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68-576: A Big Little Book was typically 3 + 5 ⁄ 8  in (92 mm) wide and 4 + 1 ⁄ 2  in (110 mm) high, with 212 to 432 pages making an approximate thickness of 1 + 1 ⁄ 2  in (38 mm). The interior book design usually displayed full-page black-and-white illustrations on the right side, facing the pages of text on the left. Stories were often related to radio programs ( The Shadow ), comic strips ( The Gumps ), children's books ( Uncle Wiggily ), novels ( John Carter of Mars ) and movies ( Bambi ). Later books of

136-404: A broken-down fiction magazine. They then bought the existing New York Weekly Dispatch in 1858. Francis Smith was the company president from 1855 until his 1887 retirement, his son Ormond Gerald Smith taking over his role. Francis Street died in 1883. Francis Smith died on February 1, 1887. The company, which owned a six-story building at 79 Seventh Avenue (just north of 14th Street ), became

204-442: A costume because he is invisible when he operates as a vigilante, a feature born out of necessity. Time constraints of 1930s radio made it difficult to explain to listeners where The Shadow was hiding and how he remained concealed from criminals until he was ready to strike, so the character was given invisibility, meaning the criminals (like the radio audience) only knew him by his haunting voice. The actors used their normal voice when

272-512: A distinct literary character in 1931 by Gibson, The Shadow has been adapted into other forms of media, including American comic books , comic strips , serials , video games , and at least five feature films . The radio drama included episodes voiced by Orson Welles . 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

340-609: A dozen editors, including John Nanovic, Frank Blackwell, Daisy Bacon and F. Orlin Tremaine . The company paid one cent a word, which was standard base rate among the major publishing groups, though fringe publishers paid less. In 1937, Street & Smith discontinued a number of their pulp titles, including Top-Notch and Complete Stories , the start of a long-term shrinking of their pulp line. In 1938, Allen L. Grammer became president. He had spent more than twenty years as an ergonomics expert for Curtis Publishing Company , and made

408-574: A flash of bright flame and sharp explosion when he snaps his fingers. The Shadow is also known for wearing a girasol ring with a purple stone (sometimes depicted as a red stone in cover artwork), given to Allard by the Czar of Russia ( The Romanoff Jewels , 1932) during World War I. The ring is later said to be one of two rings made with gemstones taken from the eyes of an idol made by the Xinca tribe ( The Shadow Unmasks, 1937). The Shadow's best known alter ego

476-542: A murderous kidnapping-extortion ring led by the mysterious criminal mastermind known as the Funeral Director. A sequel, Empire of Doom , was published in 2016 and takes place seven years later in 1940. The Shadow's old enemy, Shiwan Khan, attacks his hated adversary. Doc Savage joins forces with The Shadow to vanquish Khan in a Doc Savage novel written by Murray, from a concept by Dent. In 2020, James Patterson Entertainment and Condé Nast Entertainment announced

544-400: A new series written by James Patterson and Brian Sitts. The arrangement also includes potential screen adaptations of these novels. The first novel, The Shadow , released in 2021, serves as a sequel-update with some science-fiction elements, bringing Lamont Cranston from 1937 into 2087 to battle Shiwan Khan in a futuristic New York. The second Patterson-Sitts Shadow novel, Circle of Death ,

612-541: 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!" To boost

680-484: A power of invisibility, and considers The Shadow to be a mix between the two characters. In the 1940s, some Shadow comic strips were translated in France as adventures of Judex. Because of the great effort involved in writing two full-length novels every month, several guest writers were hired to write occasional installments in order to lighten Gibson's workload. Those guest writers included Lester Dent , who also wrote

748-423: A publisher of inexpensive novels and weekly magazines starting in the 1880s and continuing into 1959. In the early decades of the 20th century, Ormond V. Gould was the company secretary. Ormond Smith remained company president until his death in 1933. In 1933, Street & Smith bought titles from Clayton Magazines, including Astounding Stories . In 1934 they put out 35 different magazines, looked after by about

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816-500: A similarly mysterious narrator. The radio drama also introduced Margo Lane (played by Agnes Moorehead , among others) as Cranston's love interest, crime-solving partner, and the only person who knows his identity as The Shadow. Described as Cranston's "friend and companion" in many episodes, the exact nature of their relationship was not explicitly stated, but Margo mentions in the first episode that she loves him and hopes he will retire The Shadow identity and operate without secrecy if

