The Green Hornet Strikes Again!
by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com
In the superhero multiverse, media plays an important role for alter egos.
In Metropolis, Clark Kent (Superman) starts his journalism career as a reporter at The Daily Planet, later graduating to the television news anchor chair at WGBS, merely one component of the Galaxy Broadcasting System run by media titan Morgan Edge.
Peter Parker (Spiderman) sells exclusive photographs of New York City’s favorite web crawler in action to The Daily Bugle, the dual identity unknown to Spiderman’s foremost naysayer, Editor-in-Chief J. Jonah Jameson.
Billy Batson (Captain Marvel) has the radio waves of Fawcett City as a playground for his teen reporting gig at WHIZ.
Britt Reid (The Green Hornet) tops them all.
The Last Word In Radio
In Outre #8 (Spring 1997), my article Who Was That Masked Man? explores the history of the Lone Ranger, including its creation for WXYZ, a Detroit radio station. A brief re-cap helps establish the pre-history of the Green Hornet.
On October 10, 1925, Detroit radio station WGHP began broadcasting. The call letters indicate the owner, George Harrison Phelps.
Five years later, George Trendle and partners John Kunsky and Harold Pierce bought WGHP for $250,000. They changed the name quickly thereafter to WXYZ -- the last word in radio.
Kunsky-Trendle Broadcasting expanded upon its WXYZ base, adding Grand Rapids stations WASH and WOOD. Expansion continued as the owners formed a regional network -- the Michigan Radio Network. Eventually, it blossomed into the Mutual Radio Network with the addition of extra-regional stations in New York City, Cincinnati, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, and St. Louis.
The Michigan Radio Network provided a model for future broadcast companies to own the production and distribution systems for its properties.
On February 2, 1933, WXYZ premiered The Lone Ranger. Set in the southwestern United States circa 1880, it soon became the station’s flagship program.
Three years later, nearly to the anniversary date, Trendle et. al. unveiled another masked hero with strong connections to the Lone Ranger.
The Green Hornet first aired on January 31, 1936. Set in a modern day metropolis, The Green Hornet arguably falls into the spinoff category, although the character never appeared on The Lone Ranger. Besides sharing the same corporate owner, both shows and characters have other items in common.
Parallels between the two characters evidence the nexus. The Green Hornet and the Lone Ranger share the following characteristics:
* mask
* minority sidekick with deadly skills
* gun (six-shooter for Lone Ranger and gas gun for Green Hornet)
* value life by avoiding killing
Each program’s theme derives from classical music. The Lone Ranger became synonymous with the rousing fanfare of Rossini’s William Tell Overture while Rimsky-Korsakov’s hypnotic Flight of the Bumble Bee introduced The Green Hornet.
Silver, a horse of unequaled beauty, speed, and agility gives the Lone Ranger means of transportation. Black Beauty, an automobile of unparalleled power, acceleration, and gadgetry provides same for the Green Hornet.
The Lone Ranger’s identity is John Reid, a Texas Ranger left for dead after Butch Cavendish and his Hole-in-the Wall Gang ambushes Reid’s squad at Bryant’s Gap. Captain Dan Reid, John’s older brother, leads the squad in pursuit of the legendary outlaw and falls into a trap set by a double-crossing guide.
John miraculously survives the ambush thanks to Tonto, a member of the Potawatomie tribe and a long-lost childhood fried. The Lone Ranger moniker results from Reid being the sole surviving Ranger.
Tonto nurses John Reid back to health and helps him capture Cavendish. The deaths of the elder Reid and his Texas Ranger brethren are avenged.
But John Reid is not finished with family obligations. He vowed to care for Dan’s wife and baby son upon their arrival from the East in the event anything should happen to Dan in his service as a Texas Ranger. John did not fulfill the obligation for more than a decade.
Some fourteen years after Dan’s death in the line of duty, he and Tonto learned why from a woman named Grandma Frisby. A wagon massacre resulted in the untimely death of Dan’s wife Linda. Consequently, the Reid baby boy fell under Grandma Frisby’s care.
Linda Reid had a locket with a photo of herself and her husband. Grandma Frisby named the baby boy ‘Dan’ after the man in the photo.
Upon Grandma Frisby’s death, the Lone Ranger and Tonto took responsibility for Dan Reid, Jr. Riding his horse, Victor, Dan Reid, Jr. accompanied the duo on adventures. He learned first-hand his uncle’s code of justice, fairness, and law.
Apparently, Dan Reid, Jr. inherited the silver mine once controlled by his father and uncle. During his crime fighting days, the Lone Ranger used the mine for financial sustenance and the source to produce his trademark silver bullets.
We can safely presume that Dan Reid, Jr. utilized his financial base wisely, building upon it, and eventually accumulating a much larger fortune. At least it is large enough to buy a major metropolitan newspaper, The Daily Sentinel.
Dave Holland explains in his encyclopedic account of the Lone Ranger -- From Out of the Past (1988).
It’s a simple story, really. There came a time when [the Lone Ranger’s] nephew Dan inherited the silver mine. He used that wealth to go into the publishing business back East, founding a great metropolitan newspaper. He married and had a son named Britt and it’s that Britt Reid -- the grand nephew of the Lone Ranger -- who sped off into the night fighting crime as the Green Hornet.
A mask is a mask is a mask...
