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The Shadow

The Shadow is a fictional character created by American magazine publishers Street & Smith and writer Walter B. Gibson. Originally created to be a mysterious radio show narrator, and developed into a distinct literary character in 1931 by Gibson, The Shadow has been adapted into other forms of media, including American comic books, comic strips, serials, video games, and at least five feature films. The radio drama included episodes voiced by Orson Welles.

The Shadow debuted on July 31, 1930, as the mysterious narrator of the radio program Detective Story Hour, which was developed to boost sales of Street & Smith's monthly pulp Detective Story Magazine. When listeners of the program began asking at newsstands for copies of "that Shadow detective magazine", Street & Smith launched a magazine based on the character, and hired Gibson to create a concept to fit the name and voice and to write a story featuring him. The first issue of the pulp series The Shadow Magazine went on sale April 1, 1931.

On September 26, 1937, The Shadow, a new radio drama based on the character as created by Gibson for the pulp magazine, premiered with the story "The Death House Rescue", in which The Shadow was characterized as having "the hypnotic power to cloud men's minds so they cannot see him". In the magazine stories, The Shadow did not become literally invisible.

The introductory line from the radio adaptation of The Shadow – "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!" – spoken by actor Frank Readick, has earned a place in the American idiom. These words were accompanied by an ominous laugh and a musical theme, Camille Saint-Saëns' Le Rouet d'Omphale ("Omphale's Spinning Wheel" composed in 1872).

The Shadow, at the end of each episode, reminded listeners, "The weed of crime bears bitter fruit! Crime does not pay...The Shadow knows!"

Some early episodes used the alternate statement, "As you sow evil, so shall you reap evil! Crime does not pay...The Shadow knows!"

Origin of the character's name
To boost the sales of its Detective Story Magazine, Street & Smith Publications hired David Chrisman, of the Ruthrauff & Ryan advertising agency, and writer-director William Sweets to adapt the magazine's stories into a radio series. Chrisman and Sweets thought the upcoming series should be narrated by a mysterious storyteller with a sinister voice and began searching for a suitable name. One of their scriptwriters, Harry Engman Charlot, suggested various possibilities, such as "The Inspector" or "The Sleuth". Charlot then proposed the ideal name for the phantom announcer: "The Shadow".

Thus, beginning on July 31, 1930, "The Shadow" was the name given to the mysterious narrator of the Detective Story Hour radio program. The narrator was initially voiced by James LaCurto, who was replaced after four months by prolific character actor Frank Readick Jr. The episodes were drawn from the Detective Story Magazine issued by Street & Smith, the nation's oldest and largest publisher of pulp magazines at the time. Although the latter company had hoped the radio broadcasts would boost the declining sales of Detective Story Magazine, the result was quite different. Listeners found the sinister announcer much more compelling than the unrelated stories. They soon began asking newsdealers for copies of "that Shadow detective magazine", even though it did not exist.

Creation as a distinctive literary character
Recognizing the demand and responding promptly, circulation manager Henry William Ralston of Street & Smith commissioned Walter B. Gibson to begin writing stories about "The Shadow" Using the pen name of Maxwell Grant and claiming the stories were "from The Shadow's private annals" as told to him, Gibson wrote 282 out of 325 tales over the next 20 years: a novel-length story twice a month (1st and 15th). The first story produced was The Living Shadow published April 1, 1931.

Gibson's characterization of The Shadow laid the foundations for the archetype of the superhero, including stylized imagery and title, sidekicks, supervillains, and a secret identity. Clad in black, The Shadow operated mainly after dark as a vigilante in the name of justice, terrifying criminals into vulnerability. Gibson himself claimed the literary inspirations upon which he had drawn were Bram Stoker's Dracula and Edward Bulwer-Lytton's "The House and the Brain". Another possible inspiration for The Shadow is the French character Judex; the first episode of the original Judex film serial was released in the United States as The Mysterious Shadow, and Judex's costume is similar to The Shadow's. French comics historian Xavier Fournier notes other similarities with another silent serial, The Shielding Shadow, whose protagonist had a power of invisibility, and considers The Shadow to be a mix between the two characters. In the 1940s, some Shadow comic strips were translated in France as adventures of Judex.

Because of the great effort involved in writing two full-length novels every month, several guest writers were hired to write occasional installments in order to lighten Gibson's workload. Those guest writers included Lester Dent, who also wrote the Doc Savage stories, and Theodore Tinsley. In the late 1940s, mystery novelist Bruce Elliott (also a magician) temporarily replaced Gibson as the primary author of the pulp series (he wrote #'s 306 through 320). Richard Wormser, a reader for Street & Smith, wrote two Shadow stories. For a complete list of Street and Smith's Shadow novels (and a list of the reprint editions), see the List of The Shadow stories article.

A new beginning at Belmont Books
The Shadow Magazine ceased publication with the Summer 1949 issue, but Walter B. Gibson wrote three new "official" stories between 1963 and 1980. The first began a new series of nine Shadow mass market paperback novels from Belmont Books. In this series, The Shadow is given psychic powers, including the radio character's ability "to cloud men's minds", so that he effectively became invisible. Return of The Shadow was published under his own name. The remaining eight novels in this series, The Shadow Strikes, Shadow Beware, Cry Shadow, The Shadow's Revenge, Mark of The Shadow, Shadow Go Mad, Night of The Shadow, and The Shadow, Destination: Moon, were written by Dennis Lynds, not Gibson, under the Maxwell Grant pseudonym.

The other two Gibson works were the novelettes "The Riddle of the Rangoon Ruby", published June 1, 1979 in The Shadow Scrapbook. and "Blackmail Bay", published February 1, 1980 in The Duende History of The Shadow Magazine.

Literary sequels and reboots
The Shadow returned in 2015 in the authorized novel The Sinister Shadow, an entry in the Wild Adventures of Doc Savage series from Altus Press. The novel, written by Will Murray, used unpublished material originally written in 1932 by Doc Savage originator Lester Dent and published under the pen name Kenneth Robeson. Set in 1933, the story details the conflict between the two pulp magazine icons during a crime wave caused by a murderous kidnapping-extortion ring led by the mysterious criminal mastermind known as the Funeral Director.

A sequel, Empire of Doom, was published in 2016 and takes place seven years later in 1940. The Shadow's old enemy, Shiwan Khan, attacks his hated adversary. Doc Savage joins forces with The Shadow to vanquish Khan in a Doc Savage novel written by Murray, from a concept by Dent.

In 2020, James Patterson Entertainment and Condé Nast Entertainment announced a new series written by James Patterson and Brian Sitts. The arrangement also includes potential screen adaptations of these novels. The first novel, The Shadow, released in 2021, serves as a sequel-update with some science-fiction elements, bringing Lamont Cranston from 1937 into 2087 to battle Shiwan Khan in a futuristic New York. The second Patterson-Sitts Shadow novel, Circle of Death, was published in 2023.

Character development
The character and look of The Shadow gradually evolved over his lengthy fictional existence:

As depicted in the pulps, The Shadow wore a wide-brimmed black hat and a black, crimson-lined cloak with an upturned collar over a standard black business suit. In the 1940s comic books, the later comic book series, and the 1994 film starring Alec Baldwin, he wore either the black hat or a wide-brimmed, black fedora and a crimson scarf just below his nose and across his mouth and chin. Both the cloak and scarf covered either a black double-breasted trench coat or a regular black suit. As seen in some of the later comics series, The Shadow also would wear his hat and scarf with either a black Inverness coat or Inverness cape.

In the radio drama that debuted in 1937, The Shadow does not wear a costume because he is invisible when he operates as a vigilante, a feature born out of necessity. Time constraints of 1930s radio made it difficult to explain to listeners where The Shadow was hiding and how he remained concealed from criminals until he was ready to strike, so the character was given invisibility, meaning the criminals (like the radio audience) only knew him by his haunting voice. The actors used their normal voice when the hero was in his civilian identity of Lamont Cranston and effects were added when he became invisible and acted as The Shadow, his voice now having a sinister and seemingly omnipresent quality. To explain this power, radio episodes regularly said that while a young man, The Shadow traveled around the world and then through the Orient, where he learned how to read thoughts and became a master of hypnotism, granting him "the mysterious power to cloud men's minds, so they could not see him". In the episode "The Temple Bells of Neban" (1937), The Shadow said he developed these abilities in India specifically, under the guidance of a "Yogi priest" who was "Keeper of the Temple of Cobras" in Delhi. He does not wear a mask or any disguise while invisible, and so in episodes such as "The Temple Bells of Neban" he is cautious when he meets an enemy who could potentially disrupt his hypnotic abilities, exposing his true face and instantly making him a visible target for attack.

Background
In the print adventures, The Shadow is Kent Allard, although his real name is not revealed until The Shadow Unmasks (1937). Early stories explain he was once a famed aviator who fought for the French during World War I, known by the alias the "Black Eagle" according to one character in The Shadow's Shadow (1933). Later stories revised this alias as the "Dark Eagle", beginning with The Shadow Unmasks. After the war's conclusion, Allard finds a new challenge in waging war on criminals. Allard falsifies his death by crash landing his plane in Guatemala, encountering the indigenous "Xinca tribe" as a result, who see him as a supernatural being and provide him with two loyal aides. Allard returns to the United States and takes residence in New York City, adopting numerous identities to acquire valuable information and conceal his true nature, and recruiting a variety of agents to aid his war on crime, only a few of whom are aware of his other identities.

As the vigilante called The Shadow, Allard hunts down and often violently confronts criminals, armed with Colt .45 pistols and sometimes using magician tricks to convince his prey that he's supernatural. One such trick is “The Devil's Whisper”, a chemical compound on the thumb and forefinger, causing a flash of bright flame and sharp explosion when he snaps his fingers. The Shadow is also known for wearing a girasol ring with a purple stone (sometimes depicted as a red stone in cover artwork), given to Allard by the Czar of Russia (The Romanoff Jewels, 1932) during World War I. The ring is later said to be one of two rings made with gemstones taken from the eyes of an idol made by the Xinca tribe (The Shadow Unmasks, 1937).

