THE SHADOW: The History and Mystery of the Radio Program, 1930-1954

by Martin Grams Jr.

The Shadow — for the consideration of those who never heard a radio broadcast or read a pulp magazine — was a supernatural sleuth with a sepulchral chuckle. A detective whose success in tracking down criminals became a popular long-running radio program from 1937 to 1954, after beginning a number of years before as a ghost-like voice introducing a bone-chilling murder play that concluded with a sinister laugh.

The Shadow was originally the voice of conscience and it was through the fear he aroused in the minds of criminals that they exposed their own villainy or destroyed themselves. Never committing cold-blooded murder for the sake of justice, The Shadow suffered a harrowing existence of close calls and death-defying challenges. His exploits were many; a career paced by chase and gunplay. Werewolves, vampires, psychotic murderers, gangsters, mad scientists — he battled them all. Looking back on the program today, it is hard to decipher which was more fun — The Shadow’s methods at plaguing a guilty conscience or the variety of horrors and villains he fought against.

The program left an impression on adults who enjoyed reading the pulp magazines and on young children who listened to the chillers. Radio station KQW in San Jose, California, created its own radio advertisement to promote the station one depicting two children at play remarking, “I don’t want to be Napoleon any more I want to be The Shadow.” The Shadow was inspiration to many, famous or fan. In his autobiography, Isaac Asimov fondly recounted filching the exciting yarns of The Shadow pulps from his sleeping father and replacing the magazine before he woke. Dick Ayers, creator of the Ghost Rider for the comics, admitted there was a blending of enthusiasm in his interpretations of the Ghost Rider’s speech, influenced not by the pulp magazines, but by having been an avid fan of the radio program. Scriptwriters for the radio program later recycled their Shadow plots for novels and short stories — Alfred Bester recycled one of his Shadow plots into the 1952 novel The Demolished Man, which won him a Hugo Award in 1953.

This 840 page book documents the entire history of the long-running radio program, with rare never-before-seen photos, interviews with cast and crew, and a carefully organized presentation of the facts. Through extensive research of original radio scripts, newspapers on microfilm and various archives across the country, this book is sure to please both casual and devoted fans of The Shadow. An extensive episode guide with plot summaries and an index enhance the book’s appeal.

Genres: Nonfiction

836 pages, Paperback

First published March 16, 2011

About the author

Martin Grams is an author and old-time radio enthusiast whose more than twenty books on the subject have qualified him as an expert. He is generous and helpful to his fans and colleagues and his name can often be found in the credits of books dedicated to radio and early television.

While he is one of the younger fans of old-time radio, Martin does not like to talk about his youth, as it proved a hindrance to him when he tried to get his first book published. Determined, Grams decided to self-publish his book about Suspense and has done so several times subsequently.

In addition to writing and researching, Martin and his wife Michelle run the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention in Hunt Valley, Maryland.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really phenomenally detailed book detailing the complete history of The Shadow, arguably the best-known radio program of all time. I've owned it for a few years and enjoyed browsing through and flipping back and forth, and finally resolved to read it in its entirety a few months ago. I read ten or so pages with my coffee every morning. It shifts to really miniscule print size about halfway through (page 463), but I'm glad that I persisted and I'm finished at last. It includes biographical looks at virtually everyone connected to the show, a summary of all of the episodes, numerous lists of stations that broadcast it and businesses that sponsored it, etc. There are a lot of photographs as well, of the actors, writers, magazines, and advertisements. The amount of detail included is really impressive; on page 766, for example, it discloses the rehearsal and recording times on August 28 of 1946 for the twenty-second episode of the Australian iteration of the series, The Mother Goose Bandit, and it's noted that two re-takes were required and the reasons for them. Reviews and relevant stories are cited and quoted from an amazing array of magazines and newspapers, from Variety to The Bluefield Daily Telegraph. Obviously, some of the bits of data are of no interest to most readers, but it's always better to have too much information than too little. I was surprised to learn that Max Ehrlich and the inimitable Alfred Bester wrote many episodes, and that Bester's wife, Rollie, was a frequent member of the cast. I thought it was interesting to see how plots were re-cycled, and I enjoyed reading the summaries of the over-700 episodes. I thought the book also did a good job of illuminating many aspects of society that are frequently overlooked in common histories of the years under discussion, 1930-1954. It's a really terrific accomplishment; now do I not only know what evil lurks in the hearts of men, but also that the weed of crime bears bitter fruit.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Shadow remains an impressive character and his radio-plays still offer plenty excitement even if they came from a time before television when the radio was an important medium.

Now everything and more than you really wanted to know about the SHadow in this comprehensive albeit somewhat long book. I doubt that after this anybody would have to write a book on this subject.

[Dainoga · Rating 2 out of 5]

You've got to hand it to Grams for doing the extensive research it must've taken to write such a definitive history of the radio show.

Having said that, the book is literally an exhaustively detailed account that goes overboard in supplying minute and tedious details about the program. (Do we really need to know what numbered form radio stations had to fill out to get transcriptions of the program?) I was looking forward to this book for behind-the-scenes anecdotes about the production of the series, but got little more than short bios, plot recaps, and tedious details like show ratings, radio call letters, etc. The book's useful for the complete list of episodes and I *did* learn a few new things about the program -- a heretofore unbeknownst to me actor that portrayed The Shadow for all of about 8 weeks; and the heavily implied notion that Bret Morrison was gay -- but you had to wade through a lot to get these nuggets, so I was overall left feeling disappointed and frustrated by this book.

[Bmj2k · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Shadow is likely the most well-researched show of all OTR. Somehow Martin Grams has managed to shed some new light on it. This is a great reference book, but also a good read.