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In Reply to: Wonder if someone could help identify these serials... posted by M. Vidal on November 9, 2005 at 12:52:30:
As a fairly knowledgeable serial collector/fan/aficionado I may be able to help with one if not both titles.The masked hero (not a superhero, but a cool character nonetheless) may have been The Black Commando from the serial The Secret Code released by Columbia circa 1942 (see image above). I'm deducing this by your description of 1) the hero hanging by a flagpole which indicates that he probably has no super powers, and 2) the New York or metropolitan setting, 3) the indication of a mask and costume as opposed to street clothes and 4) no apparent cape, which was more common with costumed heroes.
The only costumed, masked, capeless hero characters other than the Black Commando that stand out in my mind are 1) Captain America, from Republic, which should be fairly memorable because of the star & striped costume and 2) the Phantom, which was set in Africa.
There were other costumed heroes such as the superpowered Captain Marvel, who wore no mask, and the non-super Spy Smasher, but both wore capes and then there's the Masked Marvel who wore a mask but no cape and fought his battles in street clothes and a Fedora. All of those, BTW, were from Republic.
There are also some great pulp heroes from Columbia (The Spider & The Shadow); neither wore costumes per se, although The Spider wore a very distinct cape and slouch hat among his many disguises and the first of two Spider serials, The Spider's Web, from 1938 is superb and great fun.
Hepcat mentioned Republic's King of the Rocketmen, which is a great serial that spawned several less inventive sequels, but whichever actor was cast as the hero in the Rocketman serials always wore a metalic helmet and leather flight jacket (consistency aided in use of stock footage).
The only other costumed characters which come to mind are Columbia's Batman ('43; '49) and Superman ('48; '50) serials and Blackhawk ('52); I'll assume that there would be no confusion with the former two, Superman who wears no mask & Batman both being instantly recognizable, and Blackhawk & team wearing a stylized military uniforms without masks.
So, to make what should've been a short story longer, by process of elimination I'm guessing that The Secret Code is the serial you vividly remember. If that is the case, public domain copies of The Secret Code, complete with their code segments which ended each episode, are available on DVD-R from Western Trails (linked below). I can vouch for the quality as I purchased one.
Alas, I don't think I can provide as much help with the gorilla your dreams (sorry, couldn't resist! ;^D) because there are quite a few pictures that set in Africa with ape costumes and without more details I'm at a loss. My first guess would be along the lines of Jungle Girl or Nyoka and the Tigermen, but there are quite a few and jungle themes were hot topics for serial fare in the late 1930's & early 40's. Here's a partial list of additional jungle titles:
Darkest Africa ('36)
Jungle Queen ('45)
Jungle Raiders ('45)
The Lost Jungle ('34)
The Lost City of the Jungle ('46)
Queen of the Jungle ('35)
...etc.Note: Having only seen a chapter or two of a couple of these I can't even start to provide an educated guess about which serial has a prominently featured gorilla, but if you have the time and a little patience you might be able to locate information about the serial you're curious about from serial collectors here:
http://www.serialsquadron.com/
Anyway, I hope this info helps your quest! :o)
Cheers,
AuPh
Follow Ups:
Hey, thanks. That's him the black commando. Now I will have to get the videos to see what happened to the black commando in that flagpole sequence.
Hi,
I loved the guy with the rocket backpack when I was a kid.
You must have liked the 'Arachnia' episodes in Voyager.
I did, anyway. That series did have it's moments.
This serial was featured at Houstoncon, a function put on by fans who alternated the annual events between Dallas, Houston and Oklahoma City during the late 60's and early 70's. Houstoncon was the first convention I attended, waaaay back in the summer of 1969! Not only did I become a rabid fan of chapterplays following this encounter, but nostalgia conventions as well for a number of years!Back then regional conventions were relatively small, with several hundred people attending from around the country. Functions were centered around a dealers room where collectors could visit and barter comics and pulps. The dealers room would be shut down at night, the tables covered and a projector brought out to screen films.
But within a couple of years they'd grown in popularity to the point where several thousand fans would attend Houstoncon and other conventions nationwide every summer. By 1972 Houstoncon had increased in length from 3 days to 5 days, and multitrack programming (5 film rooms in addition to a massive dealers room and speakers forums) was provided 24/7 featuring rare films and guests (stars of classic film, television and radio, and highly regarded comic artists of the golden age).
BTW, this was before the advent of home video and popularity of cable and satellite television. Large function space was set aside for film showings. Screenings were usually packed, the rooms set-up with 16mm and occasionally 35mm projectors for projecting movies and serials folks could not see anywhere else. These were MAJOR fan events that continued to grow in popularity, expanding to other cities until the home entertainment revolution took hold and priorities changed.
One year I remember the convention committee had managed to negotiate with 20th Century Fox to obtain among other rare films a print of the SF classic "Just Imagine" freshly struck from the original 35mm negative, which was awesome, ...and kinky, in a manner of speaking, as Just Imagine is an SF musical comedy with pre-Code sexual overtones. Originally released in 1930, prior to Fox becoming 20th Century Fox, Just Imagine hadn't been shown publicly in 40 years. Naturally, I had to catch that!
These early conventions also introduced me to silent films, long lost "B" films if the 40's & 50's, film noir, the classic Paramount Marx Brothers features and of course, serials. Great memories, all! If reminiscing about old serials and conventions is "kinky" ...well then, I guess I'm Ray Davies. ;^)
AuPh
Used to watch those Rocketman serials, along with The Phantom and Flash Gordon serials back in mid-late 1950s as a kid before Saturday Double
Matinees.They are vague in memory, but still there. Don't know if I
told you previously,but "War Of The Worlds" was my first bigscreen viewing (n 1953).Dad took me, admittedly I spent much time hiding under seat during the death ray scenes!Am about to purchase the Special Edition DVD at amazon.com, extra features, among others, includes the Welles Radio Broadcast.~AH
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