The Shadow

Robert Farrell

(3 stars; 4 reviews)

On July 31, 1930, a sinister voice introduced "The Detective Story Magazine Hour," a weekly radio program that dramatized stories from the pages of Street & Smith's Detective Story Magazine . The mysterious narrator claimed; "The Shadow knows all" and then announced the story from the current issue of the crime magazine with a menacing laugh. Though the program was canceled after 52 episodes, The Shadow became an immediate hit with the listening audience and continued on with his own magazine. The Shadow came back to the airwaves to narrate other crime programs, such as, "Blue Coal Mystery Revue and a handful of his own short lived shows in 1932 and 1934. However, they too were dropped from the airwaves. On September 26, 1937, Street & Smith gave The Shadow a central role, and a long-time radio residence, on the Mutual Broadcasting System network. The first show, starring Orson Welles, was titled "The Death House Rescue." The last radio program had Bret Morrison portraying the mysterious sleuth. It was titled "Murder by the Sea," and aired on December 26, 1954. Bret Morrison and Grace Matthews recorded two final episodes for a special record released in 1968.

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.

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