Well, after last week radio episode dedicated to another pulp icon such as the Green Hornet, this month spotlight should come as no surprise ;)
As for the Shadow, the Green Hornet has been around since the '30s and it has been adapted in many media: radio show, movies, tv series, and novels and comics. Created by Fran Striker, the Green Hornet tells the war against the crime conducted by this vigilante who is often helped by his (expert in martial arts) Asian manservant Kato. The man behind the mask is Britt Reid, a newspaper publisher by day, who uses his investigative reports to hunt down the criminals in the city with also the help of some cool gadgets and the technological equipped car (ala Batman!) known as Black Beauty.
The mask on his face has changed thorough the years (from covering just his lower face as a bandit, to the upper face to a full face mask) but the symbol of the green hornet has been always there to testify that this is indeed a hornet that stings!
In his TV series version, the Green Hornet is famous to have Bruce Lee in the role of Kato. Even if the series was up just for one season, it is still remembered nowadays for Lee's performance (the show was actually re-titled "the Kato show" for the Asian market).
Little interesting trivia: being created by the same writer, the Green Hornet real identity, Britt Reid, is the virtual grandnephew of another famous pulp character born from Striker's pen: the Lone Ranger! (who should appear on this blog at a certain point ;))
That's it for today. Feel free to gimme suggestions on who you would like to see portrayed in the future radio-shows or spotlight: there are so many characters that I don't even know where to start ;)
Have a Pulp Sunday, everyone!
Francesco
Pulp Spotlight is the new monthly feature where I will cover other famous characters that have helped to build the Pulp genre not just on the radio but also in the other media.
