Revision [242]
This is an old revision of ShadowThe made by TpnEditor on 2006-04-21 00:54:32.
The Shadow
The mysterious Shadow blazed onto the newsstands in 1931 and for 18 years, battle evil with the aid of a team of agents. The Shadow was one of the most popular pulp heroes.
Background
The April 1931 number of The Shadow: A Detective Magazine introduced readers to the black cloaked avenger with blazing twin automatic pistols. The magazine was StreetandSmith Street and Smithís attempt to take advantage of the popularity of the announcer for its ìDetective Story Hourî radio program, a mocking voice called The Shadow.
The Shadow was an immediate hit on the newsstands. By the October 1931 issue, it began appearing monthly; within a year, it would be publishing twice a month. It continued at that rate until paper shortages in World War II forced it to return to monthly publication. The Shadow folded with the Summer 1949 number, when StreetandSmith Street and Smith canceled its remaining four pulps.
The authors
GibsonWalter Walter B. Gibson, under the house name GrantMaxwell Maxwell Grant, penned a majority of the 325 lead novels that appeared in The Shadow pulp magazine. Other writers who used the Grant penname included TinsleyTheodore Theodore Tinsley and ElliottBruce Bruce Elliott.In the 1960s, Gibson wrote ìThe Return of The Shadowî†for a paperback revival series, but the remaining stories were written by Dennis Lynds. The 1994 movie adaptation was written by James Luceno.
Other media
Despite an 18 year pulp run, The Shadow is most remembered today for the longer-running radio program The Shadow. The Shadow also appeared in several short features, full-length movies and a serial, as well as a failed 1950s TV pilot. The Shadow returned to the silver screen in 1994 in a film starring Alec Baldwin as The Shadow/CranstonLamont Lamont Cranston.There have been reports that Sony is working to return the Night Master to theaters, but nothing definite has developed.
Comments/trivia
- The Shadow was not ìin reality Lamont Cranston.î In the pulps, The Shadowís true identity was Kent Allard, famed aviator and explorer who had vanished some years earlier.
Categories
PulpCharactersPulpMagazines
