The Green Hornet (radio series)

The series originated on January 31, 1936, on WXYZ, the same local Detroit station that originated its companion shows The Lone Ranger and Challenge of the Yukon. Beginning April 12, 1938, the station supplied the series to the Mutual Broadcasting System radio network, and then to NBC Blue and its successors, the Blue Network and ABC Network, from November 16, 1939, through September 8, 1950. It returned from September 10 to December 5, 1952. Liking the acoustic possibilities of a bee sound, Trendle directed it be incorporated into the show. The team experimented with names, with Trendle liking The Hornet, but that name had been used elsewhere and could have posed rights problems. Colors including blue and pink were considered before the creators settled on green. When the characters were used in a pair of movie serials The Green Hornet and The Green Hornet Strikes Again!, the producers had Kato's nationality given as Korean. ==Narration==

When the series began in 1936, the opening narration originally began with the announcer proclaiming that the Green Hornet "hunts the biggest of all game! Public enemies that even the G-Men cannot reach!", referring to FBI agents. Bureau chief J. Edgar Hoover objected to the line's implication that some crime fighting was beyond the abilities of the FBI, and it was changed to "Public enemies who try to destroy our America!" During World War II, the opening narration was changed to: After the revving of the Black Beauty engine, the announcer would then say: After the thrumming of the hornet sound, Britt Reid would then call out: Later, this was changed to: ==Music==

The radio show used Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee" as its theme music, blended with a hornet buzz created on a theremin. "The Infernal Dance of King Koshchei" from Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird was usually used after this announced part: The original version (first used in episode 28 [May 3, 1936]) went like this: ==Relationship to the Lone Ranger==

One relatively minor aspect of the character that tends to be given limited exposure in the actual productions is his blood relationship to the Lone Ranger, another character created by Striker. The Lone Ranger's nephew was Dan Reid. In the Green Hornet radio shows, the Hornet's father was likewise named Dan Reid, making Britt Reid the Lone Ranger's grandnephew. The Lone Ranger property was sold to another company in the 1950s, which resulted in a legal complication that precluded The Lone Ranger being directly associated with the Green Hornet. This complication was later resolved in a comic book cross-over published by Dynamite Entertainment. ==Other media representations==

A number of the Pink Panther film satires included an Asian "valet" to the hero, alternately called "Kato" or "Cato", and one even included a customized car called "The Silver Hornet". ==Actors==

The Green Hornet was played by: Charles Livingstone succeeded Jewell as director. Announcers who served as narrator of The Green Hornet were Fielden Farrington, Charles Wood, future broadcast journalist Mike Wallace, future ABC Radio president Hal Neal, and Bob Hite. Fred Foy was the series' final announcer/narrator from November 7, 1951, until the series' end on December 5, 1952. ==Other characters==

Other major characters in the radio series included: Friends/allies • Britt Reid's secretary Lenore "Casey" Case, formerly secretary to Britt's father Dan Reid before Britt took over as publisher of The Daily Sentinel, was played by James Jewell's sister Leonore Jewell Allman, In the February 17, 1948, episode "Miss Case Keeps A Secret", she reveals that she has learned the true identity of The Green Hornet and becomes a trusted ally for the rest of the series. • Michael Aloysius "Mike" Axford (originated by actor Jim Irwin until his death in 1938, then played by Gil Shea), but who drifted into becoming a reporter for The Daily Sentinel by virtue of his contacts at Police Headquarters (especially his best friend Sergeant Burke, known usually as "Sarge"). He was the most dedicated pursuer of the Green Hornet (while expressing his admiration for the Hornet's ability to both smash criminals and elude the authorities). Axford was temporarily written out of the series when on December 15, 1936, he was shot and critically wounded. In January 1938 when actor Jim Irwin suffered a stroke and later died in June of that year, Axford was written out of the series by Britt Reid's father ordering him to return to the West Coast. When Gil Shea took over the role (and played it until the radio series ended in 1952), Axford was brought back first in the form of a voiceover reading a letter in the June 22, 1939, episode "Pink Lemonade and Tan Bark" and on July 4, 1939 ("Put It On Ice"), returned in person. • Bill Gunnigan, the Daily Sentinel's City Editor (mostly unknown, but played throughout 1938 by Fred Reto), always barking commands and sounding like he was on the verge of a heart-attack (especially when dealing with Mike Axford). • Ed Lowry (played by Jack Petruzzi), one of The Sentinel's best reporters, did not come into existence until near the end of the series; he was introduced in the November 11, 1947, episode "Too Hot to Handle" as an old friend of Dan Reid's who was being blackmailed and who was rescued by the Green Hornet. The following week, Britt and Dan Reid confided the Hornet's secret identity to Higgins in the episode "The Man on Top" (November 18, 1947). Enemies • Oliver Perry, also known as "The Great Detective", was a famous private investigator who became one of The Green Hornet's most implacable foes. He first appeared on the December 26, 1944, episode "The Great Detective" and established a link between The Daily Sentinel and The Green Hornet, narrowing his suspects down to Britt Reid. Reid managed to throw Perry off the track, but Reid and Perry crossed paths again in San Francisco (April 4, 1945, "San Francisco Adventure") where Perry was providing security for a major peace conference. Perry returned in "The Return of Oliver Perry" (August 2, 1945) and again in "Unexpected Meeting" (August 23, 1945), but did not start going wrong until "The Last of Oliver Perry" (February 23, 1946) when he used a paroled criminal to try and steal evidence from Reid that would implicate him as The Hornet; when the plan backfires, Perry is disgraced. In "Grand Larceny on Wheels" (April 20, 1946), Perry not only has a car built that could match The Black Beauty for speed, but also impersonates The Hornet to try and trap Reid; this plan also backfires. In "Oliver Perry Tries Again" (September 7, 1946), Perry again tries to expose Reid as The Hornet, the failure of this plan results in Perry losing the cooperation of the local police. In "The Woman and Oliver Perry" (January 12, 1947) Perry uses a female operative in his plans: when this fails as well, Perry is stripped of his investigator's license. Because of his continued failures against The Hornet, Perry finally goes completely bad and in "Tickets to the Rosebowl" (December 30, 1947) gets into a major fist fight with The Hornet which he loses and is sent to prison. In "The Travis Case" (May 18, 1948), while still in prison, Perry has Linda Travis (who knows The Hornet's true identity) kidnapped; she escapes but is killed by Perry's thugs in a hit-and-run. The Hornet tracks down Perry's men and exposes Perry's involvement. In "Oliver Perry Closes In" (May 17, 1949), Perry, out on parole, kidnaps Britt Reid and takes him to the headquarters of a numbers racket that Reid is targeting in his editorials. Perry declares that he no longer wants to prove that Reid is the Green Hornet - he simply wants to kill him. However, Reid is saved and Perry goes back to prison for violating his parole. Perry escapes from prison in "Oliver Perry - Escaped Convict" (November 1, 1949) with the help of Communist Party members in a plot to murder Reid, which is thwarted and ends with Perry being returned to prison for good. ==Preservation==

Like other radio programs of its day, The Green Hornet was broadcast live. Before May 1938, recordings were not made of the episodes. Regular recording of the live episodes, for the purpose of rebroadcasting by individual stations, began with the April 6, 1939, broadcast; recordings were made of every subsequent episode. ==References==