Radio: 'The Shadow' featuring Orson Welles (1937-1938)

(In the public-ish domain and available online at https://archive.org/details/RkoOrsonWelles-TheShadow-RadioRecodings)

 "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!"

There's something utterly gleeful about Old Time Radio. The imagination and verve, the skill in writing for pure narrative without visuals, the sound effects, and the magnificent performances of the great voice artists of the day combine to make shows that stand the test of time. Yes, there were many potboilers in the mix, but there was also 'The Mercury Theatre On The Air', 'Richard Diamond: Private Detective', 'The Adventures Of Superman' and 'The Shadow', amongst others. 'The Shadow' is a massive amount of fun! It's a noir-ish and fantastical crime series, with elements of mysticism thrown in for good measure.

'The Shadow' is up there amongst all the fun portion of Old Time US Radio, especially in the patch that was Orson's time as performer. For all his reputation as a person who took over all aspects of productions, here he just played the part, and probably enjoyed it immensely. I know next to nothing about the works of Orson Welles, but radio was probably where he was most alive, and to where he could never return once television took over as the primary broadcasting medium. He had a gift for playing the sheer weirdness of Lamont Cranston and The Shadow, those two corners of one person that lie diametrically opposed to one another, that would be hard to equal.

Of course, you can't take this show too seriously, as it's pure pulp nonsense, but it is primordial pulp nonsense. These recordings and productions predate the popular first appearances of both Batman and Superman, and maybe represent the first superhero on radio. He's a very curious superhero by modern standards, a bored dilettante who picked up some mental tricks and powers while travelling, who can appear invisible and read minds when he has to, and who doesn't particularly mind if the villain ends up dead as a result of his actions. Not so much a hero as a morally ambiguous vigilante, with a girlfriend who had to be utterly crackers to go along with all his activities. It's progressive that Margo Lane was in on the whole secret, and willing to forgo matrimony for the sake of The Shadow, but at the same time she was endorsing some extremely antisocial tendencies...

It's strange to think that the organ music introduction would now be an utterly fantastical thing, and the opening and closing narrations so comical to many, but if you get into the context then it all becomes very powerful. Yes, The Shadow knows, and now so do we. It's a very fun listen. As with many things featured here on the Quirky Muffin, getting into the context is vitally important. This will become ever more evident once we get to 'Hunter', 'The Six Million Dollar Man', 'The Wild Wild West', and revisit 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea'.

"The weed of crime bears bitter fruit. Crime does not pay... The Shadow knows!"

O.