Skippy's Not a Child!

I recently came across a whole collection of public-domain recordings of "The Shadow" radio serial from the late '30s. I've been slowly going through them over the past few months, listening to them in order of their original air date. The episode I listened to yesterday, titled "Death Shows the Way," was simply one of the best, and most guffaw-inducing, yet.

The premise was simple: Lamont Cranston, aka "The Shadow," and his female companion Margot Lane are attending a posh party at a country house. The party is being hosted by a member of society's upper crust, who confides in Lamont that he has just purchased a rare jewel (or something). Also there are some other folks, a little brat named Skippy, and an unfriendly hound. Now the actual events of the episode elude me, because the shock of a twist ending literally blew my mind. All I remember is that for some reason, members of the party are being killed one-by-one with a poison that's being placed in the water. Lamont, utilizing some Oriental trickery, is able to feign death in order to get to the bottom of who is poisoning everyone. Apparently the murderer is just trying to get his or hands on the jewel.

Well the end of the episode finally rolls around as The Shadow prepares to make his Scooby-Doo-like reveal. All that is left is Margot, the host of the party, and Skippy (there may have been others there, but that doesn't matter). The Shadow reveals the killer with the tact of an atom bomb: Skippy did it. Of course everyone immediately cries fowl; how could Skippy possibly have killed everyone? He's just a small boy!

"Skippy's not a child," The Shadow exclaims, "He's a midget!"

It's at this point when my jaw dropped, my headphones flew off, and I almost fell backwards in my office chair! For all the directions this episode could have gone, never, in my wildest dreams, did I think the small boy character was in reality... a midget (or, if you want to be politically correct, a small person).

Now, this presents a number of questions, the biggest being "Why didn't anyone notice?" Yes, this is a radio drama, so obviously none of the listeners could have been able to tell that one of the characters was of diminutive size, but wouldn't the characters in the show have noticed? Little people back then looked as they do today, and even a dwarfed person can't pass as a "child." Even more disturbing is that his father had no clue that his son was actually a midget named Mike. When Mike tries to escape, however, he's torn to shreds by the dog of the house, while everyone just looks on in amazement.

The episode ends with a strange joke by Margot, as she seems to be in disbelieve that Skippy was, in fact, a small criminal mastermind: "You know, Lamont, I'm going to have a funny attitude towards children from now on... when I touch them on the cheek, I won't know whether to pet them or feel for a beard."

What the heck did I just listen to? Is this the kind of thing people found entertaining back in the '30s? Suddenly I was overcome with flashbacks to the little villain in Lone Wolf McQuaid and to reading Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle. Seeing as how I'm only 29 episodes in to playlist totalling 98, I guess I should be prepared for even more radio-specific surprises down the line; then again, can it get any more surprising than this?

You can download the episode from Archive.org here.

Posted by MikeRubino at February 20, 2008 11:53 AM | TrackBack