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Flash Gordon |
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The
Amazing Interplanetary Adventures of Flash Gordon had an equally amazing time on radio in the mid
1930s! It premiered on 27th April 1935 and ran for 26 weekly episodes in a
continuing 15 minute serial format until 26th October 1935. But on 12th
October 1935 (Episode No. 24) it became (mysteriously?) The Adventures of
Flash Gordon & Jungle Jim. We
briefly meet Jim and his friend and associate, Kolu during this episode whilst Flash, Dale and Zarkov
are escaping back to Earth. The trio crash-land in the jungle and meet up
with Jim, Kolu and the Rev. Chalmers. By the 26th October 1935 (Episode No.
26) Flash & Dale are married by Chalmers and the Flash Gordon radio show
concludes with Flash, Dale & Zarkov returning to the US by sea! The following
week's timeslot is then taken up with The Adventures of Jungle Jim - a neat though strange segue. Interestingly,
The Amazing Interplanetary Adventures of Flash Gordon radio show not only promoted the Flash Gordon comic
strip, it actually "portrayed" it - in other words one could listen
to Flash Gordon on Saturday nite and then read and look at the pictures of
that which had transpired in the Comic Weekly as part of the Hearst Sunday Newspaper. This created an initial problem in that the comic
strip had run for more than a year before the commencement of the radio
program - as such, the first four episodes of the radio series run through the first year of the comic strip
story very quickly, in order to catch up to the current story. The first
episode breezes through the first ten weeks of the strip, and a long
narration at the beginning of episode 2 covers the next five weeks
"off-screen", finishing the first storyline: "On the Planet
Mongo". The rest of episode 2
covers the first eight weeks of the next storyline: "The Monsters of
Mongo". By Episode 5, the
radio series has caught up with the current storyline: "The Witch
Queen of Mongo", and begins to
follow the comic week-by-week. Want
to check out some episodes of this radio serial? - why not "taste &
try"? Below
are the first four episodes of The Amazing Interplanetary Adventures of
Flash Gordon serial covering the
comic strip story line up until the beginning of The Witch Queen of Mongo adventure - fabulous! These
episodes can be freely downloaded to your computer - just right button click
on any link below and chose "Download Linked File" (or words to
that effect). The file is on an average about 10Mb - download time will
depend on your (broadband) speed In
1966, Buster Crabbe, the renown star of the Flash Gordon movie serials,
was to feature as Flash Gordon in The Official Adventures of Flash Gordon,
a LP Record. With
Jackson Beck as the narrator, Buster
Crabbe was back playing Flash
Gordon, but this time in two audio
adventures that were both exciting and tremendously nostalgic. Each was of
about 20 minutes duration. In
1979, tapping into the sci-fi
movie hype created by Star Wars and the impending release of the big budget 1980
Flash Gordon film, Wonderland
Records released two newly-recorded
albums of Flash Gordon adventures. Like the 1966 LP Record (above) the
recordings were in stereo, with extensive music and sound effects, and the
production quality was comparable to the classic radio serials. Each record
produced 3 cliffhanging episodes each of about 13 minutes in length. More
recently (and perhaps in a definitive treatment), Glasgow's Radio Theatre
Group performed Flash Gordon in front of a live audience in 2007.
This was a very polished production being staged in two 60 minute parts (with
a brief respite between parts) - an excellent treatment! Flash
Gordon was also adapted for radio
in Australia in the 1940's as a
15 minute continuing (cliffhanger) serial. However, possibly due to copyright
restrictions there were two important changes: Flash Gordon was called Speed Gordon and Ming the Merciless became Kang the Cruel! - at least had Dale Arden's name remained unchanged The
opening episode was titled: "The Emperor and the Storm Queen: An
Interplanetary Adventure of the 26th Century featuring Speed
Gordon" and it commenced a
long running, well made and very exciting serial. In
1999 noted Australian radio historian Bruce Leonard as part of his Theatre of the Mind radio series broadcast a documentary about Speed
Gordon - itŐs a very informative 30
minute listen which includes the first two episodes from that radio show. This
MP3 Discs contains the entire run of The Amazing Interplanetary Adventures of
Flash Gordon (26 episodes of 15 minutes each), the Official Adventures of
Flash Gordon LP (2 episodes of about 20 minutes each), the two 1979 Flash
Gordon LP Records (6 episodes of about 13 minutes each) as well as the 2007
Radio Theatre Group production of Flash Gordon (2 episodes of 60 minutes
each). A further inclusion is Bruce Leonard's 30 minute Theatre of the Mind
documentary about Speed Gordon which includes the first two episodes of this
Australian version of Flash Gordon. A. The
Amazing Interplanetary Adventures of Flash Gordon (26 x 15 minute episodes) B. The
Official Adventures of Flash Gordon LP Record (2 x 20 minute episodes) C. Flash
Gordon: Wonderland Records (6 x 13 minute episodes) D. Flash
Gordon: Glasgow's Radio Theatre Group (2 x 60 minute episodes) E. Speed
Gordon Documentary (30 minutes) |