Information AboutThe Shadow |
The Shadow is a Fictional Character created by Walter B. Gibson in 1931 with the first story title "The Living Shadow". The character is one of the most famous of the Pulp Hero es of the 1930s and 1940s -- made even more famous through a popular Radio series originally played by Orson Welles, The Shadow has also been featured in Comic Book s, Comic Strips , Television , and at least seven Motion Picture s. Regardless, ''The Shadow'' is best regarded for its radio years, in which pulp crime fiction received perhaps its most compelling broadcast interpretation. Even after decades, the unmistakable introduction from ''The Shadow'', intoned by announcer John Archer , has earned a place in the American Lexicon : "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!" BACKGROUND ''The Shadow's'' birth as a furtive crime solver was practically an accident. Beginning July 31, and, later, Frank Readick ), a radio show whose plots were drawn from the pulp magazine of the same name. The magazine was published by Street And Smith , and the company aimed the radio program at boosting the magazine's circulation. However, listeners found the announcer far more compelling than the stories -- and began asking newsstands for copies of ''The Shadow Magazine'', though it did not exist. Recognising the demand and responding promptly, Street and Smith commissioned , published April 1, 1931. The Shadow was a Noirish Anti-hero in every sense, likely inspired by Mentalist Joseph Dunninger , a friend of Gibson's. The Golden Vulture Because of the effort involved in getting out two stories every month, a number of guest writers were brought in to do occasional stories to lighten Gibson's work load. One of these was Lester Dent , who wrote the Doc Savage stories. Fans of Doc Savage who read "The Golden Vulture" (July 15, 1938) are disappointed as it is a run of the mill Shadow story. This is said to be because Gibson, fearing Dent's obvious skill as a story writer, that he could be called on to do more and more stories until he took over The Shadow. So Gibson butchered the story, cutting out important and exciting elements from it. This is possible because it was far from Dent's normal standard and because Dent did no more Shadow stories. CHARACTER EVOLUTION The character evolved over his lengthy fiction life. In print, he slouched elusively beneath hat, cape, and often, a black or red silk mask, anticipating another popular radio anti-hero, '' The Green Hornet ''. He also skulked in the shadows by his skill at concealing himself -- at first. In due course, and in his most famous incarnation, The Shadow became an invisible man who supposedly learned "while traveling through East Asia ...the mysterious power to cloud men's minds, so they could not see him." In part, that new incarnation was born of necessity; radio's time constraints made it difficult to describe The Shadow in hiding and nearly invisible. Some believe the Shadow was a Hypnotist , as explicitly mentioned in at least a few radio episodes; others contend that The Shadow could manipulate Qi . But because radio was not a visual medium, audiences found The Shadow's invisibility easy to accept. CHARACTER UNIVERSE In print, The Shadow was born Kent Allard, a famed aviator who crashed in the South America n tropical jungles and, after making a fortune in that region, returned to the United States, arriving in New York City and adopting numerous identities to cloak his return. One of these was Lamont Cranston, "wealthy young man about town." In fact, Cranston was a separate character whom Allard resembled (see the story ''The Shadow Laughs''). While Cranston traveled the world, Allard assumed his identity in New York. In their first meeting, with Allard/The Shadow in bed recovering from wounds, he threatens Cranston, saying that he has arranged to switch signatures on various documents and other means that will allow him to take over the Lamont Cranston identity entirely unless Cranston agrees to allow Allard to impersonate him when he is abroad. Cranston agrees. The two men sometimes meet in order to impersonate each other (see ''Crime over Miami''). He also carries out undercover work as Fritz, a doddery old janitor who cleans at Police Headquarters and listens in on their conversations. The Shadow had an entire network of agents who helped him in his fight against crime. These included:
Though wanted by the police, The Shadow also worked with them and through them, notably gleaning information from his many chats with Commissioner Weston at the Cobalt Club. Weston believed that Cranston was a rich playboy who dabbled in detective work. Another police contact was Detective Joe Cardona, who was active in many Shadow books. Those whose relationship with The Shadow came through radio alone had to wait until the August 1937 publication of ''The Shadow Unmasks'' to learn the truth; in this novel, Cranston revealed his true identity as Kent Allard. RADIO PROGRAM ''The Shadow'' was long believed to have debuted on radio as a program in its own right September 26 , 1937 , on the Mutual Broadcasting System . But the character actually premiered in September 1931 , on CBS , as part of the hour-long ''The Blue Coal Radio Revue'' (named for the show's sponsor), featuring Frank Readick -- the "Shadow" announcer of ''Detective Stories'' -- as The Shadow, and playing Sundays at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The