The Shadow Fan

So exactly where does The Shadow come from? After much research, on this page you can find out just that answer!

Some say that Walter B. Gibson created The Shadow or that The Shadow was a radio show host until he finally got his own series. Well who ever has said this is wrong...

Walter B. Gibson gave The Shadow more of a personality, but he did not come up with the idea of a shrieking shadow hero nor did the radio show that first had The Shadow on it, Detective Story Hour.

According to Jim Steranko, a pulp historian, "The Shadow saga began in the February 1929 issue of Fame and Fortune, a pulp which built its stories around high finance, big business and stock marketers," Steranko wrote. "At the time, crime fiction was quite popular, so it was only natural the editors (would) think along those lines when they attempted to boost circulation of their other books. They commissioned George C. Jenks to script a tale about a mysterious figure who protects honest investors against crooked financiers. Jenks, writing under the house name of Frank S. Lawton, produced 'The Shadow of Wall Street.'"

"The cover visualized a hooded figure in green symbolically enveloping the New York Stock Exchange. The 35-page novelette revealed this Shadow as Compton Moore and was replete with suggestions about 'his awful glittering eyes, mocking laugh' and frightening elusiveness. 'Then from behind the mask sounded a hollow laugh. The next moment The Shadow was gone!'"

Now many of you may find this information farfetched, but what is said above is the truth! Just think about it why was Popeye the Sailor Man created? It was to tell kids to eat their spinach! So why can't The Shadow be the original protector of Wall Street and its investors? Also many of you have also been doubting the whole Kent Allard is the real identity to The Shadow and now you know who is truly the real shadow, Compton Moore.

I will still be referring to The Shadow's true identity as Kent Allard because this Compton Moore/The Shadow character died out with the Great Depression on October 1929 until the company Street & Smith used The Shadow character on a weekly radio show, Detective Story Hour. To secure their copyright on The Shadow Street & Smith released pulp magazines. With this came The Shadow that we all know and love today...

Thank you Fame and Fortune if it wasn't for you...well...I don't know where I would be in life...

Quotes and information were used from http://www.budplant.com/bio.itml/icOid/10049

Pictures created by my the Justin Dortvekt email him at, whimsical_icebox[at]yahoo.com

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