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Classics 101: A Primer on Serials Part I

Difficult for us to appreciate these days, but once upon a time, there was a movie theatre in most every neighborhood and the films changed three times a week; you could go to the same theatre on Monday, Thursday and Saturday and see a completely different show, with a feature, newsreel, cartoon and various entertaining or educational short subjects. As a way of keeping audiences coming back (“I loved tonight’s Louise Fazenda movie but that Lupino Lane picture that opens this weekend looks like a stinker, Ethelbert”) film producers turned to a popular sales promotion from newspapers and magazines: the serial.

In the early part of the 20th century, popular magazine, McClure’s Ladies World, featured a series of adventure stories called What Happened to Mary? In 1912, the Edison Company secured the rights to release a series of one-reel (approximately 10 min.) films based on the series, to be released simultaneously with new Mary stories, once per month for a year. Although each episode was complete in itself, it’s considered the first serial. A sequel, Who Will Marry Mary? was released the following year. 1913 also gave us the first “action” serial, The Adventures of Kathlyn. Star Kathlyn Williams faced ferocious animals and evildoers in pursuit of her inheritance.

In 1914, the most famous silent serial, The Perils of Pauline, was produced, and made a major star of Pearl White. For the next decade, she starred in such popular serials as The Exploits of Elaine and The Iron Claw. Other popular serials of the time included The Hazards of Helen, Ruth of the Rockies  and A Lass of the Lumberlands. One of the most overused endings of the time featured the beautiful young star tossed over a cliff, where she would be found at the beginning of the next episode hanging from a bush. Because of this, chapterplays became popularly known as “cliffhangers.”

While most of the serials of the silent era featured female stars, the men became more prominent as the stunts and action became more important, and well-known personalities were brought in to help ensure box-office success; Boxers were popular in the early days of serial; “Gentleman Jim” Corbett starred in The Midnight Man (1919); Jack Dempsey, then Heavyweight Champion of the World, starred in Daredevil Jack (1920); Gene Tunney, Dempsey’s opponent in the famous “long count” fight, appeared in his own serial, The Fighting Marine, six years later. Perhaps the strangest use of a celebrity in a serial occurred in 1919, when The Master Mystery was solved by Harry Houdini himself!

While nearly every studio had made silent serials, after the advent of sound in the late 1920s, only Mascot, Universal and a few independent companies produced serials which they sometimes “farmed out” to independent producers. Serials became formulaic, 2-reel episodes (about 18 minutes) of 12 to 15 chapters each, with each chapter ending with a “cliffhanger” until the hero finally unmasked and defeated the miscreant at the end.

Universal produced the first all-talking serial, The Indians Are Coming starring Tim McCoy, in 1930, but as with most of the studio’s early serial product, it was comprised of endless reels of silent stock footage. Other Universal serials of that time including mysteries (Ace of Scotland Yard, Finger Prints, Detective Lloyd), adventures (Tarzan the Tiger, Pirate Treasure, Call of the Savage) and westerns (Battling with Buffalo Bill, Heroes of the West, The Red Rider). The studio also remade The Perils of the Pauline in 1934, without matching the popularity of the original.

Mascot achieved somewhat greater success with its serials, thanks to the fact that the studio had the biggest star of the cliffhanger early talkie era: a dog named Rin-Tin-Tin. The four-legged superstar growled his way through several popular chapterplays between 1930 and 1935, including The Lone Defender, The Lightning Warrior, The Wolf Dog and The Adventures of Rex and Rinty. Second in serial popularity to the canine thespian was young John Wayne, who starred in three Mascot serials, Shadow of the Eagle, Hurricane Express and The Three Musketeers.

Finally, several independent companies tried their hand at serial production; most of these were low-budget, unsatisfying action fare, including The Last Frontier with Lon Chaney, Jr., Tarzan the Fearlesswith Buster Crabbe, Return of Chandu and Shadow of Chinatown with Bela Lugosi and The New Adventures of Tarzan, which was actually produced by the Ape Man’s creator, Edgar Rice Burroughs.

