Cheeta

Once in a great while a book will find it’s way into your life and earns a place of honor on your bookshelves. Such a book is Me Cheeta: My Life In Hollywood by James Lever. Extremely readable, this clever spoof of Hollywood memoirs will have you laughing one minute, gasping with shock the next, and then actually bring you to tears with it’s moving story of a chimp that makes it big in Hollywood.

This is one monkey that isn’t afraid to dish the dirt. Stories of the stars and their way show more of life in the thirties and forties, is both hilarious and eye-opening. The fact that Cheeta, the oldest chimpanzee on record, is still alive and well, living in Palm Springs, painting pictures and stealing cigarettes warms the cockles of my heart.

If you are looking for a slightly different read, I would recommend this book. From his hilarious well documented battles with co-star Maureen O’Sullivan, who played Jane, and his insights on all the stars of the day, especially at MGM, you don’t have to be a particular fan of “Tarzan” movies to enjoy Me Cheeta. Definitely one of the year’s best books for me, but a warning for the faint-hearted, there is some animal cruelty described and some explicit sexual conduct. show less

Once upon a time I thought dirrrttty words were best spoken in a plummy poshey-oshey voice but since discovering Me Cheeta, “the greatest celebrity autobiography of our time” I now know that filth comes best from an ape. Scurrilous, defamatory, racy and rude Cheeta’s tale spans a life lived in the fast lane during the golden age of Hollywood. From the barbarous jungle of Liberia to the barbarous jungle of Hollywood, Cheeta went on to scale the heady heights of fame as Tarzan’s trusty show more sidekick.

Cheeta dishes the dirt on all the famous names of the era, Rex Harrison is described as “an absolutely irredeemable [rude word!] ”, Maureen O’Sullivan (Tarzan’s Jane) is an “old trout” and Lupe Velez is an “adulterous canicidal bitch”. Chapter 8 has been completely excised “on legal advice’ what salacious and unfounded gossip have we missed?!

So apart from being a hilarious spoof what is the point of it all? It is beautifully written; the early chapters describing Cheeta’s life in the jungle and his separation from his family are positively eye-moistening. But most poignant of all is Cheeta’s love for the ultimate alpha male Johnny Weissmuller, Tarzan, a big-hearted, misguided but beautiful human-being. The real author behind Me Cheeta is editor James Lever who was commissioned to ghost-write the story by his publisher Nick Pearson at Fourth Estate who’d read a news report about Cheeta’s 75th birthday celebrations. In preparation Lever read a multitude of memoirs from the 1930’s and 1940’s the most affecting being Weissmuller Jnr’s memoir of his father who died in poverty and obscurity after six disastrous marriages. So this spoof autobiography is also about the dangers of fame and the futility of celebrity, I hope you are listening Paris Hilton. Read, guffaw and enjoy. show less

This year’s oddball choice on the Booker longlist is a satire on Hollywood as seen through the eyes of Tarzan’s long-lived chimp companion. When it was published last autumn as an autobiography, the book had Cheeta listed as its writer, but it didn’t take long for the real author to be uncovered; James Lever, a book editor, has his name on the paperback.

Cheeta, now aged 76, looks back on his life. In the first section, he tells us how he and many other animals were ‘rescued’ from show more the jungle and ‘rehabilitated’ by humans, how he was selected to go to Hollywood where he became ‘part of the family’ belonging to L.B.Mayer. There, Cheeta met the love of his life, Tarzan in the sublime form of Johnny Weissmuller, and Johnny too got a pal who would always be there for him. Cheeta didn’t get always get on with Jane however – Maureen O’Sullivan found ‘the ape-talk a trifle wearying’. Johnny’s reply, ‘Jane angry. Jane need smack on rear end.'

Ere long Cheeta is mixing with all the stars and indulging in all the vices - smoking, drinking, sniffing cocaine from starlets’ cleavages and indulging in high jinks with Douglas Fairbanks and David ‘Niv’ Niven. There were those he didn’t get on with too, particularly Charlie Chaplin who had to upstage everyone, (he got his own back in spectacular fashion with members of Charlie’s garden menagerie). Johnny always stuck up for Cheeta though. Esther Williams was another, but we don’t know the details as that chapter was ‘removed on legal advice’! Eventually the films got worse, Cheeta’s role was diminished and the Tarzan brand faded. In the last section of the book, Cheeta has retired to a sanctuary where he paints and dreams.

Very clever and often scabrously funny, this spoof plays long and hard with the facts of Hollywood’s golden age – after all, its targets are dead. Young Cheeta’s innocent belief that the human’s had his best interests at heart was neatly handled, as was the older Cheeta’s world-weary cynicism about the system that had made him, but spat him back out when he was no longer useful, his comeback having flopped.

Luckily, I grew up watching all the black and white movies on Saturday afternoons when my Dad and brother went off to the footie, so I was familiar with all Cheeta’s co-stars. Reading it without this grounding may prove tedious though, for at 320 pages, it is too long by about a quarter. It shouldn’t make it onto the Booker shortlist, but it has been a great choice to stimulate discussion and successfully raise the media profile of the prize. I found it to be in parts, hilarious and truly fascinating, also a little repetitive, but above all it was a really interesting exercise in satire and good fun. show less

This is a brilliantly funny and moving expose of Hollywood penned by the star of several Tarzan movies, Cheeta. OK, the original Cheeta, Jinks, died in the 1930s but that doesn't prevent James Lever from producing a fantastic pastiche of all those Hollywood memoirs telling the truth about the sex, booze and drug fuelled exploits of Mid-Twentieth Century Hollywood. There are some hilarious anecdotes - the one with the Rolls Royce, David Niven and Johnny Weissmuller will stay with me for a show more while. I also particularly loved Chapter 8. This is also a book with a strong emotional heart, the love Cheeta feels for his Tarzan, Johnny Weissmuller, is as innocent and pure as Hollywood isn't and Cheeta's innocent and often misguided observations on human/animal relations are insightful and moving. show less