The Shadow's best known alter ego is Lamont Cranston, a "wealthy young man-about-town". In the pulps, Cranston is a separate character, a rich playboy who travels the world while The Shadow uses his identity and resources in New York (The Shadow Laughs, 1931). The Shadow's disguise as Cranston works well because the two men resemble each other (Dictator of Crime, 1941). In their first meeting, The Shadow threatens Cranston, saying that unless the playboy agrees to allow the aviator to use his identity when he is abroad, then Allard will simply take over the man's identity entirely, having already made arrangements to begin the process, including switching signatures on various documents. Although alarmed at first, the real Lamont Cranston agrees, deciding that sharing his resources and identity is better than losing both entirely. The two men sometimes meet afterward in order to impersonate each other (Crime over Miami, 1940). As Cranston, The Shadow often attends the Cobalt Club, an exclusive restaurant and lounge catering to the wealthy, and associates with New York City Police Commissioner Ralph Weston.

The Shadow's other disguises include: businessman Henry Arnaud, who like Cranston is a real person whose identity Allard simply assumes at times, as revealed in Arnaud's first appearance The Black Master (March 1, 1932); elderly Isaac Twambley, who first appears in No Time for Murder (December 1944); and Fritz, an old, seemingly slow-witted, uncommunicative janitor who works at police headquarters, listening in on conversations and examining recovered evidence, first appearing in The Living Shadow (April 1931).

In Teeth of the Dragon and later stories including The Golden Pagoda, The Shadow is known in Chinatown as Ying Ko, often fighting the criminal Tong.

In the 2015 Altus Press novel The Sinister Shadow by Will Murray, The Shadow masquerades as celebrated criminologist George Clarendon of Chicago, a past member of the Cobalt Club and long-time friend of Commissioner Weston.

For the first half of The Shadow's tenure in the pulps, his past and true identity (outside of his Cranston disguise) are ambiguous. In The Living Shadow, a thug claiming to have seen the Shadow's face recalls seeing "a piece of white that looked like a bandage". In The Black Master and The Shadow's Shadow, the villains of both stories see The Shadow's true face and remark the vigilante is a man of many faces with no face of his own. It was not until the August 1937 issue, The Shadow Unmasks, that The Shadow's real name was revealed.

In the radio drama series that premiered in 1937, the Allard secret identity and backstory were dropped for simplicity's sake. The radio incarnation of The Shadow is really and only Lamont Cranston with no other regular cover identities, though he does adopt disguises and short-term aliases during some adventures. The radio version of Cranston travels the world to "learn the old mysteries that modern science has not yet rediscovered" ("Death House Rescue" in 1937). Along with learning skills and knowledge in Europe, Africa, and Asia, he spends time training with a Yogi priest, "Keeper of the Temple of Cobras", in Delhi and learns how to read thoughts and hypnotize people enough to "cloud" their minds, making himself invisible to them (as revealed in the episode "The Temple Bells of Neban" in 1937). He explicitly states in several episodes that his talents are not magic but based on science. Returning to New York, he decides he can best aid the police and his city by operating outside the law as an invisible vigilante. He is somewhat less ruthless and more compassionate than the pulp incarnation, and without the vast network of agents and operatives. Only cab driver/chauffeur Shrevvy makes regular appearances on the radio series, but the character is different from his print counterpart. Commissioner Weston and a few other supporting characters from the print stories also are adapted to radio.

Supporting characters
The Shadow has a network of agents who assist him in his war on crime. These include:

 * Harry Vincent - A man who tries to commit suicide in the first Shadow story. The Shadow saves and recruits him, after which Vincent is a regular recurring character in the pulp stories and one of the most trusted agents.
 * Moses "Moe" Shrevnitz, a.k.a. "Shrevvy" - A cab driver who doubles as his chauffeur. The radio version of Shrevvy is dimwitted and does not knowingly work for The Shadow, aiding Lamont Cranston on many occasions. Peter Boyle performed the role in the 1994 film.
 * Margo Lane - A socialite created for the radio drama and introduced in the debut episode "The Death House Rescue" as The Shadow's companion who loves him. Margo aids the Shadow in nearly every radio episode and was later introduced into the pulps as one of his agents. Penelope Ann Miller performed the role in the 1994 film, in which Margo had the power of telepathy, allowing her to pierce The Shadow's hypnotic mental-clouding abilities.
 * Clyde Burke - A newspaper reporter who also is initially paid to collect news clippings for The Shadow.
 * Burbank - A radio operator who maintains contact between The Shadow and his agents. He was portrayed by Andre Gregory in the 1994 film.
 * Clifford "Cliff" Marsland - He first appeared in the ninth novel Mobsmen on the Spot. A man with a checkered past known to The Shadow, he changed his name to Clifford Marsland. Having spent years in Sing Sing maximum security prison for a crime he did not commit, he is wrongly believed by the underworld to have murdered one or more people. He infiltrates gangs using his crooked reputation (the Green Hornet is often described as having a modus operandi similar to that of Marsland).
 * Dr. Rupert Sayre - The Shadow's personal physician.
 * Jericho Druke - A large, immensely strong black man.
 * Slade Farrow - He works with The Shadow to rehabilitate criminals.
 * Miles Crofton - He sometimes pilots The Shadow's autogyro.
 * Claude Fellows - The only agent of The Shadow ever shown to be killed in Gangdom's Doom (1931).
 * Rutledge Mann - A stockbroker who collects information, taking over for Claude Fellows after the latter's death. First appeared in Double Z (June 1, 1932). After his business failed and he acquired heavy debt, he was ready to commit suicide before The Shadow, knowing about his situation, recruited him.
 * Hawkeye - A reformed underworld snoop who trails gangsters and other criminals.
 * Myra Reldon - A female operative who uses the alias of Ming Dwan when in Chinatown.
 * Dr. Roy Tam - The Shadow's contact man in New York's Chinatown. Sab Shimono portrayed him in the 1994 film, in which he provided valuable scientific information to Lamont Cranston, believing the latter to be an agent of The Shadow.

Though initially wanted by the police, The Shadow also works with and through them, notably gleaning information from his many chats (as Cranston) at the Cobalt Club with NYPD Commissioner Ralph Weston and later Commissioner Wainwright Barth, who is also Cranston's uncle (portrayed by Jonathan Winters in the 1994 film). Weston believes Cranston is merely a rich playboy who dabbles in detective work out of curiosity. Another police contact is Detective (later Inspector) Joseph Cardona, a key character in many Shadow novels.

In contrast to the pulps, The Shadow radio drama limited the cast of major characters to The Shadow, Commissioner Weston, and Margo Lane, the last of whom was created for the radio series. Along with giving The Shadow a love interest, Margo was created because it was believed that including Harry Vincent as a regular would mean an overabundance of male characters (considering the criminals in the stories were usually male, too) and could possibly make it difficult for the audience to distinguish between the voices of so many male actors. The radio script for "The Death House Rescue" (reprinted in The Shadow Scrapbook) features Harry Vincent, but he did not appear in the actual radio broadcast or any episode of the radio drama series. Clyde Burke made occasional appearances, but not as an agent of The Shadow. Lieutenant Cardona was a minor character in several episodes. Moe Shrevnitz (identified only as "Shrevvy") made several appearances as a simple-minded acquaintance of Cranston and Lane who sometimes acted as their chauffeur, unaware Cranston was actually The Shadow.

Enemies
The Shadow also faces a wide variety of enemies, ranging from kingpins and mad scientists to international spies.

Among his recurring foes are:
 * Shiwan Khan – A would-be conqueror who is the last living descendant of Genghis Khan. Seen in The Golden Master, Shiwan Khan Returns, The Invincible Shiwan Khan and Masters of Death. In the 1994 film, he was portrayed by actor John Lone.
 * Dr. Rodil Moquino – A doctor and self-proclaimed Voodoo Master who uses hypnosis to make people do his bidding. Seen in The Voodoo Master, The City of Doom and Voodoo Trail.
 * Wasp – Basil Gannaford is a criminal mastermind with a bulbous head on a tall frail body whose grasp contained an electric sting and spoke in a buzzing voice. Seen in The Wasp and The Wasp Returns.
 * Benedict Stark – The self-described Prince of Evil. Seen in The Prince of Evil, The Murder Genius, The Man Who Died Twice and The Devil's Paymaster, all written by Theodore Tinsley

The only recurring criminal organization he fought was the Hand (The Hand, Murder for Sale, Chicago Crime, Crime Rides the Sea and Realm of Doom), where he defeated one Finger of the organization in each book.

In addition, the villain King Kauger from the Shadow story Wizard of Crime is the unseen mastermind behind the events of Intimidation, Inc., and the organization known as The Silent Seven was referenced in the previous title The Death Tower.

Villains Diamond Bert Farwell, Isaac Coffran, Steve Cronin, Spotter, and Birdie Crull all originated in the first two pulps and returned at least once.

The series featured a myriad of one-shot villains including: The Golden Vulture, Malmordo, The Red Blot, The Black Falcon, The Cobra, Five-Face, Li Hoang, Velma Thane, Quetzal, Judge Lawless, The Gray Ghost, The Silver Skull, Gaspard Zemba, Thade the Death Giver, Kwa the Living Joss, Mox, and The Green Terror.

In addition to The Hand and The Silent Seven, The Shadow also battled other one-shot collectives of criminals, including The Hydra, The Green Hoods, The White Skulls, The Five Chameleons, and The Salamanders.

Radio program
In early 1930, Street & Smith hired David Chrisman and Bill Sweets to adapt the Detective Story Magazine to radio format. Chrisman and Sweets thought the program should be introduced by a mysterious storyteller. A young scriptwriter, Harry Charlot, suggested the name of "The Shadow". Thus, "The Shadow" premiered over CBS airwaves on July 31, 1930, as the host of the Detective Story Hour, narrating "tales of mystery and suspense from the pages of the premier detective fiction magazine". The bulk of the radio show was written primarily by Sidney Slon. The narrator was first voiced by James La Curto, but became a national sensation when radio veteran Frank Readick, Jr. assumed the role and gave it "a hauntingly sibilant quality that thrilled radio listeners".

Early years
Following a brief tenure as narrator of Street & Smith's Detective Story Hour, "The Shadow" character was used to host segments of The Blue Coal Radio Revue, airing on Sundays at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. This marked the beginning of a long association between the radio persona and sponsor Blue Coal.

While functioning as a narrator of The Blue Coal Radio Revue, the character was recycled by Street & Smith in October 1931, for its newly created Love Story Hour. Contrary to dozens of encyclopedias, published reference guides, and even Walter Gibson himself, The Shadow never served as narrator of Love Story Hour. He appeared only in advertisements for The Shadow Magazine at the end of each episode.

