Radio history of The Shadow and host Bret Morrison & Orson Welles

The Shadow

1930 - 1954

Orson Welles was an early voice of The Shadow, and the most famous one as well.

The Shadow is probably the best remembered radio crime fighter of all time. But it was more than a super hero show. It also had supernatural overtones, and the Shadow himself was a cruel dispenser of vigilante justice with a haunting laugh. For the first several years, he wasn't a character in the story at all, but an omniscient narrator/host, very similar to The Whistler (and a decade ahead of his time). He narrated The Detective Story Hour, a general crime anthology for Street & Smith's Detective Story magazine, the publishers behind The Shadow magazine. The Shadow was an active character in those stories, and the pulp sold like like gangbusters. Around 1937, the show's sponsor (Blue Coal) agreed to let the Shadow play the principal role in the radio plots as well... on a trial basis. (Dunning, 608) The results were golden and the trial was made permanent.

A large variety of actors voiced the role of The Shadow through its long run. James LaCurto was the first but quit after a few weeks to go on to Broadway. Frank Readick played the host after that for several years. Orson Welles played the Shadow in 1937, until The War Of the Worlds made Welles too famous for the role in 1938. (Interestingly enough, Agnus Moorehead played "his lovely companion", Margo Lane.) Bill Johnstone played the invisible crime fighter until early 1943. Bret Morrison replaced Johnstone in April of 1943 until 1944. John Archer did it for about a year, followed by Steve Courtleigh for a couple of months in 1945. Bret Morrison then returned from 1945 until 1954. (Dunning, 607.)

Of all the actors to voice The Shadow, it was Bret Morrison who played him the most (from 1945 until the end).

There were plenty of murder victims in The Shadow, but the guilty were always caught or better yet, killed via some sort of poetic justice. The criminals often had very morbid and mysterious ways of killing. They might use a specially designed house of death, or a killer mirror, or even weirder, as John Dunning recalls in his book.... "(I) vividly remember an episode when the Shadow tracked down a murdering scarecrow. When the killer's coat was ripped off, revealing nothing but straw, the implications were so terrifying that (I) couldn't sleep in an unlighted room for weeks."

Who knows what terrors lurk in the minds of kids? The Shadow knows!

The Standard Intro:

(Hear it in Real Audio!)

Music: (Omphale's Spinning Wheel by Saint Saens.)

Shadow: (filter) "Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh! Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows! Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh!"

Announcer: "The Shadow, mysterious character who aids the forces of law and order, is in reality, Lamont Cranston, wealthy young man-about-town. Years ago in the Orient, Lamont learned the strange and hypnotic power that allowed him to cloud men's minds so that they can not see him. Lamont's companion, the lovely Margo Lane, is the only one that knows to whom the voice of the invisible Shadow belongs. Tonight's drama (episode title)!"

The Standard Closing:

(Hear it in Real Audio!)

Music: (Omphale's Spinning Wheel by Saint Saens.)

Shadow: (filter) "The weed of crime bares bitter fruit. Crime does not pay. The shadow knows. Heh-heh-heh-heh!"

Hear An Actual Epsiode!

(Courtesy of Botar Archives)

A gift of murder - 12/21/1947

Aboard the Steamship Amazon - 07/17/1938

Altar of Death - 03/15/1942

Appointment with Death - 03/12/1939

Black Rock - 11/13/1938

Blind Beggar dies - 03/12/1939