So, Dan’s son, Britt, inherits the newspaper and the Reid family’s crime fighting legacy. He becomes the Green Hornet. As a newspaper publisher, he gained valuable access to information about crime, politics, and graft. As the Green Hornet, he can use this information to defeat the criminal element.
Seemingly, the character emerged from pragmatic purpose rather than creative instinct, from business sense rather than artistic integrity. With the enormously successful Lone Ranger franchise, Team Trendle took advantage of its situation to create another character by using Frank Packard’s The Adventures of Jimmy Dale as a blueprint.
In his 1992 book Radio Mystery and Adventure and Its Appearances in Film, Television, and Other Media, Jim Harmon theorizes the basis for the creation of the Green Hornet.
Trendle was inspired to create the Green Hornet in imitation of the Jimmy Dale stories by Frank Packard, in which Jimmy had the secret identity of the Gray Seal, which was also his signature, marked by such a symbol that was left behind at the scene wherever he appeared. The Hornet, in his turn, left his own seal, the semblance of a green hornet, which was discovered by the police when they arrived just too late to apprehend him.
In W*Y*X*I*E Wonderland (1981), Dick Osgood provides an in-depth biography of WXYZ’s first half-century. He describes the Jimmy Dale stories as revolving around a young millionaire who was the very image of respectability by day but who took on another identity at night as a sort of modern Robin Hood.
In Model and Toy Collector #35 (Summer 1996), Will Murray explores this area further in his article The Green Hornet: Still At Large.
Murray recounts a meeting between Trendle and Lone Ranger scribe extraordinaire Fran Striker. He cites W*Y*X*I*E Wonderland.
According to the history, Trendle gave Striker a copy of Packard’s work.
Trendle instructed, Read this. We can do something like this with our new series. The Lone Ranger appeals to kids. Now I want to put something on the air to interest young people who are about to vote. I want to do something to show young men how crooked office-holders can be and what they have to do to stop it -- that they have to get out and vote and see what’s going on in the world, watch things so we can elect candidates to office who will be something.
Kind of expose crime -- and get things right -- like the Lone Ranger, suggested Striker.
But modern. Work something out and let me see it.
From the history, we see Trendle as the driving force behind the network. He gave his staff an outline of the central character he wanted as an emblem of justice -- Green Hornet.
The Green Hornet battles the criminal threat to his metropolis populus -- racketeering, graft, bribery, extortion, and all-around forms of corruption. A modern hero, reliable partner, and gadgetry galore combine for compelling, modernized, and straightforward tales in the detective genre.
Murray sheds light on an extremely important point -- the show’s title.
Britt Reid’s moniker for his alter ego came about in a meeting between Trendle and WXYZ VIP’s Allen Campbell and Ray Meurer. Campbell made an initial observation about the character’s makeup. Osgood recounts.
Well, you tell me this fellow goes out and stings the crooked politicians and the gangsters. Why don’t you call him the Bee or the Hornet?
Trendle considered the idea. Not enough action in a bee. Hornet might be all right. I like that. The Hornet.
Contrary to the way Osgood recounted the Green Hornet’s genesis, in actual fact in the first two episodes Britt Reid was known simply as The Hornet. The show was originally titled The Adventures of the Hornet. When I spoke with Osgood at the 1985 Friends of Old Time Radio Convention, he told me that this section of the book was edited down, thus distorting the sequence of events. Osgood added that the main reason the name was later changed to the Green Hornet -- Samuel Merwin’s World Adventurer character notwithstanding -- was because the powers at WXYZ discovered, to their chagrin, that they could not trademark ‘the Hornet.’ It had to have some kind of descriptive adjective.
Trendle made another sound decision that created quite a buzz. Literally. WXYZ staffer Ted Robertson recalled a turning point for the Green Hornet in W*Y*X*I*E Wonderland.
I remember when we first created the sound of the Green Hornet, Mr. Trendle, somewhere in his past had been lying in a hotel bed and he claimed he had heard this sound. And so we had to develop this sound -- Fred Flowerday and Ernie Winstanley and I. And Jimmy Fletcher had joined the sound department. The four of us started to try to create the sound. We scrounged sirens; we did everything we could with sirens. But it was not what Mr. Trendle remembered.
We went to an alarm corporation in Detroit and they brought out all kinds of buzzers and all kinds of things and that was not what Mr. Trendle remembered.
Actually, we didn’t know what we were looking for. He said it was like a giant bee.
It ended up -- we finally -- on a record turntable there is an arm that comes out and that has the pick-up head with the needle that you drop on the record. Fred and I got a piece of wood with two raised ends and we put a violin string between the two ends and drew it taut. And in the middle of that violin string, we put a little piece of wood that had a hole in it. We threaded the violin string through the hole. Then we put the pick-up head into that and we had a buzzer attached to this thing and we vibrated it and it -- we could increase the volume and we made records.
With some modifications, tweaking, and adjustments, that became the ‘sound’ of the Green Hornet. Another aural element wsa the theme song -- the classical piece Flight of the Bumble Bee by Rimsky-Korsakov. It nicely complemented the Lone Ranger’s classical theme -- Rossini’s The William Tell Overture.
A familial crime fighting lineage bonds the Green Hornet to the Lone Ranger. It is unknown to the former until his father, Dan Reid, Jr., explains to him the significance of the Lone Ranger painting on his wall. This revelation follows another one -- Britt’s confession of his Green Hornet persona to his father.