In October 1932, the radio persona temporarily moved to NBC. Frank Readick Jr. again played the role of the sinister-voiced host on Mondays and Wednesdays, both at 6:30 p.m., with La Curto taking occasional turns as the title character.

Readick returned as The Shadow to host a final CBS mystery anthology that fall. The series disappeared from CBS airwaves on March 27, 1935, due to Street & Smith's insistence that the radio storyteller be completely replaced by the master crime-fighter described in Walter B. Gibson's ongoing pulps.

Radio drama
Street & Smith entered into a new broadcasting agreement with Blue Coal in 1937, and that summer Gibson teamed with scriptwriter Edward Hale Bierstadt to develop the new series. The Shadow returned to network airwaves with the episode "The Death House Rescue" on September 26, 1937, over the Mutual Broadcasting System. Thus began the "official" radio drama, with 22-year-old Orson Welles starring as Lamont Cranston, a "wealthy young man about town." Once The Shadow joined Mutual as a half-hour series on Sunday evenings, the program was broadcast by Mutual until December 26, 1954.

Welles did not speak the signature line, "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?" Instead, Readick did, using a water glass next to his mouth for the echo effect. The famous catchphrase was accompanied by the strains of an excerpt from Opus 31 of the Camille Saint-Saëns classical composition, Le Rouet d'Omphale.

In the debut episode "The Death House Rescue," Cranston explains he spent years studying in London, Paris, Vienna, Egypt, China, and India, learning different fields of science as well as "the old mysteries that modern science has not yet rediscovered, the natural magic that modern psychology is beginning to understand." He states his hypnotic and seemingly telepathic abilities are not magic but based on scientific secrets most of the world has forgotten or does not yet understand. In "The Temple Bells of Neban" in 1937, he specifies that a Yogi priest, "Keeper of the Temple of Cobras" in Delhi, taught him how to be invisible by "clouding" peoples' minds. He indicates in "The Death House Rescue" that he always intended to use his acquired knowledge to secretly fight evil forces that evaded conventional authorities. In the same episode, when his companion Margo Lane suggests he work openly with the police, Cranston implies the police and general public would not understand or approve of his strange methods and abilities, concluding he is only effective by working outside of the law. The radio version of The Shadow is less ruthless than his pulp counterpart, preferring to capture his foes more often than gun them down. He sometimes openly shows compassion for his enemies, even at time criticizing society for creating circumstances that lead to certain crimes and cause some people to lose hope and support.

After Welles departed the show in 1938, Bill Johnstone was chosen to replace him and voiced the character for five seasons. Following Johnstone's departure, The Shadow was portrayed by such actors as Bret Morrison (the longest tenure, with 10 years total in two separate runs), John Archer, and Steven Courtleigh (the actors were rarely credited).

The Shadow also inspired another radio hit, The Whistler, with a similarly mysterious narrator.

Margo Lane
The radio drama also introduced Margo Lane (played by Agnes Moorehead, among others) as Cranston's love interest, crime-solving partner, and the only person who knows his identity as The Shadow. Described as Cranston's "friend and companion" in many episodes, the exact nature of their relationship was not explicitly stated, but Margo mentions in the first episode that she loves him and hopes he will retire The Shadow identity and operate without secrecy if the police really need his help. Four years after the radio show began, the character was introduced into the pulp novels as one of The Shadow's agents. Her sudden, unexplained appearance in the pulps annoyed readers and generated a flurry of hate mail printed on The Shadow Magazine's letters page.

In early scripts of the radio drama, the character's name was spelled "Margot." The name itself was originally inspired by Margot Stevenson, the Broadway ingénue who would later be chosen to voice Lane opposite Welles's The Shadow during "the 1938 Goodrich summer season of the radio drama." In the 1994 film in which Penelope Ann Miller played the character, Margo is portrayed as telepathic, making her aware of and able to counter The Shadow's mental abilities.

Radio drama LPs and CDs
In 1968, Metro Record's "Leo the Lion" label released an LP titled The Official Adventures of The Shadow (CH-1048) with two original 15-minute radio-style productions written by John Fleming: "The Computer Calculates, but The Shadow Knows" and "Air Freight Fracas." Bret Morrison, Grace Matthews, and Santos Ortega reprised their roles as Cranston/The Shadow, Margo Lane, and Commissioner Weston. Ken Roberts also returned as the announcer. Throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, dozens of LPs appeared in print from other record labels featuring recordings taken from the original broadcast Shadow radio show dramas. With the advent of the compact disc, more of the radio shows were commercially released.

Comic strip

The Shadow has been adapted for comics a number of times during his long history; his first was on June 17, 1940, as a syndicated daily newspaper comic strip offered through the Ledger Syndicate. The strip's story continuity was written by Walter B. Gibson, with plot lines adapted from the Shadow pulps, and the strip was illustrated by Vernon Greene.

The comic strip, which ran until June 20, 1942, comprised 14 stories, the last of which was left uncompleted when the strip was canceled:

 * 1) Mystery of the Sealed Box (June 17 – Aug 10, 1940)
 * 2) The Shadow in His Sanctum (Aug 12 – Sept 21, 1940)
 * 3) The Shadow vs. Hoang Hu (Sept 23 – Nov 2, 1940)
 * 4) The Shadow on Shark Island (Nov 4, 1940 – Jan 25, 1941)
 * 5) The Shadow vs. the Bund (Jan 27 – April 19, 1941)
 * 6) The Shadow vs. Shiwan Khan (April 21 – July 26, 1941)
 * 7) The Darvin Fortune (July 28 – Oct 11, 1941)
 * 8) The Adele Varne Mystery (Oct 13 – Nov 22, 1941)
 * 9) The Shadow and Professor Scorpio (Nov 24 – Dec 13, 1941)
 * 10) The Shadow and the Gray Ghost (Dec 15, 1941 – Jan 10, 1942)
 * 11) The Star of Delhi (Jan 12 – Jan 31, 1942)
 * 12) The Earthquake Machines (Feb 2 – March 28, 1942)
 * 13) The Return of Althor (March 30 – May 23, 1942)
 * 14) The Cliff Castle Mystery (May 25 – June 20, 1942)

The Shadow daily strip was collected decades later in two comic book series from two different publishers (see below), first in 1988 and then again in 1999.

Street & Smith

 * Shadow Comics v1, 1 – v9, 5, March 1940 – September 1949 (101 issues)

Archie Comics

 * The Shadow, 1–8, August 1964 – September 1965

DC Comics

 * The Shadow, 1–12, November 1973 – September 1975
 * Batman, #253, #259 (crossover appearances published in 1973 and 1974, respectively)
 * The Shadow: Blood and Judgment, 1–4, May–August 1986
 * The Shadow, 1–19, 2 annuals, August 1987 – January 1989
 * The Private Files of the Shadow, 1989 (graphic collection reprinting the first six issues of the 1973 series, with one new story)
 * The Shadow Strikes!, 1–31, 1 annual, September 1989 – May 1992
 * Batman and The Shadow: The Murder Geniuses, 1–6, 2017 (co-published with Dynamite Entertainment)

Marvel Comics

 * The Shadow: Hitler's Astrologer (original graphic novel, 1988)

Dark Horse Comics

 * The Shadow: In the Coils of Leviathan, 1–4, 1993
 * The Shadow Movie Adaptation, 1–2, 1994, Dark Horse Comics (based on the feature film)
 * The Shadow: Hell's Heat Wave, 1–3, 1995, Dark Horse Comics
 * The Shadow and Doc Savage, 1–2, 1995, Dark Horse Comics (crossover with Doc Savage)
 * Ghost & The Shadow one-shot, 1995, (crossover with Ghost)
 * Grendel versus The Shadow, 1-3, 2014 (crossover with Grendel, co-published with Dynamite Entertainment)

Dynamite Entertainment

 * Altered States: The Shadow, one-shot, 2015
 * The Shadow, 1–25, 0, two annuals, two specials, 2012–2015
 * The Shadow/Green Hornet: Dark Nights, 5 issues, 2013-2015 (crossover with the Green Hornet)
 * ''Masks', 1-8, 2012-2013 (featuring the Shadow with the Green Hornet, the Spider and other comic book and pulp characeers)
 * The Shadow Now, 1–6, 2013
 * The Shadow: Year One, 1–10, 2013–2014
 * The Shadow, 1–5, 2015
 * The Shadow: Midnight In Moscow, 2014
 * Justice, Inc. 1-6 (2014-5) (the Shadow with Doc Savage and the Avenger)
 * The Shadow, 1–6, 2016
 * The Shadow/Batman, 1–6, 2017-8,(Batman crossover co-published with DC Comics)
 * The Shadow: The Death of Margo Lane, 1–6, 2016
 * The Shadow Over Innsmouth (sequel to the H.P. Lovecraft novella of the same name, 2014
 * The Twilight Zone: The Shadow, 1-4, 2016 (miniseries featuring a The Twilight Zone style scenario)

1940s-1960s
To both cross-promote The Shadow and attract a younger audience to its other pulp magazines, Street & Smith published 101 issues of the comic book Shadow Comics from Vol. 1, #1 – Vol. 9, #5 (March 1940 – Sept. 1949). A Shadow story led off each issue, with the remainder of the stories being strips based on other Street & Smith pulp heroes.

In Mad #4 (April–May 1953), The Shadow was spoofed by Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder with a character called "The Shadow'" (with an apostrophe), which is short for "Lamont Shadowskeedeeboomboom". This story was reprinted in The Brothers Mad (ibooks, New York, 2002, ISBN 0-7434-4482-5). The charcer returned in Mad #14 (August 1954) to guest-star in "Manduck the Magician", a spoof by Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder of the Mandrake the Magician comic strip. This story was reprinted in Mad Strikes Back! (ibooks, New York, 2002, ISBN 0-7434-4478-7).

During the superhero revival of the 1960s, Archie Comics published an eight-issue series, The Shadow (Aug. 1964 – Sept. 1965), under the company's Mighty Comics imprint. In the first issue, The Shadow was loosely based on the radio version, but with blond hair. In issue #2 (Sept. 1964), the character changed into a campy, heavily muscled superhero in a green and blue costume by writer Robert Bernstein and artist John Rosenberger. Later issues of this eight-issue series were written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel. The change was not well received. "Totally at odds with everything that personified the classic Shadow," American Comic Book Chronicles says, "Archie's incarnation is still regarded in many quarters as one of the greatest comic book misfires of the 1960s."

