The Shadow The Shadow of the Mind

HOW IT ALL BEGAN In 1930, New York-based pulp magazine publisher Street and Smith sponsored a radio program called ‘’Detective Story,’’ which was to advertise their magazine of the same name. Each episode was a dramatization of a story in the current issue. As a gimmick, the host of the program (who introduced each week’s episode and gave a pithy comment at the end) was called ‘’The Shadow’’ and spoke in sinister, chilling and memorable tones. Listeners indeed flooded to the news-stands. But it wasn’t to buy ‘’Detective Story.’’ They wanted ‘’the magazine that told about the Shadow.’’ Street and Smith decided they’d better take advantage of this opportunity as quickly as possible. Fortunately for Street and Smith, writer Walter Gibson was in town from Philadelphia. A prolific feature writer for newspapers (daily tricks, puzzles, intelligence tests, explanations of ancient mysteries, methods of fake spirit mediums, crooked carnival games and the like), he also was a ghostwriter for the top magicians of the day: Houdini, Thurston, and Blackstone. He had most recently done a book called Houdini’s Escapes, and had come to New York to arrange for a sequel, Houdini’s Magic, as well as a book called Modern Card Tricks for Blackstone. On his way back home, he had stopped at Street and Smith to line up some articles. ‘’Since I was an article writer with a flair for fiction, I could be the very man to turn out the story that he [Blackwell, Street and Smith editor] needed, particularly as my journalistic speed would enable me to meet a prompt deadline.’’ Gibson and Frank Blackwell, Street and Smith’s editor, discussed the story. Blackwell wanted a character who would be a fighter against organized crime (which at that time was assuming alarming proportions in America) and Gibson came up with a ‘teaser’ immediately. ‘’…I suggested an opening scene with a cloaked figure emerging from a night fog to prevent a desperate young man from taking a suicide plunge from a high bridge. Thus befriended, the young man would swear loyalty to his rescuer and thereby become involved in exciting adventures with other persons who had been aided by the same benefactor, all being united in the common cause against crime. Blackwell told me to go ahead with the first novel, promising me three more on a quarterly basis if it proved satisfactory.’’ Gibson returned home and quickly wrote a half dozen chapters and an outline for the rest, which he took back to Blackwell for approval. ‘’It was fortunate that I did, for in the rush to get the new magazine scheduled, the art department [who apparently didn’t want to design a new cover on such short notice for an experiment] had come up with the only available cover that seemed suitable. It showed a man in Chinese costume with upraised hands casting a shadow on the wall behind him. So I injected an Oriental angle into the story…’’ The first novel was titled, appropriately, The Living Shadow, and appeared under the byline Maxwell Grant. Gibson chose the pseudonym by combining the names of a couple of magic dealers. The main protagonist was actually Harry Vincent, the man whom The Shadow had rescued from suicide. The following three novels were The Eyes of the Shadow, The Shadow Laughs, and The Red Menace. It was in these four novels that the origin of The Shadow was gradually revealed. ‘’I had covered some of [The Shadow’s] more important capabilities in the first novel, [in the second novel] was the time to touch on facts that might reveal his personality. To battle crime successfully and keep trusted agents constantly on the job he would need a millionaire’s income and status to go with it. So I pictured him in a New Jersey mansion some twenty odd miles outside New York City with a retinue of servants, late model cars as required, an airplane at a nearby private airport, and best of all, a tower room equipped with all the latest radio gadgets, including some that were not yet invented.’’ He was also given the name Lamont Cranston. Lest the reading public think after the second novel that they knew all about The Shadow, in the third book (each Shadow novel was 70,000 words long, and appeared in The Shadow magazine along with other, shorter crime stories) when the ‘real’ Lamont Cranston, returning from an extended trip to South America, begins to doubt his sanity, as he learns that during his absence, various people had seen him at his home. The truth is revealed when The Shadow comes to him and explains why he was impersonating the millionaire. ‘’…the imposture enabled him to make contacts with important people and move in social circles where no one would suspect his dual identity while he was fighting crime as The Shadow.’’ Cranston immediately agreed to help the Shadow, and relinquishing his identity once more, headed off to Europe. ‘’The fourth story…not only wrapped up various phases of The Shadow’s background but also added some finer facets as well….I delivered the four stories at intervals of approximately one month each, completing the year’s quota in four months, and I thought I was free to get back to my other work.’’ Had he but known. In early May, 1931, the first issue hit the news-stands and immediately sold out. The print order for the second issue, The Eyes of the Shadow was immediately doubled, and by the time the third issue came out, it was decided to make The Shadow a monthly. Gibson continued to write the novels with his incredible speed. This was fortunate because soon The Shadow was to come out twice a month. To sum it up, this pulp magazine was incredibly popular, lasting for 18 years, until the Summer of 1949 for a total of 325 issues, 282 of them written by Grant.) Four years after the magazine’s debut, Street and Smith decided that they wanted to do a radio program based on The Shadow’s characterization in the novels. The Shadow had continued as announcer for Detective Story…but continued to do nothing more than announce the episodes, as before. During the summer of 1936, Blue Coal, which sponsored Detective Story, agreed to sponsor The Shadow. The writing job was assigned to Edward Hale Bierstadt. His first script, ‘’The Death House Rescue,’’ featured Harry Vincent. But there was a creative disagreement. Bierstadt’s scripts were turned over to other writers, who extensively modified them. Harry Vincent was replaced by Margot Lane, Cranston’s ‘constant friend and companion,’ created by the producer Clark Andrews to provide a 'vocal contrast' for Orson Welles (and to interest women in the program). There were other changes from the source material (of course). The Shadow’s ability to merge with darkness and arrive anywhere unexpectedly and unseen, along with his hypnotic powers that formed a feature of the novels, were combined on the radio as a faculty to ‘’cloud men’s minds so they cannot see him.’’ The radio Shadow, during Orson Welles tenure, could 'read' men's minds as well, but this power was gradually phased out. The new series, starring the young Orson Welles as The Shadow and Agnes Moorehead as Margot Lane, debuted on September 26, 1937, over the Mutual and Yankee networks. Its title was ‘’The Death House Rescue.’’ [The script reproduced in The Shadow Scrapbook, is the first draft script, in which Harry Vincent appears and Margot doesn’t. ‘’The Death House Rescue’’ is available in the collection of five cassettes called The Shadow: The Lost Episodes. Orson Welles in costume as The Shadow. Unlike many dramatic shows, The Shadow was performed in front of an audience. The actors dressed in 'normal' clothes. However, for publicity photos for the various magazines, they would dress 'in costume.' Margot Lane was originally portrayed as a capable partner who could be depended upon to rescue The Shadow at least as often as she required rescuing herself. However, after script editor Edith Meiser’s departure [Edith Meiser, most well known as the creative force behind the Sherlock Holmes radio program] the character of Margot Lane was reduced to a standard radio damsel in distress, ‘’captured midway through each program by that week’s homicidal killer…until The Shadow’s triumphant mocking laugh announced her rescue was at hand.’’ [Walter Gibson didn’t put Margot into the Shadow magazine until 1941.] Welles portrayed The Shadow for twenty-six episodes sponsored by Blue Coal. He then recorded fifteen summer programs for Goodrich Safety Silvertown tires. Welles had a unique method of working that kept his co-stars on their toes. Because he was busy with his theatre work, he skipped rehearsals – subordinates read his lines and marked up his script. Welles usually arrived only minutes before the Broadcast and performed his role ‘cold.’ Welles said: ‘’Not rehearsing…made it much more interesting. When I was thrown down the well into some fiendish snake pit, I never knew how I’d get out.’’ Welles left the series after the summer season to produce his own program, The Mercury Theatre on the Air.. Bill Johnstone, a Scottish-born former reporter became the new Shadow for a season. Welles returned again for the summer season – another 13 episodes, and then left for good, with Johnstone once more taking over the role. Agnes Moorehead didn’t leave her role as Margot Lane until 1940, when she relinquished it to Marjorie Anderson, who played the role until her untimely death, from throat cancer, in 1944. Other actresses to play Margot were Marion Sharkley, Laura Mae Carpenter, Lesley Woods, Grace Mathews, and Gertrude Warner. Bill Johnstone as Lamont, Agnes Moorehead as Margo. Actors read their lines from the script. The microphones were angled so that only the sound of the actor's voices could be caught and transmitted. The crackle of papers being dropped to the floor was inaudible. By the time Bill Johnstone left the role in 1943, The Shadow was the ‘hottest drama on the Sunday airwaves’. Chicago-bred Bret Morrison won the role over 100 other competitors, and continued to play the role for more than a decade. Morrison came to New York after stints in Los Angeles and Chicago radio, followed by a tour of Army duty supervising New England recruitment of WACs. It was while he was in New York ‘’doing a job for Uncle Sam’’ that he heard the sponsor needed a new Shadow, auditioned, and got the job. Morrison frequently performed in The Shadow’s famous black slouch hat and cloak for the entertainment of the huge audience that gathered each Sunday evening to view the live broadcast from Broadway’s Longacre Theatre. Morrison also sang professionally at nightclub and cabarets, and was an avid collector of Rolls Royces and other vintage cars. Bret Morrison as Lamont, Grace Mathews as Margo. Broadcasting booths were cramped, and actors usually performed around the same microphone, rather than each one having their own. The Shadow lost its East Coast sponsor, Blue Coal, when the anthracite market collapsed in 1949. (The Shadow had several sponsors simultaneously – Carey Salt commercials went out to the midwest, Balm Barr went to the south, and the U.S. Air Force sponsored it on the Pacific Coast. The logistics of broadcasting the right commercials to the right geographical areas at the right time gave the master control at MBS (Mutual Broadcasting Station) a good case of the jitters.) However, other sponsors stepped into the East Coast breach, including Wildrrot hair oil, Camel cigarettes, and Tide. During its last season, however, it could not find a sponsor anywhere – for all the businesses were pouring their money into the new medium of television - but it ran as a sustainer. Its ratings were still very high, but this was no longer enough. On December 21, 1954, Bret Morrison and Gertrude Warner stood before a mutual microphone to transcribe the final episode. ‘’Murder By the Sea’’ was aired five days later, and The Shadow’s mocking laugh was heard for the last time. Bibliography The Shadow Scrapbook, Walter B. Gibson and Anthony Tollin, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979 The Shadow: The Lost Shows, Anthony Tollin, 1988, Advance Magazine

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