We super hero junkies have been truly lucky the past decade or so, they have been pumping out the Marvel adaptations hand over fist and most of 'em have been pretty damn good...
This Blogaroo however is about the men in masks who came before ..WAYYYYY before
Back when I was a kid, I watched with monotonous regularity George Reeves and Adam West on Ch 7 in Sydney ...BUT...on Sunday avo's in the late 60's on Channel 10 in Sydney, I got a great big heaping helping of Super Hero Serials...Tarzan, Phantom, SpySmasher Batman, Captains Marvel and America, Rocketman etc etc.....
So this is my homage to those men that kept me on the edge of my seat back when I was a youngun......UP, UP & AWAY !
KIRK ALYN
The first actor to play the role of Superman on film,
Alyn portrayed the Man of Steel in two 15-part movie serials in 1948 and 1950. Columbia Pictures hired him because he looked like Superman's mild-mannered, comic book alter ego, Clark Kent, and had dance training that helped him to dive out of windows and leap over cameras.....
Although he always blamed his success as Superman for stifling his acting career, Alyn benefited from a wave of nostalgia for the Superhero in the '70s, when he found himself in demand on the college circuit and at comic book
"Playing Superman ruined my acting career and I've been bitter for many years about the whole thing. But now," he said in 1972, "it's finally starting to pay off."
Alyn was born John Feggo jnr in Oxford, New Jersey. As a young man he performed in vaudeville acts and chorus lines in New York. He followed his friend Red Skelton to Hollywood, where he met and married the dancer and actress Virginia O'Brien in 1942. They were married for 12 years and had three children.
When he was approached to play Superman, Alyn said, Columbia had already interviewed 100 actors, but "had trouble getting someone with a good build who could read lines."
The producer and casting director invited the 188cm, 88.4kg Alyn to its office and asked him to remove his shirt and then his pants. Alyn was alarmed ("I thought this only happened to actresses," he recalled) until they told him that they had to be sure he would look good in Superman's form-fitting suit and tights.
In the '70s, as nostalgia for the Superman character swelled, Alyn agreed to play Lois Lane's father in the 1978 Superman movie starring Christopher Reeve
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Kirk Alyn passed away on Sunday, March 14, 1999 in a hospital in suburban Houston, Texas at the age of 88.
It stars Kirk Alyn as Blackhawk and Carol Forman as the foreign spy that must be stopped from stealing the experimental super-fuel "Element-X"; Alyn and Forman were also the hero and villain of Columbia's earlier Superman. Blackhawk was produced by the famously cheap Sam Katzman and directed by the team of Spencer Gordon Bennet and Fred F. Sears. It is considered relatively cheap and lackluster, made in the waning years of movie serial production.
In chapter 3 Kirk Alyn performs a potentially dangerous stunt without the use of a stunt double. In order to save the life of squadron member Stan, who's tied to a stake in the path of a taxiing plane, Blackhawk (Alyn) runs up to the vehicle and turns it aside by grabbing the wing. A hidden pilot inside the plane steered it to simulate the movement. When writing this scene, the screenwriters were thinking of a small lighter wood-and-canvas plane, not the heavy metal aircraft used in the final scene; it could have easily killed Alyn if the stunt's timing had gone wrong.
William C. Cline describes the serial as a "pretty good airplane adventure" in his book In the Nick of Time. Despite this, Blackhawk was the last aviation serial; fliers had rapidly become less impressive in American popular culture, and science fiction was taking its place
Made in the 1950s, Blackhawk was produced after the movie serial's heyday; many from this period were generally inferior to those made in the previous decade.
Lewis G. Wilson (January 28, 1920 - August 9, 2000) was an American actor from New York City who was most famous for being the first actor to play DC Comics character Batman on screen in the 1943 film serial Batman.....also played Craig Kennedy, Criminologist (1952) and Wild Women (1951). He was married to Dana Broccoli. He died on August 9, 2000 in San Francisco, California, USA.