1970s
Starting in 1973, DC Comics published an "atmospheric interpretation" of the character by writer Dennis O'Neil and artist Michael Kaluta in a 12-issue series (Nov. 1973 – Sept. 1975) attempting to be faithful to both the pulp-magazine character and radio-drama character. Kaluta drew issues 1–4 and 6 and was followed by Frank Robbins and then E. R. Cruz. Fellow pulp fiction hero the Avenger guest-starred in issue #11. The Shadow also appeared in DC's Batman #253 (Nov. 1973), in which Batman teams with an aging Shadow and calls the famous crime fighter his "biggest inspiration." In Batman #259 (Nov.–Dec. 1974), Batman again meets The Shadow, and we learn that, in the past, The Shadow had saved Bruce Wayne's life when the latter was a boy and that The Shadow knows Batman's secret identity (he assures Batman, however, that his secret is safe with him). The Shadow is also referenced in DC's Detective Comics #446 (1975), page 4, panel 2: Batman, out of costume and in disguise as an older night janitor, makes a crime fighting acknowledgement, in a thought balloon, to the Shadow.

1980s
In 1986, another DC adaptation was developed by Howard Chaykin. This four-issue miniseries, The Shadow: Blood and Judgement, brought The Shadow to modern-day New York. While initially successful, this version proved unpopular with traditional Shadow fans because it depicted The Shadow using two Uzi submachine guns, as well as featuring a strong strain of black comedy and extreme violence throughout.

The Shadow, set in the then-current day, was continued in 1987 as a monthly DC comics series by writer Andy Helfer (editor of the miniseries); it was drawn primarily by artists Bill Sienkiewicz (issues 1–6) and Kyle Baker (issues 8–19 and the second of two Shadow Annuals, the first having been drawn by Joe Orlando).

In 1988, O'Neil and Kaluta, with inker Russ Heath, returned to The Shadow with the Marvel Comics graphic novel The Shadow: Hitler's Astrologer, set during World War II. This one-shot appeared in both hardcover and trade paperback editions.

The Vernon Greene/Walter Gibson Shadow newspaper comic strip from the early 1940s was collected by Malibu Graphics (Malibu Comics) under its Eternity Comics imprint, beginning with the first issue of Crime Classics dated July 1988. Each cover was illustrated by Greene and colored by one of Eternity's colorists. A total of 13 issues appeared featuring just the black-and-white daily until the final issue, dated November 1989. Some of the Shadow storylines were contained in one issue, while others were continued over into the next. When a Shadow story ended, another tale would begin in the same issue. This back-to-back format continued until the final issue (#13). Crime Classics 1 and 2, "Riddle of the Sealed Box"; 2 and 3, "Mystery of the Sleeping Gas"; 3 and 4, "The Shadow vs. Hoang Hu"; 4, 5 and 6, "Danger on Shark Island"; 6, 7 and 8, "The Shadow vs. the Bund"; 8, 9 and 10, "The Shadow vs. Shiwan Khan"; 10, 11 and 12, "The Shadow vs. the Swindlers"; 12 and 13, "The Shadow and the Adele Varne Mystery"; 13, "Robberies at Lake Calada". Dave Stevens' nostalgic comics series The Rocketeer contains a number of pop culture references to the 1930s. Various characters from the Shadow pulps make appearances in the storyline published in the Rocketeer Adventure Magazine, including The Shadow's famous alter ego Lamont Cranston. Two issues were published by Comico in 1988 and 1989, but the third and final installment did not appear until years later, finally appearing in 1995 from Dark Horse Comics. All three issues were then collected by Dark Horse into a slick trade paperback titled The Rocketeer: Cliff's New York Adventure (ISBN 1-56971-092-9).

In 1989, DC released a hardcover graphic collection reprinting five issues (#1–4 and 6 by Dennis O'Neil and Michael Kaluta) of their 1970s series as The Private Files of The Shadow. The volume also featured "In the Toils of Wing Fat", a new Shadow adventure drawn by Kaluta.

1990s
From 1989 to 1992, DC published a new Shadow comic book series, The Shadow Strikes!, written by Gerard Jones and Eduardo Barreto. This series was set in the 1930s and returned The Shadow to his pulp origins. During its run, it featured The Shadow's first-ever team-up with Doc Savage, another popular hero of the pulp magazine era. The two characters appeared together in a four-issue story that crossed back and forth between each character's DC comic book series. The Shadow Strikes often led The Shadow into encounters with well-known celebrities of the 1930s, such as Albert Einstein, Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, union organizer John L. Lewis, and Chicago gangsters Frank Nitti and Jake Guzik. In issue #7, The Shadow meets a radio announcer named Grover Mills, a character based on the young Orson Welles, who has been impersonating The Shadow on the radio. The character's name is taken from Grover's Mill, New Jersey, the name of the small town where the Martians land in Welles's 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds. When Shadow rights holder Condé Nast increased its licensing fee, DC concluded the series after 31 issues and one Annual; it became the longest-running Shadow comic book series since Street & Smith's original 1940s series.

During the early-to-mid-1990s, Dark Horse Comics acquired the rights to The Shadow from Condé Nast. It published the Shadow miniseries The Shadow: In the Coils of Leviathan (four issues) in 1993, and The Shadow: Hell's Heat Wave (three issues) in 1995. In the Coils of Leviathan was later collected by Dark Horse in 1994 as a trade paperback. Both series were written by Joel Goss and Michael Kaluta and drawn by Gary Gianni. A one-shot issue, The Shadow and the Mysterious Three, was published by Dark Horse in 1994, again written by Joel Goss and Michael Kaluta, with Stan Manoukian and Vince Roucher taking over the illustration duties but working from Kaluta's layouts. A comics adaptation of the 1994 film The Shadow was published in two issues by Dark Horse as part of the movie's merchandising campaign. The script was by Goss and Kaluta and drawn by Kaluta. It was collected and published in England by Boxtree as a graphic novel tie-in for the film's British release. Emulating DC's earlier team-up, Dark Horse also published a two-issue miniseries in 1995 called The Shadow and Doc Savage: The Case of the Shrieking Skeletons. It was written by Steve Vance and illustrated by Manoukian and Roucher. Both issues' covers were drawn by Rocketeer creator Dave Stevens. A final Dark Horse Shadow team-up was published in 1995: another one-shot issue, Ghost and The Shadow, written by Doug Moench, pencilled by H. M. Baker, and inked by Bernard Kolle. It was set in modern times.

The Shadow made an uncredited cameo in issue #2 of DC's 1996 four-issue miniseries Kingdom Come, re-released as a trade paperback in 1997. The Shadow appears in the nightclub scene standing in the background next to the Question and Rorschach.

The early 1940s Shadow newspaper daily strip was reprinted by Avalon Communications under its ACG Classix imprint. The Shadow daily began appearing in the first issue of Pulp Action comics. It carried no monthly date or issue number on the cover, only a 1999 copyright and a Pulp Action #1 notation at the bottom of the inside cover. Each issue's cover is a colorized panel blow-up, taken from one of the reprinted strips. The eighth issue uses for its cover a Shadow serial black-and-white film still, with several hand-drawn alterations. The first issue of Pulp Action is devoted entirely to reprinting the Shadow daily, but subsequent issues began offering back-up stories not involving The Shadow in every issue. These Shadow strip reprints stopped with Pulp Action's eighth issue, before the story was complete. Here are the strip's reprinted storylines (the last issue carries a 2000 copyright date):

Pulp Action' 1, "Riddle of the Sealed Box"; 2, "Mystery of the Sleeping Gas"; 3 and 4, "The Shadow vs. the Swindlers"; 5 and 6, "The Shadow and the Adele Varne Mystery"; 7 and 8, "The Shadow and the Darvin Fortune".

21st century
In August 2011, Dynamite licensed The Shadow from Condé Nast for an ongoing comic book series and several miniseries. Its first on-going series was written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Aaron Campbell; it debuted on April 19, 2012. This series ran for 26 issues; the regular series ended in May 2014, but a prologue issue #0 was published in July 2014. Dynamite followed with the release of an eight-issue miniseries, Masks, teaming the 1930s Shadow with Dynamite's other pulp hero comic book adaptations, the Spider, the Green Hornet and Kato, and a 1930s Zorro, plus four other heroes of the pulp era from Dynamite's comics lineup. Dynamite offered a 10-issue Shadow miniseries, The Shadow: Year One, followed by the team-up five-issue miniseries, The Shadow/Green Hornet: Dark Nights, and a Shadow six-issue miniseries set in the modern era, The Shadow: Now. In August 2015, Dynamite Entertainment launched volume 2 of The Shadow, a new ongoing series written by Cullen Bunn and drawn by Giovanni Timpano.

Films
The Shadow character has been adapted for film shorts and films.

Shadow film shorts (1931–1932)
In 1931 and 1932, Bryan Foy Productions created and Universal Pictures distributed a series of six film shorts based on the popular Detective Story Hour radio program, narrated by The Shadow. The shorts featured the voice of Frank Readick Jr., who portrayed The Shadow on the radio program. The six films are: A Burglar to the Rescue (© July 22, 1931), Trapped (© Sep. 21, 1931), Sealed Lips (© Oct. 30, 1931), House of Mystery (© Dec. 11, 1931), The Red Shadow (© Jan. 12, 1932), and The Circus Show-Up (© Jan. 27, 1932).

The Shadow Strikes (1937)
The film The Shadow Strikes was released in 1937, starring Rod La Rocque in the title role. Lamont Granston (as his name was spelled in both opening credits and a newspaper article) assumes the secret identity of "The Shadow" in order to thwart an attempted robbery at an attorney's office. Both The Shadow Strikes (1937) and its sequel, International Crime (1938), were released by Grand National Pictures.

International Crime (1938)
La Rocque returned the following year in International Crime. In this version, reporter Lamont Cranston (despite being spelled Granston in the previous film) is an amateur criminologist and detective who uses the name of "The Shadow" as a radio gimmick. Thomas Jackson portrayed Police Commissioner Weston, and Astrid Allwyn was cast as Phoebe Lane, Cranston's assistant.

The Shadow (1940)
The Shadow, a 15-chapter movie serial, produced by Columbia Pictures and starring Victor Jory, premiered in theaters in 1940. The serial's villain, The Black Tiger, is a criminal mastermind who sabotages rail lines and factories across the United States. Lamont Cranston must become his shadowy alter ego in order to unmask the criminal and halt his fiendish crime spree. As The Shadow, Jory wears an all-black suit and cloak, as well as a black bandana that helps conceal his facial features.

