The stage career of Frank Shannon, best known to serial fans as the courageous Dr. Zarkov in the three FLASH GORDON serials, has often been mentioned in passing in articles on the Gordon serials or on Shannon, but never touched on in any detail. I’m happy to be able to provide some concrete details on Shannon’s stage career, and also quite interested to learn that Shannon was a very distinguished stage performer, originating the role of Mat Burke in Eugene O’Neill’s Anna Christie in the play’s debut New York performance and repeating it on the London stage. Below are critical notices and playbills from this forgotten period of Shannon’s career, long before he set foot on the planet Mongo.

Above: A playbill for the original run of Anna Christie in New York; not the praise for Shannon in the fourth and fifth critical excerpts.

Above: A rave review of the same production, again with a mention of Shannon.

Above: A somewhat less enthusiastic review by that notorious grouch Alexander Woollcott, but still with backhanded praise for Shannon. It is hard to picture the dignified Dr. Zarkov as the “roaring Irishman” referred to in this review.

Above: A review (by author Stark Young, no less) of another play in which Shannon figured.

Above: Another review of a play featuring Shannon. Note the mention of Paul Kelly, who also did a serial, THE SECRET CODE for Columbia in 1942.

Above: A notice for the London opening of Anna Christie.

Above: A much later notice of a musical revival of Anna Christie, referring back to Shannon as the originator of the Mat Burke role.