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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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