Holland meets ERB : Bezoek aan ERB Inc.

In March/April 2008 we decided to go to California, to visit Disneyland, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Universal Studios and .... one of the days would be reserved to visit ERB Inc.

I contacted Bill Hillman to check if it would be a good idea or if it would be convenient. Bill replied that Danton would be happy to meet us. After a week preparing the trip I wanted to be sure that the meeting was a fact and I called ERB Inc. It was Danton Burroughs who picked up the phone and asked and he was certainly pleased that we would meet. The next day (April 17th) I received an email from Bill that Danton called him and told him that he was very pleased to meet me.

I sent Cathy an email and received a reply with the date and time that we would meet each other : may 7th 2008 at 15:00 hours.
Now it was time to make plan for the days we were spending in California. It would be a vacation of eight days (from which are 2 days for travelling).
Some weeks before I contacted Tracy Griffin about parking, driving, visiting Hollywood, etc. Tracy sent lots of tips about parking and an overview of all the stars on Hollywood´s Walk of Fame concerning Tarzan movies.

On may 1st during Maud´s birthday I checked my email to make sure nothing happened. Then I read the news on ERBList about Danton. I couldn't believe that this happened. I was totally shocked. Because everything was planned and we had so much to do we moved on and Monday was the day of departure. After travelling 11 and a half hours we arrived on LA Airport (LAX).The first day we needed to have a car (with navigation as ours didn't work anymore) and after practicing the car (I was not used to drive in a car with automatic transmission) we drove to Disneyland and had a wonderful day. For me the highlight was Tarzan's Treehouse.

We stayed at the Comfort Inn at 7th street and started the next day to move to Hollywood. Parked the car and had the list of Tracy to make pictures of all the stars. It was a beautiful day and after having lunch we moved on to Tarzana.
It was May 7th and I was getting a bit nervous. Moving to Tarzan was a hard practice for me. I forgot to take the address as I thought it would be easy to find but when we got there we missed it 5 or 6 times. We finally asked at a gas station but they never heard of Edgar Rice Burroughs (can you imagine) and after asking a few times we were advised to go to the post office. They would certainly know where ERB Inc. is. When arriving at the post office it was already much too late, and there was a very long line of waiting people meaning that we would be at ERB Inc. door when it is closed. I walked outside the office with Maud when a nice man asked me what I was looking for and after explaining our visit he pointed me which way we have to take. And finally after several minutes we were near ERB Inc. but missed it again. Maria stepped out of the car to search the head office.
After several minutes Maria found it and waved at us. We were there ! We stepped out of the car and entered the path to the front door. Because we were too late nobody answered our knocking on the door (more than three times). The man who guides us found us and told his nice experience with the Burroughs family. He told me to come with him to go to a store a few doors further where we could call to ERB Inc.
Our own phones didn´t work here and we used the phone of the store. Jim Sullos picked up and after explaining who we were he asked if we could come back the next day.

This next morning came and first we went to find a descent breakfast.
Around 10 a.m. we arrived at ERB Inc. and knocked at the door. The door was opened and a bit shy I introduced my self, my wife Maria and our daughter Maud.
Immediatelly a silent moment occurred and Danton was in our memory. Cathy expressed this with a tear of honour. After a warm welcome by both lovely assistants we were guided through the office which ended in a meeting with Jim Sullos. He excused us while he had an important breakfast meeting at the Universal Studios. Mr Sullos was a very good host and we had a long chat about everything what came up about Edgar Rice Burroughs' creations, like Disney's creation, the old silence movies and the merchandise which was created in the past decades. I explained what I wanted to achieve with my investigations and how diificult it is to find all information.

Around noon we had to go as we had plans to go to Beverly Hills. This visit will remain in my memory with a good feeling.

		Title :	Visit to Tarzana
		Date :	07/08 May 2008
		Location :	Tarzana, CA, USA
In front of ERB Inc. may 7 2008
Entrance to ERB Inc.
		May 8th 2008
		Unfinished painting by
		Desk of Edgar Rice Burroughs
		Paintings Frank Frazetta
		Everywhere treasures of ERB.
		Cathy Wilbanks with drawings of Burian Zdenek on the wall.
		Janet Mann Finally replaced her monitor (left) with a new one so that Erbzine can be explored in the most convenient way.
		Jim Sullos (left)
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