This was never more celebrated than the time during The Great Recession of 1937-1938 through the end of WWII.
I am unabashedly a history nerd, old movie collector, and a believer in the fact that America and her allies (when we aren’t bickering) can get through just about anything. History proves this as fact. Additionally, I’m one of those odd people who check and double check everything but also optimistically believe that truth, and justice will, in time, prevail. It’s my gift to see things rationally and also impractically believe deeply in grace, mercy, and humility, as my family before me has done. As I present today’s blog I’m going to tap into a bit of that impractically, practical, nerdly movie buff and present you with a great flick to watch. I’m also going to share some fun facts about books, radio, comics and movies. Settle back, find a comfy chair, grab a family member (human or your pets LOL), and enjoy this classic movie from 1938. It assembles all my favorite movie ingredients, mystery, humor, sarcasm, a dash of romance and catching the bad guys before they get away! (time 1 hour 5 minutes) Danger on the Air stars Nan Gray, Donald Woods, Lee J. Cobb, William Lundigan, and was directed by Otis Garrett. It’s plot shows the behind the scenes at a radio studio where the murder of a rather important sponsor takes place. Who dunnit, why, and how will they solve the muder before time runs out…
As many of you already know, the rest of the team of Tabitha’s Mountain Rhapsody Family artists are also very big entertainment “nerds… or is it geeks” LOL? They love movies and books, old and new. We've been known to listen to old time radio shows! Many of the movies or movie series produced before and during WWII had been based on books whose popularity made them instant box office hits. Before we get into the lists of books that became radio shows and then movies, allow me to introduce you to two resources (besides youtube) for some entertainment gold. First, Comic Book Plus a veritable cornucopia of vintage comic books, comic strips, radio programs and general trivia about some of our favorite iconic characters. The second is the trusty Internet Archive. (Please don’t take my review of these website as a 100% approval of all that is on these sites, obviously with thousands of entries I cannot vouch for all of the content)
It is hard to choose between iconic stories that made both wonderful radio shows and also great movies. In fact the movie Danger on the Air was one of the “Crime Club” series from Universal in conjunction with Doubleday Publishing house. A series of 10 films about which you can learn more here: The Crime Club Books that became radio serials and then made it to the big screen: Dr. Kildare: Originally in pulp fiction written under the name Max Brand, Dr. Kildare went on to become a popular radio serial and eventually a film series by MGM. The Saint: Leslie Charteris, created this wildly popular, smooth talking, devilishly handsome character in 1928. The books became a very popular radio show and then on to delight audiences in movie theaters. The Saint Strikes Back from 1939 is available for purchase on YouTube.
Though the “pulp novel’ market had just about run its course by the end of the war, that didn’t stop the American public from enjoying the adventures of larger than life heroes. Authors whose work is now very well respected, Agatha Christie, H. Rider Haggard, P.G. Wodehouse, O. Henry, and many more wrote, and often got their start in the pages of pulp magazines. In fact, many of the heroes then are still spoken of today!
Closely related to pulp novels were comic books. Comic books portrayed the same types of stories as pulp novels (and often with the same characters) in a visual format that both the young and old could appreciate. While they are most famous for superheroes today, in the ‘40’s, comic books covered a wide variety of genres and characters; science fiction, fantasy, crime, humor, and romance comics were extremely popular. They were a cheap form of entertainment that common folk could get their hands on; television was in its infancy, and radios were expensive, but you could pick comics off of any newsstand for just a few cents. For just a dime, you could escape our often drab, boring reality into a world of color and adventure.
One of the more popular comic book characters in the 1940s was Flash Gordon, created in 1934 by writer and artist Alex Raymond. Flash was a Yale graduate and an accomplished polo player, until he was informed by Dr. Zakoff of an imminent threat to the safety of Earth. Zarkoff, Flash, and his love interest, Dale, took off in a rocket ship for the planet Mongo. Flash battled numerous alien creatures in his never-ending quest to protect the peoples of Earth and Mongo from the evil emperor Ming the merciless. You can listen to the complete radio serial from 1935 by clicking below
A little closer to Earth was the Shadow. Street & Smith, a pulp magazine publisher, sponsored the Detective Story Hour radio series, which featured a sinister sounding narrator known only as the Shadow. The character proved so popular that Street & Smith decided to give him his own pulp series. Street & Smith hired Walter Gibson, author and illusionist, to write the first story featuring the character in April of 1931. The shadow was a crimefighter, and a master of the mystic arts, able to make himself seem invisible to his enemies. The Shadow prefigured the era of masked vigilantes, and was a prototype for characters such as Batman. The Shadow was eventually given his own comic book series, a daily newspaper strip and even a 15-part movie serial. Enjoy this playlist of the original Shadow radio series below:
And last, but not least, is a character whose popularity has rarely waned since his original appearance in Action Comics #1 in 1938: Superman! Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster back in 1935; the first character that can be properly called a superhero. The two shopped the story around to several publishers, until the company that would become DC Comics picked up the character. Superman has since enjoyed broad popularity and wide influence ever since then, and has appeared in television, movies, and radio. You can listen to the original Superman radio series from 1940 below:
I want to thank Ian Thomas Wilson and T.k. Wilson of Tabitha's Mountain Rhapsody Family Artists for their help in today's blog. All of us really enjoyed the experience. I do realize that it is a bit late however, it was my intention to share some family entertainment for this weekend. Since we all are learning to function in a way similar to our WWII grandparents, it is my hope we can deepen our resolve to carry on in a way that will leave an important legacy.
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