TheShadow

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THE PULPS

THE SHADOW

The Shadow is a collection of serialized dramas, originally on 1930s radio and then in a wide variety of media, that follow the exploits of fictional vigilante The Shadow.^[2] One of the most famous pulp heroes of the 20th century, The Shadow has been featured in comic books, comic strips, television, video games, and at least seven motion pictures. The radio drama is well-remembered for those episodes voiced by Orson Welles.

RADIO

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Introduced as a mysterious radio narrator by David Chrisman, William Sweets, and Harry Engman Charlot for Street and Smith Publications, The Shadow was fully developed and transformed into a pop culture icon by legendary pulp writer Walter Gibson.

The Shadow debuted on July 31, 1930, as the mysterious narrator of the Street & Smith radio program Detective Story Hour.^[3] After gaining popularity among the show's listeners, the narrator became the star of The Shadow Magazine on April 1, 1931; a pulp series created and primarily written by the hugely prolific Gibson.

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As the years passed, the character evolved. On September 26, 1937, The Shadow radio drama officially premiered and imbued the character with "the power to cloud men's minds" — the ability to become completely invisible — a trait associated with the character for years after the show ended. Even after decades, the unmistakable introduction from The Shadow radio program, intoned by actor Frank Readick Jr., has earned a place in the American idiom: "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!" These words were accompanied by a haunting theme song, Le Rouet d'Omphale, composed by Saint-Saëns.

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In order to boost the sales of their Detective Story Magazine, Street & Smith Publications hired David Chrisman of the Ruthrauff & Ryan advertising agency and writer-director William Sweets to adapt the latter magazine into a radio series. Chrisman and Sweets felt the upcoming series should be narrated by a mysterious storyteller with a sinister voice, and began searching for a suitable name. One of their scriptwriters, Harry Engman Charlot, suggested various possible names for the narrator such as "The Inspector" or "The Sleuth."^[4] Charlot then proposed the ideal name for the phantom announcer: "... The Shadow."^[4]

Thus, beginning on July 31, 1930,^[1]^[5] "The Shadow" was the name given to the mysterious narrator of the Detective Story Hour. The narrator was voiced by James LaCurto^[5] and, later, Frank Readick. The episodes were drawn from the Detective Story Magazine issued by Street & Smith, "the nation's oldest and largest publisher of pulp magazines."^[5] Although the latter company had hoped the radio broadcasts would boost the declining sales of the Detective Story Magazine, the result was quite different. Listeners found the sinister announcer far more compelling than the unrelated stories. They soon began asking newsdealers for copies of "that Shadow detective magazine," even though it did not exist.^[5]

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Recognizing the demand and responding promptly, circulation manager Henry William Ralston of Street & Smith Publications commissioned magician Walter B. Gibson to begin writing stories about "The Shadow." Using the pen name of Maxwell Grant, Gibson wrote 282 out of 325 tales over the next twenty years: a novel-length story twice a month (1st and 15th). The first story produced was "The Living Shadow," published April 1, 1931.^[5]

Gibson initially fashioned the character as a man of villainous elements who used them to battle crime. Clad in black, The Shadow operated predominantly after dark, burglarizing in the name of justice, and terrifying criminals into vulnerability before he or someone else gunned them down. The character was a noirish anti-hero in every sense, likely inspired by mentalist Joseph Dunninger and illusionist Howard Thurston, both close friends of Gibson.^[6] Gibson himself claimed the literary inspirations for The Shadow were Bram Stoker's Dracula and Edward Bulwer-Lytton's The House and the Brain.^[4]

^{MORE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow}

COMICS

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