884-462: A simple-minded acquaintance of Cranston and Lane who sometimes acted as their chauffeur, unaware Cranston was actually The Shadow. The Shadow also faces a wide variety of enemies, ranging from kingpins and mad scientists to international spies. Among his recurring foes are: The only recurring criminal organization he fought was the Hand ( The Hand , Murder for Sale , Chicago Crime , Crime Rides

952-576: A small fortune inventing a new printing process. He moved the offices into a skyscraper. Street & Smith published comic books from 1940 to 1949, their most notable titles being The Shadow , from their pulp magazine line, Super-Magician Comics , Supersnipe Comics , True Sport Picture Stories , Bill Barnes/Air Ace and Doc Savage Comics , also from the pulp magazine line. Street & Smith stopped publishing all their pulps and comics, with one exception, in 1949, selling off several of their titles to Popular Publications . Sales had declined with

1020-402: A variety of agents to aid his war on crime, only a few of whom are aware of his other identities. As the vigilante called The Shadow, Allard hunts down and often violently confronts criminals, armed with Colt .45 pistols and sometimes using magician tricks to convince his prey that he's supernatural. One such trick is “The Devil's Whisper”, a chemical compound on the thumb and forefinger, causing

1088-564: A visible target for attack. In the print adventures, The Shadow is Kent Allard , although his real name is not revealed until The Shadow Unmasks (1937). Early stories explain he was once a famed aviator who fought for the French during World War I , known by the alias the "Black Eagle" according to one character in The Shadow's Shadow (1933). Later stories revised this alias as the "Dark Eagle", beginning with The Shadow Unmasks . After

1156-587: A water glass next to his mouth for the echo effect. The famous catchphrase was accompanied by the strains of an excerpt from Opus 31 of the Camille Saint-Saëns classical composition, Le Rouet d'Omphale . In the debut episode "The Death House Rescue," Cranston explains he spent years studying in London, Paris, Vienna, Egypt, China, and India, learning different fields of science as well as "the old mysteries that modern science has not yet rediscovered,

1224-422: A wide-brimmed, black fedora and a crimson scarf just below his nose and across his mouth and chin. Both the cloak and scarf covered either a black double-breasted trench coat or a regular black suit. As seen in some of the later comics series, The Shadow also would wear his hat and scarf with either a black Inverness coat or Inverness cape . In the radio drama that debuted in 1937, The Shadow does not wear

1292-474: Is Lamont Cranston , a "wealthy young man-about-town". In the pulps, Cranston is a separate character, a rich playboy who travels the world while The Shadow uses his identity and resources in New York ( The Shadow Laughs , 1931). The Shadow's disguise as Cranston works well because the two men resemble each other ( Dictator of Crime , 1941). In their first meeting, The Shadow threatens Cranston, saying that unless

1360-587: The Detective Story Magazine to radio format. Chrisman and Sweets thought the program should be introduced by a mysterious storyteller. A young scriptwriter, Harry Charlot, suggested the name of "The Shadow". Thus, "The Shadow" premiered over CBS airwaves on July 31, 1930, as the host of the Detective Story Hour , narrating "tales of mystery and suspense from the pages of the premier detective fiction magazine ". The bulk of

1428-458: The Doc Savage stories, and Theodore Tinsley . In the late 1940s, mystery novelist Bruce Elliott (also a magician) temporarily replaced Gibson as the primary author of the pulp series (he wrote #'s 306 through 320). Richard Wormser , a reader for Street & Smith, wrote two Shadow stories. For a complete list of Street and Smith's Shadow novels (and a list of the reprint editions), see

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1496-568: The List of The Shadow stories article. The Shadow Magazine ceased publication with the Summer 1949 issue, but Walter B. Gibson wrote three new "official" stories between 1963 and 1980. The first began a new series of nine Shadow mass market paperback novels from Belmont Books . In this series, The Shadow is given psychic powers, including the radio character's ability "to cloud men's minds", so that he effectively became invisible. Return of The Shadow

1564-503: The Mutual Broadcasting System . Thus began the "official" radio drama , with 22-year-old Orson Welles starring as Lamont Cranston, a "wealthy young man about town." Once The Shadow joined Mutual as a half-hour series on Sunday evenings, the program was broadcast by Mutual until December 26, 1954. Welles did not speak the signature line, "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?" Instead, Readick did, using

1632-516: The Brain". Another possible inspiration for The Shadow is the French character Judex ; the first episode of the original Judex film serial was released in the United States as The Mysterious Shadow , and Judex's costume is similar to The Shadow's. French comics historian Xavier Fournier notes other similarities with another silent serial, The Shielding Shadow , whose protagonist had

