Green Hornet

The Green Hornet is a fictional crimefighter created to be the hero of an American radio program that ran on WXYZ (a local Detroit station), the Mutual Broadcasting System and the network known through its succession of various owners as NBC Blue, the Blue Network and the ABC Network from January 31, 1936 to December 5, 1952. Created by Fran Striker, who also created The Lone Ranger, the juvenile adventure series initially starred Al Hodge in the title role, followed by Donovan Faust (1943), Robert Hall (1943-51) and Jack McCarthy (1951-52). The radio show used Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee" as its theme song, blended with a hornet buzz created on a theremin.

Radio series

The series detailed the adventures of Britt Reid, debonair newspaper publisher by day, crime-fighting masked hero at night. The vigilante nature of his operation quickly resulted in his being declared an outlaw himself, and Reid decided to play to it. The Green Hornet became thought of as one of his city's biggest criminals, allowing him to walk into suspected racketeers' offices and ply them for information, or even demand a cut of their profits. He would be accompanied by his similarly masked but unnamed chauffeur/bodyguard/enforcer, who was also Reid's valet, Kato, initially described as a Japanese, and eventually as a Filipino. A widespread urban legend has been the claim that the show's writers switched from one nationality to the other immediately after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, but the first disappeared well before direct U. S. involvement in the war, and the latter was not initially given until much later, with nothing more specific than "Oriental" being said in the interim. (When the characters were used in the first of a pair of movie serials, the politically perceptive producers of 1939 had Kato's nationality given as Korean.)

Brit Reid is a blood relative of The Lone Ranger. The character of Amdy Reid, who appeared on the Lone Ranger program as the Masked Man's nephew, was also featured on the Green Hornet as Brit Reid's father, making the Green Hornet the grand-nephew of the Lone Ranger.

Originally, the show was to be called "The Hornet", but the name was changed to "The Green Hornet" so that it could be more easily trademarked. The color was chosen because green hornets were reputed to be the angriest.

Jim Jewell directed the series until 1938. Jewell's sister, Lee Allman (Lenore Jewell Allman) wanted to play a part in a radio series at WXYZ so Jim had her written into The Green Hornet. She was the only actress to play Lenore Case, Britt Reid's secretary, during the entire run of the series. "Casey" was aware of her boss's double life, but only in the later years of the run. Similarly, another well known confidante, Police Commissioner Higgins, did not come into existence until near the end of the series.

In the original introduction of the radio show, the announcer (famed newsman Mike Wallace held the position at some point during the run) proclaimed that the Green Hornet went after criminals that "even the G-Men cannot reach," referring to FBI agents. The show's producers were called by FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover who prompted them to remove the line implying that some crime fighting was beyond the abilities of the FBI.

During World War II, the radio show's title was used as a codename for SIGSALY, secret encryption equipment used in the war. "The Green Hornet" also became a popular nickname for General George S. Patton, possibly because of the speed with which he re-routed the Third Army to relieve the 101st Airborne Division at the Battle of the Bulge, or possibly due to the unique and attention-getting uniform that he proposed for tank crews, which featured a gold-painted football helmet. Supposedly, while Patton was testing it after development (which he funded out of his own pocket), one Army trooper said "Look! It's the Green Hornet!" and the name followed Patton for years.

The Green Hornet was initially played by Al Hodge, who later went on to play television's Captain Video. The role of Kato was handled through most of the run by Roland Parker.

In other media

Film serials

The Green Hornet was adapted into two movie serials. Disliking the treatment Republic gave The Lone Ranger (q.v.), George W. Trendle took his Number 2 property to Universal Pictures, and he was much happier with the results. The first serial, titled simply The Green Hornet and released in 1940, starred Gordon Jones in the title role, albeit dubbed by original radio Hornet Al Hodge whenever the hero's mask was in place, while The Green Hornet Strikes Again of 1941 starred Warren Hull. Keye Luke, the famous #1 son of the Charlie Chan films, played Kato in both. Even though America wasn't in the war yet, Kato's nationality is changed to Korean.

Television

Inspired by the success of the Batman series, ABC brought The Green Hornet to television in 1966-67, an adaptation which introduced martial arts master Bruce Lee to American audiences and starred Van Williams as the Green Hornet. Unlike Batman, the TV version of The Green Hornet was played straight, but in spite of the considerable interest in Lee, it was cancelled after only one season. However, the rise of Lee as a major cult movie star ensured continued interest in the property to the point where proposed Green Hornet productions typically have the casting of some major martial arts film star as Kato as the first order of business. Lee's popularity in Hong Kong, where he was raised, was such that the show was marketed there as The Kato Show.