By the mid-1930s, it seemed the serial might disappear altogether form the nation’s movie screens. Two things occurred that rescued the chapterplay from oblivion: Universal signed a long-term contract with King Features Syndicate to produce serials based on popular newspaper comic strips, giving the studio’s cliffhangers a much-needed boost of creativity (and built-in popularity with young people) and Mascot reorganized itself as Republic Pictures and dedicated both money and talent to the creation of serials. The results were immediate, and the cliffhanger would remain popular until it was finally killed off by television two decades later.

Universal released the first serial, Tailspin Tommy, based on a comic strip in 1934. It was enough of a success that it inspired a sequel, Tailspin Tommy and the Great Air Mysteryand convinced the studio to purchase a package of newspaper strips from Kings Feature Syndicate. Over the next few years, the studio brought a number of comic strips to life, including Tim Tyler’s Luck, Ace Drummond, Secret Agent X-9, Jungle Jim, Radio Patrol, Red Barry, Buck Rogers, Smilin’ Jack and Don Winslow of the Navy. Most popular of all, however, was the studio’s 1936 release of Flash Gordon starring Olympic swimming champion Buster Crabbe as Alex Raymond’s star-spanning hero. Flash almost single-handedly revived the popularity of cliffhangers and earned two sequels.

In the mid-1930s, Harry Cohn, head of Columbia Pictures, created a dynamic comedy department to rival the heyday of Mack Sennett and Hal Roach; the studio hired aging talent such as Buster Keaton and Charley Chase, along with newcomers The Three Stooges. In 1937, Cohn decided to add serials to the mix and, at first, hired outside producers. The studio’s initial release, Jungle Menace, starred Frank “Bring ‘em Back Alive” Buck. Columbia scraped up some of the few King Features strips Universal had missed, including Mandrake the Magician, Terry and the Pirates, plus The Phantom and Brenda Starr, Reporter. Columbia also released a number of serials based on popular pulp fiction heroes, including The Spider’s Web, The Spider Returns, The Shadow and Deadwood Dick.

Republic Pictures, formed from the reorganization of smaller studios, released its first serial in 1936, Darkest Africa starring Clyde Beatty, and achieved its first great success later that year with Dick Tracy. Ralph Byrd was perfectly cast as Chester Gould’s square-jawed detective, and returned for three sequels. Other comic strips brought to life by Republic included Adventures of Red Ryderand King of the Royal Mounted. Over the years, Republic would release five serials starring Zorro in various incarnations, plus heroes called The Eagle, Don Daredevil and El Latigo, who all looked and acted exactly like Zorro.

Radio heroes were also popular subjects for serial immortality. The Green Hornet suited up for two cliffhangers for Universal, as did The Lone Ranger for Republic. Columbia had Captain Midnight (sans his secret decoder ring), Gang Bustersand Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy. Popular literature contributed to the cliffhanger mill; Universal released a serial based on The Adventures of Frank Merriwell, while Republic countered with Sax Rohmer’s Drums of Fu Manchuand Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Jungle Girl, featuring Frances Gifford as Nyoka.

By the late 1930s, a new phenomenon had appeared; the comic book. While early comics reprinted newspaper strips, they soon began their own features, led by Siegel and Shuster’s dynamic Superman in 1938. Republic negotiated with National Comics and a 15-chapter “Man of Steel” serial was announced to the press in 1940; negotiations snagged over the publisher’s insistence on script control, however, and Republic re-wrote the serial and released it as Mysterious Doctor Satan. The hero in this terrific, action-packed serial is “The Copperhead.” Republic then struck a deal with Superman’s greatest rival (no, not Lex Luthor), and in 1941 released the serial often regarded as the best ever, Adventures of Captain Marvel starring Tom Tyler as the “Shazam!” guy. Cap’s Whiz Comics co-feature, Spy Smasher, also starred in a terrific serial in 1942, and Marvel Comics’ star-spangled Captain America followed early in 1944.

Beginning with Batman in 1943, Columbia released a number of serials based on comic book heroes, including Hop Harrigan, The Vigilante, Congo Bill, Blackhawk, and in 1948, the mighty Superman, followed by Atom Man vs. Superman two years later. Serials, it seemed, would live forever.

To be continued!

Clifford Weimer is a writer and film historian in Sacramento, CA. He can usually be found lurking about the dark corners of a movie theatre at inthebalcony.com.