On this day in 1932, families across America huddled around bulky wooden radio sets, their dials glowing amber in the dim light of living rooms still reeling from the Great Depression. At 7:15 p.m. Eastern Time, CBS Radio flipped the switch on a 15-minute adventure that would ignite imaginations and launch an entire genre: the premiere of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, the world’s first science-fiction radio program.
As the announcer’s voice boomed, “Buck and Wilma and all their fascinating friends and mysterious enemies in the super-scientific 25th century!”, listeners were whisked 500 years forward. There, World War I veteran Anthony “Buck” Rogers – portrayed in that inaugural episode by actor Matt Crowley – awoke from suspended animation in a mine collapse, only to battle Mongol invaders with jumping belts, ray guns, and rocket ships. Alongside the fearless Wilma Deering (voiced by Adele Ronson) and inventor Dr. Huer (Edgar Stehli), Buck embodied hope in an era when tomorrow seemed bleak.
Sponsored by Cocomalt, a chocolate-flavored milk additive promising “energy for adventure,” the show aired Monday through Thursday, cliffhangers dangling like spaceships in zero gravity. Kids mailed in proofs-of-purchase for premiums: cardboard space helmets, planetary maps, and solar scouts’ badges. By 1934, Buck-mania peaked – ray gun toys flew off shelves, and the serial inspired rivals like Flash Gordon.
The origins of this cosmic hero trace back further, to a Philadelphia newspaperman named Philip Francis Nowlan. In August 1928, his novella Armageddon 2419 A.D. appeared in Amazing Stories magazine, introducing Anthony Rogers as a gas-trapped everyman thrust into a dystopian future dominated by “Han” airlords (Asian conquerors in the original, later softened amid sensitivities). Syndicator John F. Dille spotted gold, renaming the protagonist “Buck” for punchier appeal and teaming Nowlan with cartoonist Dick Calkins.
On January 7, 1929, the daily comic strip Buck Rogers in the 25th Century A.D. debuted in newspapers, syndicated to 47 outlets overnight. It popularized staples we take for granted: disintegrator pistols, antigravity belts, video communicators, and interplanetary travel. A Sunday color strip followed in 1930. By its 1934 heyday, Buck graced 287 U.S. papers and 160 abroad, translated into 18 languages. Nowlan and Calkins even novelized the tale in 1933, cementing Buck as sci-fi’s ambassador to the masses.
Radio amplified the frenzy. Produced by Carlo De Angelo and later Jack Johnstone, with sound wizard Ora Daigle Nichols crafting rocket roars from air vents, the CBS run churned out 720 episodes until 1936. Revivals hit Mutual in 1939 (thrice-weekly), 1940 (half-hour Saturdays), and post-war 1946–47. Voices rotated – Curtis Arnall, Carl Frank, and John Larkin all donned Buck’s mantle – but the thrill endured: death rays, mechanical moles, gamma bombs, and villains like Killer Kane and seductive Ardala Valmar.
Buck’s leap to other media was inevitable. A 1939 serial starred Olympic swimmer Buster Crabbe (fresh from Flash Gordon). Big Little Books pocketed adventures for nickels. TV beckoned in 1950 with a short-lived ABC series, then exploded in 1979–81 via Glen A. Larson’s NBC hit, starring Gil Gerard as a thawed NASA astronaut, complete with wisecracking robot Twiki and Erin Gray’s Colonel Deering. Video games, toys, and reboots followed, though none recaptured the strip’s 1929–1967 run or radio’s raw wonder.
Ninety-three years on, Buck Rogers endures as the blueprint for Star Wars, Star Trek, and Marvel’s cosmic epics. Ray Bradbury credited him with birthing space dreams; astronauts like Neil Armstrong nodded to his influence. In 1932, amid breadlines and dust bowls, Buck proved escapism could fuel progress – turning “impossible” gadgets into reality: cell phones, GPS, even SpaceX rockets.
Please add Cord Cutters News as a source for your Google News feed HERE. Please follow us on Facebook and X for more news, tips, and reviews. Need cord cutting tech support? Join our Cord Cutting Tech Support Facebook Group for help.