Harmon compares the Reid family newspaper situation to one involving a real-life newspaper magnate.
Britt Reid’s father Dan was at first disapproving of his son’s supposed jet-set existence and -- perhaps in emulation of California Senator George Hearst, who had put his wayward son William Randolph Hearst in charge of the San Francisco Examiner -- he had turned the Daily Sentinel over to Britt to give him a sense of responsibility and turn him into a proper businessman.
The Green Hornet debuted on January 31, 1936. It went off the air in 1952. A live-action film version premiered in 1939 -- the movie serial The Green Hornet Strikes Again! An edited version appeared as a feature film in 1940 -- The Green Hornet.
Green Hornet aficionados acquiesce Britt Reid’s fairness, balance, and objectivity as a newspaper man, a constant character trait throughout the various incarnations.
In addition to Police Commissioner Higgins, two vital assistants know of Britt Reid’s secret identity.
Kato hails from the Orient. He serves as Britt Reid’s valet and possesses supreme skills in the martial arts -- a sidekick with a vicious and deadly side kick.
Also, Lenore Case (‘Casey’) works as Britt Reid’s personal secretary, providing sex appeal for the show and a potential love interest for the title character.
Lee Allman played Lenore Case for the entire radio run of The Green Hornet; her real first name is Leonore! Allman’s brother was James Jewell, the Dramatic Director for WXYZ. Jewell’s father-in-law inadvertently inspired the Lone Ranger nickname ‘Kemo Sabe’ because he ran a camp called Camp Kee-Moh-Sah-Bee.
In addition to Kato and Casey, ex-policeman Michael Axford assisted Britt Reid. Dan Reid, Jr. hired Axford to keep an eye on bon vivant son Britt. Axford boasted a thick Irish brogue with an enmity for the Green Hornet , unaware that the crime fighter and the publisher were the same person.
Similar thoughts pervaded the citizenry and police force, Commissioner Higgins notwithstanding.
This misperception actually served as an asset because it allowed the Green Hornet to break into criminal operations easily only to sting the lawbreakers responsible for graft, corruption, and theft. The Lone Ranger also enjoyed this duality in his adventures.
Mike Axford occupies a noteworthy place in WXYZ history. The character appeared on broadcasts before The Green Hornet debuted in 1936. How is this possible? Simple.
Immediately after its purchase, the Trendle group realized the need for content. Trendle et. al. approached radio dramatist Fran Striker about writing scripts.
Striker’s first show was Manhunters. It rotated the central characters in an anthology format. One character was Warner Lester, an independent private investigator and criminologist. Mike Axford aids Lester in his detective work.
Axford’s popularity with the audience sustained through the show’s cancellation.
Holland explains further in From Out of the Past.
In Striker’s Warner Lester stories was a blustery Irishman named Michael Axford, who began as the police chief, then retired to civilian life to help Lester in his investigations. WXYZ management felt he was such an Irish caricature that he might be offensive to Irish listeners so it was decided to kill him off. Jewell didn’t agree; he thought Axford was good for the show. Nevertheless (as instructed), he had Striker write a two-part story where someone shot at Lester but hit Axford instead. Then Jewell played his ace.
‘I changed the closing announcement (on the program),’ he later proudly wrote Striker ‘to the effect that Axford (was in a critical condition) and informed the radio audience that a word of encouragement might help to bring him back to the Manhunter stories...It was very gratifying to find the audience’s reaction to this little stunt. We received twenty-three hundred pieces of mail...and hundreds of cards of condolence!’ The listeners even sent bouquets of flowers to the station to be forwarded to the hospital.
This display of affection not only restored Axford to the show but when the Warner Lester series finally died, Axford didn’t. His character just segued over to The Green Hornet series.
The Green Hornet radio show ran from 1936-1952 with Al Hodge, Donovan Faust, Bob Hall, and Jack McCarthy playing the title character.
In 1939, noted as the best year for films by critics, fans, and historians alike, The Green Hornet serial debuted. It consisted of fifteen parts with Gordon Jones playing the Green Hornet.
Keye Luke played Kato. Luke dotted television programs and movies with many character roles in his career. He also provided the voice of detective extraordinaire Charlie Chan in the Saturday morning cartoon series The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan It debuted on CBS on September 9, 1972).
Also, Luke also played the ‘number one son’ role in the Charlie Chan movies of the 1930s starring Warner Oland as the detective.
A feature-length version of The Green Hornet serial followed as did a 1940 sequel, The Green Hornet Strikes Again! starring Warren Hull in the title role.
The First Word in Television
Some thirty years after the radio debut of the Green Hornet, television exposed the character to a new generation.
First, some background.
On January 12, 1966, ABC premiered Batman, a campy send-up of the Dark Knight starring Adam West in the title role. The show’s success inspired several ’66 superhero stories.
In fact, CBS’ 1966-67 Saturday morning animation lineup was called Super Saturday.
Popular culture historian Hal Lifson explains the pre-history of Batman and its success forming a basis for ABC green lighting The Green Hornet.
The Batman serials of the 1940’s were experiencing a revival in 1965 and ABC picked up on that phenomenon. College audiences were making fun of the serials as campy. Also, pop art was coming into vogue and that became an integral part of the show. Batman was rushed into production, debuting in January of ’66.
