Me Cheeta: My Life in Hollywood

By: James Lever

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Synopsis: A Man Booker Prize-nominated “Swiftian satire” in the form of a celebrity chimp’s tell-all memoir: “the prose is impeccable . . . intelligent, penetrating” (The Guardian, UK).Cheeta the Chimp was just a baby in 1932 when he was snatched from the jungle of Liberia by the great animal importer Henry Trefflich. That same year, Cheeta appeared in Tarzan the Ape Man, and in 1934 in Tarzan and His Mate, in which he famously stole clothes from a naked Maureen O’Sullivan. Other Tarzan films followed, and later roles with Bela Lugosi in the 1950s. Cheeta finally retired after the 1967 film Doctor Dolittle with Rex Harrison, whose finger he accidentally bit backstage while being offered a placatory banana. In this acclaimed debut novel, author James Lever goes far beyond his cheeky premise to deliver “a dazzling performance . . . an incisive, hilarious study of Hollywood folkways.” Cheeta’s astute narration offers a panoramic view of the studio system’s Golden Era and the mad dreamers behind it, from Douglas Fairbanks and Marlene Dietrich to the original Tarzan, Johnny Weismuller (Wall Street Journal).