Last week, I posted a photo similar to the one at right on The Shadow Knows! group at Facebook.
Folks had been posting various The Shadow collectibles, so I thought I would post one of my favorites. Growing up in the ’60s and ’70s, I don’t remember a specific time when I discovered The Shadow. Thinking back now, it seems as though I had always known the black-hat-and-cloak character.
I remember reading about The Shadow in Ron Goulart‘s Cheap Thrills: An Informal History of the Pulp Magazine, checked out from the municipal library sometime in 1972 or ’73.
I hadn’t read any of The Shadow novels until Pyramid Books began reprinting them in 1974. Around that same time, our local AOR station, WZZQ-FM, began replaying the classic radio program at 10 weeknights. I faithfully tuned in, which soon came to mean sitting beside the radio with my cassette recorder, holding the microphone to the speaker and taping the shows.
Besides collecting all of The Shadow reprints over the years, I was always on the lookout for one of the “electrical transcription” discs that were sent out to radio stations so they could broadcast The Shadow radio program.
It became one of my “holy grail” pulp items.
The episode information isn’t written on the label, and I don’t remember which episode it is. (It’s written down somewhere, but I can’t put my hands on it.) At 16-inches wide, it’s too large for my turntable.
I’d never come across a disc until this one showed up on eBay in 2008. It hangs on my wall now.
The year before, I had tracked down another of my “holy grail” pulp items.
In 2007, I picked up a good-looking copy of the first pulp magazine, the October 1896 number of The Argosy. A photo of it (also at right) has been featured on the “A brief history of the pulps” page.
I’m not sure how many of that particular issue are out there; the copy I have is the only one I’ve seen.
I would be interested in hearing what “holy grail” items you have on your list or in your collection.