ABC was still the third network at that time. All of a sudden, this sophisticated, erudite producer in the form of William Dozier gets involved and he positions the show in a totally different format from anything on television at that time.
Batman was a very calculated and well-planned vehicle, rather than a fluke. Unfortunately, most people do not realize this.
Executive Producer William Dozier and his creative team sought to capitalize on their trend-setting Batman megahit for the Alphabet Network. Enter the Green Hornet.
Lifson connects the dots to determine the reason for choosing the Green Hornet instead of another character with as much, or perhaps more, audience potential.
When Batman became a success, Dozier then wanted to develop the Wonder Woman, Dick Tracy, and Green Hornet franchises into television programs. He wasn’t certain about the appeal of Wonder Woman and there was a potential conflict with the cartoon series Dick Tracy. So, for one reason or another, he gave the nod to the Green Hornet. They chose something similar to Batman / Bruce Wayne, a rick socialite playboy masquerading as a superhero with a crimefighting car and a sidekick.
The alter egos of Bruce Wayne and Britt Reid enjoy terrific parallels, dating back to the characters’ origins in comic books and radio respectively.
* extreme wealth thanks to family fortune
* gadgetry that would please Q of the James Bond stories
* younger sidekicks -- Robin and Kato
* racing-speed automobiles as modes of transportation -- Batmobile and Black Beauty
* lack of superhuman powers forcing them to rely on cunning, logic, and intuition to solve crimes
Also, one striking similarity shared by Batman and The Green Hornet proves to be a bone of contention for popular culture purists.
Neither show reveals the rationale for Britt Reid or Bruce Wayne dressing up in costume to fight crime -- frustration with the justice system for Reid and avenging the deaths of his parents and other innocent victims of crime for Wayne.
The Green Hornet conspicuously showed its creative relationship to Batman with similar bumpers of the title character logo and the same announcer.
However, The Green Hornet lacked the quirkiness, novelty, and visual appeal of Batman. No accident, this creative decision. Van Williams starred as Britt Reid / Green Hornet under the condition that he play a character, not a caricature.
Williams explains on a 1990 installment of Welcome to Hal-Land, a public access show hosted by Lifson. He details his view of the character, the vision for the television show, and the importance of the character’s radio beginnings.
I told Dozier before I ever did the show [that] it was going to be straight. It wasn’t going to the be the whip-wham-bam-zam that they did with [Batman]. The Green Hornet was a successful radio show. We really had to follow that format.
Williams reinforces the point in an early 1990’s interview for Comics Scene #15.
We worked hard to try to portray that thing as close to the radio show as we could and I think we did a good job. I got a lot of criticism for doing that show straight -- hard-nosed crime-fighter type deal and everything else -- but it was the only way I was going to play it. I always really liked the character. I had a lot of respect for the character. And I still like him.
Dozier explains his similar view of the character in an ABC press release dated July 28, 1966 headlined Big Brother Bill Has No Trouble Telling Batman And The Green Hornet Apart.
The Batman route as you know is the campy, bizarre, outrageous approach with the crimes for the most part being not only trivial, but also impossible, and the criminals being totally bizarre. The Green Hornet route, however, will be in the direction of serious and recognizable crimes perpetuated usually by an organized gang or racket with the criminals very conventional and utterly recognizable.
Perhaps the Batman / Green Hornet crossover best illustrates the difference between the two programs.
In the Batman episodes A Piece of the Action and Batman’s Satisfaction, the Green Hornet and Kato visit Gotham City to apprehend Colonel Gumm, also a target for Batman and Robin.
For story purposes, the character crossover seems plausible as the rater straight Green Hornet portrayal in the cartoonish Gotham City adds a touch of realism to show parodying superheroes.
Consider the reverse for a moment. If the Dynamic Duo visited the Green Hornet’s domain, would it seem plausible or just plain silly?
Legend dictates that Bruce Lee mandated a fight scene between Kato and Robin be rewritten.
Apparently, the martial arts master did not agree with the outcome as originally written -- Bruce Wayne’s ward defeating Britt Reid’s valet. Ultimately, the writers negotiated a fight ending in a draw.
And therein lies the difference. For only in a surreal world could one entertain the possibility, the mere thought -- even for a moment -- that Bruce Lee might encounter difficulty in defeating the Boy Wonder.
The television incarnation of The Green Hornet corresponded to its radio predecessor, its villains basing in political corruption, graft, and business.
No outrageous costumed villains like Joker or Riddler.
No seductresses like Catwoman or Siren.
No funny names like Louie the Lilac or Bookworm.
No parodies like Ma Barker or Shame.
No celebrity cameos or famous guest stars.
Just good old-fashioned hero vs. bad guys stuff.
However, the detective genre utilized in The Green Hornet can be described as familiar, where Batman offered something different.
In addition, Batman benefited from contemporary popular culture icons, elements, and trivia, a trick almost as old as television itself. One will be hard pressed to imagine the Green Hornet surfing or parodying the latest dance craze.
Williams’ connection to Batman goes beyond his guest appearance. His voice belies a thick Texas accent, described as full of ‘Johnsonian glory’ in Leslie Raddatz’ TV Guide cover story for the October 29, 1966 issue, Banker With A Sting. This trait proved absent on The Green Hornet but useful in the Batman feature movie, released in 1966.