He was he first actor to portray Batman when that character was only 4 years old. His role as ''Batman'' was his debut.....At 23 years old, he is the youngest actor to play the adult Bruce Wayne / Batman on screen, which he did in Batman (1943).
Father of Michael G. Wilson (Executive Producer of the James Bond series)
ROBERT LOWERY
During his career, Lowery was primarily known for roles in action movies such as The Mark of Zorro (1940), The Mummy's Ghost (1944), and Dangerous Passage (1944). He became the second actor to play DC Comics' Batman (succeeding Lewis Wilson), starring in a 1949's Batman and Robin serial. Lowery also had roles in a number of Western films including The Homesteaders (1953), The Parson and the Outlaw (1957), Young Guns of Texas (1962), and Johnny Reno (1966). He was also an accomplished stage actor and appeared in Born Yesterday, The Caine Mutiny, and in several other productions.
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TOM T TYLER
Tyler had a long career in film, stretching from the 1920s to the 1950s, and appeared in many films, most of them westerns such as John Ford's Stagecoach and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. He occasionally took "civilian" roles in feature films (he's the boxing referee in Abbott and Costello's Buck Privates), but the biggest part of Tyler's screen career was spent making low-budget B-movie westerns for modest salaries. Most of his budget westerns were made by Reliable Pictures for producers Bernard B. Ray and Harry S. Webb.
Larger studios cast the athletic Tyler in rugged roles. In 1940, he was the Mummy "Kharis" in The Mummy's Hand, cast in large part because the producers thought his sharp features and dark eyes matched those of Boris Karloff enough that new footage of Tyler could be intercut with old footage of Karloff....lets talk the super versions of Tyler.....
Captain Marvel
In the first film adaptation of a comic-strip superhero, Tyler had the title role in the 1941 film serial The Adventures of Captain Marvel, and starred as one of The Three Mesquiteers in Republic's series of western features......
The Phantom
In 1943, he starred in The Phantom, based on Lee Falk's famous comic strip. Tyler personified the role, looking especially striking in the character's familiar costume, and much of the serial's great success was due to Tyler himself. It was Tom Tyler's last major screen role. Columbia Pictures intended to make a sequel to The Phantom for years, but by 1955 Tyler had died and the studio's rights to the "Phantom" property had lapsed. The story was hastily rewritten as The Adventures of Captain Africa, starring John Hart, although footage of Tom Tyler's Phantom does appear in some of the long shots.
KANE RICHMOND
Kane Richmond (December 23, 1906 – March 22, 1973) was an American film actor of the 1930s and 1940s, mostly appearing in cliffhangers and serials. He is best known today for his portrayal of the character Lamont Cranston in The Shadow films in addition to his leading role in the successful serials Spy Smasher and Brick Bradford.
In the serial Spy Smasher for Republic Studios Richmond played not only the title character, but his twin brother (a character not present in the comic book).
Richmond appeared in several Charlie Chan films, and in 1940 landed a main supporting role in Knute Rockne All American, which starred Pat O'Brien, Gale Page, and Ronald Reagan. From 1940 through 1946 he appeared in thirty films, including his best known roles today, three films in The Shadow series, starring opposite Barbara Read. Following these films, his movie career declined considerably, with only three film roles in 1947 and 1948. During the 1950s and 1960s he appeared on several television series' up until 1966 when he retired. Richmond was residing in Corona Del Mar, California, at the time of his death at the age of 66.
