THE SHADOW: DEATH HOUSE RESCUE (SEPTEMBER 9. 1937)

Orson Welles plays the shadowy presence who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.  Young family man Paul Gordon, with a very ill daughter and desperately in need of money, has been sentenced to die after being convicted of a robbery/murder.  But Gordon is innocent and was forced into driving a car by the real villains.  The Shadow goes into the prison on the eve of the execution, and uses his great mental powers to find a way to rescue the poor man.

The Shadow was originally created as the mysterious narrator of a CBS radio anthology series, Detective Story Hour, with episodes based on stories from the Street & Smith pulp magazine.  Radio listeners were so impressed with the character, they demanded pulp stories about him.  Street & Smith comissioned writer Walter B. Gibson to create and write a series of stories about the character; the first issue of The Shadow magazine was dated April 1931.  That character who had the ability to cloud men's minds moved to the radio airwaves on CBS with "Death House Rescue" in September 1937.

Also featured in the long-running program was Agnes Moorhead as Margo Lane.  Ken Roberts served as the show's announcer.  The phrase "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men" was never used by Welles; it was voiced by Frank Readick, Jr., who had taken over the narrator's role in Detective Story Hour; Readick held a water glass next to his mouth to create the echoing effect.

Let's journey back to the first days of radio's most mysterious character and enjoy "Death House Rescue."  The early minutes of the show serve to give listeners the Shadow's background and motivation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkIjLxoYLDo