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SHROUDED_IN_SHADOW

                                              June 28, 2006

One version of the story of the
origin of the Shadow magazine
is this:

   Listeners remembered "The Shadow",
   but not "Street and Smith Detective";
   it was quickly realized that
   they needed to put out a
   "Shadow Magazine".

    GHOSTS_OF_THE_SHADOW

      But my source on that is a
      radio show documentary
      about the Shadow, a history         Here's another, though,
      whose intent may have been          a quote presented by
      more entertainment                  Anthony Tolland, who
      than historical record.             wrote the notes for
                                          "The Lost Shows"
                                          collection of recordings:
Another source: the chapbook/zine
 "Gangland's Doom" (1974) by                        ...general manager
 Frank Eisgruber Jr.                                Bill Ralston decided
                                                    to give them what
In the preface by Robert Weinberg,                  they wanted.  "If
a slightly different version is                     we've got The Shadow
presented:                                          and people are talking
                                                    about The Shadow, why
   "In order to retain a clear                      don't we put out a
    copyright to the character,                     magazine called _The
    Street and Smith decided to                     Shadow_?  Like we
    publish a magazine featuring                    used to have magazines
    the exploits of The Shadow.                     called _Nick Carter_."
    A contest was started.
    Advertisements and clues
    about the character were
    published in "Detective
    Story Magazine" from
    February 7 to April 11,
    1931, with the clues also
    being read over the radio by
    The Shadow.  The prize in
    the contest was $500."

He goes on to argue that in
spite of the build up they             
didn't seem to expect the              
magazine to be a hit.  But         
his only point of evidence        Hm... and this fellow 
is that they used a stock         claims that Gibson had 
painting instead of having        to revise his story 
a new original painted.           to match the cover: 
                                         
                                     "The Shadow novel as written did 
    And so: who is to say             not have a villain who was  
    which tale of origin              Chinese originally in it, but 
    is the one true one?              it was not hard for the author,
                                      Walter Gibson, to write one in."
                                             
                                         But this bit about a 
                                         Chinese fence is actually 
                                         pretty well integrated into 
                                         the story (with lots of 
                                         secondary dialog about 
                                         "chinks").   
                                                                  
                                             One thing that's     
                                             interesting...       
                                                                  
                                               SPOILERS
                                                                  
                                             Gibson has this Chinese 
                                             guy turn out to be an
                                             imposter, a white guy 
                                             made up as a Chinaman.
                                             
                                             That was clearly suggested 
                                             by the cover painting, 
                                             which doesn't look much 
                                             like a real Chinese person.
                                             
                                    http://www.theshadowfan.com/knows.jpg 


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