Six would-be Tarzans were trotted out to...

Six would-be Tarzans were trotted out to publicize a planned TV pilot based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ fictional Ape Man, but a chimpanzee named Max took over. Max, who will play Cheetah, took a look at the script and stuck out his tongue. Gently chastised by his trainer, he applauded.

Nobody has kept track of how many chimps have portrayed Cheetah over the years. It’s not even clear how many hunks have stood in for the swinging Lord Greystoke since stocky Elmo Lincoln did it in silent films. Johnny Weissmuller, Buster Crabbe, Lex Barker.

Among the aspirants being looked over by American First Run Studios are a German-born actor whose first name is Wolf and a law school graduate who has been acting in Europe. Yet another candidate plays guitar and drums.

The story line is not yet clear.

While half a dozen Tarzans were flexing their muscles for one film company in Sherman Oaks, seven sets of identical twins were busy looking like each other in Beverly Hills. They are candidates for the parts of the Wakefield Twins in a planned made-for-TV movie based on Francine Pascal’s “Sweet Valley High” novels.

It’s the largest-selling young people’s series in the world, according to a PR man for the film.

Heaven knows whatever happened to Nancy Drew. Or Tom Swift. Or Ted Scott. Or the Motor Boys.

Los Angeles water and power commissioners reluctantly voted to pay $142,734 to the only bidder to clean out the department’s moat-like reflecting pool. The last time bids were sought, no one even offered to do the job because it involves removing each stone from the bottom and cleaning it individually.

DWP used to simply flush the water into the storm drains, but environmental officials took a dim view of that. It has been four or five years since the pool was cleaned, and the water is highly polluted by the chemical used to keep algae in check.

“And that is the water that these guys take up to Mono Lake on their bikes?” asked an incredulous Commissioner Jack Leeney, referring to the annual cycling trek by Save Mono Lake members carrying test tubes filled with the stuff to protest DWP’s diversion of tributaries.

Commission President Rick

Caruso had a suggestion: “Let’s try to design it so we can get Joe’s Pool Service out there to clean it. . . . It’s crazy to spend 142 grand to clean that fountain.”

Historical Reference Room:

While being interviewed by Michael Jackson on KABC radio Thursday morning, George Bush Jr. suggested (as have others) that public perception of the presidential campaign is shaped to some degree by media coverage.

For example, he observed, coverage of his father on the national networks the night before zeroed in on “the fact that he slipped on whether Pearl Harbor was Dec. 9 or Sept. 9.”

At least the younger Bush was only two days off.

Which is probably unfair to report.

The California Department of Transportation, it must be noted, does not plan to donate airspace over the Hollywood Freeway for a monument that would serve as a symbol of Los Angeles.

That, it was pointed out by Dick Robison, Caltrans’s district airspace chief, would be giving away public property. Rather, the state agency has simply agreed to entertain a proposal by the West Coast Gateway Committee for lease of the airspace.

The committee, appointed by Mayor Tom Bradley, is on the verge of selecting a design from entries by five semifinalists. After that, Caltrans will decide whether the project would be feasible. “We have to convince ourselves,” Robison said, “that whatever it is will in no way damage or interfere with transportation. We have made it very clear from the beginning that it would be a lease based on a fair market rental.”

They are keeping a close eye on the ducks at Heartwell Park in Long Beach these days after complaints by duck lovers that the waterfowl have been snagged by hooks and otherwise abused by fishermen who flock to the little lake.

Having been directed by the Long Beach Parks and Recreation Commission to monitor the situation for six months, Parks Manager Paul Miranda is yet to document any such abuse.

“We hear all these horror stories about fishermen mangling the ducks and so forth,” Miranda says, “but we haven’t found anything so far.” Some of the problems for the ducks are not caused by anglers, Miranda adds, “but by children who run after them on bicycles or throw sticks at them.”