Daily Almanac for Saturday, July 31, 2021

On this date in 1930, The Shadow Radio Show first aired. The Shadow, on the cover of July 15, 1939 issue. The story, Death from Nowhere, was one of the magazine plots adapted for the legendary radio drama. Fair use, https en.wikipedia.org

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

The Shadow is a collection of serialized dramas, originally in 1930s pulp novels and later in a variety of media. Its title character has been featured on the radio, in a long-running pulp magazine series, in American comic bookscomic stripstelevision, serials, video games, and at least five feature films. The radio drama include episodes voiced by Orson Welles.

The Shadow, originally created to be a mysterious radio show narrator, was developed into a distinctive literary character in 1931 by writer Walter B. Gibson.

The Shadow debuted on July 31, 1930, as the mysterious narrator of the radio program Detective Story Hour, which was developed to boost sales of Street & Smith‘s monthly pulp Detective Story Magazine. When listeners of the program began asking at newsstands for copies of “that Shadow detective magazine”, Street & Smith launched a magazine based on the character, and hired Gibson to create a concept to fit the name and voice and to write a story featuring him. The first issue of the pulp series The Shadow Magazine went on sale April 1, 1931.

On September 26, 1937, The Shadow, a new radio drama based on the character as created by Gibson for the pulp magazine, premiered with the story “The Death House Rescue”, in which The Shadow was characterized as having “the hypnotic power to cloud men’s minds so they cannot see him”. In the magazine stories, The Shadow did not become literally invisible.

The introductory line from the radio adaptation of The Shadow – “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!” – spoken by actor Frank Readick, has earned a place in the American idiom. These words were accompanied by an ominous laugh and a musical theme, Camille Saint-Saëns‘ Le Rouet d’Omphale (“Omphale’s Spinning Wheel,” composed in 1872).

The Shadow, at the end of each episode, reminded listeners, “The weed of crime bears bitter fruit! Crime does not pay…The Shadow knows!”

Some early episodes used the alternate statement, “As you sow evil, so shall you reap evil! Crime does not pay…The Shadow knows!”

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Every Year

1790s

1800s

1850s

1870s

1900s

1910s

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1990s

THE END OF JULY!

(courtesy Calendaroptions.com)

COURTESY www.almanac.com