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The Shadow Of Fu Manchu
''The Shadow of Fu Manchu'' is an adventure radio drama adapted from the first nine Fu Manchu novels by Sax Rohmer. The syndicated series aired from 1939 to 1940 in 15-minute installments. Characters and story Fu Manchu (Harold Huber) was a diabolical criminal mastermind. British official Nayland Smith (Hanley Stafford), assisted by Dr. Petrie (Gale Gordon), set out to stop Fu Manchu at any cost. In ''Radio Crime Fighters'' (2002), Jim Cox wrote: :The plots of Rohmer's insidious figure and Smith and Petrie's attempts to thwart the archenemy formed a repetitive theme in the story line. A stunningly exotic Karamaneh became the slave girl of the evil doctor; an objective of the combatants was to secure her release. The series, though brief, is memorable, and focused on one of the most effective villains to surface in adolescent radio.Cox, Jim, ''Radio Crime Fighters''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2002. References External links"In the Shadow Fu Manchu" by Martin Grams, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radio Drama
Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story: "It is auditory in the physical dimension but equally powerful as a visual force in the psychological dimension." Radio drama includes plays specifically written for radio, docudrama, dramatized works of fiction, as well as plays originally written for the theatre, including musical theatre, and opera. Radio drama achieved widespread popularity within a decade of its initial development in the 1920s. By the 1940s, it was a leading international popular entertainment. With the advent of television in the 1950s radio drama began losing its audience. However, it remains popular in much of the world. Recordings of OTR ( old-time radio) survive today in the audio archives of collectors, libraries and museums, as well ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fu Manchu
Dr. Fu Manchu () is a supervillain who was introduced in a series of novels by the English author Sax Rohmer beginning shortly before World War I and continuing for another forty years. The character featured in cinema, television, radio, comic strips and comic books for over 90 years, and he has also become an archetype of the evil criminal genius and mad scientist, while lending his name to the Fu Manchu moustache. Background and publication According to his own account, Sax Rohmer decided to start the Dr. Fu Manchu series after his Ouija board spelled out C-H-I-N-A-M-A-N when he asked what would make his fortune. Clive Bloom argues that the portrait of Fu Manchu was based on the popular music hall magician Chung Ling Soo, "a white man in costume who had shaved off his Victorian moustache and donned a Mandarin costume and pigtail". As for Rohmer's theories concerning "Eastern devilry" and "the unemotional cruelty of the Chinese," he seeks to give them intellectual credentials ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sax Rohmer
Arthur Henry "Sarsfield" Ward (15 February 1883 – 1 June 1959), better known as Sax Rohmer, was an English novelist. He is best remembered for his series of novels featuring the master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu."Rohmer, Sax" by Jack Adrian in David Pringle, ''St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers''. London: St. James Press, 1998; (pp. 482–484). Life and work Born in Birmingham to working class Irish parents William Ward (c. 1850–1932), a clerk, and Margaret Mary (née Furey; c. 1850–1901), Arthur Ward initially pursued a career as a civil servant before concentrating on writing full-time. He worked as a poet, songwriter and comedy sketch writer for music hall performers before creating the Sax Rohmer persona and pursuing a career writing fiction. Like his contemporaries Algernon Blackwood and Arthur Machen, Rohmer claimed membership to one of the factions of the qabbalistic Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Rohmer also claimed ties to the Rosicrucians, but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harold Huber
Harold Huber (born Harold Joseph Huberman, December 5, 1909September 29, 1959) was an American actor who appeared on film, radio and television. Early life Huber was born in the Bronx to Jewish immigrants from Imperial Russia, who had arrived in the United States as infants. His father was the manager of an optical firm. Harold Huberman entered New York University in the Fall of 1925 at age sixteen. He was a member of the university debate team, and by his third year had become editor of a school magazine called ''The Medley''. His tenure at that post was marked by an incident, reported in the newspapers, when the administration suspended publication of ''The Medley'' in May 1928 for printing "low humor...not fit to bear the name of New York University". After graduating from NYU in 1929, Huberman attended Columbia University for a short time, reportedly in the School of Law, but apparently dropped out after getting his first acting job in 1930.''The New York Times'', "Harold Hu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nayland Smith
