Goldean Age Characters on Radio

[profpike]

I was just thinking-besides Batman and Superman, of course, there were a few characters from other companies that had radio shows-The ones I can think of are Mandrake The Magician (Dell) Blue Beetle (Fox), Black Hood (MLJ), and Green Lama (Prize). Am I missing anyone?

[Yoc]

The Shadow was a big one, Corliss Archer and the Spirit come to mind and many actors got their own comics.  Especially the western stars.

[CharlieRock]

The Shadow first season (did they call it that back then?) had Orson Welles speaking the role.

[CharlieRock]

The Shadow first season (did they call it that back then?) had Orson Welles speaking the role.

P.S. Too bad most of the CD publishers I have found so far want to break my wallet for CDs of these old shows. I checked out some Green hornet and The Shadow from my local library and they were great to listen to on the way to work. But by now I have checked out every CD in my library's collection, lol.

[narfstar]

Almost all of them can be downloaded for free from archive.org. My son uses a dealer that is real reasonable I will pass it on if you want. Those that do CD audio are expensive but mp3 can be real cheap.

[profpike]

I guess I was thinking "superheroes" I forgot the Green Hornet, but defs on The Shadow and Spirit...

[profpike]

So, the Legion of Radio could be:-Blue Beetle, Black Hood, Mandrake, Green Lama, Shadow, and Spirit.

I wonder how the smaller publishers got their shows on the air?

[SuperScrounge]

The Shadow first season (did they call it that back then?) had Orson Welles speaking the role.

Actually the Shadow started on radio. Originally Street & Smith had a show promoting their magazines. The host called himself the Shadow. Afterwards people asked for The Shadow magazine and Street & Smith realized they better create one.

[TheRealMaxFortune]

Captain Midnight.

[JonTheScanner]

Actually thre was never a Batman radio show in the Golden Age. Batman did co-star on a couple of Superman episodes though.  DC's Hop Harrigan did have a radio show lasting from '42 to '48. Archie also had a radio show as did Novelty's Dick Cole.

[darkmark (RIP)]

Most comic strip characters had radio shows.  Comic book characters, however, had a tougher time, unless it was Superman.  The ones that got hustled onto radio (and I have a feeling Black Hood only got on because Archie was fairly successful and MLJ may have insisted on radio giving the Hood a try) didn't last all that long.

[Yoc]

I was surprised there was a Spirit radio show.  I wouldn't mind hearing some one day.

[darkmark (RIP)]

Doubtful that any episodes survive.

[kalel21]

There was a short-lived Doc Savage series in the mid-1940s, though no episodes survive.

There was an Avenger series, supposedly based on the pulp magazine character but turned into a copy of the Shadow. (Scientist finds a way to turn invisible and uses this to fight crime.)

Terry and the Pirates (based on Milt Caniff's brilliant comic strip) was a serial on radio for several years.

My favorite moment in the Blue Beetle radio series: The Beetle breaks into police HQ and ties up a cop so he can go through the fingerprint file and get a line on the villain he's pursuing. Later, while making his getaway, he's nearly caught by the police because he refuses to run a red light.

[mr_goldenage (RIP)]

I am amazed at the amount of characters that actually had radio shows. Now this begs the question how many radio characters that could be considered crimefighers masked, costumed, or super types that never made it off of radio? ladies and gents I ask you?

Richard