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SHADOWING_WOMEN

                                             March   7, 2010
                                             October 3, 2013

Keeping an eye out for the ladies
in the pulp fiction of the Shadow            There aren't many.
(all nominally by Maxwell Grant,             Guys don't like that
who was usually, but not always              mushy stuff, you know.
Walter Gibson)...


In "Crime Under Cover" (1941), there's a (relatively)
prominent female character: a pretty, rich young
woman of 19 who continually throws herself at the
male lead.  He is above such things (he likes his        Deciding what to
women smart) and finds her terribly annoying and         call this "male
behaves with astounding rudeness in response to some     lead" is difficult.
rather minor hi-jinks on her part.  He embarasses her
by demanding her father to get her to leave him          Jerry Croft is the
alone, and ultimately knocks her out by punching her     viewpoint character
in the jaw.                                              of much of the
                                                         book, to the extent
The story that follows immediately in sequence           that it has a
is "Temple of Crime" (1941).  It suddenly, and           viewpoint.  This 25
unceremoniously introduces Margot Lane--                 year old scientist-
previously, she had only been a character in             in-training
the radio shows, not the pulp stories.                   displays no lack of
                                                         physical courage,
                                                         but he's not, of
At the outset of the story, she's acting as              course, The Hero
an under-cover agent for the Shadow (one of              of the story, that
the "eyes of the shadow", a gang introduced              being reserved for
early in the pulps, but never even alluded               the mysterious
to in the radio shows).                                  Shadow and his
                                                         regular agents
   Not only is there no scene of                         e.g. Harry Vincent.
   introduction for Margot Lane,
   suddenly, and without explanation
   they begin acting as though she's
   been around all the time:
                                                        GHOSTS_OF_THE_SHADOW
      "Cranston tamped his cigarette against
      a flank of the squatting sphinx.  He
      was intrigued by Margo's anxiety to
      rush a solution of Calbot's
      death. Usually, she left such things
      to Cranston." -- Chapter VII

   The Shadow doesn't seem to have any
   magical hypnotic invisibility, though
   (a well-known feature of the radio shows,
   not of the pulps).


       Female characters are amazingly
       rare throughout the Shadow series...
       here we have two in a row.               Somehow, I doubt that this
       A gathering cloud of editorial           book is written by Gibson:
       intervention?                            the words "bulgy" or
                                                "bulge" appear no where in
                                                it... and more verbiage is
                                                expended on atmospherics
                                                than is common with Gibson.



   Ah, yes...                           SHADOW_OF_EIGHT_OUT_OF_MIND

   Chapter XIII
   "Creatures Of Doom"


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