‘The Shadow, who aids the forces of law and order, is in reality Lamont Cranston, a wealthy young man about town. Years ago in the Orient, Cranston learned the strange and mysterious secret to cloud men’s minds so that they cannot see him. Cranston’s friend and companion, the lovely Margo Lane, is the only person who knows to whom the voice of the Invisible Shadow belongs.’
Back in 1996 while working at the Helen Hayes Performing Arts Center in Nyack, New York. I convinced them to let me use their ‘Main Stage’ to put on a fundraiser for our local YMCA. Since there was always something going through the building. It had to be easily put on with little or no set or rehearsal. I knew just the thing and assembled The Nasty Attic players for ‘The Shadow Hour’.
‘The Shadow’ began on September 26, 1937, it was a radio drama based on the pulp magazine character created by William Gibson. It starred Orson Welles and Agnes Moorehead who were huge stars in the world of Radio. The opening of the show had it’s dark hero speaking over the thunderous music of Saint-Saëns‘ Le Rouet d’Omphale. His ghostly voice and cackling laugh proclaiming ‘Who knows what Evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow Knows!!!’.
Shadowy Tales
We put on two episodes from opposite ends of the character’s run on the radio. The first from 1937 when Orson Welles was playing the Shadow and the second a decade later from 1948 when Bret Morrison had taken on the mantle. Both actors and moments very different in tone. ‘The Silent avenger’ with its deadly shell shocked assassin. Coupled with the ‘Nursery Rhyme Murders’ with it’s no less lethal but more cartoon adversary.
Notes on our recordings.
While putting the website together. I listened to the copy of the show which I had on my computer. Which was taken from a recording made during the performance some 23 years ago back in 1997. Then given to us on a cassette tape. The recording had many problems including hum, hiss, dropouts and actor ‘mis-speakings’. Then there was a crucial scene missing from the second episode. This was why I had not done anything with the material before. But then, I remembered that I had sent my Mom in Gibraltar a cassette tape of the show all those years ago. Where I was living now. So, it might be here in my flat? I looked through my now departed Mom’s piles of cassettes and there it was. Fortunately, I had an old tape player of my father’s and managed to get enough ‘tension’ in the tape for it to play. The sound quality was still very poor and constantly slipping speed. But, I was able to put together a really clean, solid version with some new sound effects and music.