1700-459: The Cobalt Club with NYPD Commissioner Ralph Weston and later Commissioner Wainwright Barth, who is also Cranston's uncle (portrayed by Jonathan Winters in the 1994 film). Weston believes Cranston is merely a rich playboy who dabbles in detective work out of curiosity. Another police contact is Detective (later Inspector) Joseph Cardona, a key character in many Shadow novels. In contrast to

1768-867: The Cobalt Club, an exclusive restaurant and lounge catering to the wealthy, and associates with New York City Police Commissioner Ralph Weston. The Shadow's other disguises include: businessman Henry Arnaud , who like Cranston is a real person whose identity Allard simply assumes at times, as revealed in Arnaud's first appearance The Black Master (March 1, 1932); elderly Isaac Twambley , who first appears in No Time for Murder (December 1944); and Fritz , an old, seemingly slow-witted, uncommunicative janitor who works at police headquarters, listening in on conversations and examining recovered evidence, first appearing in The Living Shadow (April 1931). In Teeth of

1836-547: The Collecting Channel's Andy Hooper: While the format was pioneered by Whitman Publishing , other firms produced big little books between 1934 and 1960: Dell Comics (Cartoon Story Books e Fast-Action Stories); Engel van Wiseman (Five-Star Library Books); Fawcett (Dime Action Books); Goldsmith (Radio Star Series); Lynn (A Lynn Book); Ottenheimer; Saalfield (Little Big Books e Jumbo Books); Waldman (Moby Books) e World Syndicate (High Lights of History Series). Whitman

1904-538: The Dragon and later stories including The Golden Pagoda , The Shadow is known in Chinatown as Ying Ko , often fighting the criminal Tong . In the 2015 Altus Press novel The Sinister Shadow by Will Murray , The Shadow masquerades as celebrated criminologist George Clarendon of Chicago , a past member of the Cobalt Club and long-time friend of Commissioner Weston. For the first half of The Shadow's tenure in

1972-613: The Sea and Realm of Doom ), where he defeated one Finger of the organization in each book. In addition, the villain King Kauger from the Shadow story Wizard of Crime is the unseen mastermind behind the events of Intimidation, Inc. , and the organization known as The Silent Seven was referenced in the previous title The Death Tower . Villains Diamond Bert Farwell, Isaac Coffran, Steve Cronin, Spotter, and Birdie Crull all originated in

2040-475: The advent of television. They continued to publish Astounding Science Fiction well into the late 1950s. Condé Nast Publications , a subsidiary of the Newhouse family's Advance Publications , bought the company for more than $ 3.5 million in 1959. The company's name continued to be used on the sports pre-season preview magazines until 2007 when Advance division American City Business Journals acquired

2108-555: The audience to distinguish between the voices of so many male actors. The radio script for "The Death House Rescue" (reprinted in The Shadow Scrapbook ) features Harry Vincent, but he did not appear in the actual radio broadcast or any episode of the radio drama series. Clyde Burke made occasional appearances, but not as an agent of The Shadow. Lieutenant Cardona was a minor character in several episodes. Moe Shrevnitz (identified only as "Shrevvy") made several appearances as

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2176-469: The authorized novel The Sinister Shadow , an entry in the Wild Adventures of Doc Savage series from Altus Press . The novel, written by Will Murray , used unpublished material originally written in 1932 by Doc Savage originator Lester Dent and published under the pen name Kenneth Robeson. Set in 1933, the story details the conflict between the two pulp magazine icons during a crime wave caused by

2244-537: The beginning of a long association between the radio persona and sponsor Blue Coal . While functioning as a narrator of The Blue Coal Radio Revue , the character was recycled by Street & Smith in October 1931, for its newly created Love Story Hour . Contrary to dozens of encyclopedias, published reference guides, and even Walter Gibson himself, The Shadow never served as narrator of Love Story Hour . He appeared only in advertisements for The Shadow Magazine at

2312-474: 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

2380-430: The demand and responding promptly, circulation manager Henry William Ralston of Street & Smith commissioned Walter B. Gibson to begin writing stories about "The Shadow" Using the pen name of Maxwell Grant and claiming the stories were "from The Shadow's private annals" as told to him, Gibson wrote 282 out of 325 tales over the next 20 years: a novel-length story twice a month (1st and 15th). The first story produced