The Shadow Returns, Behind the Mask, and Missing Lady (1946)
Low-budget motion picture studio Monogram Pictures produced a trio of quickie Shadow B-movie features in 1946 starring Kane Richmond: The Shadow Returns (© Jan. 31, 1946), Behind the Mask (© April 1, 1946) and The Missing Lady (© July 20, 1946). Richmond's Shadow wore all black, including a trench coat, a wide-brimmed fedora, and a full face-mask similar to the type worn by movie serial hero The Masked Marvel, instead of the character's signature black cape with red lining and red scarf.

Invisible Avenger (1958)
Episodes of a television pilot shot in 1957 were edited into the 1958 theatrical feature Invisible Avenger, rereleased in 1962 as Bourbon Street Shadows.

The Shadow (1994)
In 1994 the character was adapted once again into a feature film, The Shadow, starring Alec Baldwin as Lamont Cranston and Penelope Ann Miller as Margo Lane, with John Lone playing the recurring Asian villain from the pulp series Shiwan Khan, who claims to be a direct descendant of Genghis Khan. As the film opens, Cranston has become the evil and corrupt Yin-Ko (literally "Dark Eagle"), a brutal warlord and opium smuggler in early 1930s Mongolia. Yin-Ko is kidnapped by agents of the mysterious holy man Tulku, who knows the warlord is really Lamont Cranston of New York. He says he is determined to reform the man, that since Cranston knows the evil that lurks in his own heart he will be effective in knowing and fighting such evil in other men, and will learn how to tap into his latent psychic power. Resistant at first, Cranston accepts that is now under the Tulku's control. Over time, he reforms and learns how to read thoughts, as well as how to "cloud men's minds" to alter their perception and make himself invisible. Cranston eventually returns to his native New York City and takes up the guise of the mysterious crime fighter "The Shadow," in payment to humanity for his past evil misdeeds: "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows ..."

The Shadow has a network of agents, each of whom now wears a ring similar to his own, and is then joined by Margo Lane, a socialite born with the gift of telepathy herself who quickly discovers Cranston's identity. In the film, the evil Shiwan Khan is an admirer of Ying-Ko who later also becomes a student of the Tulku, learning the same powers of illusion and telepathy but never reforming or regretting his murderous ways. He seeks to finish his ancestor's legacy of conquering the world by first destroying New York City, using a newly developed atomic bomb as a show of his power. Khan nearly succeeds, but is thwarted by The Shadow. In a final psychic duel, the hero telekinetically hurls a shattered piece of mirror directly into the villain's forehead, instantly rendering him unconscious. Shiwan Khan is not killed and wakes up in an unidentified asylum where he is now under the care of a doctor who is secretly one of The Shadow's agents. Due to his head injury, surgery was performed on his frontal lobe, removing his telepathic powers and forcing him to remain imprisoned in the asylum.

The film combines elements from The Shadow pulp novels and comic books with the aforementioned ability to cloud minds described only on the radio show. In the film Alec Baldwin, as The Shadow, wears a black cloak and a long red scarf that covers his mouth and chin; he also wears a black, double-breasted trench coat and a wide-brimmed, black slouch hat. Contrarily to pulp novels, he is armed with a pair of modified M1911 .45-caliber semi-automatic pistols that for the film have longer barrels, are nickel plated, and have ivory grips. In reality, the prop guns were modified LAR Grizzly Win Mags nicknamed "Silver Heat." The film also displays a first: Cranston's ability to conjure the illusion of a false face whenever he is in his guise as The Shadow, giving him an appearance similar to the character's physical portrayal in the pulp magazines and comics.

The film was financially and critically unsuccessful.

Unmade Sam Raimi Shadow feature film
On December 11, 2006, the website SuperHero Hype reported that director Sam Raimi and Michael Uslan would co-produce a new Shadow film for Columbia Pictures. It was rumored to also be a film involving several Street and Smith pulp heroes, including The Shadow, the Avenger, and Doc Savage. This screenplay was supposedly written by Siavash Farahani.

On October 16, 2007, Raimi stated, "I don't have any news on The Shadow at this time, except that the company that I have with Josh Donen, my producing partner, we've got the rights to The Shadow. I love the character very much and we're trying to work on a story that'll do justice to the character".

On August 23, 2012, the website ShadowFan reported that during a Q&A session at San Diego's 2012 Comic-Con, director Sam Raimi, when asked about the status of his Shadow film project, stated they had not been able to develop a good script and the film would not be produced as planned.

Game adaptations
Ocean Software developed a video game version of The Shadow to tie in with the 1994 film. The game was supposed to be published on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, but after the low box office gross of the film, the game was never released despite being completed. Since then, a ROM of the game has been leaked online.

Bally released a pinball machine based on The Shadow in 1994. The game was designed by Brian Eddy, and maintains modern popularity due to its clever use of mechanical features like the Phurba diverters, satisfying shot design, and unique upper playfield feature.

Television
Two attempts were made to adapt the character to television. The first, in 1954, was titled The Shadow and starred Tom Helmore as Lamont Cranston.

The second attempt in 1958 was titled The Invisible Avenger; it never aired. The two episodes produced were compiled into a theatrical film and released with the same title. It was re-released with additional footage in 1962 as Bourbon Street Shadows. Starring Richard Derr as The Shadow, the film depicts Lamont Cranston investigating the murder of a New Orleans bandleader. The film is notable as the second directorial effort of James Wong Howe, who directed only one of the two unaired episodes.

Influence on superheroes and other media
When Bob Kane and Bill Finger first developed Bat-Man, they patterned the character after pulp mystery men such as The Shadow. Finger then used "Partners of Peril" – a Shadow pulp written by Theodore Tinsley – as the basis for Batman's debut story, "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate". Finger later publicly acknowledged that "my first Batman script was a takeoff on a Shadow story" and that "Batman was originally written in the style of the pulps." This influence was further evident with Batman showing little remorse over killing or maiming criminals and not above using firearms. Decades later, noted comic book writer Dennis O'Neil would have Batman and The Shadow meet in Batman #253 (November 1973) and Batman #259 (December 1974) to solve crimes. In the former, Batman acknowledged that The Shadow was his biggest influence and in the latter, The Shadow reveals to Batman that he knows his true identity of Bruce Wayne but assures him that his secret is safe with him.

Alan Moore has credited The Shadow as one of the key influences for the creation of V, the title character in his DC Comics miniseries V for Vendetta, which later became a Warner Bros. feature film released in 2006. The Shadow is also one of the inspirations for Disney's 1991–1992 cartoon series Darkwing Duck.

The 2015 video game Fallout 4 includes a quest series centered on a character called "the Silver Shroud," a crime-fighting detective from old-world radio shows.

The Lamont Cranston Band takes its name from The Shadow's alter ego.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: The Shadow


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List of English Heritage properties

English Heritage is a registered charity that manages the National Heritage Collection. This comprises over 400 of England's historic buildings, monuments, and sites spanning more than 5,000 years of history. It has direct ownership over some historic sites and also liaises with private owners of sites that are managed under guardianship arrangements.

The following is a list of English Heritage properties containing links for any stately home, historic house, castle, abbey, museum or other property in the care of English Heritage.

title: List of English Heritage properties


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Dragnet (franchise)

Dragnet is an American media franchise created by actor and producer Jack Webb, following Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Detective Joe Friday and his partners as they conduct by-the-book police work and solve crimes in Los Angeles. Originating as a radio drama on NBC in 1949, Dragnet has been adapted into several successful television shows and films, though the franchise's popularity has reduced since Webb's death in 1982. Its name is derived from the police term "dragnet", a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.

Dragnet is perhaps the most famous and influential police procedural crime drama in American media history. Webb's aims in Dragnet were for unpretentious acting and a realistic depiction of policing. The series portrayed police work as dangerous and heroic, and helped shape public perception of law enforcement in the 20th century, improving the public's opinion of police officers.

Dragnet remains a key influence on the police procedural genre. Its cultural impact is such that seven decades after its debut, elements of Dragnet are familiar to those who are otherwise unfamiliar with the franchise itself:
 * "Dragnet", the four-note introduction to the franchise's brass and timpani theme music (though its origins date to Miklós Rózsa's score for the 1946 film version of The Killers).
 * The opening narration common across the franchise's series: "Ladies and gentlemen: the story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent." Over time, the "only" and "ladies and gentlemen" were eventually dropped. The television version used in the 1950s and 1960s series replaced "hear" with "see" and had a backdrop of Joe Friday's badge, number 714.
 * "Just the facts, ma'am", a catchphrase and misquotation often attributed to Joe Friday and popularly used to reference or evoke Dragnet, though Webb's portrayal of Joe Friday never said that exact phrase.

Actual cases
The opening of "The story you are about to hear is true" is derived from the fact that many works in the franchise are transcribed from official LAPD case files. In some cases, the source material has been identified, including the following:

 * Sullivan Kidnapping – The Wolf (Radio, 1949) – The 1927 kidnapping and murder of Marion Parker.

 * The Big Thank You (Radio, 1950) – Louise Peete's post-prison years and third murder, which led to her becoming the second of only four women to be executed in the California gas chamber.

 * 1969 TV movie – The killing spree of serial killer Harvey Glatman in the late 1950s. Pierce Brooks, an LAPD captain who was involved in Glatman's arrest and interrogation, served as a technical advisor for the film.

Radio
Dragnet began as a radio series, running on the NBC radio network from 1949 to 1957.

1951–1959 original
In 1951, Dragnet shifted to the field of television, running on NBC from 1951 to 1959. Most early episodes of the television series were dubbed or lip-synced adaptations of episodes of the radio show, but later episodes were original plotlines. Most of the cast members were veteran radio actors who could be relied upon to read the matter-of-fact dialogue naturally.

1967–1970 revival

Webb relaunched Dragnet in 1966, with NBC once again chosen to air the series. He tried to persuade Ben Alexander to rejoin him as Frank Smith. Alexander was then committed to an ABC police series, Felony Squad, and the producers would not release him. Webb reluctantly came up with a new character to take the role of Joe Friday's partner, calling upon his longtime friend Harry Morgan to play Officer Bill Gannon. Morgan had previously portrayed rooming-house proprietor Luther Gage in the 1949 radio series episode "James Vickers". George Fenneman returned as the show's primary announcer, with John Stephenson replacing Hal Gibney in the role of announcing the trial dates and subsequent punishments for the offenders. Fenneman replaced Stephenson in that role during the fourth season. Unlike the previous Dragnet series, the revival was produced and aired in color.

