Bash Helmet in the 1970s. TV revives the Third Reich Dyke and Bash Helmet The Musical premieres

Bash Helmet's 1960s television series was a ratings smash and the network commissioned a further 30 episodes that ran from 1970 to 1971. 

The fans' favourite Third Reich Dyke,
Diva Braun, reappeared in the 1970s

This second season revived two adversaries from Bash’s past - Diva Braun (who, contrary to her comic book past, was not killed by Hitler but placed in suspended animation at the end of World War II and freed decades later to attack a present day America) and the Size Queen (now played by Hungarian drag artist, Agota Czoras). 

A fan-favourite episode was 'Bareback to the Future' in which Bash is sent forward in time to a war-ravaged, apocalyptic America and meets himself as an old man. The actor portraying the aged hero was none other than Rusty Clappe, the original Bash Helmet from the1950s movies! 

So far, everything Godfrey Pryce had produced had been very successful but the 1970s was to see Bona Ventures’ first commercial failure! 

Pryce continually wanted to push the boundaries with Bash and decided that the time was right for an ambitious Broadway musical! In 1972 while at a party in San Francisco, he saw a pair of young men playing together on a piano. 

Wes Humble frets while Bennie Langston
tickles his ivories

These musicians were Bennie Langston and Wes Humble and their party trick was to get people to shout out made-up song titles to which they would quickly compose tunes and improvise lyrics on the spot! 

Pryce needed composers to write a score for his musical and he realised that these men could knock one out at an impressive speed. 


He immediately propositioned them and, less than a year later, on 30th January 1973, Bash Helmet The Musical premiered at the Ambassador Theatre. 

Bash Helmet The Musical. Calamity strikes on opening night.

On 30th January 1973, Bash Helmet The Musical premiered at the Ambassador Theatre. 

The story revolved around two young men coming to terms with their sexuality and falling in love. One of the men works in a comic book store and loves to regale customers with the comic book adventures of Bash Helmet and Flick Faster (which play out on the stage). 

The story of Bash and Flick’s encounters with many of their popular villains interweaves with the story of the two young men right up until the climactic finale. 

The two stories converge into a ‘Will they/won’t they?’ scenario i.e. will Bash and Flick escape the Death Trap / will the two men confess their love for each other?

The score was everything Bona Ventures' owner Godfrey Pryce wanted it to be - fresh, exciting, and passionate. Numbers included: We’re Out to Save the World; (I Find That) Hard to Swallow; Turn Your Back on Me; The Park After Dark; Everybody Loves Gays (These Days); I’m All in a Flap; Funk in My Space; and Goodbye Dr Jekyll - Hello Mr Pride. 

The soulful ballad sung by Flick Faster - Pulling Back the Curtains - was an instant show stopper and has since been covered by many recording artists. 

However, production costs for the musical were spiralling with the construction of elaborate sets that revolved and elevated. The finale of one number, A Load on My Shoulders, would leave the theatre having to re-upholster the front two rows of seats after every performance (the first three rows on a good night). 

Concerned about the amount of money needed to stage the musical, Godfrey’s backers pulled out one by one. Undeterred, Pryce decided to go ahead, leaving Bona Ventures as the project’s sole producer.

Godfrey Pryce had posters put up all around New York
to promote his musical before the score was even finished! 

On the opening night, the Ambassador housed the cream of America’s entertainers. Movers and shakers from the world of theatre, movies, television and radio had been personally invited by Pryce and they had all turned up, eager to watch such an innovative show. 

Unfortunately, as the lights dimmed and the strains of the overture struck up, the tank containing the fluid for the Load on My Shoulders number cracked, resulting in the cast, the stage and the orchestra being covered in gunk. 

The theatre had to be closed down and its repair costs meant that Pryce could no longer afford to put the musical on. He took the project’s closure and resultant money-loss very badly, assuming full responsibility for the failure and its huge impact on Bona Ventures. 

One evening, after downing a whole bottle of Campari, Pryce stumbled to his office, unlocked the top drawer of his desk and pulled out a small revolver. Then he pulled out the passport which the revolver was lying on, put back the revolver and went to live in Thailand with Pu Yao-Yun and his twelve brothers.

Bash Helmet in the 1970s. The TV revival continues in Cartoon form

Despite its calamitous first night staging, ironically, over the years Bash Helmet the Musical has since been performed in off-broadway theatres and by amateur dramatic groups across the United States and the United Kingdom (albeit with A Load on My Shoulders removed) to extremely positive critical reviews.

With Godfrey Pryce gone, the reins of Bona Ventures were taken up by VP, Bud Demsky who believed that Bash Helmet still had a loyal television following.

However, Bona’s current financial status meant that a third, live-action season was out of the question so the studio produced a series of fifteen 20-minute animated adventures. Dale Montgomery continued to voice his character but the cartoon dared to do something for the first time in Bash’s 30 year history - alter his costume!

Lady Garden gets the upper hand in the animated
TV episode, “Uphill Gardening”. Note Bash Helmet's new chest insignia.

