The Shadow Radio Drama: Black Rock
3 min readBlack Rock: Remaking the Shadow Radio Drama
One of the most influential shows from the golden age of radio, “The Shadow” radio drama casts a large umbra over pop culture. This is a two-part review comparing the original broadcast with a fan-made remake.
Complicated History or Comic Book History?
The Shadow is an intellectual property with a history almost as complicated as DC Comic’s continuity between their various reboots. It started out as character in a pulp magazine from Street and Smith publications. A few years later, the Shadow would make his first radio as the host of another radio program “The Detective Story Magazine Radio Hour”. By September 1937, the fictional host whose catchphrase was simply “The Shadow knows” followed by story title, the issue number and his iconic laugh was cancelled after 52 episodes.
After that run, “The Shadow” came back for a few one-off stories on “Blue Coal Mystery Revu” from 1933-34 on CBS. Then, in 1937, Street and Smith Publications would finally give him his own show and adventures until 1954 on the Mutual Broadcast System. Its first episode starred Orson Welles in the lead role and was an unsurprising hit.
The Original Black Rock
Black Rock first aired in November 13, 1938 and stars Bill Johnstone as Lamont Cranston/The Shadow. Johnstone was first introduced as the title character in the show’s second season, which began with the “Traffic in Death” episode earlier in 1938. Johnstone plays Lamont well and does his best to not make a certain interrogation scene too over the top with scenes involving Cranston’s alter ego.
The story starts out strong with the framing an innocent man and the embezzlement of millions of dollars told first from the villain’s point of view. This episode of “The Shadow” radio drama doesn’t go the route of the anti-hero or villain with a justifiable motive. Instead, it makes them not only corrupt, but not too bright in terms of planning the job’s aftermath. It’s an almost precursor to Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises” prologue scenes where the audience sees the villains first and Batman must react to them.
As with most radio dramas, the good guy’s win and justice is served. Though you can see the seeds of the sympathetic villain character arc being dropped, nothing comes of it. It might be cliche, but the Shadow truly knows everything. Except, perhaps, the threshold for a listener’s suspension of disbelief.
If you’re a fan of the pulps and that type of story, you’ll find no better transitional moment in the history of storytelling than this episode. Unless perhaps you dive deep into the back log of episodes from the golden age of radio and the birth of television and the Hollywood system.
7.5/10
Next Time on …
Now, decades later, and a team of fans revived this iconic character in pop culture in 2018. Can they modernize it and do it effectively? Find out next #AudioDramaSunday with the second part of this review focusing on the remake from some fans.
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