stories also appeared on Thursday nights for a month, when ''Love Story Drama'' (another Street and Smith creation) took the Thursday night slot -- but also featured occasional portrayals of The Shadow. Blue Coal had a long relationship with the Shadow, moving the radio series to as The Shadow, the show moving to Mutual, and the famous catch phrase now in full play accompanied by the strains of an excerpt from Opus 31 of the Camille Saint-Saëns classical composition, "Le Rouet d'Omphale". Welles did not speak that signature line -- Readick did, using a water glass next to his mouth for the echo effect. But Welles did make a credible Shadow, two years before his notoriety as the mastermind of Mercury Theatre On The Air 's production of '' War Of The Worlds ''. After Welles left the role for a career in the cinema, The Shadow was portrayed by such actors as Bill Johnstone , Bret Morrison (the longest tenure, with ten years in two separate runs), John Archer , and Steve Courtleigh as Lamont Cranston/The Shadow. The radio show also introduced female characters into the Shadow's realm, most notably Margot Lane (played by Agnes Moorehead among others) as Cranston's love interest and crime-solving partner (the character was eventually integrated into Gibson's pulp novels). Lane was described as Cranston's "friend and companion" in later episodes, although the exact nature of their relationshp was left unclear. In the 1994 movie, Margot's name was spelled "Margo." However, early scripts of the radio show clearly show that the character's name was spelled "Margot". Once ''The Shadow'' joined Mutual as a half-hour series, it did not leave Sunday evenings radio until issue, although Gibson wrote three new "official" stories between 1963 and 1980 . Gibson started off a short series of updated Shadow novels for Belmont with ''Return of the Shadow'' under his own name, followed by ''The Shadow Strikes'', ''Beware Shadow'', ''Cry Shadow'', ''The Shadow's Revenge'', ''Mark of The Shadow'', ''Shadow Go Mad'', ''Night of The Shadow'', and ''Destination: Moon''. The Shadow had mental powers in these books, to cloud men's minds so he effectively became invisible, to conquer pain, etc. COMIC BOOKS 1973 . Art by Michael Kaluta.]] ''The Shadow'' has been depicted in comic books several times:
FILMS The character has been adapted for Film numerous times. The Shadow Strikes (1937) & International Crime (1938) The movie ''The Shadow Strikes'' was released in 1937, starring Rod Larocque in the title role. Larocque returned the following year in '' International Crime '', although in this version "The Shadow" was merely a radio gimmick. The Shadow (1940) A Serial produced by Columbia Studios starring Victor Jory premiered in 1940. The Black Tiger is a criminal mastermind who is sabotaging rail lines and factories across America, and Lamont Cranston must become his shadowy alter ego to uncover the fiend and halt his schemes. The Shadow Returns (1946) Low-budget motion picture studio Monogram produced a trio of films in 1946 starring . The Shadow (1994) ]] See Also: The Shadow (1994 film) In 1994 , the Shadow was recast once again in a big-budget feature film, '' The Shadow '', starring Alec Baldwin as Lamont Cranston/The Shadow and Penelope Ann Miller as Margo Lane . This time, Cranston was written as a disaffected veteran of World War I who drifted through Asia and ultimately became a brutal Warlord and Opium smuggler, until he was kidnapped by a Tibet an order of monks and brought to their Monastery . A Tulku , their leader, recognizing the power of harnessing Cranston's inner darkness, reformed and trained him to use that darkness against Evil rather than for it. Cranston then learned how to confuse and control the minds of others, particularly how to become invisible except for his shadow. His nemesis in the film was an evil warlord and fellow Telepath named Shiwan Khan, the last descendant of Genghis Khan , played by John Lone . Shiwan Khan is characterized by his witty remarks made toward the Shadow, such the odd conversation concerning a tie from Brooks Brothers and his response to being called a barbarian, "Thank you. We both are." Their struggle eventually ended when Cranston threw a mirror shard into Khan's head; surgery saved his life, but it removed a small but critical piece of the front lobe of his brain, and thus the source of his telepathic powers. Though the storyline provided a certain logic to the old radio hit's suggestion that Cranston learned his dark art in East Asia, the film was a Box Office Bomb that never came close to launching the new Franchise planned for it. New Shadow Movie On and Michael Uslan will co-produce a new ''Shadow'' film for Columbia Pictures . Siavash Farahani will write the screenplay. Raimi tried (and failed) to gain the rights in the late 1980s , which resulted in his now-famous 1990 feature film, '' Darkman ''. TV SERIES Two attempts were made to make a television series based on the character. The first in 1954 was called, obviously, ''The Shadow'', starring Tom Helmore as Lamont Cranston. The second attempt in 1958 starring Richard Derr was called ''The Invisible Avenger'', which compiled the first two unaired episodes and was released theatrically instead. This film was then re-released in 1962 as ''Bourbon Street Shadows'', with additional footage meant to appeal to "adult" audiences. INFLUENCE
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