The Shadow – The Society of the Living Dead

Posted by crypticescapemagazine on May 5, 2017 in Old Time Radio, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

An evil businessman kidnaps his partner and keeps him in a burial vault. He wants him to sign a confession stating how he killed himself by drowning. Once the confession is signed, he will then kill his associate, take over the whole business and marry his partner’s daughter. As The Shadow investigates a fake passport racket, it leads him to the mausoleum where the helpless prisoner is being kept.

The Shadow – “The Society of the Living Dead” January 23, 1938

Play Time: 29 Minutes

The Shadow is a collection of serialized dramas, originally in 1930s pulp novels, and then in a wide variety of media. One of the most famous adventure heroes of the 20th century United States, The Shadow has been featured on the radio, in a long-running pulp magazine series, in comic books, comic strips, television, serials, video games, and at least five films. The radio drama included episodes voiced by Orson Welles.

Originally simply a mysterious radio narrator who hosted a program designed to promote magazine sales for Street and Smith Publications, The Shadow was developed into a distinctive literary character, later to become a pop culture icon, by writer Walter B. Gibson in 1931. The character has been cited as a major influence on the subsequent evolution of comic book superheroes, particularly Batman.

The Shadow debuted on July 31, 1930, as the mysterious narrator of the Street and Smith radio program Detective Story Hour, which was developed in an effort to boost sales of Detective Story Magazine.  When listeners of the program began asking at newsstands for copies of “That Shadow detective magazine,” Street & Smith decided to create a magazine based around The Shadow and hired Gibson to create a character concept to fit the name and voice and write a story featuring him. The first issue of The Shadow Magazine went on sale on April 1, 1931, a pulp series.