It is not heard on The Green Hornet -- the producers of the program put Van through a course with the studio’s drama coach to get rid of it. But when the off-screen voice of the President of the United States was needed for the ‘Batman’ feature movie, Van was chosen for the role and told to be just as Texan as possible.
From a story telling standpoint, The Green Hornet functions primarily as a straightforward detective show.
Basics first. Updated for the 1960’s, Britt Reid owns a television station with initials inspired by The Daily Sentinel -- DSTV. He also enjoys a playboy bachelor lifestyle with a mod pad to match in contrast to Bruce Wayne’s stately, superb, and suburban Wayne Manor with its subterranean Batcave.
Reid’s social status, wealth, and power allows him to investigate crimes as a journalism mogul without arousing suspicion. He later busts the criminals as the Green Hornet based on the information he discovers.
ABC showed logic in scheduling the show. The Green Hornet debuted on September 9, 1966 and aired Friday nights at 7:30 pm.
Batman owned the same time slot on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Batman, however, consisted of two half-hour segments where The Green Hornet aired mostly in self-contained half-hour episodes.
Variety reviewed The Green Hornet premiere episode, The Silent Gun, for the September 14, 1966 issue.
Such fulsome noise and violence can only appeal to the spiritually deprived very young folk who have been schooled on the local cartoon strips because parents would rather have them gaping at the box than under foot. Production values are solid with elaborate trick sets and gadgetry which may or may not produce the good green buck on the merchandising front. Scoring is loud and fast with the old radio ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ theme jazzed up and blown by Al Hirt on trumpet.
The Silent Gun episode wraps around commercials for Sylvania Blue Dot flashbulbs and flash cubes, Keds sneakers (with plastic Morse Code device giveaway), Crest toothpaste, YMCA, and Mexico tourism. The story focuses on a one-of-a-kind .17 caliber gun. It fires bullets without sound or flash.
The Green Hornet tracks the gun to Al Trump, played by Charles Francisco. He convinces Trump that Big Dan Carley’s list of victims will soon include Trump. The list includes gangsters Benny Roberts, Legs Carson, and Smiley Benson. Lloyd Bochner plays Big Dan Carley.
The Green Hornet acts as a middle-man between the two criminals. With the assistance of Kato, the Green Hornet solves the case.
Other action shows provided stiff competition for The Green Hornet.
The Wild, Wild West featured Robert Conrad as post-Civil War era secret agent James T. West on CBS.
Picture an American version of James Bond working for President Ulysses S. Grant with similarities to The Green Hornet aplenty -- specially equipped transportation (railroad car), multi-skilled sidekick (Artemus Gordon, played by Ross Martin), and mind-boggling gadgetry.
NBC aired Tarzan with Ron Ely in the title role, yet another show based on a well-known fictional hero in popular culture.
The Wild, Wild West and Tarzan were hour-long shows.
Lifson opines that the popularity of The Green Hornet in its loyal fan base stems from it being the only modern rendition of the character. There was a pilot script in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. Whether it was filmed is unknown.
It was an interesting visual presentation. The tone of the writing was more conservative and straightforward. But, more importantly, it was the first superhero show written for adults in that kind of a presentation as much as kids, with the gadgets such as the gas gun and Black Beauty for an appeal to the kids audience.
By 1967, the superhero trend in popular culture was waning and more mod and psychedelic items were capturing audiences, i.e., The Monkees.
With the 7:30 time slot, the adult audiences weren’t watching because they were out on Friday nights and the kiddie audience may not have been enchanted. Kids are not analytical. They either like something or they don’t. The adult writing didn’t appeal to kids the way the visual appeal of the Batman show did with bright colors and interesting villains.
The scarcity of the show in syndication led to the show’s absence from wide availability. However, Bruce Lee fans kept the show going on a cult level. This was especially important when Lee made his ‘kung fu’ movies and also after his death in the mid-70’s.
Indeed, The Green Hornet possesses the distinction of introducing martial artisan Bruce Lee and his unique form of ‘kung fu’ to a mass audience. Years before his worldwide fame, acclaim, and marquee status, Lee showcased his talents in the show.
One episode in particular highlights Kato. The Preying Mantis Kills revolves around a Chinatown protection operation. It features a traditional showdown between Kato and the operation’s leader, Low Sing, played by Mako.
A feature remaining from previous Green Hornet stories has a permanent place among favorite cars on the television landscape -- Black Beauty. In The Complete Directory To Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows (1946-Present), Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh describe this stellar addition to the roster of television cars.
The chief piece of hardware was the Hornet’s souped-up car, the Black Beauty (actually a 1966 Chrysler Imperial, rebuilt, at a cost of $50,000, by Hollywood customizer Dean Jeffries.) Among its features were a built-in TV camera which could ‘see’ four miles ahead, a kind of exhaust apparatus which spread ice over the road to foil pursuers, and brushes behind the rear wheel which lowered to sweep away tire tracks.
Where Batman and Robin had utility belts with an array of weapons, gadgets and devices, the Green Hornet had basic artillery. Brooks and Marsh explain.
For face-to-face combat, the Hornet had a special nonlethal gas gun which immobilized adversaries, and a sting gun which penetrated steel.
