Juvenile Adventure serial (1937
- 38)
Speed Gibson's thrilling adventures flying airplanes
and facing down international crime operatives was
heady stuff for the youngster listening in his living
room on the RCA floor model radio. Speed and his pals
are on the trail of a super-gang and its dreaded leader
"The Octopus." The Octopus has his tentacles
in crime everywhere, and without the International
Secret Police, the world would be his oyster. Every
fifteen-minute episode is action-packed!
Text on OTRCAT.com ©2001-2009 OTRCAT INC All Rights Reserved-Reproduction is prohibited.  Strangely, the boy who played Speed is not known, says
the authoritative "On
the Air, The Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio,"
Speed's pal is Barney Dunlap, acted by John Gibson. Barney's
OK, but no match for the cunning of the Octopus and his
gang. Barney's favorite reaction to a tight spot is "Suffering
wangdoodles!" Speed Gibson was written by
Virginia Cooke, who was smart enough to include Marcia
Winfield, governess to little Jean Kingsley, for the girls
to follow. All team up in these exciting adventures in
the Far East as Speed and his Pals, with Marcia, set out
to get the slippery Octopus!
Text on OTRCAT.com ©2001-2009 OTRCAT INC All Rights Reserved-Reproduction is prohibited. Uncle Clint Barlow, undercover disguise artist extraordinaire
got Speed and his pals in the ISP (International Secret
Police.) Howard McNear, who went on to the classic
roles of Doc on Gunsmoke
and Floyd the Barber on TV's Andy Griffith show,
plays Uncle Clint. In this early juvenile series, he's
playing it straight with little of the characteristic
sardonic deadpan delivery of Doc Adams.
This fine aviation-based adventure series is a worthy
addition to a juvenile genre that first took flight
with The
Air Adventures of Jimmie Allen, then Captain
Midnight, and later Hop
Harrigan. Speed Gibson has all the
action of these series, and perhaps a little bit more
- some honest interaction between well-drawn, complete
characters that begins to remind a fan of these classic
juveniles serials of the classic cliffhanger for all
ages, I Love a Mystery.
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