2448-457: The end of each episode. In October 1932, the radio persona temporarily moved to NBC . Frank Readick Jr. again played the role of the sinister-voiced host on Mondays and Wednesdays, both at 6:30 p.m., with La Curto taking occasional turns as the title character. Readick returned as The Shadow to host a final CBS mystery anthology that fall. The series disappeared from CBS airwaves on March 27, 1935, due to Street & Smith's insistence that

2516-505: The entire production" of an old book with facsimile images showing pages with wear and tear. "We're basically trying to eternalize that book as it is," says Thibadeau. The Antique Books Digital Library offers two free Big Little Book titles, Tim McCoy on the Tomahawk Trail and Bronc Peeler The Lone Cowboy . Fred Harman 's Bronc Peeler was a Western comic strip character who was a precursor to another comic strip drawn by Harman,

2584-615: The episode "The Temple Bells of Neban" (1937), The Shadow said he developed these abilities in India specifically, under the guidance of a "Yogi priest" who was "Keeper of the Temple of Cobras" in Delhi . He does not wear a mask or any disguise while invisible, and so in episodes such as "The Temple Bells of Neban" he is cautious when he meets an enemy who could potentially disrupt his hypnotic abilities, exposing his true face and instantly making him

2652-470: The episode "The Temple Bells of Neban" in 1937). He explicitly states in several episodes that his talents are not magic but based on science. Returning to New York, he decides he can best aid the police and his city by operating outside the law as an invisible vigilante. He is somewhat less ruthless and more compassionate than the pulp incarnation, and without the vast network of agents and operatives. Only cab driver/chauffeur Shrevvy makes regular appearances on

2720-776: The first two pulps and returned at least once. The series featured a myriad of one-shot villains including: The Golden Vulture, Malmordo, The Red Blot, The Black Falcon, The Cobra, Five-Face, Li Hoang, Velma Thane, Quetzal, Judge Lawless, The Gray Ghost, The Silver Skull, Gaspard Zemba, Thade the Death Giver, Kwa the Living Joss, Mox, and The Green Terror. In addition to The Hand and The Silent Seven, The Shadow also battled other one-shot collectives of criminals, including The Hydra, The Green Hoods, The White Skulls, The Five Chameleons, and The Salamanders. In early 1930, Street & Smith hired David Chrisman and Bill Sweets to adapt

2788-554: The hero was in his civilian identity of Lamont Cranston and effects were added when he became invisible and acted as The Shadow, his voice now having a sinister and seemingly omnipresent quality. To explain this power, radio episodes regularly said that while a young man, The Shadow traveled around the world and then through the Orient, where he learned how to read thoughts and became a master of hypnotism , granting him "the mysterious power to cloud men's minds, so they could not see him". In

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2856-498: The ideal name for the phantom announcer: "The Shadow". Thus, beginning on July 31, 1930, "The Shadow" was the name given to the mysterious narrator of the Detective Story Hour radio program. The narrator was initially voiced by James LaCurto, who was replaced after four months by prolific character actor Frank Readick Jr. The episodes were drawn from the Detective Story Magazine issued by Street & Smith,

2924-516: The more successful Red Ryder . From 1939 the British Woolworths Group sold "Mighty Midgets", 32-page books that measured 3 + 3 ⁄ 4 by 2 + 1 ⁄ 2  in (95 by 64 mm) and were sold at the artificially low price of threepence; the price subsidised by a full page advertisement on the back. Sam Mendes ' film Road to Perdition (2002) showed a boy reading The Lone Ranger Big Little Book, but this

2992-445: The nation's oldest and largest publisher of pulp magazines at the time. Although the latter company had hoped the radio broadcasts would boost the declining sales of Detective Story Magazine , the result was quite different. Listeners found the sinister announcer much more compelling than the unrelated stories. They soon began asking newsdealers for copies of "that Shadow detective magazine", even though it did not exist. Recognizing

3060-578: The natural magic that modern psychology is beginning to understand." He states his hypnotic and seemingly telepathic abilities are not magic but based on scientific secrets most of the world has forgotten or does not yet understand. In "The Temple Bells of Neban" in 1937, he specifies that a Yogi priest, "Keeper of the Temple of Cobras" in Delhi , taught him how to be invisible by "clouding" peoples' minds. He indicates in "The Death House Rescue" that he always intended to use his acquired knowledge to secretly fight evil forces that evaded conventional authorities. In

3128-533: The playboy agrees to allow the aviator to use his identity when he is abroad, then Allard will simply take over the man's identity entirely, having already made arrangements to begin the process, including switching signatures on various documents. Although alarmed at first, the real Lamont Cranston agrees, deciding that sharing his resources and identity is better than losing both entirely. The two men sometimes meet afterward in order to impersonate each other ( Crime over Miami , 1940). As Cranston, The Shadow often attends