Bud Demsky had constantly debated with Godfrey Pryce about Bash’s shirt. Pryce liked it left blank while Demsky wanted to plaster something glistening over his chest. Now with total control over the character, Demsky was free to insert an insignia - a bold, stylised silver helmet.

And the following decade would see even greater changes ahead for Bash’s appearance!

The 1980s. Gay superhero Bash Helmet faces his most fearsome foe

During the 1980s, Bash helmet was to face his most fearsome foe, someone who could break him and ridicule him in a way that none of his enemies had been able to previously. 

In the decade of excess Bash Helmet sported some 'memorable' looks

And that someone was the Acting President of Bona Ventures, Bud Demsky! 

In the 1980s shoulderpads were in

This was the decade of excess - shoulder pads were in and hair was BIG, and Demsky was keen that Bash should be totally modernised to reflect the fashions of the times. 

Under this directive, Bash Helmet sported some of his more ‘memorable’ looks!

The changes did not go down well with the fans and sales began to drop. Each year, with each new look, fewer comics were bought. 

In November 1986, with issue 290, Bash Helmet was cancelled. Unlike his predecessor, Godfrey Pryce, Bud Demsky refused to take responsibility for Bona Venture’s worsening financial situation and would not resign. 

However, after a board meeting, he was summarily fired.

Even Flick Faster was not safe from being fiddled with

It was then that Demsky decided to follow in Pryce’s footsteps and he left the United States aboard a Navy ship, the USS Fruitpicker, in order to start a new life in Thailand.

However Demsky never reached his destination. One moonlit night, over a romantic candle-lit dinner, he fell head over heels in love with the entire complement of C-deck and lives there to this day. 

Many believe that the final nail in Bash Helmet’s coffin was when the tip of 

his helmet actually flipped open to allow his enormous hair to flow freely!

But Demsky is still bitter at the way he was dealt with by his colleagues at Bona: 

“People often complained about my two-fisted approach to delicate areas but I was the one who ended up getting the elbow - trust me, that was harder to take!”

Bash Helmet - Cocked and Loaded

The original cover picture from
Bash Helmet - Cocked and Loaded

During the first half of the 1990s, Bona Ventures gained financial stability by concentrating on the production of specialist, niche magazines but not a day went by without the offices receiving letters from fans of Bash Helmet, begging for his resurrection. 

The company was now headed by Chip Furburger, the son of former editor, Reggie. 

Chip’s mother had secured him a job as an intern at Bona Ventures years earlier and he had steadily worked his way to the top. 

Chip had never known his father (since Reggie had used a sperm donor and a turkey baster) and growing up as a basted child meant that he yearned for a strong male role model all his life. 

As an adult, he decided that Bash was as good a role model for kids as any real man and so, in 1996, Chip had Bona’s editors dust off the hero and give him another outing. 

Bash Helmet - Cocked and Loaded! was a four-issue mini series that updated Bash considerably, pandering to the public’s current love of heroes with big guns. 

Spitroast demonstrates one of
the reasons he acquired his name.

The adventure pitted Bash against a new, more suitably violent villain - Spitroast, who could get a man dangerously hot using only his mouth. 

The mini-series sold incredibly well and reignited interest in Bash Helmet. 

So much so that, in 1998, a number of fan groups banded together and arranged a convention in San Francisco called simply, ‘THE BASH’. 

People gathered from across the world to dress up as their favourite characters and buy and sell Bash memorabilia.

Bash Helmet into the 21st Century

After THE BASH 2003, Florrie Mendelson 

cruises a San Francisco park,

 “for old time’s sake”

THE BASH is soon to hold its 13th successive convention and the number of people attending will be into the thousands. 

Previous special guest speakers have included Godfrey Pryce (who had to be secretly smuggled out of and back into Thailand), Rusty Clappe and, in 2003, the 84 year old Florrie Mendelson! 

This year it is hoped that Dale Montgomery will address the excited crowds. 

With such a renewed swell of interest in Bash Helmet, rumours are rife that Hollywood is gearing up to greenlight a big budget movie. 

Whether this happens or not, only time will tell. 

Ironically, the characters who replaced Bash in Tales to Excite all those years ago have already made the leap to the big-budget motion picture with 2004’s Squirt & Spurt in Vegas. 

“Look, Spurt, it’s Celine Dion! Oh, wait...no...it’s just a cuttlefish!”
A classic moment from ‘Squirt & Spurt in Vegas’.

But one thing is certain - there is no shortage of producers, screenwriters, directors and actors who were touched by Bash Helmet at some point in their lives. 

And whoever gets the job of portraying the hero on the silver screen should feel honoured to be handling such a plum role!

Becoming Bash Helmet Part V. Our pumped up mortal hero begins his fight against crime.

As soon as he touched the magical helmet it was as if it had come alive. Never before had so much blood coursed through the veins of Justin Nicely. Never before had he felt so pumped up.

Gaiety deity Zhoosh saw the hero growing before his very eyes and dubbed his swollen form Bash Helmet. 

Zhoosh immediately called upon Bash to unfetter the power of his helmet. But Bash was more interested in the fight against felony.

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