The Shadow Aborts the Great Society/New Deal

Old Time Radio ^ | 2/10/17

[Eleutheria5]

The Valley of the Living Dead

[Eleutheria5]

Amazingly, the Shadow fights a philanthropist who wants to give everybody luxurious living for free, and won't let anyone take a step without him. When they try to bust free, he wants to kill them all.

I always thought Welles was an old-school leftist.

[Calvin Locke]

Welles only did one season before heading West, and he was only an actor, as far as the production went. He was the first Lamont Cranston, which was the personification of "The Shadow". Previously, since its debut in 1930, "The Shadow" was the narrator of the crime story that stood in the shadows.

Looking up "Valley Of The Living Dead", it was from 1/10/39, starring Bill Johnstone as Lamont Cranston. With Agnes Moorehead, probably her second season.

I power-listened, accelerated, to a chronological sort of my collection some years back, and what stood out was how the bad guys ended up. First by getting shot by the police, then by Old Sparky (death penalty), then by accident when fleeing...there's a progression on what happens to the "bitter fruit".

[\/\/ayne]

Also, I heard Orson Welles refused to rehearse which constantly stressed out the director. To add even more stress, one day Welles dropped his script on the floor just before live air, scattering the papers everywhere. As the director began to freak out, Welles pulled the real script from his jacket. Just a prank!

[\/\/ayne]

I'll listen to this later on my cellphone app.

[Eleutheria5]

Somehow, when people think Shadow, they think Welles. Mostly I like the radio Gunsmoke and Nero Wolfe, but I think I’ll give the Shadow a closer look to clarify it.

[Calvin Locke]

I think Johnstone was (an) Inspector Cramer(?)in Nero Wolfe.

[Calvin Locke]

Also, I heard Orson Welles refused to rehearse...

I wouldn't put it past Welles, but the reality was that Welles was busy doing the Mercury Theater's Sunday matinee show, and was arriving by taxi at the studio, minutes before "The Shadow" went on the air.

There's an audio show, "The Story of the Shadow", running about 2hrs, iirc, that goes into a lot of the anecdotes, including the "dropping the script".

The longest, and final Margo Lane was a Canadian actress that had a story of being at some ritzy cocktail party, and describing her radio roles to some people, boring the heck out of them, until she said "...and I do 'Margo Lane' on 'The Shadow'", which got the entire room's attention.

[Eleutheria5]

I do Hebrew calligraphy, which requires my eyes to be on the parchment I’m writing on, so radio shows, especially Rush, are the only entertainment I can have. Weekends, there’s no Rush, so I look for old-time radio shows.