The Shadow

In 1930, Street & Smith used radio, then a new medium, to promote their "Detective Story" magazine. Sales of their title were in a slump, so they figured they would give radio a whirl as a way of boosting the magazine. The program had a narrator, a disembodied voice that spoke to the listeners as though he was fate... he knew the outcome of the story, and announced that he knew the lessons to be learned in a bone-chilling and ominous voice, capped off with a sinister laugh. The voice eventually called itself "The Shadow." The sudden wild popularity of the radio voice had a strange effect on the public... instead of running to newstands to buy "Detective Story," listeners were asking for "that 'Shadow' magazine." Street & Smith, realizing that they had a potential hit on their hands, decided to rush a new magazine out featuring the character. Keep in mind that this was in the day before there were any book or magazine series devoted to spotlighting a single character; the publishers didn't have high hopes for the magazine... they didn't even use a new cover painting for it, just a recycled old painting of a Chinese man gasping in fear, his shadow on the wall behind him. Surprisingly, the book sold out, and the series continued to be popular for nearly 20 years. This was due largely to the choice of author that S&S picked for the new series. Walter B. Gibson was a perfect choice to write The Shadow. He was a magician, well schooled in the arts of concealment, deception, and misdirection that would become trademarks of the stories and The Shadow himself. He was familiar with codes and puzzles, and his expertise with them also featured strongly. Lastly, he was a former newspaper writer; and this, coupled with his nimble magician's fingers, enabled him to crank out full size novels in just a few short days, typing on a manual typewriter until his fingers bled. The man actually held a world's record. To this day, The Shadow is an American folk legend. Many people are aware of the catch-phrase "The Shadow knows", even without ever being exposed to the character's 70+ history, from pulps and radio to comics and movies. But just who is The Shadow? He remains a true man of mystery. You would think that after 70 years, we would know everything about him. Sure, there have been comics and radio programs that have supposedly "revealed" the secrets behind The Shadow. Even the movie attempted to tell his origin, yet at the core is the material that most die-hard Shadowphiles swear upon as the gospel of the character- the pulps. And the pulps revealed almost nothing of his past. What we do know is this:

What we (think) we know of The Shadow...

• Walter Gibson places his birth around 1892-3. We don't know where he was born, or anything about his family, or his life before World War I.
• He was a pilot, although we don't know if he flew before the war.
• His personality is bizarre: he is cold, calculating, a loner, and in the air he was a remorseless, machine-like killer. He was highly intelligent, and dedicated to his tasks. All in all, perfect spy material...
• Which is exactly what he became- a spy. He uncannily picked up the skills he was taught, like codes and cyphers, lock-picking, marksmanship, safe-cracking, martial arts, expanded memory, and total recall. Coupled with the ability to infiltrate enemy groups and to influence people to do his bidding, and we have a serious BAD-ASS.
• He was known to enemies and allies alike as the Dark Eagle; not exactly a code-name, more of a reference to his fearful reputation in the air.
• Wearing ultra-effective disguises by day and stealthy black garments by night, he was instrumental in bringing an end to the war. This dual technique of daily disguise and nightly stealth would, of course, become a staple of his future career as a crime fighter.
• Sometime during WWI, he also served the Tsar of Russia in a spy-ring called the Seventh Star. For his accomplishments in service to Imperial Russia (pre- communist, of course), he was given a girasol, or fire-opal ring, by his friend Tsar Nicholas. This ring would become The Shadow's symbol, in a way: he always wore it. Of course, there was another ring... More about that later.
• After the war, The Shadow faced a dilemma: what to do now? He decided not to become a soldier of fortune as so many of his fellow soldiers did. And so, he faked another crash, this time in the Yucatan Peninsula. He disappeared for several years...
• Which brings me to something I forgot to mention earlier: during the war and after, The Shadow used the name Kent Allard. I say that he used the name because by the end of the series, we're not sure if it WAS his real name. As I said, always a mystery...
• During his absence, he evidently travelled the world in further training. The Shadow has been shown as a master of languages and culture from around the world.
• Also in this period of exile, he acquired another girasol, nearly identical to the one he recieved from the Tzar. The only difference is that the ring from the Romanov collection was engraved with a seven-pointed star. The other ring was engraved with the mysterious Chinese sign of Chow Lee, a symbol that when shown (to the Chinese underworld)ends all conflict and commands respect and a truce. Amazingly, the two fire-opals shared a history: the second girasol was given to The Shadow by the Xinca indians of the Amazon. That stone was one of the eye-stones of their stone idol. The other eye-stone was taken from the statue years before by treasure hunters. It wound up in Russia and eventually in the Romanov jewel collection... it is the stone in the first of The Shadow's rings, the one with the Seventh Star symbol! It really IS a small world, after all.
• When he returned to the civilized world to begin his campaign, he began recruiting agents- men and women who devoted their life to his cause, usually after he saved them from whatever fate hung over them. These agents ranged in usefullness, from simply being a contact man to tailing someone to actively taking a role in The Shadow's campaign in undercover, combat support, or other such roles. Whatever the reason, I'm sure nobody ever refused his offer.
• His campaign against crime lasted from around 1930 or '31 (it is stated in the first novel that he'd been operating for a while) up to 1949.
• The Shadow mostly adopted the role of millionaire Lamont Cranston, a real person who was always away big-game hunting or exploring. This adoption of Cranston's identity was used to get The Shadow into wealthy circles, where much of the crime he fought was planned and executed.
• Allard resembled Cranston almost perfectly... it's not too far-fetched: I met my own lookalike once (very freaky). But there's a good chance that, as earlier novels reported, that Allard may have been disfigured in WWI. The Cranston/Allard face may just have been another disguise to a man with no face of his own. (This particular clue into The Shadow's past was mysteriously dropped, perhaps it was deemed too grotesque for readers. (Too grotesque for the pulp audience??)
• The Shadow's base of operations was his sanctum, a bizarre secret place, reached by one of several secret passages. It is hung with black drapes, lit only by the occasional blue light (it is mentioned to have ultra-violet properties for detecting invisible writing). The Shadow has an extensive reference library here, as well as his files and other detective peraphenalia. It only has one means of contact with the outside world: a direct line to Burbank, The Shadow's agent's contact man. More about him on the Agents Page...
• There have been many versions of The Shadow over the years, mostly building upon the pulps. The best ones are period pieces (set in The Shadow's heyday of the 30's and 40's), like DC's version published in the 70's, DC's The Shadow Strikes and Dark Horse's excellent two mini-series in the 90's. Attempts to update the character usually fall flat and wind up feeling bastardized. Kind of sad, really, that so few people will experience the essence of such a unique and influential character...