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.