The Shadow in Pulp Magazines America was first introduced to The Shadow through radio. The Shadow was the mysterious announcer on the program sponsored by Street and Smith publishing called Detective Story Hour. The Shadow acted only as a narrator for this program, but radio listeners were soon requesting stories about The Shadow himself. Under the pen-name of Maxwell Grant, Walter B. Gibson was chosen to write these stories, and ended up authoring almost all of The Shadow stories that were published in The Shadow Magazine between 1931 and 1949. The first Shadow adventure, called "The Living Shadow" was published in the April/May edition of The Shadow Magazine in 1931. The issue sold out almost immediately. After a second press run, and another sell out, the magazine was set to a monthly schedule. After more sellouts, Street and Smith decided to make The Shadow Magazine a bi-monthly magazine. Through these stories, people could read about The Shadow's amazing adventures battling crime. No real explanation is given as to how The Shadow began his fight against the hordes of evil. In the first story, The Shadow appears from the darkness to save Harry Vincent, a man who ends up being one of his most trusted agents. The Shadow gathers many others into his network of agents during the stories, and they all work together to aid the forces of law and order. Unlike the radio shows or movies, The Shadow is not given a specific identity. He takes on the guise of several people, including Lamont Cranston, whenever it is necessary for his cause. There is a real Lamont Cranston, and with his permission the Shadow adopts his identity. The Shadow's real identity is revealed in an aptly named issue, "The Shadow Unmasks". In this story, the reader is finally given more background information as to how The Shadow came to be. Publication of The Shadow Magazine was affected greatly by World War II and the paper shortage of the mid 40's. This caused the magazine sales to drop, and the issues became less and less frequent. Near the end of the run of The Shadow Magazine, it was published only once every season. A change in authors near the end of the run did not help The Shadow Magazine in any way. For some reason, highly believed to be a contract dispute, Walter Gibson stopped writing for the magazine. A man named Bruce Elliott took over for several issues. His writing was not bad, but he completely abandoned the feel of the original stories for his ideas which should be called "Lamont Cranston: Detective." The Shadow rarely appears in Elliott's stories at all. At the very end, Gibson returned to try and bring the magazine back from the brink of demise, but times had changed. The final issue of The Shadow Magazine was published in the summer of 1949, with the story "The Whispering Eyes". The radio show kept broadcasting for a few years after the publication finished, however it too quickly faded with the competition from Television. Some of The Shadow stories were reprinted as paperbacks in the mid 60's, unfortunately all these versions were highly abridged. Gibson wrote a few new stories in the 1960's also. The final chapter in The Shadow saga was written in the 1980's, shortly before Walter Gibson died.