Margo Lane

For those people who have wondered about Margo Lane in the pulp magazine, here is what THE DUENDE HISTORY OF THE SHADOW MAGAZINE has to say on the subject:

Long-time readers were doubtless shocked when they picked up The Shadow for June 15, 1941 and began chapter one. The Thunder King (#225) seemed to be just another Shadow adventure - and basically it was - except that there, in the first paragraph, sat socialite Margo Lane, impatiently waiting for the impassive Mr. Cranston and sipping a Mirage as if she had always been there.

The introduction of Margo Lane (Gibson dropped the "T" on Margot) was the first major concession The Shadow made to the Shadow radio program. Gibson's portrayal of Margo Lane was strictly out of radio. She was a typical "dizzy dame" of the forties, and her impulsiveness was forever complicating The Shadow's plans, which he accepted with wry bemusement. Although Margo often got into trouble, it was hard for readers (and Gibson) to take these situations very seriously. Everyone knew nothing would happen to her. She made a lousy proxy heroine for that reason.

At first, Margo was just there. She and Cranston enjoyed a social life limited to dinners and society gatherings. This leads Weston to make some acid comments about Cranston "wasting time" with "that Lane girl." In The Thunder King, she already suspects that Cranston is The Shadow, and she meets Harry Vincent. Seemingly, she has been around for a while. The Star of Delhi (#226) finds her acting as a near-agent for Cranston who, with the cooperation of his agents, indulges in some tricky horseplay designed to lead Margo to believe that Cranston is not The Shadow - which is, after all, true. Margo is not taken seriously by the Shadow organization, yet she has Burbank's phone number. This story reveals that there is an unspoken agreement between Margo and Cranston that they not discuss Cranston's double life.

This statement is repeated in Tinsley's next novel, The Crimson Death (#229). John Nanovic obviously is coordinating Margo's appearances, and Margo's relationship with Cranston at this point seems to be editorial policy. Tinsley's Margo is a capable agent. She is given serious work to do. Most of Tinsley's future novels will feature her prominently.

The Devil Master (#228) has an interesting meeting between Margo and Myra Reldon. When Margo learns that The Shadow has another female agent, jealousy sets in. (No romance between Margo and Cranston is ever indicated, however.) Margo intercepts Myra's instructions and takes her place. She ends up miniaturized in a Chinese doll house. The Shadow and Myra have to rescue her.

By The Shadow Meets the Mask (#230), Margo has decided that The Shadow only uses the Cranston disguise and that he is really someone else she doesn't know. In the next story, Dictator of Crime (#232), she works with Kent Allard. This is her only encounter with the real Shadow and she suspects nothing, although she does wonder where Cranston is keeping himself.

Margo's state of mind in confusing. Gibson is deliberately making her opinion of the Cranston/Shadow duality ambiguous so that he can tailor Margo's role to suit different situations. In The Blackmail King (#236), she has a hard time convincing Cranston that The Shadow is all he's cracked up to be. Then, in Murder Mansion (#238), the confusion is washed away as Cranston takes to turning into The Shadow in her company.


MARGO LANE'S introduction created a storm of controversy in the ordinarily dull readers' columns. Older fans resented the intrusion. Newer readers, perhaps more familiar with the radio show and the comic book, accepted her readily. This storm only fell silent after the readers' column was dropped in 1944.

One reader, Robert Sherwood of Jersey City, New Jersey, had a specific complaint about Margo Lane published in the July 1, 1942 issue:

"One thing is lacking in the characterization of Margo Lane. Mr. Grant has not explained how she first met The Shadow and entered his exciting service. I think he should. We old-time readers who thrilled to the rescue of Harry Vincent in The Living Shadow, the saving of Rutledge Mann in The Romanoff Jewels, [sic] et cetera, feel that Miss Lane is, somehow, extraneous. This can be easily remedied, you know, so get busy and introduce The Shadow's feminine agent like all the others have been."

Gibson remedied that oversight in The Hydra (#261), which was written shortly after receipt of Sherwood's letter. In one scene, The Shadow and the actual Cranston are discussing Margo in a rather condescending manner. It comes out that Margo had met the real Cranston during a Caribbean cruise. Later, in New York, thinking he was Cranston, she attached herself to a surprised Shadow. The Shadow sums up Margo with these words: "Whenever trouble is coming up, I know it from the way Margo gets into it."

This is not entirely fair of The Shadow. Although Margo did enter the series as a snoop, Gibson slowly strengthened her role. (The Hydra is a throwback to Margo's early days; The Shadow pulls the rug out from under her belief that he was Cranston one last time.) She becomes the female equivalent to personable Harry Vincent. In fact, they often team up when crime invades the cafe set, a favorite setting in this phase. In time, Margo usurped Vincent's privileged position as the most active agent.

Margo Lane had an interesting affect on the relationships between The Shadow and his other agents. Her chummy attitude lessened the distance between them and their "chief." (Before, he was called their "master," just to show how far things have come.) Now, Vincent accompanies Cranston here and there. They dine together as friends. Rutledge Mann becomes a friend and financial advisor, and plays chess with Cranston at the Cobalt Club. The Shadow, when pressed, will slip his cloak and hat to Clyde Burke so Cranston can miraculously appear without arousing suspicion. Both Mann and Burke become friendly with Commissioner Weston, and he eventually accepts Margo Lane's intrusions. In the old days, the agents kept a respectful distance and Cranston never associated with them in any way. The Shadow organization is no longer a group of aloof secret agents banded together toward a common purpose which prevented their interacting as warm human beings, but it is now a casual extended family with The Shadow acting as the paternal figure. All because of Margo Lane.

Originally, Walter Gibson brought Margo Lane into the stories at the insistence of Street & Smith because "they wanted a 'running' heroine in both senses of the term." After some uncertainty over Margo's treatment, he found her a niche and has no regrets, he says, about her incorporation into The Shadow's adventures.




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