Lenore Case and Mike Axford, played by Wende Wagner and Lloyd Gough respectively, reinforced the continuity in this new version. Ed Lowery, a Daily Sentinel reporter and Dan Reid, Jr. did not resurface.
Britt Reid’s law enforcement connection came in the form of the District Attorney, Frank Scanlon. Walter Brooke played Scanlon.
Raddatz’ aforementioned TV Guide article, Banker With A Sting, derives its title from Williams’ partial ownership of a Los Angeles bank with his business manager and James Garner (Maverick, The Rockford Files).
Raddatz cuts to the heart of the matter and explains Williams’ appeal, focusing on the reason for choosing this particular actor for such a unique role.
Whatever his lack of pretense about his acting abilities or the limited artistic -- as opposed to physical -- demands of the role, Williams seems to be exactly what the men behind The Green Hornet were looking for among the dozens of available actors they considered for the part. George Trendle, the octogenarian who created The Hornet as a radio show back in the 1930’s for instance, says, ‘All of a sudden you see someone who fills the bill perfectly, and Van Williams was it.’
Lifson says, It really had a unique look to it. It wasn’t one of these typical, conventional cop shows or detective shows and yet it had the superhero appeal because [Williams] did wear the mask.
Green Hornet fans may wonder why Williams never got the opportunity to star in a detective series after the show ended its run on ABC. For all intents and purposes, The Green Hornet is a detective show. With his presence in the detective format already established, Williams seemingly would have fit the genre perfectly in its 1970’s heyday (Columbo, McMillan & Wife, The Rockford Files, Banacek). Additionally, Williams had detective roots with his role as Kenny Madison in Bourbon Street Beat and Surfside Six. When ABC canceled the former show, Kenny Madison found a new home in Surfside Six. Warner Brothers produced both shows.
Although The Green Hornet only lasted one season, you can find some familiar faces in the episodes.
Ace in the Hole Richard Anderson (The Six Million Dollar Man)
Original Airdate: February 10, 1967
May the Best Man Lose Harold Gould (Rhoda)
Original Airdate: December 23, 1966
Deadline for Death James Best (The Dukes of Hazzard) and Lynda Day [George] (Mission: Impossible)
Green Hornet collectors have a narrow window of opportunity because of the show’s brevity. Corgi produced a toy version of Black Beauty from 1967-72. BZ Industries also made aversion as did Aurora for a Cigar Box Racer model.
Ideal marketed a 12-inch Captain Action figure in a Green Hornet costume and a Hornet hand puppet.
In 1967, King Seeley Thermos sold a Green Hornet lunch box. PEZ also made a Green Hornet candy dispenser.
Milton Bradley added the Green Hornet Quick Switch Game to its board game roster. Hasbro’s Stardust Craft Kig, Colorforms Cartoon Kit for Green Hornet, Lakeside’s Hornet bendy figure, and Remco’s Wrist Radios also availed to Green Hornet fans and collectors.
Watkins-Strathmore produced Green Hornet coloring books. Whitman produced frame tray puzzles.
Ben Cooper made several Green Hornet Halloween costumes. Additionally, kids could dress as the Green Hornet with Arlington Hat’s felt hat and fold-down mask.
Merchandising of the Green Hornet originally coincided with the radio show. Jersey Milk glasses sometimes had the call letters of WXYZ.
To be thorough in exploring the Green Hornet, one must note homages to the character in other shows and films. On February 23, 1971, NBC aired The Fourth Bill Cosby Special featuring a parody. This version spotlighted the inner-city characters Brown Hornet and Leroy, the former’s ‘trusted sidekick,’ played respectively by Bill Cosby and Johnny Brown.
Their ‘secret communications center’ consists of a pay phone in the hall outside their third floor penthouse apartment. Means of transportation? Blue Beauty, described as the ‘streamlined car of the future.’ Its description far surpasses its actual appearance.
Also, the 1993 film Grumpy Old Men honors the Green Hornet -- Max Goldman nicknames his cherished fishing pole after him. Walter Matthau plays Goldman.
The Green Hornet Strikes Again!
The Green Hornet #1 (December 1940) debuted the urban crime fighter in the comic book medium with an origin of the character on the inside front cover and an introduction of the Black Beauty.
As the Green Hornet’s early comic book years coincided with World War II, a war theme became prevalent in the stories. Like many comic books in the 1940’s, the Green Hornet stories reflected the wartime sentiment.
Green Hornet #13 (July 1943) bluntly symbolizes the homefront attitude with a red ‘V’ for victory painted over a poster of Adolf Hitler and our hero holding the paint brush as he stands over a defeated Nazi with a swastika. In the preceding issue, Green Hornet #12, (April 1943) boasts the title hero defending a waterfront facility and exclaiming his mantra, American production for victory must not be stopped!
Other issues of the era in the wartime cover category include Green Hornet #15 (November 1943) depicting Green Hornet battling enemies aboard a Nazi Ghost Ship and Green Hornet #22 (January 1945) showing the Green Hornet’s rendezvous with Jap saboteurs.
A post-World War II issue shows a scene of interest to collectors of comic books with covers displaying the national pastime. In Green Hornet #47 (September 1949), the story Double Cross Murders showcases the Green Hornet literally dropping into the stands at a baseball game while his criminal prey reveals his inner mind in a thought balloon: My betting ring will lose $10,000 if dat hitter knocks in th’ winning run! I’ve got to..wha..the Green Hornet!
