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My Dad, rest his soul, would always respond lovingly to some of my craziest questions with "only the shadow knows!" It was awesome when that movie came out and another thing we bonded over. Awesome times and a great character!
in the original shadow radio plays, the actor actually got in costume..he said it helped him get into the character. my grandmother made the costume for him. she was known for making wrestling costumes back when wrestling was DEEP underground and made basically any sort of costume you wanted.
@@moshymosh no, unfortunately no pictures...back then it was not something you'd be proud of. they did credit her using her middle name as her first name and her maiden name as her last name, but the radio people kept asking "why are we crediting a costumer?" so it was dropped.
@@zaberfang LOL she always put it as "that weird guy on the radio...I can't remember which..the one with the cape? wasn't my cup of tea I never listened to it.."
The Shadow is such an underrated pulp hero! And the fact that he has been around so long and gone up against so many enemies over the years makes you wonder how he would fare if he’d stayed in DC and become a more central part of its mythology.
I remember talking to a 93 year old man a few years back about comics. He asked what I liked. I told him Batman and Superman because I thought he’d know who they were. He laughed at me and said, “those comics are for kids. The Shadow is much better”.
You left out something great from the pulp series. The Shadow had a wide network of capable and loyal agents. These were some very hardcore people that would do anything that he asked of them. That would almost qualify as a super power.
MY dad knew of the Shadow and we went and saw the movie in 94, I really enjoy that film and I thought it looked and sounded great. I've recently finally tried to read some of the comics including the 70s DC run and I just finished Batman and the Shadow. Long wait I know but its fun to rediscover it again. I loved Baldwin's voice in Shadow mode.
I’m 22 and found out about the Shadow from the old radio shows. My dad loved old time audio dramas and had an app on his phone that played them. I was stoked when I found out that there was a movie out before my time too.
In the batman tv series they had Grey Ghost who was a homage to the pulp fiction characters and batman even stated grey ghost was one of his heroes and inspirations. I thought this was cool!
You know what… I’m going to say this, and I don’t care what anyone says. Sam Raimi should do a new adaptation of The Shadow in Black and White, he’s a die hard fan of the character and guess what? His original character Darkman is inspired by The Shadow and Batman, and he wanted to adapt this character for years but studios weren’t interested. I honestly hope it happens one day because he does have a great eye for visuals and he has a signature style of filmmaking, I’m aware a lot of fans hated Multiverse of Madness but I really loved it because of his movies (yes including his horror movies).
Finally, you guys are doing the shadow. I love the radio shows they did. Oh and also fun fact it was one of the inspirations behind the silver shroud in fallout 4 the silver shroud inspired by Batman and the shadow plus the grey ghost in Batman
@@i-95southfloridaboy55 they neede a reason to say why superman wasn't on that show, at the time these were live, so they said kryptonite made him I'll or something.
Oh, OK... It's funny to think it was one of those things thought of on the fly. That actually was pretty genius and is a major role in something monumental.
Back in the days of radio shows, TV was being introduced to American homes. Radio shows saw what was happening as their ratings were going down, so they didn’t care too much. One esp. of Superman radio show during a fight scene, the actors said Superman tripped over a rock and a actor said “oh that must be Kryptonite.” The comics writers heard that and came to work on a Saturday to add Kryptonite and sells doubled because Superman finally had a weakness.
The shadow is a fantastic character from the Golden age of comics just like The Black Bat and The Spider definitely I would love to see these characters shine again on the big screen specially my favorite The Shadow .
You need to check out ,Dynamite comics story called Masks it had all the 1940s heros team up. The first Masks story is great very respectful of the characters, The second Masks story was so terrible that it killed off the idea of any more issues.
Dad says that The Shadow/Kent Allard acting as Lamont Cranston and Doc Savage/Clark Savage Jr. aka the Man of Bronze were subtle inspiration for Superman. The Shadow had a "girlfriend" named Margo LANE and his true first name was KENT while Doc had an Arctic Fortress of Solitude as well as the first name CLARK. He also had a cousin, Patricia, who would join him on occasion ala Kara Zor-El/Supergirl/Linda Lee Danvers. The Shadow had special powers and Doc was said to possess superhuman strength.
