Page "Johnny Weissmuller" Paragraph 6

At age nine, Weissmüller contracted polio.

At the suggestion of his doctor, he took up swimming to help battle the disease.

After the family moved from Western Pennsylvania to Chicago, Weissmüller continued swimming and eventually earned a spot on the YMCA swim team.

While living in Chicago, Weissmüller's father owned a bar for a time and his mother became head cook at a famed restaurant.

After Peter's business failed, he began drinking heavily and abusing both his wife and children.

Elizabeth Weissmüller eventually filed for, and was granted, a divorce ( various biographies erroneously state that Weissmüller's father died of tuberculosis leaving her a widow ).

According to draft registration records for World War I, Peter and Elizabeth were apparently still together as late as 1917.

On his paperwork, Peter was listed as a brewer, working for the Elston and Fullerton Brewery.

He and his family were living at 226 West North Avenue in Chicago.

In his book, Tarzan, My Father, Johnny Weissmuller Jr. stated that although rumors of Peter Weissmüller living to " a ripe old age, remarrying along the way and spawning a large brood of little Weissmüllers " were reported, no one in the family was aware of his ultimate fate.

Peter signed his consent for 19-year old John " Weissmuller "' s passport application in 1924, preceding Johnny's Olympic competition in France.

In the 1930 federal census, Elizabeth Weissmüller, age 49, has listed with her, her sons John P. and Peter J., and Peter's wife Dorothy.

Elizabeth is listed as a widow.