In the 1930s radio program The Shadow, what was the hero’s civilian name?

In the 1930s radio program The Shadow, the hero’s civilian name was Lamont Cranston.

The Shadow began as a narrator for a 1930 radio series and became a major pulp-fiction character. The best-known radio incarnation, voiced by Orson Welles in 1937 and 1938, presented Lamont Cranston as a mysterious crime fighter who used hypnosis and the phrase “clouding men’s minds” to remain unseen.

The character’s publishing history is complicated. In the original Street & Smith magazine stories, The Shadow was often identified with Kent Allard, while Lamont Cranston could be an identity used by the character. Radio adaptations reshaped the mythology and made Cranston the familiar civilian identity for many audiences.

This distinction is a common source of confusion. Questions about The Shadow must specify the medium because pulp, radio, comics, and later films do not always use the same biography or naming conventions.