This was awesome. Almost forgot about this character. My big bro was the one who introduced me to this character. They need to do a movie of him in modern times.
I have 5 cassette tapes of The Shadow radio shows...I need to convert them to mp3 to broadcast over my low power AM radio transmitter. Along with other shows and music.
Good video. Nice that you make it clear that The Shadow is Kent Allard and Lamont Cranston was an identity he took on. The Shadow actually has several other aliases. The best way to think of The Shadow is a spymaster who used such skills to fight crime, utilizing his agents to do so, along with disguise skills and stage magician tricks. Street & Smith didn't cancel their pulps & comics in 1949 because of financial issues. They did so to focus on their slick magazines which was making them lots of money. You should have mentioned the new "Shadowed Circle" Shadow fanzine and Will Murray's excellent book "Master of Mystery: The Rise of The Shadow" which will have a follow up volume. AND reading the original pulp stories which have been reprinted by Sanctum Books.
I remember watching the movie when I was a kid and it blew my mind. I loved the character and the mystery surrounding him. This is one property that deserves a modern day adaptation in my opinion. I think it would be awesome.
I am still a fan and for most parts will always be one. The truth is my grandfather made me listen to the radio shows as a child, he did not like the movie, I loved it.
When I was a kid in the 1970s, you could go to the public library and check out records. One of the records that I remember checking out was the radio broadcast of the Shadow. Love the radio show. Then in 1984 when I was in high school the movie came out. Loved the movie as well. I wish that they would do an update of the movie some day.
I've been a big fan of "The Shadow", "Doc Savage", and "The Avenger & Justice Inc." since the 70s, and I especially appreciated Batman #253, where Batman meets "his inspiration" (yeah, he's had a few, Sherlock Holmes, Edgar Alan Poe...) "The Shadow." As always thank you so very much for the video. I think it adds to The Shadows mystery that there've been so many variations of his story.
Love this guy! Most people here know this guy from his crossover with Batman, but I first knew him from his crossover with Grendel. As someone who’s only read a few stories with those 2, that was an awesome crossover! Also, there’s a Shadow/Twilight Zone miniseries, and it’s a phenomenal deconstruction of the character.
Thank you so much! I am so happy to know that I am not the only one that believes that The Shadow doesn't get as much love as he derseves. Time and time again the shadow would be close to coming back into the public eye (more then just the 1994 film), we almost got a move made with Orsen Wells, but due to someone not doing the proper paperwork, it was canned. We almost got the infamous awesome video game based on the 1994 film, but it was canned at the last minute. WE ALMOST GOT THE SHADOW IN AN ANIMATED SERIES, BUT THE BATMAN ANIMATED SERIES GOT TO IT FIRST. (Which I can deal with that since the BAS rocks!) Not to mention Sam Ramey's DARK MAN is pretty much a SHADOW movie, but Raimey couldn't get the rights to the character so he had to compromise. And I have heard through the network that there has been a SHADOW movie in the works with directors such as Quentin Tarintino directing the project, along with BAS writer working another project but lost the job. I love the Shadow and one of the things I want to see before I die that is on my bucket list, is to see a BATMAN VS THE SHADOW movie. But until then I am going to enjoy seeing videos such as this gem, introducing everyone to the hero who won me over from the first time I saw that bridge scene from the 1994 film and I was 3 years old! (I was born in 91, in case anyone is wondering)
I am a big fan of both the pulp and radio versions of the Shadow. He was the quintessential 1930s pulp character (with Doc Savage second), but he was also the quintessential radio mystery hero. The Shadow also inspired the creation of several later iconic characters, most notably Batman. And the creator of the Shadow, Walter Gibson (aka "Maxwell Grant"), was quite a fascinating character in his own right, especially as an expert on stage magic.
I got into The Shadow in high school with the radio show. I graduated in '89. Then it was the comics of that time which were excellent. Then the Baldwin film which I believe was well done. I hoped for a sequel! In more recent years I bought some vintage Gibson novels. Very enjoyable. In every iteration, The Shadow is one of our best fictional characters. 🦇
The movie was pretty good. And only recently did I find out the actor who portrayed Margo Lane's father was later to play Gandalf in the Hobbit/Lord Of The Rings series.
