The Shadow Radio Program

As a fan of The Shadow character, Martin Grams wrote what has been the most anticipated book of the year. After consulting authorities on the subject, I have heard nothing but high praise. Could The Shadow: The History and Mystery of the Radio Program be worth the hype?

Early this morning I received a package from the post office. A complete surprise! The book arrived! Having paid for a copy back in October at the Friends of Old Time Radio Convention, I was eager to tear into it. And today was my day off work. Lucky me! Well.... here's my review.

After spending two hours reading various passages and chapters, it has occurred to me that it's going to take at least a week to digest everything in this book. There's a chapter about the Blue Coal Mystery Revue (1932 to 1933, NBC) and an episode guide documenting every episode from that season including The Shadow's narration and plot summaries. A chapter documenting the Australian series (both of them) from the forties with complete cast credits. Charles Michelson and his syndication business is explained in detail, a void now filled for the old time radio fans who have been crying for someone to document how Michelson syndicated the radio programs. Juvenile impact and World War II is the focus of chapter four. My favorite is chapter seven which describes all of the observations and details about Lamont Cranston and Margot Lane, from the extant scripts and recordings. They both smoked cigarettes on the program! (Can you say "role models" boys and girls?)

The history of the radio program is slickly divided into various subjects. A chapter about the Orson Welles broadcasts, a chapter about Bret Morrison's triumphant return and stay, and a chapter about Bill Johnstone.

I honestly don't know who on God's Green Earth will want to know all the radio stations in Los Angeles that chose to broadcast The Shadow radio program from the 1930s to the 1950s, but whatever you are looking for, you can find it in this 830 page book with a comprehensive index.

My gripes? (Always gripes no matter what the book.) The graphic designer or the printers goofed and all of the pages and text are centered. That is, the very few pages at the end of each chapter doesn't start at the top of the page and scroll down. They are perfectly centered. But this is no fault to the author or the publisher. It's obviously a printing error and perhaps my copy is the only one that fell through the cracks. And it is a minor gripe.

One observation I would like to make. The author has class. As pointed out in the introduction of the book, his research was extensive and exclusive. He did not consult previously published reference guides to avoid reprinting the same errors that continue to appear in other books. Good for him. As I flipped through the pages, I discovered numerous footnotes clarifying his information and why it conflicts with that found in other books. He clarifies and cites all of his sources, and the sources for the mistakes that have been printed in the past. Rather than call out the books by name, he merely refers to them as "prior published reference guides." This saves face for the so-called "authorities" who were responsible for generating the errors in the first place. Kudos to Mr. Grams for doing this. (Course, everyone in the hobby probably knows who the screwball is that made the errors and would not take the time to make the corrections.)

At first I thought the $29.95 price was a bit steep for a book about a radio program but when it arrived and I saw it was 800 pages, it only took 60 seconds of flipping through the pages to discover it was worth every penny. (Especially since I just bought a 202 page book for $95 from McFarland.)

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