Dick Purcell as Captain America. The character drastically differs from his comic book counterpart, who was a frail soldier named Steve Rogers who underwent a super-soldier experiment to enhance his physiology to the peak of human perfection. These elements are completely omitted and the character's identity is changed to a District Attorney named Grant Gardner. Purcell was cast as the hero despite, as described by Harmon and Glut, having an average and slightly overweight physique.[2] He died a few weeks after filming was completed; he collapsed in the locker room at a Los Angeles country club. In the opinion of film historian Raymond Stedman, the strain of filming Captain America had been too much for his
Dick Purcell won the role as District Attorney Grant Gardner and Captain America. Purcell was cast as the hero despite supposedly appearing a bit overweight and average.[2]
The role that made Dick Purcell famous turned out to be his last, and in fact he died before the film serial was released, to enormous success: Captain America. The strain of filming Captain America had been too much for his heart and he collapsed in the locker room at a Los Angeles country club on 10 April 1944, shortly after playing a round of golf. Purcell died a few weeks after filming was completed.
BUSTER CRABBE
Born Clarence Linden Crabbe in Oakland, California, on February 17, 1908, Buster Crabbe spent his formative years in Hawaii, where he learned to swim. Prior to winning a gold medal in 1932 for the 400-meter freestyle, Crabbe had graduated from college and attempted to break into films with a few bit parts while working as a stunt double. After his Olympic success, Crabbe landed a contract with Paramount Studios in 1933. Earlier, he had tested for the role of Tarzan at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer but lost out to Johnny Weissmuller. However, Paramount cast Crabbe in King of the Jungle, a thinly veiled Tarzan copycat film released in 1933.
Later that year, producer Sol Lesser cast Crabbe in the Principal Pictures release Tarzan the Fearless to encourage a competition between Weissmuller and Crabbe. However, Fearless was poorly received by fans and critics alike, mostly due to its low production values and the popularity of Weissmuller's Tarzan the Ape Man. Although the film was shot both as a serial and as a feature, the full-length version is the only one that exists today. At the time of the serial's release, many theaters showed only the first episode of the serial and abandoned it. No print of the serial currently exists and is considered lost....
Some of these serials have alternate titles, resulting from their release to television. While Crabbe was the first actor to portray Flash Gordon onscreen, actor Gale Gordon voiced the radio serial in 1935. The movie serials with Crabbe were sold into a TV syndication package in the early 1950s. When his contract with Paramount lapsed in 1940, Crabbe headed over to poverty row studio PRC, where he acted in the studio's popular Billy the Kid western series. In 1947, Crabbe signed with Columbia to star in a string of action
HERMAN BRIX
By 1934, Edgar Rice Burroughs had become dissatisfied with the portrayal of his Tarzan character in films; whereas Burroughs' Tarzan was erudite, thoughtful, and a well-spoken member of the landed gentry, film Tarzans up to that point spoke in monosyllabic utterances (if at all) and were basically human forms of the beasts that roamed the jungle. However, Burroughs had leased the rights to the character to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and had little control over the portrayal of the king of the jungle in MGM's wildly successful Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films. Burroughs decided to film his own Tarzan movie and selected Herman Brix for his 1935 feature The New Adventures of Tarzan, produced by Burroughs-Tarzan Enterprises, Inc. and released as both a 12-chapter serial (265 minutes total) and a full-length 75-minute feature. Burroughs shifted the action of the film from the African jungles to Guatemala, and it was filmed in extremely primitive conditions in Guatemala. Although Brix is good in the role, most American audiences didn't have a chance to see the film. At the time, MGM had stronghold on the American film industry and managed to block widespread distribution of the film. However, Burroughs had more success in Europe and Asia, where the film proved to be very popular.
In the late 1930s, Herman Brix decided to shed his identity as a former athlete and former Tarzan, changing his name to Bruce Bennett. He signed with Columbia Studios in the late 1930s, initially appearing in small roles and uncredited parts in comedy films like Blondie Brings Up Baby (1939), The Spook Speaks (1940), and the Three Stooges short No Census, No Feeling (1940). His career quickly gained momentum, and soon Bennett was starring in a variety of film genres, including westerns and war films. Of all Tarzan actors, Bennett had by far the longest and most versatile acting career.
So...there you go....I think I covered most of 'em...
I even went as far to hunt down dvd copies of some of them ......and YouTube has a stacks of episodes for perusal
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