Popular Culture Review Vol. 10, No. 2, August 1999 | Page 109

Metaphor and The Shadow

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In 1932, The Shadow got his own radio show, but remained principally a
narrator until 1935. Leaving the air briefly. The Shadow returned with a new
series in September 1937. This series was wholly based on The Shadow hero of
the pulp magazines and featured Orson Welles in the title role. This time. The
Shadow radio series remained on the air until 1954 (Harmon, Radio Mystery 149).
By linking The Shadow to the new medium of radio, with its ability to
broadcast “real” voices and sounds into people’s living rooms. Street and Smith
magnified the character’s ability to function as a heroic archetype, especially in
the minds of the many young people who listened to the radio drama and read the
pulp novels. Street and Smith encouraged the public to think that The Shadow
was a real person. The magazines carried messages proclaiming that the novel
contained within was “from the Private Annals of The Shadow, as told to Maxwell
Grant” (Grant, Crime Oracle 2). In the first Shadow novel. The Living Shadow,
Gibson kept up the ruse by including an episode in which The Shadow broadcasts
his radio show from a hidden room in the radio studio. No one ever sees him enter
or leave, but his voice always comes over the airwaves at the proper time (Grant,
Living Shadow 188-89).
Walter Gibson’s Shadow was a much stronger character than the Detec
tive Story announcer who was his inspiration. Under Gibson’s hand. The Shadow
became a mysterious, costumed hero who materialized out of the night to terrorize
evildoers. A coterie of secret aides assisted him in his work. During the day. The
Shadow adopted the guise of millionaire playboy Lamont Cranston. In short, Gibson
transformed The Shadow into an archetypal hero of mythic proportions.
Birth and Rebirth
Several heroic archetypal metaphors figure powerfully in The Shadow
myth and, no doubt, have contributed to its resonance with the public. Most obvi
ous is birth and rebirth, perhaps the most basic archetypal metaphor, rooted in the
cycle of time. This metaphor can be manifested in a number of ways: the dawn,
the season of spring, birth, resurrection, and light/dark imagery.
The Shadow’s very name brings to mind the juxtaposition of light and
darkness, which he embodies in a unique way. Traditionally darkness conveys
feelings of cold, fear, and evil, while light represents warmth and goodness. For
example, the Bible repeatedly associates God with light: “God is light; in him there
is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5, New International Version). The Shadow, though
he is a force for good, adopts a cloak of darkness and turns it against evildoers.
Darkness, the traditional hiding place for criminals, is no longer a refuge for them.
In the pulp magazine. The Shadow had the ability to hide in the shadows, virtually
invisible. In the radio series this capacity became a useful plot device and The
Shadow acquired the power to assume an actual cloak of invisibility.