Webb produced a TV movie pilot for the new version of the show for Universal Television, although the pilot was not aired until January 1969. NBC bought the show on the strength of the movie, and it debuted as a midseason replacement for the sitcom The Hero on Thursday nights in January 1967. To distinguish it from the original, the year was included in the title of the show (i.e., Dragnet 1967). Although Friday had been promoted to lieutenant in the final episode of the 1950s production, Webb chose to have Friday revert to sergeant with his familiar badge, "714".

When real-life LAPD Sergeant Dan Cooke, Webb's contact in the department during production of the revived Dragnet series, was promoted to lieutenant, he arranged to carry the same lieutenant's badge, number 714, as worn by Joe Friday. Cooke was technical advisor to the KNBC documentary Police Unit 2A-26, directed by John Orland. He brought that to the attention of Webb, who hired Orland to direct and film This is the City, a series of minidocumentaries about Los Angeles that preceded most TV episodes during the 1969 and 1970 seasons. The show had good ratings on NBC's schedule for four seasons (although its popularity at that time did not exceed that of the 1950s version), but the show was canceled after the completion of the 1969-1970 season.

Much as was done 11 years earlier, Webb decided voluntarily to discontinue Dragnet after its fourth season to focus on producing and directing his other projects through Mark VII Limited. The first of these projects was titled Adam-12, a 30-minute police procedural similar to Dragnet, but focusing on patrol officers rather than detectives. The series premiered in the fall of 1968, while Dragnet 1969 was in production, and ran for seven seasons, coming to an end in 1975. In 1971, with producer Robert A. Cinader, Webb developed another pilot originally intended to be centered around the staff of a Los Angeles–area medical center's emergency room. When researching for the pilot, Webb and Cinader were introduced to the Los Angeles County Fire Department's fledgling paramedic program, and the premise was reworked to include the Los Angeles County Fire Department, and Emergency! was born; running as a weekly series until 1977, and as a series of made-for-television movies for two years after that. Emergency! was centered on the then-fictitious Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedic rescue unit, Squad 51.

During the early 1970s, reruns of this version of Dragnet were popular on local stations, usually broadcast during the late afternoon or early evenings. From 1991 to 1995, Dragnet was shown on Nick at Nite, then moved to its sister cable channel TV Land. From October 1, 2011, to April 26, 2013, the series ran daily on the digital cable channel Antenna TV, and before that, the show aired on the Retro Television Network.

Dragnet was broadcast Monday through Friday on Me-TV. The show was part of the "CriMe TV" morning block with Perry Mason and The Rockford Files, with Dragnet shown back to back from 11:00 am until 12:00 pm. In December 2014, Me-TV added a third airing of Dragnet to its late-night lineup; the series airs at 12:30 am following a second episode of Perry Mason. Me-TV ended the run of Dragnet on January 1, 2015, whereupon it became part of Cozi TV's regular lineup. In January 2020 Dragnet returned to MeTV along with its sibling series Adam-12 after Cozi TV dropped both series; Dragnet currently broadcasts two episodes weekday mornings from 5:30 to 6:30 a.m.

Webb's later years
In 1982, Webb had begun working on a revival of Dragnet, writing and producing five scripts and continuing his role as Joe Friday. Once again, he needed to create a new character for Friday's partner; Ben Alexander had died in 1969 and Harry Morgan was tied up with his commitments to M*A*S*H, and its already greenlit followup AfterMASH. Webb decided on former Adam-12 star Kent McCord who had several guest appearances early in the 1967 revival series, to fill the undefined role. No indication was given whether McCord would be playing his character of Jim Reed from Adam-12 or a totally new character. On December 23, 1982, Webb died unexpectedly from a heart attack and the Dragnet revival was scrapped.

After Webb's death, LAPD Chief Daryl Gates announced that badge number 714—Webb's number on the television show—was retired, and Los Angeles city offices lowered their flags to half staff. At Webb's funeral, the LAPD provided an honor guard, and the chief of police commented on Webb's connection with the LAPD. An LAPD auditorium was named in his honor. Jack Webb's LAPD sergeant's badge and ID card are on display at the Los Angeles Police Academy.

Dragnet (1954)
In 1954, a theatrical feature film titled Dragnet, an adaptation of the series, was released with Webb, Alexander, and Richard Boone. Dennis Weaver plays R. A. Lohrman, a detective captain. The film begins with the shooting of small-time hood Miller Starkie (Dub Taylor) on orders from his boss, Max Troy (Stacy Harris). Friday and Smith's superior is LAPD Intelligence Division Captain Jim Hamilton (Boone), a department member and the film's technical advisor. The Intelligence Division focused on the pursuit of organized-crime figures, and some of Max Troy's habits resemble that of Mickey Cohen, the known Los Angeles underworld boss; for example, Troy's LAPD file reads that he could be found at "Sunset Strip taverns and joints", as could Cohen. The film depicts the working relationship between the LAPD and the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office; Friday and Smith work to gather evidence that the DA's office deems sufficient to gain the indictment and ultimate conviction of Troy and his fellows. One scene contains a violent fist-fight involving the two detectives, with the close-up cinematic technique typical of Webb's style of direction. The movie's ending represents a departure from most Dragnet stories; no arrest is made at the story's conclusion. Chester Davitt (Willard Sage), Troy's underling and Starkie's killer, is killed by underworld figures, and Troy succumbs to cancer before the detectives, having gathered sufficient evidence against him, can make the arrest.

The film earned an estimated $4.7 million at the North American box office during its first year of release.

Dragnet 1966 (aired 1969)
Dragnet 1966 is a made-for-TV movie that initiated the return of the Dragnet series to television. It was produced as the TV pilot for Dragnet 1967, but was not broadcast until 1969. The movie stars Jack Webb as Sgt. Friday and Harry Morgan as Officer Bill Gannon. The story focuses on crime more typical of the 1960s than of the previous Dragnet era; the detectives are assigned to find a voyeuristic serial killer similar to Harvey Glatman (played by Vic Perrin, who appeared in the 1954 film as an assistant district attorney). Also appearing is Virginia Gregg, who had a role in the 1954 feature and was a frequent guest actor in the 1951–59 series and the 1967–70 episodes, and John Roseboro, a catcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who dabbled in acting in the off season; Roseboro played a plainclothes detective who had been the target of racial slurs by a child molester until Friday came to his aid.

Dragnet (1987)
In 1987, a comedy film version of Dragnet was released starring Dan Aykroyd as the stiff Joe Friday (nephew of the original Sergeant Joe Friday), and Tom Hanks as his partner, Detective Pep Streebeck. The film contrasted the terse, clipped character of Friday, a hero from an earlier age, with the "real world" of Los Angeles in 1987 to broad comedic effect. Apart from Aykroyd's spot-on imitation of Webb's Joe Friday and Harry Morgan reprising his role of Bill Gannon (now Captain), the film version has few similarities with previous incarnations. This Dragnet parody was a hit with audiences, though no sequel was produced. LAPD Lieutenant Dan Cooke, who had served as technical advisor for the Jack Webb series, was also technical advisor for this production.

The New Dragnet (1989)
A revival of Dragnet by The Arthur Company, titled The New Dragnet, aired in first-run syndication in tandem with The New Adam-12, a revival of the Jack Webb series Adam-12. Like The New Adam-12, The New Dragnet had entirely different characters, music, and presentation compared to the original series, and starred Jeff Osterhage as Detective Vic Daniels, Bernard White as Detective Carl Molina, and Don Stroud as Captain Lussen.

Fifty-two episodes were aired over two seasons. The first season aired from October 24, 1989, to January 21, 1990; the second season aired from April 19, 1990, to September 9, 1990.

L.A. Dragnet (2003)
In 2003, a Dragnet series was produced by Dick Wolf, the producer of NBC's Law & Order series and spin-offs. It aired on ABC, and starred Ed O'Neill as Joe Friday and Ethan Embry as Frank Smith. After a 12-episode season that followed the traditional formula, the format of the series was changed to an ensemble crime drama in an attempt to boost ratings. (The change apparently reflected Webb's intentions for the 1980s revival series, with Joe Friday promoted again to Lieutenant and overseeing a pair or group of younger detectives.)

In L.A. Dragnet, Friday was promoted to lieutenant with less screen time and Frank Smith was written out, in favor of a younger and ethnically diverse cast played by Eva Longoria, Desmond Harrington, Evan Dexter Parke, and Christina Chang. Roselyn Sanchez was added to the regular cast in a few episodes. With the Dragnet formula no longer in place, the program had the feel of a typical procedural drama. It was cancelled five episodes into its second season. Three episodes premiered on USA Network in early 2004, with the final two on the Sleuth channel in 2006. In other countries such as the Netherlands, the show is retitled Murder Investigation.

Music
The theme from Dragnet has been recorded by many artists, achieving popular success. Artists who charted with it include Ray Anthony (1953) and The Art of Noise (1987).

Nonfiction

 * In 1958, Webb authored The Badge, a book containing chapters of true stories told from the view of a patrolman, sergeant, lieutenant, and others. It had a number of photographs and recently was reissued with a foreword by James Ellroy, author of L.A. Confidential, which features a fictional show, Badge of Honor, modeled after Dragnet.
 * In 2001, Michael J. Hayde wrote My Name's Friday: The Unauthorized But True Story of "Dragnet" and the Films of Jack Webb, with a foreword by Harry Morgan (Bill Gannon).

