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The following is an abridged chronology
detailing the evolution, through several
media, of The Shadow, compiled with the
help of Guy Gudin.
Gudin, a longtime collector of Shadow material, is now at work on a book entitled Who Knows What Evil. The book is an updated edition of The Shadow Scrap book, written by Shadow creator Walter Gibson and Anthony Tollin in 1979. Commentary below is from Gudin.
1930 A weekly radio program entitled Detective Story Hour debuts, featuring a narrator only revealed as "The Shadow." His voice entices listeners to purchase the latest issue of Detective Story magazine from publishers Street and Smith.1931 Walter Gibson (under the pseudonym Maxwell Grant) creates The Shadow in answer to reader demand. Soon after, the first pulp fiction novel entitled The Living Shadow appears. Gibson ultimately wrote almost 300 of the 325 subsequent novels."He was told to write under the pseudonym because Street and Smith owned the character. They could assign it to anybody— if they wanted someone else to pick up the character they could." Universal Pictures' Shadow Detective series makes it to the big screen as a series of six two-reelers (Burglar to the Rescue, The Cat's Paw, Sealed Lips, House of Mystery, The Red Scare, The Circus Show-up). The character serves only as narrator. 1932 The Shadow hits the air waves with the first season of his own radio show, though he remains solely a narrative voice. Robert Hardy Andrews provides the voice of The Shadow, with actor Frank Readick, Jr. taking over for season two and three.1937 The big screen finally welcomes The Shadow in his first full-length motion picture; Grand National Pictures presents The Shadow Strikes, featuring Rod La Rocque as both The Shadow and Lamont Cranston.In the 131st novel. The Shadow Unmasks, readers finally learned one of The Shadow's secret identities, that of Lamont Cranston. The voice for The Shadow's radio series during season four and two summer seasons is provided by 22-year-old Orson Welles. For the first time, the character breaks from his narrator role to take an active part in the radio play's story line. "Orson Welles' own love of magic seemed to pour over into the character of The Shadow. He made many references to where he learned these powers and made frequent mention of hypnotizing and how he made himself invisible, which later Shadows took for granted and didn't expand upon as much." 1938 Rod La Rocque plays Lamont Cranston in the Grand National feature film The international Crime, which ironically enough doesn't feature The Shadow at all. It's based on the 1937 novel Fox Hound, written by one of Gibson's first fill-in authors, Theodore Tinsley.Bill Johnstone takes over the role of The Shadow for season five through season nine of the radio broadcasts. 1939 Archvillain Shiwan Kahn first appears in the pulp novel The Golden Master.1940 Victor Jory stars in The Shadow, a 15-chapter movie serial for Columbia.The Shadow appears in his first comic book, The Shadow Comics, 64 pages, from Street and Smith. A daily newspaper strip debuts. 1943 Season 10 introduces radio fans to Bret Morrison as The Shadow, who will retain the role to the radio series' end in 1954."He was the most popular to play the character because he was The Shadow for 10 whole years." 1949 Paperback novels kill the market for pulp originals; The Shadow is finally cancelled in this format.1954 Season 21 marks the final run of The Shadow radiobroadcasts.1963 The Shadow undergoes a revival, with nine paperback novels published.1964 Archie Comics brings back the hero in a new-fangled super-hero kind of way, mercifully cancelled after a brief run.The old shows are rebroadcast, initially as an exercise in "nostalgia," but the drama captures a whole new audience. 1969 Bantam Books reprints seven of The Shadow novels in paperback form.1973 Returning to comic books. The Shadow is placed in the era that made him famous—the '30s—in a DC Comics series conceived by Mike Kaluta and lasting for 12 issues."The Shadow also appeared in a couple issues of DC's Batman comics. Batman was actually inspired by The Shadow, but they could never actually say that, so when they got the licensing of the character, DC had a young Bruce Wayne showing the involvement of The Shadow in his life." 1979 The definitive book on the famed character gets the royal treatment in The Shadow Scrapbook, written and compiled by Gibson himself and definitive Shadow specialist Anthony Tollin.1982 Producer Martin Bregman buys the rights to The Shadow and spends the next 12 years developing the script. Early on, Jeremy Irons is considered for the lead role.1986 Once again DC tries out a Shadow comic. Howard Chaykin scripts a four-issue modem-day version of the character.1987 DC offers up an even more revi- sionist series by Andrew Helfer and artist Bill Sienkiewicz. According to Gudin, The Shadow dies, is frozen, and dons an electronic head to become "robo-shadow," in what may have been the character's darkest hours.1989 DC sees the error of its ways and presents what is considered the finest comic adaptation to date, entitled The Shadow Strikes, written by Gerard Jones. It lasts for 31 issues.Eternity Comics comes out with the monthly Crime Classics, which reprints some of the classic '40s Shadow comics. 1990 Screenwriter David Koepp (who later goes on to write Jurassic Park) finally comes up with a Shadow script that pleases the Powers That Be and preproduction soon begins.1993 Filming commences on The Shadow under the direction of Highlander director Russell Mulcahy. Alec Baldwin stars as The Shadow and Cranston and John Lone plays archvillain Shiwan Kahn.Dark Horse purchases rights to the character and releases a four-part limited series entitled In The Coils of Leviathan. Mike Kaluta, who worked on the 1973 version of the comic, pens this series, which brings The Shadow back to the 1940's. 1994 Universal Pictures releases The Shadow in theaters; Who Knows What Evil by Guy Guden hits bookstores; Dark Horse I comics debuts a two-issue limited series adaptation of the film."Ultimately I think the character endure; because he appeals to the dark side in all of us. Also, no two Shadows have ever beer the same. The radio Shadows and the pulp Shadows were always at odds. This: film seems to be somewhere in the middle and incorporates elements of everything , including some of the various revisionist , takes on The Shadow. It's a real crazy I quilt. The Shadow is a character that has I never been fully explored in the modern sense and we certainly hope this film will capture that feeling. Source: The Shadow Scrapbook by Walter Gibson and Guy Gudin |  |
