The Circus Show-Up

When trapeze artist Polly Ann Young goes into her big routine, the lights are cut and she falls to her death. Was it an accident or murder?

It's a poor little murder mystery, the sixth in a series of shorts produced to spotlight the narrator, The Shadow. If people recall him, they may remember that he was played by Orson Welles on the radio, and had lots of weird powers. Actually, he arose by accident. In 1930, Street & Smith sponsored a radio show to boost circulation of their DETECTIVE STORY pulp magazine. The had a narrator, called The Shadow, voiced by James LaCurto, read stories from the magazine. People started asking for the magazine featuring the character, so William Gibson created him, and the magazine went on sale in April of 1931. Over the next 20 years, Gibson wrote 282 of the 325 cover stories for THE SHADOW.