The concept of the Green Hornet character bases its appeal on good versus evil. The Green Hornet breaks up crime syndicates, rackets, and corruption plans. The comic book covers exploit this aspect of the character. In Green Hornet #43 (January 1949), the attention-grabbing banner above the title reads Radio’s Daring Racket-Buster In All-New Smashing Exploits.
The comic book condensed the banner in the following issue. Green Hornet #44 (March 1949) exhibits the character’s name as the banner and the words Racket Buster in big letters as the title. The phrases followed the same pattern for Issues #45-47 inclusively (May 1949, July 1949, and September 1949 respectively).
Issues #44 - #47 inclusively show the Green Hornet in the above center area near an ABC microphone and lightning bolts to indicate the concurrent radio program.
Issues #34 - #42 (June 1946 - November 1947) inclusively contain the title Green Hornet on the covers with the phrase Fights Crime in smaller letters and generic crimefighting scenes. For example, Issue #34 shows Britt Reid instructing his sidekick on the phone, Hurry, Kato! Get Black Beauty ready! We’re going to break a murder case wide open! A corresponding scene presents Green Hornet and Kato foiling criminals.
Robert Rogovin, an experienced comic book dealer and the owner of Four Color Comics in New York City, pointed out the contribution of artist Alex Schomburg in a 1998 interview with this article’s writer.
Clearly, Schomburg’s covers have more action than other artists. His work is distinctive and he made a mark with a look that had a somewhat darker quality than his contemporaries. For example, Schomburg’s cover for Suspense Comics #3 (April 1944) shows a disturbing drawing. It’s a moonlit scene of the Ku Klux Klan with swastikas and a Klansman holding a dagger over a bodacious, though bondaged, beauty.
Green Hornet #29 (September 1945) in particular is a great Schomburg horror drawing. It shows the Green Hornet with a criminal and two skulls lurking in the background. Schomburg’s first Green Hornet contribution seems to be issue #15 (November 1943).
Schomburg’s impact can be seen by creative borrowing by his contemporaries. Al Gabriele apparently emulated Schomburg’s style as evidenced by Green Hornet #26 (June 1945). When Harvey took over the Green Hornet title in late ’45, the covers began to have a softer look with generic crimefighting scenes.
Yes, that’s right. Harvey. The same folks responsible for sugary stuff like Richie Rich, Casper, and Little Dot. Harvey enjoyed a diversity in its early years. Mike Benton explains in his 1993 book The Comic Book in America.
Harvey Comics ties with Archie Comics (MLJ / Archie) as the third longest running comic book publisher. Started in 1939 by brothers Leon and Alfred Harvey, the company existed under several names before settling on Harvey Comics in 1941.
In its fifty year history (with a publishing suspension fro 1982 to 1986), Harvey has published nearly sixty-four hundred comic books and over two hundred fifty titles, ranging from superhero to crime to war to western to horror comics.
In its first year, Harvey Comics published Speed (October 1939) and Champion Comics (December 1939), two adventure titles. In the 1940’s, Harvey became noted for such heroes as the Green Hornet (December 1940) which was borrowed from the radio show and ran until September 1949, and Black Cat Comics (June 1946), a Hollywood stunt girl and early superheroine.
Okay, back to our stinging hero. Naturally, the mid-1960’s television show inspired a comic book run. Both offerings were comparatively short-lived.
Gold Key produced three issues, all with common characteristics:
* Van Williams and Bruce Lee in costume
* Copyright notice of Greenway Productions, Inc., Twentieth Century-Fox Television, Inc., The Green Hornet, Inc. and the requisite copyright dates:
-- Issue #1 (February 1967) Copyright date of 1966
-- Issue #2 (May 1967) Copyright date of 1967
-- Issue #3 (August 1967) Copyright date of 1967
In our interview, Rogovin sorted Green Hornet collectors into categories regarding the limited Gold Key run of the character coinciding with the television show’s run.
Collectors of the Gold Key version of the Green Hornet fall into three groups. Some collect comics based on television shows because they were fans of a particular show. Some are fans of the Green Hornet character. Some are die-hard Bruce Lee fans. Issue #2 will be of particular interest to this last group as Bruce Lee strikes a ‘kung fu’ pose for the cover shot.
In the early 1990’s, NOW Comics reintroduced the Green Hornet in a comic book series of the same name. Bonus Books took the first twelve stories and combined them into a hardcover, coffee table book. This twelve-part story introduces three generations of the character -- 1930’s, 1960’s, 1980’s.
The first Green Hornet, the 1930’s version, remains true and faithful to the character’s origins. He first appears on the scene in 1936. Kato masquerades as a Filipino during World War II because he is really Japanese. The deceit allows him to escape scrutiny and possible deportation or prison camp sentence.
There exists a difference of opinion among radio and Green Hornet historians regarding when Kato was actually said to be Filipino on the radio show. Harmon claims the time predates World War II.
It makes a good story, but unfortunately it is not true. Part of the time his ancestry is not specified at all, and on other occasions, at least as far back as 1940, he was described as Filipino.
In the NOW Comics version, Britt Reid’s creation of his alter ego emerges from frustration at the criminal element constantly winning the battle for justice. Especially poignant is the first scene of an elder Britt Reid looking at the portrait of his masked vigilante great-uncle. Britt recalls his personal chronicle, beginning with his foray onto the streets to fight crime beginning in 1936. The timeline stays true to the radio debut. A narrative explains the dichotomy between the Green Hornet’s real purpose of avenging justice and the perception that the Green Hornet is a member of the criminal element.