3196-402: The police really need his help. Four years after the radio show began, the character was introduced into the pulp novels as one of The Shadow's agents. Her sudden, unexplained appearance in the pulps annoyed readers and generated a flurry of hate mail printed on The Shadow Magazine's letters page. In early scripts of the radio drama, the character's name was spelled "Margot." The name itself

3264-405: 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

3332-461: The pulps, The Shadow radio drama limited the cast of major characters to The Shadow, Commissioner Weston, and Margo Lane, the last of whom was created for the radio series. Along with giving The Shadow a love interest, Margo was created because it was believed that including Harry Vincent as a regular would mean an overabundance of male characters (considering the criminals in the stories were usually male, too) and could possibly make it difficult for

3400-401: The pulps, his past and true identity (outside of his Cranston disguise) are ambiguous. In The Living Shadow , a thug claiming to have seen the Shadow's face recalls seeing "a piece of white that looked like a bandage". In The Black Master and The Shadow's Shadow , the villains of both stories see The Shadow's true face and remark the vigilante is a man of many faces with no face of his own. It

3468-424: The radio series, but the character is different from his print counterpart. Commissioner Weston and a few other supporting characters from the print stories also are adapted to radio. The Shadow has a network of agents who assist him in his war on crime. These include: Though initially wanted by the police, The Shadow also works with and through them, notably gleaning information from his many chats (as Cranston) at

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3536-508: The radio show was written primarily by Sidney Slon . The narrator was first voiced by James La Curto, but became a national sensation when radio veteran Frank Readick, Jr. assumed the role and gave it "a hauntingly sibilant quality that thrilled radio listeners". Following a brief tenure as narrator of Street & Smith's Detective Story Hour , "The Shadow" character was used to host segments of The Blue Coal Radio Revue , airing on Sundays at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. This marked

3604-469: The radio storyteller be completely replaced by the master crime-fighter described in Walter B. Gibson's ongoing pulps. Street & Smith entered into a new broadcasting agreement with Blue Coal in 1937, and that summer Gibson teamed with scriptwriter Edward Hale Bierstadt to develop the new series. The Shadow returned to network airwaves with the episode "The Death House Rescue" on September 26, 1937, over

3672-600: The sales of its Detective Story Magazine , Street & Smith Publications hired David Chrisman, of the Ruthrauff & Ryan advertising agency , and writer-director William Sweets to adapt the magazine's stories into a radio series. Chrisman and Sweets thought the upcoming series should be narrated by a mysterious storyteller with a sinister voice and began searching for a suitable name. One of their scriptwriters, Harry Engman Charlot, suggested various possibilities, such as "The Inspector" or "The Sleuth". Charlot then proposed

3740-620: The same episode, when his companion Margo Lane suggests he work openly with the police, Cranston implies the police and general public would not understand or approve of his strange methods and abilities, concluding he is only effective by working outside of the law. The radio version of The Shadow is less ruthless than his pulp counterpart, preferring to capture his foes more often than gun them down. He sometimes openly shows compassion for his enemies, even at time criticizing society for creating circumstances that lead to certain crimes and cause some people to lose hope and support. After Welles departed

3808-417: The series had interior color illustrations. After the first Big Little Book, The Adventures of Dick Tracy , was published (December 1932), numerous titles were sold through Woolworth 's and other retail store systems during the 1930s. With a name change to Better Little Books during 1938, the series continued into the 1960s. Variations such as Dime Action Books were produced by other publishers, as noted by

3876-402: The show in 1938, Bill Johnstone was chosen to replace him and voiced the character for five seasons. Following Johnstone's departure, The Shadow was portrayed by such actors as Bret Morrison (the longest tenure, with 10 years total in two separate runs), John Archer , and Steven Courtleigh (the actors were rarely credited). The Shadow also inspired another radio hit, The Whistler , with

3944-576: The war's conclusion, Allard finds a new challenge in waging war on criminals. Allard falsifies his death by crash landing his plane in Guatemala , encountering the indigenous "Xinca tribe" as a result, who see him as a supernatural being and provide him with two loyal aides. Allard returns to the United States and takes residence in New York City , adopting numerous identities to acquire valuable information and conceal his true nature, and recruiting

