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The Shadow

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This article is about the pulp fiction/comic book/radio/film hero. For other meanings, see shadow (disambiguation).
File:Shadow178deathfromnowhere.jpg
"Who knows what evil lurks...?"—The Shadow, as seen on the cover of the July 15, 1939 issue of The Shadow Magazine. The story noted on the cover, "Death From Nowhere," was one of the magazine stories adapted for the legendary radio drama.

The Shadow is a fictional character created by Walter B. Gibson. The character is one of the most famous of the pulp heroes of the 1930s and 1940s. Made even more famous through a popular radio series, the Shadow has since been featured also in comic books, comic strips, television, and at least seven motion pictures. 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 has earned a place in the American lexicon: "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!"

An accidental birth

The Shadow's birth as a furtive crime solver was practically an accident. Beginning July 31, 1930 [1], the character's name first belonged to the announcer (James LaCurto and, later, Frank Readick) of Detective Stories, 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. The problem was that 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 Walter B. Gibson to begin writing stories of The Shadow. Using the pen name Maxwell Grant, Gibson wrote a reported 282 out of 325 Shadow books over twenty years: a novel-length story twice a month (1st and 15th). He initially fashioned the character as a man of villainous elements who used them to battle crime, clad in black and working predominantly after dark, burglarizing in the name of justice, and terrifying criminals into vulnerability before he or someone gunned them down. The Shadow was a noirish anti-hero in every sense, likely inspired by mentalist Joseph Dunninger, a friend of Gibson's.

An evolutionary Shadow

The character evolved over his lengthy fiction life. In print, he slouched elusively beneath hat, cape, and often, a black 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 in the Orient ... 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.

Who Knew What Evil

In print, the Shadow was born Kent Allard, a famed aviator who crashed in the South American 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 Cransto], "wealthy young man about town". In fact, Cranston was a separate character whom Allard resembled (see the story The Shadow Laughs). While Cranston travelled 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 switched signatures 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).

The Shadow had an entire network of agents who helped him in his fight against crime. These included: Harry Vincent, his most trusted associate whose life he saved when Vincent wanted to commit suicide in the first Shadow pulp; Moe Shrevnitz, a cab driver who doubled as his chauffeur; and Burbank, a radio operator who maintained contact between the Shadow and his agents, Clyde Burke, newspaper man. He also carried out undercover work himself in a number of disguises, notably Fritz, a doddery old janitor who cleans at Police Headquarters and listens in on their conversations. 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 crime. Also 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.

The Shadow of the air

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 NBC in October 1932 with Readick playing the character on Wednesday nights now. Two years later, NBC ran the stories on Mondays and Wednesdays, both at 6:30 p.m., with LaCurto taking occasional turns as the title character. Three years later came the beginning of the half-hour drama radio buffs have remembered so well, with the then-unknown Orson Welles as the Shadow, the show moving to Mutual, and the famous catch phrase now in full play.

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). 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 December 26, 1954. It outlasted the magazine that gave birth to it: The Shadow Magazine ended with the summer 1949 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.

Influence

Some argue that The Shadow birthed much of the concept we have come to know as the modern superhero; such characters as Batman and The Green Hornet reference Lamont Cranston's alter ego. Both characters operated mostly by night, and the Green Hornet in particular operated outside the law, insinuating himself into criminal plots in order to put an end to the activities of master criminals. But whereas the Shadow carried a real gun, the Green Hornet carried only a lightweight pistol that fired non-lethal gas and, later (on a short-lived television version) a retractable electronic laser "sting" used mostly to cut through thick barriers. While Batman briefly carried a pistol in his first few years, he quickly abandoned the use of firearms altogether; his creators are said to have feared that giving the character a side arm would make him resemble the Shadow too greatly. [citation needed]

The Shadow may have inspired a later radio hit, The Whistler, whose protagonist likewise knew "many things, for I walk by night. I know many strange tales, many secrets hidden in the hearts of men and women who have stepped into the shadows. Yes, I know the nameless terrors of which they dare not speak," and whose calling card — a short, almost macabre whistle — was at least as familiar as The Shadow's famous opening line. Interestingly, former Shadow Bill Johnstone once portrayed the Whistler.

In 1981, The Shadow became one of the acknowledged influences for V, the title character in V for Vendetta.

Science fiction writer Philip José Farmer depicted the Shadow as part of his Wold Newton family of interrelated fictional characters.

In the Sin City novella "Family Values" a crook says Dwight "thinks he's the Shadow" upon discovering his two .45 pistols.

Batman: The Animated Series introduced a character called the Gray Ghost, in an episode called "Beware The Gray Ghost", who bore a striking resemblance to the Shadow. In the episode, Bruce Wayne is partly inspired by the Gray Ghost to form his own persona of the Batman. There was an issue of The Shadow pulp magazine titled "The Gray Ghost".

The Disney cartoon character Darkwing Duck has many traits in common with the Shadow, such as a similar costume (wide-brimmed fedora, suit and cape), an overly dramatic entrance speech, and a secret identity by the name of Drake Mallard (perhaps a play on Kent Allard).

Adaptations

Comic Books

File:TheShadowComic01.jpg

The Shadow has been depicted in comic books several times:

  • Street & Smith published their own comic line for awhile and this included a Shadow Comic that lasted 101 issues between 1940-1948.
  • The next comic was the short-lived comic put out by Archie Comics under their Mighty Comics line. At first, the Shadow depicted was loosely based on the radio version (but with blonde hair), but in the third issue was turned into a camp superhero by Jerry Siegel.
  • In the late 1980's, another DC reincarnation was created by Howard Chaykin, Andy Helfer, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Kyle Baker. This version brought The Shadow to modern day New York. While initially successful, this version was not popular with "Shadow" traditionalists, because it depicted The Shadow using Uzi submachineguns and rocket launchers, as well as featuring a strong strain of black comedy throughout.

In issue 11 of The Shadow Strikes, the Shadow even teams up with a radio announcer named Grover Mills -- a character based on the young Orson Welles -- who has been impersonating the Shadow on the radio. (The character's name is taken from Grover's Mill, New Jersey -- the name of the town where the Martians land in Welles's 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds.)

  • Dark Horse Comics published three mini-series based on the character, include an adaptation of the 1994 movie. It also published another team-up between The Shadow and Doc Savage. An analogue of the Shadow, Green Hornet, and The Spider, also shows up in Warren Ellis' Planetary series as a member of Doc Brass' (Doc Savage) group of superheroes.

Films

The character has been adapted for film numerous times. 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. A serial produced by Columia Studios starring Victor Jory premiered in 1940. Low-budget motion picture studio Monogram produced a trio of films in 1946 starring Kane Richmond: The Shadow Returns, Behind the Mask and The Missing Lady. Richmond's Shadow, in fact, wore a black face-mask similar to the type worn by the serial hero The Masked Marvel.

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.

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 [sic] Lane. Template:Spoiler 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 Tibetan 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. 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 the Orient, the film was a box office bomb that never came close to launching the new franchise planned for it.

Pinball

Main article: The Shadow (pinball)

As a commercial tie-in, however, the Shadow was the theme for a 1994 pinball machine released by Midway (under the Bally label) to moderate success. It was the first game designed by Brian Eddy (Attack From Mars, Medieval Madness), and features original music composed by Dan Forden.

See also

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