Denis Nayland Smith is a character who was introduced in the series of novels Dr. Fu Manchu by the English author Sax Rohmer. He is a rival to the villain Dr. Fu Manchu. History The character of Denis Nayland Smith was created in 1912 by Sax Rohmer, in the short story ''The Zayat Kiss'', narrated by his friend Dr. Petrie. The short story was included in the fix-up novel '' The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu''. In the first three books, Smith serves in the Indian Imperial Police as a police commissioner in Burma who has been granted a roving commission, allowing him to exercise authority over any official group who can help him in his mission. When Rohmer revived the series in 1931, Smith, who has been knighted for his efforts to defeat Fu Manchu, is an ex-Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard. Nayland Smith had an affair with his rival's daughter, Fah Lo Suee. In other media Comics Nayland Smith was first brought to newspaper comic strips in a black and white daily comic str ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hanley Stafford
Hanley Stafford (born Alfred John Austin, September 22, 1899 – September 9, 1968), was an actor principally on radio. He is remembered best for playing Lancelot Higgins on ''The Baby Snooks Show''. Stafford also assumed the role of Mr. Dithers, the boss of Dagwood Bumstead on the '' Blondie'' radio program. He is commemorated by a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Early life Stafford emigrated from England to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 1911. In World War I he enlisted in the 43rd Battalion (Cameron Highlanders of Canada), CEF in 1915, was wounded in the Third Battle of Yprès in 1917 and returned to England in 1918. Until 1924 he toured Canada in drama productions and landed in Los Angeles that year. He played in stock for eight years and then in tent shows. He was appearing on KFWB radio in Los Angeles by April 1932 then went to Phoenix to manage a stock company, the Delmas-Lawless Players, before returning to Los Angeles to resume stage and radio work the following ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gale Gordon
Gale Gordon (born Charles Thomas Aldrich Jr., February 20, 1906 – June 30, 1995) was an American character actor perhaps best remembered as Lucille Ball's longtime television foil—and particularly as cantankerously combustible, tightfisted bank executive Theodore J. Mooney, on Ball's second television situation comedy, ''The Lucy Show''. Gordon also appeared in ''I Love Lucy'' and had starring roles in Ball's successful third series ''Here's Lucy'' and her short-lived fourth and final series '' Life with Lucy''. Gordon was also a respected and beloved radio actor who is remembered for his role as school principal Osgood Conklin in ''Our Miss Brooks'', starring Eve Arden, in both the 1948–1957 radio series and the 1952–1956 television series. He also co-starred as the second Mr. Wilson in ''Dennis the Menace'', replacing Joseph Kearns after he died. Career Radio Born Charles Thomas Aldrich Jr., in New York City to vaudevillian Charles Thomas Aldrich and his wife, E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scarlet Street (magazine)
''Scarlet Street'' was an American film magazine that primarily specialized in the genres of horror, mystery and film noir. Its initial concentration was on Sherlock Holmes and related film and television productions, but later its subject matter expanded to include a variety of other genres. The title was chosen to reference several of its chosen fields: mystery and film noir (from the film of the same name), and Sherlock Holmes (from ''A Study in Scarlet).'' History ''Scarlet Street'' spawned from a limited-distribution newsletter created by community-theater actor, playwright and Sherlock Holmes devotee Richard Valley, who was inspired to publish his views on the Granada television series ''The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes''—in particular, the home video releases of the program, which began distribution by MPI in 1990. His contact with MPI and their enthusiasm regarding Holmsian fandom led to a decision to change the format from newsletter to full-fledged fanzine (years ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1930s American Radio Programs
Year 193 ( CXCIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sosius and Ericius (or, less frequently, year 946 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 193 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * January 1 – Year of the Five Emperors: The Roman Senate chooses Publius Helvius Pertinax, against his will, to succeed the late Commodus as Emperor. Pertinax is forced to reorganize the handling of finances, which were wrecked under Commodus, to reestablish discipline in the Roman army, and to suspend the food programs established by Trajan, provoking the ire of the Praetorian Guard. * March 28 – Pertinax is assassinated by members of the Praetorian Guard, who storm the imperial palace. The Empire is auctioned off ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1939 Radio Dramas
This year also marks the start of the Second World War, the List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Nazi Germany, Third Reich *** Jews are forbidden to work with Germans. *** The Protection Young Persons Act (Germany), Youth Protection Act was passed on April 30, 1938 and the Working Hours Regulations came into effect. *** The Jews name change decree has gone into effect. ** The rest of the world *** In Spain, it becomes a duty of all young women under 25 to complete compulsory work service for one year. *** First edition of the Vienna New Year's Concert. *** The company of technology and manufacturing scientific instruments Hewlett-Packard, was founded in a garage in Palo Alto, California, by Bill Hewlett, William (Bill) Hewlett and David Packard. This garage is now considered the birthplace of Silicon Valley. *** Sydne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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