through the nations darkest days during the Great Depression and during World War II.

Crabbe is the first star to have a second entry in Favorite Photo of the Week, this is the first.