Actually BOTH models for Doc played Flash Gordon! Steve Holland, who posed for most of the Bantam Doc Savage covers from James Bama onward (except for Boris, who used himself as the model), played Flash on the 1950s tv series. And, to be fair, Gray gave Doc Caliban a face much like Steve Holland's. If you've seen the animated Flash Gordon tv movie "The Greatest Adventure of All", Flash spends the first half in torn shirt and jodpurs, like Buster Crabbe did in the serial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAJ1wE0vvno
I meant the post title to be taken either way, Britt, but I was counting on a comment such as yours to explain it to those who might not know the background of the joke.
I just saw on Wikipedia that the cover of the 1966 Gold Key comic, tying in to a projected movie of "The Thousand-Headed Man" with Chuck Connors, is supposed to look like Connors--a good trick, inasmuch as it's a reprint of the Bantam paperback cover by Bama of two years earlier and still looks like Holland.
Heck, even Jack Sparling didn't try to evoke Connors with his artwork for the comic. (In fact, some panels make Doc look like Popeye!) http://heroheroinehistory.blogspot.com/2011/04/reading-room-annex-doc-savage-thousand.html BTW, the story behind why the Connors-starring version didn't get made is a classic example of a corporate screw-up... http://heroheroinehistory.blogspot.com/2011/04/doc-savage-1960s-movie-that-almost-was.html
Actually BOTH models for Doc played Flash Gordon!
ReplyDeleteSteve Holland, who posed for most of the Bantam Doc Savage covers from James Bama onward (except for Boris, who used himself as the model), played Flash on the 1950s tv series.
And, to be fair, Gray gave Doc Caliban a face much like Steve Holland's.
If you've seen the animated Flash Gordon tv movie "The Greatest Adventure of All", Flash spends the first half in torn shirt and jodpurs, like Buster Crabbe did in the serial.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAJ1wE0vvno
I meant the post title to be taken either way, Britt, but I was counting on a comment such as yours to explain it to those who might not know the background of the joke.
ReplyDeleteI just saw on Wikipedia that the cover of the 1966 Gold Key comic, tying in to a projected movie of "The Thousand-Headed Man" with Chuck Connors, is supposed to look like Connors--a good trick, inasmuch as it's a reprint of the Bantam paperback cover by Bama of two years earlier and still looks like Holland.
Heck, even Jack Sparling didn't try to evoke Connors with his artwork for the comic.
ReplyDelete(In fact, some panels make Doc look like Popeye!)
http://heroheroinehistory.blogspot.com/2011/04/reading-room-annex-doc-savage-thousand.html
BTW, the story behind why the Connors-starring version didn't get made is a classic example of a corporate screw-up...
http://heroheroinehistory.blogspot.com/2011/04/doc-savage-1960s-movie-that-almost-was.html