Transcript: Flash Gordon

Bif Bam Pow Wow
Episode “Flash Gordon, Queen, and classic superheroes”

Tom: Before there was a Howard Stern and yes even before there was an Oprah. There was someone else who could rightfully claim the throne as kind of all media. Yes I am talking about Flash Gordon.
Welcome mere mortals, welcome to another exciting installment of Bif Bam Pow wow. Flash Gordon, he made his debut way back in 1934 in the classic Alex Raymond comic strip. Since then Flash has stared in a radio show, live action serials. A TV series, movies, and even has his own postage stamp. Go figure.
He is truly one of the all time classic superheroes if you don’t know much about Flash well then shame on you. If you don’t now abut Flash well then shame on you. I don’t know what they are teaching kids in school these days man I cant do everything for you people can I?
But I am going to recommend an excellent website. This should bring you up to speed. Check out sflare.com. click on Flash Gordon a history, there you go. There will be a quiz later so take some notes. Now, I have a lot to talk about here, 70 plus years of Flash. So I want to get right to toms pick and pans.
If you are looking for a great primer on the origins of Flash Gordon, well checkers publishing has been putting out a great volume by volume set of Alex Raymond’s original Sunday comic strips. Now the reproductions are a little muddy. And they could have printed the illustrations a little larger. But this is still an indispensable collection for hardcore fans.
Also for fanatic of the original 1930’s Flash Gordon stuff, Buster Crab serials, good stuff, they can all be found on DVD, but watch out though, this stuff is in the public domain. So everyone and there uncle can kind of throw it together and the quality is sort of all over the board.
Look for the box set released by Image entertainment ok? That is the one you want. It came out just a few years ago. It reportedly has the best transfers and contains all the episodes from all three serials.
Alright now, here is the real treat, for fans the have long awaited the DVD release of the 1980’s Flash Gordon movie. This is so awesome, it came out in 2007, the savior of the universe addition. Oh this is so near and dear to my heart people. I saw this when I was a kid and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. It is just cheesy awesome. I mean Flash Gordon plays the football game against all of like Ming guards and stuff. It’s really good. go Flash go. She does that, it’s so hot. I love it, alright, alright, alright.
Also the soundtrack, it is so good. it is the album by queen. Oh sure you could go to iTunes and download it, clicky, clicky, but if you are lucky enough to find this on Vinyl and know some old geezer who knows how to operate a turntable. Then plug in your headphones and get ready to blast off space.
Alright my favorite part of the show, if you have the original, we are going to talk about Flash Gordon, strange adventures magazine, volume 1, number 1, from December of 1936. Now this is a pulp, it is not a comic. It is important to keep that in mind. Pulps came before comics. I would say in sort of low grade it could be about $300-350 bucks. But in good condition this baby could go up towards $700. So keep that in mind if you happen to have one of these kicking around in the garage.
Coming up we have got a very special treat. We talk to our favorite Flash Gordon expert in a Bif Bam Pow exclusive.
70 years ago Flash Gordon conquered the universe. And now he is here to save the Des Plains theater. Hi, I am Douglas Bean and I am the president of the Des Plains theater preservation society. And we are collecting money to help save the old Des Plains theater In downtown Des Plaines which was built in 1925.
And we are showing the entire 1940 season of Flash Gordon conquers the universe. Back when these serials first started it was a time when the movies were taking over from vaudeville. There were all kinds of things going on. But the serials were what really brought people back.
No matter what was showing, people wanted to know what the next installment was. What would happen to Flash Gordon? How would he conquer Ming? How would Baron help him out?
Queen Fria, would she help him? Would she go against him and align herself with Ming? How would the space ship get out of on disaster or another?
And all of the cheesy effects that we think of now were so stunning back then, and fed children’s imaginations. Every episode ended with a cliffhanger, they were the sequels of their day. In fact George Lucas credits his early fascination with shows like Flash Gordon with giving him the inspiration to create Star Wars. There were enemies towards Ming.
It was a social thing. And it was very American. A lot of these serials dealt in terms the adults and children cold relate too. The fascist of Germany and Italy and Japan are easily recognizable in their architecture and their dress in these movies.
The real fascination with these shows, people of my age grew up watching them on Sunday mornings by the sides of their parents. Who have told them how important it was to them as children and how they looked forward to these movies. And how the did anything. How they worked extra hours. They snuck into the theater. They did anything to get to see Flash Gordon again.
Alright I got to get back to work, you know how it goes. But before I do some ominous parting words that I believe came from a Whitehouse spokesman. Pathetic earthlings who can save you now?