FOUR COLOR RADIO | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture

Feb28

FOUR COLOR RADIO: The 1930s’ FLASH GORDON and JUNGLE JIM

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Feb 28, 2026

FOUR COLOR RADIO: The 1930s’ FLASH GORDON and JUNGLE JIM

Old-time radio shows and their comics connections… By PETER BOSCH Here I am, back again. The Rajah of Radio. The Accumulator of the Airwaves. Step into my inner sanctum for another adventure in time travel, back to when radio was king in the home. What TV is today, radio was in the 1930s and ’40s. And — just like today — the airwaves were filled with programs with ties to comic-book, pulp, and science fiction heroes. This time around, we go to the planet Mongo for The Amazing Interplanetary Adventures of Flash Gordon and then we head back to Earth for the tales of Jungle Jim! You likely know they shared space on the Sunday page by Alex Raymond (which was sometimes written or co-written by Don Moore) in the Thirties and Forties… … but did you know they appeared together in a few episodes of the Flash Gordon radio program? Flash Gordon’s radio show debuted April 27, 1935, a year before the first Buster Crabbe movie serial. On radio, the heroic Gordon was played by another Gordon — Gale Gordon. Yes, Mr. Mooney on The Lucy Show and Principal Conklin on Our Miss Brooks! One and the same. The cast also included Maurice Franklin as Dr. Zarkov and Bruno Wick as Ming the Merciless. The actress who played Dale Arden is unconfirmed. (At least one historian has put forward Irene Champlin as Dale on the radio program but they are confusing when she played Dale on the 1950s TV series. In 1935, at the time of the Flash Gordon radio series, she was 4 years old!) The 26-episode program ran once a week and the stories were taken from the Sunday newspaper comic strip by Raymond. The radio series came to an end October 26, 1935, but the episode before that had Flash, Dale, and Zarkov returning to Earth — where they crashed in a jungle. They were rescued by Jim Bradley, aka “Jungle Jim.” On the last episode of the series, Flash and Dale were wed (something that never happened in the comic strip). Here is The Amazing Interplanetary Adventures of Flash Gordon complete radio series. (Please note: The last of the radio serial is listed at this link as “Good Bye Jungle Jim Hello USA.” The recordings following that are a mishmash of other FG stories,...

Feb01

FOUR COLOR RADIO Presents: ARCHIE ANDREWS and THE BLACK HOOD

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Feb 1, 2026

FOUR COLOR RADIO Presents: ARCHIE ANDREWS and THE BLACK HOOD

New looks at old-time radio shows — and their comics connections… By PETER BOSCH Hello, we’re back with another installment of FOUR COLOR RADIO. This time, we bring you two shows featuring two popular characters from the same publisher — MLJ Magazines (aka Archie Comics). However, “popular” on radio only applied to one, and not the other. First up (as well as first aired) was Archie Andrews, which was not only the name of the character but also the name of the program (though, the latter was also referred to as The Adventures of Archie Andrews). The series began May 31, 1943, on NBC as a five-times-a-week program, at 15 minutes each day. Check out this pair of promo covers for the new show, both drawn by Bob Montana — Pep Comics #42 (Sept. 1943) and #43 (Oct. 1943): The following ad in Pep #43 also plugged the show: A few months after its debut, the program’s format was changed to a once-a-week, 25-minute entry on Friday evenings. In 1944, an NBC competitor, the Mutual Broadcasting Network, acquired the program from January to June, and switched it back to a 15-minute daily format. However, Archie Andrews returned to NBC a year later, with the show also going back to its half-hour length. NBC remained its home from June 2, 1945, through the final episode eight years later, on September 5, 1953. During the series’ 10 years on the air, there were a total of four different Archies, played in turn by Charles Mullen, Jack Grimes, Burt Boyar, and Bob Hastings. Likewise, there were three Jugheads (Cameron Andrews, Hal Stone, and Arnold Stang) and two Veronicas (Gloria Mann and Vivian Smolen). Paul Gordon took on the role of Reggie, and the part of Mr. Weatherbee was played by Arthur Maitland. Oh, and there were three Bettys — played by Joy Geffen, Rosemary Rice, and Doris Grundy, who happened to have the same last name as Archie’s teacher, Miss Grundy. (In “Twisted Youth,” a 1999 episode of the cartoon Archie’s Weird Mysteries, Miss Grundy’s first name is revealed to be “Doris.” In the same episode, Miss G drinks a youth serum and is shown to be a beautiful blonde, just like you-know-who.” The longest-running Archie of the series was Bob Hastings, pictured here standing at the microphone with (left to right)...

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