I used to correspond with Carole Mathews who plays Babs Arnold and she once told a cute story at one of the film festivals she attended. She had two nieces, who were probably 6 or 7 years old, when the serial was released in 1945. They came home from the Saturday matinée crying about how "Aunt Carole" was going to die. When their mother calmed them down, they told her that they have seen the chapter where Carole is tied to a chair and put on the conveyor belt leading to a roaring furnace. She told them that Aunt Carole was an actress and that it was just a movie. If I'm not mistaken, I think she even had them talk to Carole on the phone to convince that she was not in any real danger. Cute story considering the fact that an actress's young nieces would really believe what they saw on the screen