Parodies

 * The Little Shop of Horrors, a 1960 cult classic comedy horror film by Roger Corman, features a parody of the traditional Dragnet dry, hard-boiled voiceover narration throughout, and in the second half of the film, an onscreen parody of Dragnet and Joe Friday's robotic stoicism, a police detective named Joe Fink who says in voiceover "My name is Fink. Joe Fink... I'm a fink".
 * "St. George and the Dragonet", a 1953 short audio satire by Stan Freberg, was a smash hit reaching number one on both the Billboard and the Cash Box record charts. In this satire, Freberg used the line "Just the facts, ma'am", which entered popular lexicography as an actual catchphrase from Dragnet, despite the line never being used on the show, except for Season Two, Episode Eight ("Big Lease"). Freberg followed "St. George..." with "Little Blue Riding Hood" and "Christmas Dragnet".
 * The 1954 Woody Woodpecker cartoon Under the Counter Spy was a parody of Dragnet. At the beginning, a narrator says, "The story you are about to see is a big fat lie. No names have been changed to protect anybody!" At the end, a hammer and stamp make the words "THE END", and the hammerer hits his thumb.
 * The 1955, Three Stooges short Blunder Boys parodies Dragnet. In place of the familiar "Dragnet" theme, the first four notes of "The Song of the Volga Boatmen", which is in the public domain, is used. At the end of the film, Moe stamps Larry's head with a hammer; Larry's forehead then reads, "VII 1/2 The End".
 * A 1956 Looney Tunes short, Rocket Squad, starred Daffy Duck and Porky Pig as Sgt. Joe Monday and Det. Schmoe Tuesday, respectively. Daffy narrated, giving a running timeline in the manner of Sgt. Friday. This police adventure ends with both officers convicted and imprisoned for false arrest. The opening title reads: "Ladies and Gentlemen, the story you are about to see is true. The drawings have been changed to protect the innocent". Another short, Tree Cornered Tweety, featured Tweety imitating the narrator of Dragnet as he is being pursued by Sylvester again.
 * A segment of the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon show called "Bullwinkle's Corner", which featured Bullwinkle Moose in a poetry reading of "Tom, Tom the Piper's Son," parodied Dragnet, as Bullwinkle is apprehended in the act of stealing a pig by two detectives who interrogate Bullwinkle using a terse, clipped monotone similar in style to Joe Friday and Frank Smith ("You got a name?" "I'm Tom, Tom the Piper's Son." "All right, Piperson, what were you going to do with the pig?").
 * A 1968 sketch entitled the "Copper Clapper Caper" during Jack Webb's appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Webb reprised Friday interviewing the equally deadpan victim of a robbery (played by Carson). The details of the crime started with the alliterative "k" or "kl" consonant sound, such as "Claude Cooper, the kleptomaniac from Cleveland."
 * A Sesame Street Muppet skit from the early 1970s, "Dragnet" featured Sgt. Thursday and his partner, Ben, searching for a fugitive letter ”W” using a drawing Ben carries with him of the letter; when they do encounter the letter W it disguises itself turning upside down into a letter “M”.
 * The final segment of each episode of PBS's Square One was titled "Mathnet" and opened with the Dragnet theme and an arrangement of the lines "The story you're about to see is a fib—but it's short. The names are made up, but the problems are real." Each story arc of the show's five-season run lasted five daily episodes (one week) and featured detectives Kate Monday (seasons 1–3) or Pat Tuesday (seasons 4–5) and George Ernest Frankly (all five seasons), of the LAPD in the first two of the show's five seasons and the New York Police Department in the last three seasons, using mathematics to solve crimes.
 * Isaac Air Freight, a Christian sketch comedy troupe, parodied Dragnet twice: on their 1978 album Fun in the Son (track 11, "Jerusalem Dragnet") and 1980 album Foolish Guy to Confound the Wise (track 8, "Jerusalem Dragnet II").
 * In 1983, "Prog #310" of UK sci-fi comic 2000AD featured a time-travelling parody of Dragnet in the story "Chrono Cops", written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. In five pages, "Joe Saturday" and "Ed Thursday" encounter several time-travel "tropes", including a character attempting to kill his own great-grandfather.
 * The season-five episode of The Simpsons titled "Marge on the Lam" centers around Marge Simpson and neighbor Ruth Powers being pursued by police while illegally driving Ruth's ex-husband's car; the episode ends with a Dragnet-style epilogue detailing the characters' fates, as narrated by original series announcer George Fenneman, then the end credits run over a graphic of a police badge while a version of The Simpsons theme done in the style of the famous "Dragnet March" plays. Also, the season-seven episode "Mother Simpson" has Homer Simpson's mother, Mona Simpson, as a fugitive from Charles Montgomery Burns, who is about to be captured after 27 years. Burns is helped by officers Joe Friday and Bill Gannon (voiced by Harry Morgan).
 * Dragnet is parodied at the end of the episode of The New Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh titled: "Sorry, Wrong Slusher". Winnie-the-Pooh performs a closing narration as a mug shot of Christopher Robin is shown on screen, in the style of Dragnet.
 * The Amazon original series Man in the High Castle features a show in the fictional universe where Germany won the Second World War called "American Reich", shot in the style of Dragnet. The show's title crawl music is similar to Dragnet, and the title card contains a police badge with a swastika in the center. In keeping with the alternate history, the character equivalent of Friday is a straight-laced Nazi, with catchphrases including "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein phone call" ("One people, one empire, one phone call.").

Original television series (1951–1959)
Most, if not all, episodes of this series are in the public domain, and 52 episodes were released by many DVD labels. These collections feature a variety of the same 52 episodes. These include "The Human Bomb", "The Big Actor", "The Big Mother", "The Big Cast", "The Big September Man", "The Big Phone Call", "The Big Casing", "The Big Lamp", "The Big Seventeen", "The Big .22 Caliber Rifle for Christmas", "The Big Grandma", "The Big Show", "The Big Break", "The Big Frank", "The Big Hands", "The Big Barrette", "The Big Dance", "The Big Betty", "The Big Will", "The Big Thief", "The Big Little Jesus", "The Big Trunk", "The Big Boys", "The Big Children", "The Big Winchester", "The Big Shoplift", "The Big Hit & Run Killer", "The Big Girl", "The Big Frame", "The Big False Make", "The Big Producer", "The Big Fraud", "The Big Crime", "The Big Pair", "The Big Missing", "The Big Bar", "The Big Present", "The Big New Year", "The Big Rod", "The Big Lift", "The Big Gap", "The Big Look", "The Big Glasses", "The Big Bird", "the Big Smoke", "The Big Bounce", "The Big Deal", "The Big Hat", "The Big Net", "The Big War", "The Big Oskar", and "The Big Counterfeit". Often, some are mislabeled as no onscreen titles are used.

Three collections released from Alpha Video feature four episodes each. Eclectic DVD released a collection of three episodes.

Platinum Video released seven episodes from the original series in 2002. The episodes are: "Big Crime", "Big Pair", "Big Producer", "Big Break", "Big September Man", "Big Betty", and "Big Trunk". The two-disc set includes episodes from Burke's Law; Peter Gunn; Richard Diamond, Private Detective; Mr. Wong, Detective; and Bulldog Drummond.

Dragnet feature film (1954)
This movie was released on DVD in 2009 as part of Universal Studios' "Vault Series".

The movie was released on bluray in 2020 by Kino Lorber. The transfer features a 2K scan.

Dragnet pilot movie (1966)
This movie is a bonus feature on Shout! Factory's "Dragnet 1968: Season Two" (Release Date: July 6, 2010).

Dragnet (1967–1970)
On June 7, 2005, Universal Studios released the first season on DVD in Region 1. Because sales numbers did not meet Universal's expectations, no plans were made to release the remaining three seasons.

On March 17, 2010, Shout! Factory acquired the rights to distribute the series under license from Universal. They subsequently released seasons 2–4.

The New Dragnet (1989)
No DVD releases to date of this remake that lasted two seasons.

L.A. Dragnet (2003)
Universal Studios Home Entertainment was going to release the first season of this short-lived remake on DVD on November 11, 2003, but this release was cancelled. It is not known if the set will be released.

General sources

 * Dunning, John, On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, Oxford University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-19-507678-8.
 * Michael J. Hayde, My Name's Friday: The Unauthorized but True Story of Dragnet and the Films of Jack Webb, Cumberland House, 2001, ISBN 1-58182-190-5
 * Jason Mittell, Genre and Television: From Cop Shows to Cartoons in American Culture. Routledge, 2004, ISBN 0-415-96903-4.

title: Dragnet (franchise)


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1992 Winter Olympics

The 1992 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVI Olympic Winter Games (XVIes Jeux Olympiques d'hiver) and commonly known as Albertville '92 (Arpitan: Arbèrtvile '92), was a winter multi-sport event held from 8 to 23 February 1992 in and around Albertville, France. Albertville won the bid to host the Winter Olympics in 1986, beating Sofia, Falun, Lillehammer, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Anchorage, and Berchtesgaden. The 1992 Winter Olympics were the last winter games held in the same year as the Summer Olympics. The Games were the fifth Olympic Games held in France and the country's third Winter Olympics, after the 1924 Winter Games in Chamonix and the 1968 Winter Games in Grenoble. This games was the first of two consecutive Olympic games to be held in Western Europe, preceding the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.

18 events in Figure skating, short track speed skating, speed skating, and the opening and closing ceremonies took place in Albertville. The 39 other events were held in the nearby 9 villages and resorts around Savoie: Courchevel, La Plagne, Les Arcs, Les Menuires, Les Saisies, Méribel, Pralognan-la-Vanoise, Tignes, and Val d'Isère. Sixty-four National Olympic Committees and 1,801 athletes participated in six sports and fifty-seven events. This included both the Unified Team, representing the non-Baltic former Soviet republics, and Germany, newly consolidated again as a team following the reunification of the former East and West Germany in 1990. The event also saw the debut of eight nations in the Winter Olympics. The Winter Olympic program has grown this time with the addition of 11 new events. While sports that were already on the program received 5 new events (2 new events in cross-country skiing, at the same time women were allowed to compete in biathlon for the first time and won 3 events exclusive to them.) Another 6 events were added with the implementation of 2 sports that were demonstrated 4 years earlier (freestyle skiing and short track speed skating).These were the last Winter Olympics to include demonstration sports, consisting of curling, aerials and ski ballet, and speed skiing. Due to a rule change implemented in 1986, this was the last edition in the history of the Winter Olympic Games in which all speed skating events were held in an open-air venue.

Host city selection

A record-breaking seven locations bid for the games. The non-winning bids were from Anchorage, Berchtesgaden, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Falun, Lillehammer, and Sofia. The 91st IOC Session, held in Lausanne on 17 October 1986, voted Albertville the host of the Games.

Highlights
Bjørn Dæhlie and Vegard Ulvang dominated the men's cross-country skiing races, both taking home three gold medals with Norway taking a medal sweep in the event. 16-year-old Ski jumper Toni Nieminen became the youngest male gold medalist in a Winter Olympic event until 2002. Petra Kronberger won both the combined event and the slalom of alpine skiing, while Bonnie Blair won both the 500 m and 1000 m speed skating events, and Gunda Niemann took both of the longest races.