When I was a kid my grandmother gave me cassette tapes of the Shadow from his radio days, and I became a huge from that day forward. I even went and saw the movie at a Drive-In with Time Cop being the 2nd feature. I know people don't much care about the movie, but it has a special place in my heart.
I've only ever listened to the old radio show so with all these comic iterations, I'm pretty curious on how The Shadow chooses to heat his home during the winter.
I used to love The Shadow as a kid, mainly from the movie. I remember I had the toy of him where you would squeeze his legs together and his arms would shoot up to point his guns lol. Good times.
I love the fact young people are embracing traditional heros. Used to listen to OTR (old time radio) reruns in the '70s including the shadow. One little thing the M1911 is pronounced nineteen eleven as in the year. Used during WW1, after the war it was updated to the 1911a1. Firing two .45s at once is quite a trick.
I wish you had included details about The Shadow's radio history, the reason the character is so intrinsic to the 1930s and 40s, as it was historically one of the most enduring radio series. Orson Welles' 2 year stint in doing the Shadow, and some of his contributions (because of Welles' pastime with magic) helped complete the character's traits and abilities.
So I just pieced this together, there’s a great AM radio station AM740 out of Toronto, Canada that stretches into much for the north/northeastern US (especially at night) and at 10pm EST they play back to back classic radio dramas, I’ve definitely heard Shadow episodes on there, this pieced that together for me, the radio narrator gave it away!
My grandpa bought me a box of about 30 cassette tapes of the radio shows, which started a lifelong love of The Shadow. I, too, was pretty happy with the Baldwin movie, and have the Garth Ennis #2 comic (at 14:42 )framed on the wall! Thanks for this episode!
I discovered the shadow through a paperback novel my classmate in 5th grade had back in the 80s. My classmate's deceased dad owned it and being a bookworm, I had to borrow it when my classmate brought it to class one day. After reading it, I was hooked. So during vacation when my mom took me to the big city mall to go christmas shopping, I asked her to buy me some Shadow comic books at the bookstore there. I loved it, maybe because I also loved the Phantom, The Batman Great Detective comics and the Hands of Shang Chi comic series which showed influences of the Shadow. When I heard there was going to be a Shadow movie in the 90s during my college years, I was happy and was not disappointed when I saw it. But later on was very frustrated when there was no sequel. V for Vendetta was probably the nearest thing to a Shadow sequel I ever got to see since then.
The Shadow's ring is an artifact called the Girasol [Spanish > "Sunflower"], which contains a stone that can hypnotize the weak willed. It is so distinctive that it is how his followers can identify him when he is disguised. Its origin and description depends on the writer. 1) It had a rare purple gemstone. It was a gift from the Czar of Russia during WW1 for his services before he became The Shadow. It indicated membership in The Seventh Star, a mystical Russian secret society. 2) It had a fire opal from the eye of a pagan idol. It was a gift from the Xinca indians he befriended after his plane crashed in the jungles of the Yucatan in Central America in 1925. 3) It was the signet ring of Chow Lee, the powerful Chinese master who trained the Shadow. He once displayed the master's "chop" or cypher hidden in the base of the ring to intimidate a Tong gang and its leader. In the comics it is usually a red gemstone set in a silver ring. That was the form it took in the movie.
Love the Shadow pulp novels, which were far more popular than the comics. I own about 40 of them. Sure, they're formulaic, but they are slam bang adventures that keep you reading.
My absolute favorite comic/pulp character! The Dynamite Comics "Masks" mini series is also an awesome read. Even the other characters are intimidated by The Shadow. It's a cool dynamic.
Being 86 years of age, I realize that radio heroes of the 30's and 40's are completely "off the charts" for people who did not live through that time. Listening to the radio serial: "I Love a Mystery" (during the 40's) with the radio under my bed sheets showed the kind of fascination one had for their radio mysteries of the time. I was ten years old and my parents sent me to bed at 9:00. What happens if your favorite radio serial was on at 10:00 and you had to listen to the next sequel in "The Temple of Doom?" You put your radio under the covers and tried to stay awake until 10:00. Many times I fell asleep and woke up to the radio under the sheets. More often, I heard the chapter and it fascinated me and I had nightmares as a result!!!
