Movies - Buck Rogers

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	Movies - Buck Rogers

This entry is for the science fiction character Buck Rogers. For other uses, please see the Buck Rogers disambiguation page.

Buck Rogers began in 1928 as Anthony Rogers, the hero of two novellas by Philip Francis Nowlan published in Amazing Stories. Buck is best known from the long running newspaper comic strip. He also appeared in a movie serial, a television series, a computer game, and in many other formats.

The adventures of Buck Rogers, whether in comic strip form, movies, radio or television, became an important part of American pop culture. This pop phenomenon paralleled the development of space technology in the twentieth century and introduced Americans to space as a familiar environment for swash-buckling adventure.

It has been said that Robert Goddard invented rocket science, but arguably it was Buck Rogers who first popularized the concept of space exploration.

Amazing Stories

The character first appeared as Anthony Rogers, the central character of Philip Francis Nowlan's novella Armageddon 2419 A.D., which first appeared in the August 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories.

While exploring a cave, Rogers, a United States Army Air Corps officer, falls into a coma after exposure to leaking gas, and awakes in the twenty-fifth century. Together with his new comrades, the beautiful Wilma Deering and the intrepid Dr. Huer, he struggles to rid the world of evil warlords and "Mongol" hordes.

Armageddon 2419 A.D.'s sequel, The Airlords of Han appeared in the March 1929 issue of Amazing Stories. The story's enemy force, the Han, were later renamed Mongols.

In the 1960's, Nowlan's two novellas were combined by editor Donald A. Wollheim into one paperback novel, titled Armageddon 2419 A.D. The original 40 cent edition featured by Ed Emshwiller.

Comic Strip

The story of Anthony Rogers in Amazing Stories, caught the attention of John F. Dille, president of the National Newspaper Service syndicate, and he arranged for the author, Philip Francis Nowlan, to turn it into a comic strip for Dille's syndication company. The comic strip was named "Buck Rogers", and this name stuck in all later reworkings of the story. Dille assigned staff artist Dick Calkins to the project.

Some have suggested that Dille coined the nickname "Buck" based on a 1920's cowboy character named Buck Rogers.

On January 7, 1929 Buck Rogers, the first science fiction comic strip, debuted. Coincidentally, this was also the date that the Tarzan comic strip began. Comic strip historians note the beginning of the golden age of adventures strips as beginning with the debut of these two influential comics.

On 30 March 1930 a Sunday strip joined the Buck Rogers daily. There was, as yet, no established convention for the same character having different adventures in the Sunday strip and the daily strip (many newspapers carried one but not the other) and so the Sunday strip at first followed the adventures of Buck's young friend Buddy Deering, Wilma Deering's younger brother. It was some time before Buck made his first appearance in a Sunday strip.

The strip ran continuously for 38 years, with the final installment being published on July 8, 1967.

See also List of Buck Rogers comic strips.

Radio Show

In 1932, the Buck Rogers radio program, notable as the first science fiction show on radio, hit the airwaves. The radio program aired 4 times a week for fifteen years, from 1932 through 1947.

The radio show again related the story of our hero Buck finding himself in the 25th Century. Actors Matt Crowley, Curtis Arnall, Carl Frank, and John Larkin all voiced Buck at various times. The beautiful and strong-willed Wilma Dearing was portrayed by Adele Ronson, and the brilliant scientist and inventor Dr. Huer was played by Edgar Stehli.

The radio series was produced and directed by Carlo De Angelo and later by Jack Johnstone.

Note: Johnstone recalled in 1988 how he worked with the sound effects of Ora Nichols to produce the sound of the rockets using an air-conditioning vent. http://www.otr.com/sf.html

Big Little Books

Buck Rogers was featured in many Big Little Books, illustrated text adaptations of the daily strip stories, and in a collectible Buck Rogers Pop-Up Book.

World's Fair

A ten-minute Buck Rogers film premiered at the 1933-1934 World's Fair in Chicago. John Dille Jr. (son of Strip Baron John F. Dille) starred in the film, which was called Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: An Interplanetary Battle with the Tiger Men of Mars.

Movie Serial

A twelve-part Buck Rogers movie serial was launched in 1939. In this version Buck Rogers and his young friend Buddy Wade are involved in a dirigible accident in a remote place. Immediately afterwards they somehow get into suspended animation waiting for rescue. When they are finally discovered and revived, they learn that 500 years have passed. A tyrannical dictator named “Killer Kane” and his henchmen now run the world. Buck and Buddy must now save the world, and they do so with the help of Lieutenant Wilma Deering and Prince Tallen of Saturn.

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