Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Two
There are four well known serials about jungle girls, all from Republic. “Jungle Girl” (‘41) starring Frances Gifford, “Perils of Nyoka” (‘42) starring Kay Aldridge, “The Tiger
Woman” (‘44) starring Linda Stirling and “Panther Girl of the Kongo” (‘55) starring Phyllis Coates. Two lesser known serials were “Queen of the Jungle” (‘35 Screen Attractions) with Mary Kornman and “Jungle Queen” (‘45 Universal) starring Ruth Roman. Gifford was Nyoka in “Jungle Girl” and Aldridge played Nyoka in “Perils of Nyoka”. The only jungle girl serials ever made based on a comic queen. Now, the Not to knock Nyoka…77 issues of her own Fawcett title plus 15 Charlton issues and scattered appearances in MASTER COMICS, etc. A total of 177 comic book appearances. Now remember, Sheena was in 188 comics! Why no Sheena serial, it could have been terrific! On the other hand, Sheena was the only jungle heroine to ever make her mark on TV. Irish McCalla starred in a 26 episode half hour b/w series in ‘55-‘56. Tanya Roberts revived the character for a big screen adaptation in 1984 and, finally, Gena Lee Nolin was Sheena on a forgotten 2000-2002 TV series. Again, I say the studios missed a bet...
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question remains, if Sheena was that big, and so many serials were based on comic book characters, why didn’t Republic, Columbia or Universal ever sign up to bring Sheena to the serial screen?