I'd love to see an animated version ( either big screen or tv) of this character. Back in the early 2000s, there was an anime called "CYBER 6". The hero dressed like the shadow, only it was female, and all the action took place in nameless, fictional town.
I was really hoping you'd mention Orson Welles radio show from the post WW2 Era. I grew up imagining if the Shadow was real, he'd have Orson's swager but also his menacing laugh
Although they are always linked together I never really felt there was that much similarity between The Shadow and The Batman. A more obvious precursor to The Batman was The Fox; Zorro. Rich guy, went and trained overseas then came home to a corrupt land. Lived in a mansion and played a foppish playboy, but had a cave under the mansion where he kept his crimefighting gear, his transportation, and his costume. Had a manservant that was the only one that knew his secret and helped him out. Nearly only worked at night. Swung on his whip between buildings and used it to climb walls. Basically if you sat down and wrote Batman stories set in the period of the American southwest they'd be Zorro. Bats are even called flying foxes in several countries. The Shadow was all about mysticism, magic and supernatural elements and guns, none of which are Batman-esque. If just being a detective with odd bad guys was enough to be Batman like then Dick Tracy would be closer with his odd rogues gallery and love of gadgets.
Given the how grounded and realistic Zorro its very innacurate to call him an precursor of Batman it's like calling robin hood a precursor of green arrow those classics better not asssosited with comic superheroes
Love The Shadow! First heard of him from an old Three Stooges film where they referenced him. Dressed up as him for Halloween too. I have one of the figures from the movie. Hope they make future projects with him.
I actually have a first hardback edition of ‘The Living Shadow’ which The Shadow first appeared in as well as a couple of Street & Smith Golden Age Shadow Comics from the early to mid 1940’s.
I had nearly every magazine of The Shadow given to me in a wooden apple crate by a old neighbor that said they were her sons when he was young. Each in perfect condition. She even taught me how to carefully turn each page and not to crease them. I tried to read them but as a 3rd grader, I did not quite understand what I was reading. I do remember still the smell of the old printed paper used. My mother threw them all away when we moved. She just thought it was a apple crate that had old magazines in them like Nat. Geo.
My first exposure to The Shadow was references in cartoons of the 80s, particularly the parody from the Muppet Babies episode 'Muppet Broadcasting Company.' When the Shadow movie came out, I was excited to find out a little more about the origin of the reference, but it was years before I finally saw it. In the intervening time, I found a collection of Shadow radio broadcasts being offered in a holiday catalog and asked my parents to get them for me. That was my first real exposure to The Shadow.
I remember a story where as Joe Chill points his gun at Bruce The Shadows laughter sounds out and scares Chill away, also remember a panel with The Shadows hand on Bruce's shoulder after Chill runs off.
My introduction to The Shadow was an old cartoon where a couple of crows are antagonizing a farmer and his slow witted dog. A crow hides in a barrel and does the creepy "who knows what lurks in the hearts of men" line which absolutely terrifies the dog. 😂
Darkwing Duck owes a lot to The Shadow, too. Also Green Hornet and Batman. One of Shadow's early aliases was Kent Allard. Darkwing Duck's alter ego is Drake Mallard.
Thank you for explaining all that to me. I'm fairly new to The Shadow and am up to No74 of 249 radio episodes I found online. I bought 2 1988 print pulp comics at the weekend, and have a comiccon in my area in October to go to. The Shadow knows!
I saw The Shadow in theaters 30 years ago. I still love the music by the late great Jerry Goldsmith. He knows how to describe superheroes, like he did in DC's Supergirl back in 1984. 10 year gap, if you will.
My mom listened to the radio show in reruns when she was younger and introduced me to The Shadow through second-hand stories so I was hyped to see the movie when I was a kid. Since then I've listened to a lot of the radio shows, where he is responsible for a lot of death, and I've been working my way through the magazines/novels I can find physically or electronically, plus the more recent Dynamite comics. It's interesting to see the rather different versions across media.
Thank you for highlighting pulp heroes! I've always loved listening to the old time radio shows of The Shadow. PLEASE consider not taking any more sponsorships from established titles, as their business practices are deceptive at best and a scam at worst.