4012-460: The world to "learn the old mysteries that modern science has not yet rediscovered" ("Death House Rescue" in 1937). Along with learning skills and knowledge in Europe, Africa, and Asia, he spends time training with a Yogi priest, "Keeper of the Temple of Cobras", in Delhi and learns how to read thoughts and hypnotize people enough to "cloud" their minds, making himself invisible to them (as revealed in

4080-522: Was The Living Shadow published April 1, 1931. Gibson's characterization of The Shadow laid the foundations for the archetype of the superhero, including stylized imagery and title, sidekicks, supervillains, and a secret identity. Clad in black, The Shadow operated mainly after dark as a vigilante in the name of justice, terrifying criminals into vulnerability. Gibson himself claimed the literary inspirations upon which he had drawn were Bram Stoker 's Dracula and Edward Bulwer-Lytton 's "The House and

4148-706: Was a New York City publisher specializing in inexpensive paperbacks and magazines referred to as dime novels and pulp fiction . They also published comic books and sporting yearbooks. Among their many titles was the science fiction pulp magazine Astounding Stories , acquired from Clayton Magazines in 1933, and retained until 1961. Street & Smith was founded in 1855, and was bought out in 1959. The Street & Smith headquarters were at 79 Seventh Avenue in Manhattan ; they were designed by Henry F. Kilburn . Francis Scott Street and Francis Shubael Smith began their publishing partnership in 1855 when they took over

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4216-413: Was also the last to abandon the form, publishing big little books about boomer characters like Major Matt Mason into the mid-1960s. Not all big little books adhered to the original format of text on the left side and a large graphic on the right of each page spread, and the earlier, more heavily illustrated books are more valuable as a result... Dick Tracy was the hero of the first big little book, and he

4284-435: Was an anachronism since the movie is set during 1931, a year prior to the first Big Little Books and two years before The Lone Ranger premiered January 31, 1933 on radio. The Shadow In radio and film only: The Shadow is a fictional character created by American magazine publishers Street & Smith and writer Walter B. Gibson . Originally created to be a mysterious radio show narrator, and developed into

4352-956: Was followed by almost every major cartoon , comic and radio character of the 1930s, including Alley Oop , Buck Rogers , Blondie and Dagwood , Li'l Abner , Mickey Mouse , Popeye , Captain Midnight , Tarzan and dozens more. There were also numerous books published that featured original characters created particularly for the Big Little series, and those are now little remembered, usually selling for $ 10 or less each in any condition. A few titles were ostensibly non-fiction works about famous people, as with Whitman's Billy The Kid (1935) and The Story of Jackie Cooper (1933), which proves that biographies of child movie stars are no recent phenomenon. Recently, Robert Thibadeau's project at Carnegie Mellon University has made at least two Big Little Books available online. Thibadeau attempts to "capture

4420-566: Was not until the August 1937 issue, The Shadow Unmasks , that The Shadow's real name was revealed. In the radio drama series that premiered in 1937, the Allard secret identity and backstory were dropped for simplicity's sake. The radio incarnation of The Shadow is really and only Lamont Cranston with no other regular cover identities, though he does adopt disguises and short-term aliases during some adventures. The radio version of Cranston travels

4488-524: Was originally inspired by Margot Stevenson , the Broadway ingénue who would later be chosen to voice Lane opposite Welles's The Shadow during "the 1938 Goodrich summer season of the radio drama." In the 1994 film in which Penelope Ann Miller played the character, Margo is portrayed as telepathic, making her aware of and able to counter The Shadow's mental abilities. Street %26 Smith Street & Smith or Street & Smith Publications, Inc. ,

4556-410: Was published in 2023. The character and look of The Shadow gradually evolved over his lengthy fictional existence: As depicted in the pulps, The Shadow wore a wide-brimmed black hat and a black, crimson-lined cloak with an upturned collar over a standard black business suit. In the 1940s comic books, the later comic book series, and the 1994 film starring Alec Baldwin , he wore either the black hat or

4624-789: Was published under his own name. The remaining eight novels in this series, The Shadow Strikes , Shadow Beware , Cry Shadow , The Shadow's Revenge , Mark of The Shadow , Shadow Go Mad , Night of The Shadow , and The Shadow, Destination: Moon , were written by Dennis Lynds , not Gibson, under the Maxwell Grant pseudonym. The other two Gibson works were the novelettes "The Riddle of the Rangoon Ruby", published June 1, 1979 in The Shadow Scrapbook . and "Blackmail Bay", published February 1, 1980 in The Duende History of The Shadow Magazine . The Shadow returned in 2015 in

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