Three National Olympic Committees in Asia-Pacific region won their first medals at the Winter Olympics ; one in a sport making its debut at the Games, short track speed skating). Kim Ki-hoon's gold medal in 1000 m short track speed skating signified South Korea's first medal in the Winter Olympics, while Ye Qiaobo's silver medal in women's 500 m speed skating represented China's first Winter Olympics medal. Annelise Coberger from New Zealand became the first Oceanian athlete to win a medal in women's alpine skiing slalom, making her the first athlete from the southern hemisphere to mount the podium at the Winter Games.

Swiss speed skier Nicolas Bochatay died on the penultimate day of the Games, when he crashed into a snow-grooming vehicle during a training run.

Legacy
The 1992 Olympic Winter Games marked the last time both the Winter and Summer games were held in the same year. The 1992 Winter Olympics also marked the last time France hosted the Olympics. The games are scheduled to return to France in 2024 when Paris is set to become the second city to host the Summer Olympics three times.

Cost and cost overrun
The Oxford Olympics Study established the outturn cost of the Albertville 1992 Winter Olympics at US$2.0 billion (in 2015-dollars) and cost overrun at 137% in real terms. This includes sports-related costs only, that is: (i) operational costs incurred by the organizing committee to stage the Games, e.g., expenditures for technology, transportation, workforce, administration, security, catering, ceremonies, and medical services; and (ii) direct capital costs incurred by the host city and country or private investors to build, e.g., the competition venues, the Olympic village, international broadcast center, and media and press center, which are required to host the Games. Indirect capital costs were not included, e.g. road, rail, or airport infrastructure, or hotel upgrades or other business investment incurred in preparation for the Games but not directly related to their staging. In comparison, the cost and cost overrun of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics were US$2.5 billion and 13%, respectively, while the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics (the most costly Olympics to date) had costs and cost overrun at US$51 billion and 289%, respectively. The average cost for the Winter Games since 1960 is US$3.1 billion, while the average cost overrun is 142%.

Mascot
The 1992 Winter Games mascot, Magique (Magic), was a small imp in the shape of a star and a cube. The mascot was created by Philippe Mairesse and replaced the bid mascot, which was a mountain goat. The star shape symbolized dreams and imagination, while the mascot's red and blue colors originated from the French flag.

Sports
There were 57 events contested in 6 sports (12 disciplines). See the medal winners, ordered by sport:

Demonstration sports
This was the last time demonstration events were included in the Winter Olympics program. Of the 8 events that were under evaluation, 4 received the endorsement to be included in an official form in future editions of the Games (Curling tournaments and the aerials events on the freestyle skiing). The other four events (speed skiing and skiing ballet events on the freestyle skiing) were rejected and have not since returned.

 * Curling – Was an official sport in the Olympic program in 1924, after which it was a demonstration sport twice, in 1932 and 1988. There was a possibility of re-inclusion in Lillehammer 1994, but in 1990 the IOC Executive Committee rejected its return as an official sport. The IOC accepted its return in Nagano 1998.
 * Freestyle skiing – Like curling, it was a demonstration sport four years previously before becoming part of the official program. Only moguls skiing received this status, while aerials and ballet remained demonstration events. Aerials became an official event two years later, while ballet skiing appeared in the games for the last time, going into a progressive decline and losing its status as a competitive discipline by the International Ski Federation (FIS) in 2000.
 * Speed skiing – Considered one of the most dangerous events in the sporting world, the event won a chance to be evaluated by the members of the International Olympic Committee and the FIS, with the possibility of appearing in the program of a future edition. However, this possibility was extinguished when Swiss skier Nicolas Bochatay ran into a snow-grooming vehicle during a training run, dying immediately. According to reports, Bochatay was moving at a speed of more than 110 km/h and was unable to hear the machine's warning siren. His death is the subject of several controversies, as speed skiing was not a part of the official program. After this incident, the sport was excluded from any evaluation for future additions to the Olympic program.

Participating nations
Sixty-four nations sent competitors to the 1992 Olympics, including seven nations making their first appearance at a Winter Olympics. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, six former-Soviet bloc nations chose to form a Unified Team, while the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania competed as independent nations for the first time since 1936. Czechoslovakia made its last appearance in the Winter Olympics before its dissolution at the end of 1992. United Nations Security Council Resolution 757 took effect on 30 May 1992 (97 days after the closing ceremonies), and Yugoslav athletes were able to participate under their country's national symbols. It also suspended the activities of the Yugoslav Olympic Committee, making the country's athletes ineligible to compete on the 1992 Summer Olympics. Despite this, some of their athletes classified in individual sports and gained authorization to compete as Independent Olympic Participants (which also happened at the 1992 Summer Paralympics). Yugoslav athletes returned to the Olympic Games in the 1996 Summer Olympics, when only Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo were still part of the country. The 1992 Winter Olympics were the first time since the 1964 Summer Olympics that Germany competed with a unified team. Seven National Olympic Committees sent their first delegations to the Winter Olympics: Algeria, Bermuda, Brazil, Honduras, Ireland, Swaziland, Croatia, and Slovenia (the last two making their first appearances at any Olympics, just a few months after their respective declarations of independence from Yugoslavia). Through the 2022 Winter Olympics, this has been the only participation of Swaziland (now Eswatini) and Honduras in an edition of the Winter Olympics.

Venues
The 1992 Games are the last in which the speed skating venue was outdoors.
 * Albertville Olympic Park
 * Halle Olympique – Figure skating and short-track speed skating
 * L'anneau de vitesse – Speed skating
 * Théâtre des Cérémonies – Ceremonies (opening & closing)
 * Les Arcs – Speed skiing
 * Courchevel – Ski jumping and Nordic combined
 * Les Ménuires – Alpine skiing (slalom men)
 * Méribel – Alpine skiing (women)
 * Méribel Ice Palace – Ice hockey
 * La Plagne – Bobsleigh and luge
 * Pralognan-la-Vanoise – Curling
 * Les Saisies – Biathlon, cross-country skiing
 * Tignes – Freestyle skiing
 * Val d'Isère – Alpine skiing (men combined, downhill, giant slalom, and super-giant slalom)

Medal table
(Host nation is highlighted.)

(1 combined team with athletes from 6 nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States; the team only appeared in these Winter Olympics)

title: 1992 Winter Olympics


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Randy White (American football)

Randall Lee White (born January 15, 1953), nicknamed "the Manster", is an American former professional football player who was a defensive tackle for the Dallas Cowboys in the National Football League (NFL) from 1975 to 1988. He played college football for the Maryland Terrapins from 1972 to 1974. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame (1994), the Pro Football Hall of Fame (1994) and the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame (1994 ).

High school career
Playing both defensive end and linebacker at Thomas McKean High School in Wilmington, Delaware, Randy is considered to this day the "Best All-Time Player" in the history of Delaware high school football. Graduating in 1971, he was a star player in the state's 15th annual Blue-Gold All-Star high school football game played each year since 1956 at the University of Delaware stadium to benefit DFRC and its programs to provide services to Delawareans with intellectual disabilities.

College career
White was recruited by the University of Maryland and played as a fullback for the Terrapins during his freshman year. Maryland finished the year with only 2 wins and White did little worth noting during that year. During his sophomore season, new head coach Jerry Claiborne moved Randy to defensive end, noting that he had the skill to be "one of the best five linemen in the U.S." The move was a natural fit, as by his senior year, he was, as Claiborne put it, "as fast as some of the offensive backs I had coached." In that senior year (1974), he won numerous awards and honors, including the Outland Trophy, the Lombardi Award, and the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year. Though Maryland lost in the Liberty Bowl that season to Tennessee, Randy was named the game's Most Valuable Player. In 1994, he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame and in 2000 was named to ABC sports All-time All-America Team.

Professional career
White was the Dallas Cowboys' first pick and the second player selected in the 1975 NFL draft, and was moved to middle linebacker, where he was a backup to Cowboy legend Lee Roy Jordan, playing mostly on special teams his first two seasons, including his rookie season when Dallas lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl X. Jordan retired following the 1976 season, and his slot was filled by Bob Breunig, who held the position the next nine seasons. During his third season (1977), White was moved to right defensive tackle, the same position formerly occupied by "Mr. Cowboy", Bob Lilly, from 1961 through 1974, a move which in turn moved veteran Larry Cole back to his natural defensive end position (backing up Ed "Too Tall" Jones and Harvey Martin, though he did play left defensive tackle after the retirement of Jethro Pugh.

That year would prove to be his breakout year; he was named to his first All-Pro team, his first Pro Bowl, and (on his 25th birthday) was named co-MVP of Super Bowl XII with teammate Harvey Martin, making him one of ten defensive players to win that honor. In 1978, White was named the NFC Defensive Player of the Year, and would be named to nine consecutive All-Pro and Pro Bowl teams. He would retire in 1988 (coincidentally, also the last season on the sidelines for original Cowboys coach Tom Landry), having played 209 games in 14 seasons, only missing one game during that span. At the time of his retirement, he had played the second most of any Dallas Cowboy in history. During those 14 years, he played in three Super Bowls, six NFC Championship Games, and accumulated 1,104 tackles (701 solo) and 111 sacks. His highest single season sack total was 16 in 1978. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1994. On the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the naming of the only co-MVPs in Super Bowl history, Super Bowl XLVII, which like Super Bowl XII was played in New Orleans, Louisiana, was dedicated to White. Harvey Martin had died in 2001.

Gradually, the accumulation of injuries began to limit White's effectiveness. He was credited with only 64 tackles in the 1987 season (a season in which White made the controversial choice to cross the picket line during the players' strike); this followed shoulder surgery the previous year and a bulging disc in his neck that worsened. In 1988, he played in a backup role, not assuming a three-point stance because of the disability. White openly and honestly acknowledged his frustration that he could no longer play at the level at which he was accustomed, and he decided to retire after the 1988 season.

Personal life
White married Dallas model Vicci Haney, in 1978. They have one child together, daughter Jordan.

White is nicknamed "The Manster" (half man, half monster). He studied Thai Boxing under Chai Sirisute, the founder of the Thai Boxing Association of the USA. White's round kick reportedly registered 400 psi on a gauge after two months of training.

title: Randy White (American football)