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18 unusual facts about Flash Gordon


Andy Hope 1930

Hope's oeuvre is populated by superheroes from the Golden and Silver Age of Comics — Flash Gordon, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman — and such futuristic objects as spaceships, laser beams and fantastic uniforms.

Captain Valedor

Taking place in the 1950s, it draws elements from both Douglas Sirk-era melodrama as well as Flash Gordon-like action serials.

Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars

As an exploitation film tie in, Universal had the feature's title changed to Mars Attacks the World, and a week after the Welles broadcast, opened it at a Broadway theater as a major premiere event.

Gordon Watson

Throughout his career he was known as "Flash", a nickname he first acquired at 4 years old, after the comic book hero, Flash Gordon.

Jean Rogers

Buster Crabbe and Rogers were perfectly cast as the hero and heroine in the first serial Flash Gordon, and Rogers' beauty, long blonde hair, and revealing costumes endeared her to moviegoers.

Joe Gordon

Joseph Lowell Gordon (February 18, 1915 – April 14, 1978), nicknamed "Flash" in reference to the comic-book character Flash Gordon, was an American second baseman and manager in Major League Baseball who played for the New York Yankees and Cleveland Indians from 1938 to 1950.

Luke 'Ming' Flanagan

He was not portrayed by the media as a serious candidate, shaving his hair and styling his beard in the way of Ming the Merciless from the comic strip Flash Gordon.

Martin Duffy

He left Irish national television in 1989 to become a freelance editor and in 1995 found funding for his first feature film, The Boy from Mercury, a film set in 1950s Dublin about a young boy whose life revolves around the escapism of Saturday afternoon Flash Gordon serials at his local cinema.

Orgasmatron

In the 1974 film Flesh Gordon, a ribald parody of the science fiction adventures of Flash Gordon, the villain "Emperor Wang" directs a "sex ray" at Earth which causes the planet's inhabitants to become uncontrollably sexually aroused.

Priscilla Lawson

Priscilla Lawson (March 8, 1914 – August 27, 1958), born Priscilla Shortridge, was an American actress known for her role as Princess Aura in the original Flash Gordon serial (1936).

Roberto Raviola

Milady, translated also in France on Metal Hurlant magazine, is a science fiction series where Chinese culture, Flash Gordon and Star Wars' influences, erotism and technology are well mixed.

Sam J. Jones

He is best known for playing the title character in the 1980 film Flash Gordon.

His appearance in 10 allowed Jones to beat out actors such as Kurt Russell and Arnold Schwarzenegger to his most famous role to date, that of Flash Gordon in the 1980 film of the same name.

In 2007, he had a special guest role as the prisoner Krebb in the Sci Fi Channel original television series Flash Gordon.

Star Wars opening crawl

Lucas has stated that the opening crawl was inspired by the opening crawls used at the beginning of each episode of the original Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers film serials, which were the inspiration for Lucas to write much of the Star Wars saga.

Straight-Jacket

Things turn sour for the film idol when a fellow actor, Freddie Stevens (Jack Plotnick) (famous in the film for portraying "Captain Astro" in a succession of Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon-type serial films), decides to steal the lead in Ben-Hur from Guy by taking a picture of Guy exiting a gay bar.

The Bilingual Lover

Ornella Muti first gained attention in the English speaking world as the princess in Flash Gordon (1980).

Trash Gordon

Played by Roscoe Orman, who also plays the character of Gordon on the show, Trash Gordon is a parody version of the science fiction hero Flash Gordon.


Al Madril

He held the Vancouver version of the NWA Canadian Tag Team Championship twice, teaming with Flash Gordon for the first win and Dan Kroffat for the second.

Anna Van Hooft

She is best known for her role in the main cast of the 2007 live-action television series adaptation of the Flash Gordon franchise as Princess Aura.

Captain Action

Captain Action was an action figure created in 1966, equipped with a wardrobe of costumes allowing him to become Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Aquaman, the Phantom, The Lone Ranger (and Tonto), Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Sgt. Fury, Steve Canyon, and the Green Hornet.

Separate Superman, Batman, Lone Ranger, The Phantom, Flash Gordon, Captain America, Sgt Fury, Steve Canyon and Aquaman costumes (with accessories) were available; the next wave (1967) added Spider-Man, Buck Rogers, the Green Hornet, and Tonto, with a Blue Lone Ranger variation (matching the still popular Clayton Moore series) and collectible flicker rings in each box.

Captain Z-Ro

Modeled on the science fiction space operas popular at the time (cf. Captain Video and Space Patrol), it featured sets and costumes emulating the futuristic designs of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon.

Decalcomania

In the 1950s and early 1960s, King Features Syndicate marketed a set of decalcomanias bearing full-color pictures of characters from King Features comic strips, including Flash Gordon, the Katzenjammer Kids, and Dagwood Bumstead.

Frank Giacoia

Giacoia also worked on the newspaper comic strip The Amazing Spider-Man (based on the same-name Marvel comic-book series) from 1978–1981, as well as on the strips Flash Gordon, The Incredible Hulk, Johnny Reb and Billy Yank, Sherlock Holmes and Thorne McBride.

Golden Zephyr

Themed to the Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon style rocket ships, it takes park guests on a relaxing trip.

Hans Zarkov

In 1980, Chaim Topol (billed only as "Topol") portrayed the character in the film Flash Gordon produced by Dino De Laurentiis.

Ignition City

Based on the real life Navy officer thought captured and brainwashed by the Russians, although his nickname appears to be an allusion to the American actor, Buster Crabbe, who played Flash Gordon early in his career.

Indrajal Comics

The first 32 issues contained Lee Falk's The Phantom stories, but thereafter, the title alternated between various King Features characters, including Lee Falk's Mandrake, Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon, Rip Kirby and Phil Corrigan, Roy Crane's Buz Sawyer, Allen Saunders' Mike Nomad, Kerry Drake, and Steve Dowling's Garth.

Le Club des bandes dessinées

In addition, the Club organized meetings and republished new editions of older comics such as Flash Gordon, Popeye, and Mandrake the Magician.

Leon Greene

His films include A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), A Challenge for Robin Hood (1967), The Devil Rides Out (1968, in which he was dubbed by Patrick Allen), The Squeeze (1977), Flash Gordon (1980) and several Carry On comedies.

Phil Tonken

Besides his long association with WOR, Tonken was a narrator for Fox Movietone News in the 1950s and 1960s, and also was announcer for a 15-minute syndicated afternoon radio science fiction program, The Planet Man, which was in the tradition of older sci-fi radio shows such as Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and Tom Corbett, Space Cadet.

Sarjakuvalehti

Recurring series in the 1950s included Superman, Brick Bradford, Toot and Casper, Little Annie Rooney, Smokey Stover, Texas Slim and Dirty Dalton, Tim Tyler's Luck, Johnny Hazard, Terry and the Pirates, Lone Ranger, Flash Gordon, Mandrake, The Phantom and King of the Royal Mounted.

When Worlds Collide

The themes of an approaching planet threatening the Earth, and an athletic hero and his girlfriend traveling to the new planet by rocket, were used by writer Alex Raymond in his 1934 comic strip Flash Gordon.