600     March 29, 1965 
Betsy, Bill, Bess, Henry

Mike Henry, a linebacker for the Los Angeles Rams: “I’m going to be the new Tarzan in the movies”                 
Henry would film three Tarzan movies back to back in 1965:  Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (1966), Tarzan and the Great River (1967) and Tarzan and the Jungle Boy (1968).  He would endure many injuries and health issues on the set and would decline an offer to play the role in a 1966 television series.  That part went instead to Ron Ely.  Henry unsuccessfully sued the production company for damages over his health.  Soon after, he filmed a TV pilot called Taygar, King of the Jungle that would have been a comic spoof of the Tarzan legend.  Plans to sell that series were dropped when the Tarzan rights holders sued.  Henry would continue to work steadily in TV and film.  He is perhaps best known today for his role as Junior Justice, the dimwitted son of Jackie Gleason’s Buford T Justice, in the Smokey and the Bandit films(1977, 1980, 1983).  Though introduced here as an active player on the Rams roster, Henry did not return to the NFL. (Also see E123 )   

Special guest David Wayne is joined by eight fifth graders from Queens who will perform: “A dramatization of a book written by Henry Morgan”                 
As a tribute to Henry, who turns 50 on March 31, the kids perform a skit based on his children’s book O-Sono and the Magician’s Nephew and the Elephant (Vanguard 1964).  At the end, everyone, including the Sweet Adelines from the top of the show, sings “Happy Birthday” (1893).  Wayne is in his second year as a member of the Lincoln Center Repertory Theater.