Riding in the Black Beauty, he challenged the underworld with his daring raids into their private domains. None suspected I was in fact a vigilante on the side of law and order.
A painting of his cowboy forefather inspires Britt to recall the Green Hornet genesis.
The solution came to me one evening over brandy with Dad. I looked up at the portrait of our illustrious ancestor and realized he had faced a similar dilemma in his time.
His answer had been to fight fire with fire. By donning a mask, he had met the enemy on their own grounds.
Mysterious and elusive, he could operate outside the law in bringing criminals to justice. This was our goal, as Kato and I worked feverishly to create a new persona that would strike fear in the hearts of evil doers everywhere.
Britt Reid recounts his grandfather’s legacy with a nod to Fran Striker, the man most regarded as shaping the Lone Ranger character in the early years of the radio show. He also recalls his initial meeting with Kato and provides the back story on that friendship.
My grandfather, Dan Reid, was a Texas Ranger, as was his younger brother. When he was murdered by outlaws...Grandmother Reid returned east and Dad completed his education at the Striker School of Journalism. After many years of dedication to his craft, Dan Reid, Jr. founded the city’s first daily tabloid, The Sentinel, just two months after marrying Margaret Sanford.
I was born Britt Elijah Reid in 1906, two years after my brother, Jack. It was a prosperous time for the Reids. I was practically raised with ink in my veins, and all I ever desired was to, one day, be a newshound like my old man.
Jack went on to become an architect and marry Helen Sawyer, only because he saw her first. I was best man. It was 1934, and I had just joined the Sentinel as a crime reporter.
The following year, I accompanied my parents on a two month vacation to the far east. Dad said it would broaden my horizons.
Thus, I was destined to be near at hand when a Japanese lad, named Ikano Kato, nearly drowned in Tokyo harbor by a freakish mishap.
Through some eastern code of conduct, Ikano believed himself morally indebted to me. Try as I might to persuade him, he adamantly persisted to my embarrassment.
Little did I realize, he would become my dearest and most trusted companion in a life of nerve wracking adventures.
Kato departs for his homeland after World War II, starting an electronics company destined from greatness called Nippon Tomorrow. Reid builds upon his media base in Spring 1949 by acquiring radio station WXLI-108.
When Dan Reid dies, Britt Reid carries out his father’s instruction to bury him at the site of Bryant’s Gap, the location of the fateful ambush for his father and the rest of the squadron of Texas Rangers, save for John Reid a.k.a. the Lone Ranger.
In the 1960’s, Britt Reid II, the original Green Hornet’s nephew, takes up the crimefighting cause. The storytellers pay due respect to the television series.
Black Beauty exits via an alley behind Reid’s apartment with its hiding place secured by a brick wall with a painted ad for ‘Kissin’ Candy Mints -- How Sweet They Are!’ The wall separates for the Black Beauty’s easy egress.
A story line that the television series did not approach reaches the comic book version. Britt Reid II marries Lenore Case.
Britt Reid II’s nephew Alan takes up the Green Hornet mantle in the late 1980’s. Alan is the son of Britt’s brother Tom.
Unfortunately, Alan’s tenure is short-lived. Tom’s other son Paul steps into the Green Hornet’s shows to avenge his brother’s death. Paul is a world-renowned classical pianist.
Family tradition continues. Ikano Kato’s son Hayashi is the faithful assistant to Britt II, Alan, and Tom. Although he initially blames Hayashi for Alan’s death, Britt II realizes Alan died as part of a set up. Hayashi returns from his karate film career (a la Bruce Lee) to assist the present generation’s Green Hornet. Hayashi stars on the silver screen as the costumed kung fu hero, White Ninja.
Hayashi’s sister Mishi proves valuable because of her equal training in martial arts. The first move in any offensive strategy is to establish a mystique your opponent has to believe. She steps in when needed to assist Paul, a novice at being the Green Hornet.
Mishi reinforces the connection to the past, stating, There is also another tradition we must adhere to. Only Kato drives the Black Beauty.
This revival of the character matches up quite nicely to the high story standards set by the radio, film, and television predecessors.
The NOW Comics version of the Green Hornet gives fans another dimension to the character’s rich legacy. It is a tribute to the past with creative liberties.
Britt Reid’s memoirs, Reid and Kato family trees, and various incarnations of the Black Beauty round out the Green Hornet history.
NOW also introduced a separate three-part story line called Dark Tomorrow. It is set about 200 years in the future. In Issue #1, writer Clint McElroy explains his vision.
What if the Hornet really did go bad? What if you had a Green Hornet who actually began to like being at the top of the crime heap? That was the earliest germ of the Dark Tomorrow story.
I wanted to really shake up the Green Hornet mythos. I couldn’t have any of the Hornets past or present go bad. Plus, I wanted Hornet and Kato to be placed in an adversarial relationship. In Dark Tomorrow, Kato comes after Hornet to take him down. Kato is still one of the ‘good guys,’ and he thinks Hornet’s going bad is a betrayal of their entire family.
Whatever the setting, Green Hornet stories will have quite a stinging legacy to live up to!