As with the later years of the radio version, secretary Lenore "Casey" Case is again aware of Reid's secret, and the Hornet also has a confidante within the law enforcement community, but now he is District Attorney Frank P. Scanlon. This character was changed from the original's police commissioner because the same company's Batman TV series was already using a man in that post as the official contact of its hero. William Dozier, executive producer of both programs, wanted no more comparisons between the two than were unavoidable.

The music of "Flight of the Bumblebee" was so strongly identified with The Green Hornet that it was retained as the theme, orchestrated and conducted by Billy May (who also composed the new background scores) with trumpet solo by Al Hirt. Years later, this music was featured during a key scene in the 2003 film, Kill Bill, Vol. 1, which paid tribute to Kato by featuring dozens of swordfighters wearing Kato masks during the film's key fight sequence.

The TV series displayed the Hornet's car, Black Beauty, a 1966 Chrysler Crown Imperial sedan customized by Dean Jeffries. The Beauty's regular headlight cluster supposedly could be flipped over to reveal what studio publicity described as "infra-green" headlights, but this could not be done on the actual vehicle, and the green filters were always seen deployed. It was revealed in the related comic book spun off from the show that the green headlights used polarized light which in combination with the appropriately polarized vision filter (translucent green sun visor-like panels) could provide almost as much illumination as conventional headlights while being extremely dim -- almost invisibly dark -- to someone without the filter (In some early episodes in two-shots with both Van Williams and Bruce Lee inside the Black Beauty as seen through the windshield, Lee's face was tinted green, implying the use of the "polarized" filter, while Williams was seen in normal flesh tone, although this is not the case in close-ups of Lee alone; since specification of what this lighting was supposed to indicate never made it into any finished episode, the effect was soon discontinued). However, most night shots were actually filmed during the daytime by the day for night technique, giving the illusion of night-time as the actual car headlights were not polarized but just had green lenses, which would render the headlights useless for real night-driving. As the series progressed, the process was executed less effectively, reaching the point where the viewer would need context to understand that some scenes were supposed to be taking place at night, as can be observed in screening the episodes in either original network airing or syndication (production) order.

The Black Beauty could fire explosive charges from tubes at its bumpers, which were said to be rockets with explosive warheads, had a concealed-when-not-in-use, drop-down knock-out gas nozzle in the center of the front grille, and could launch a small flying video/audio surveillance device through the trunk lid. Mr. Jeffries built two vehicles for the series. One is now in the Petersen Automotive collection in California, and the other is in a private collection in South Carolina. George Barris subsequently made a copy, which has led to some sources incorrectly crediting him with creating the car in the first place.

The TV series also employed an audio device from the radio show. In its era, the engines of cheaper cars made a lot of noise; the expensive Pierce-Arrow was reputed to be extremely quiet. So, when the Green Hornet said, "rig for silent running," the hornet-like buzz on the radio show was turned off and the listener was left to imagine that the car really was silent. On TV, the car sounded like a modern car, but the noise was removed from the soundtrack after this command.

(An article in TV Guide published during the show's network run made reference to disparaging comments made within the industry about ABC being "the two-car network" because of the Black Beauty and the Batmobile.)

Comic books

Green Hornet comic books began in December 1940. These, initially titled Green Hornet Comics, were originally published by Helnit, with the writing attributed to Fran Striker. This series ended after six issues. Several months later, Harvey Comics launched their own version, beginning with issue #7. This series ended in 1949, having run to 47 issues. (The title was changed to Green Hornet Fights Crime as of issue #34 and Green Hornet, Racket Buster with issue #44). Harvey additionally used the character in the public-service one-shot, War Victory Comics in 1942, and gave him one adventure in each of two issues of All-New Comics, #13, where he was also featured on the cover, and #14, in 1946. Dell Comics published a one-shot with the character, officially entitled Four Color #496, in 1953, inexplicably several months after the radio series ceased production. Both stories therein share titles with late-era radio episodes and might well be adaptations. In 1967 Gold Key Comics produced a series based on the TV show, which reflected that program's short life with a brief three-issue run.

In the 1990s a comic book series from NOW Comics, initially written by Ron Fortier and illustrated by Jeff Butler, attempted to reconcile the different versions of the character into a multi-generational epic. The Britt of the radio series had fought crime as the Hornet in the 1930s and 1940s before retiring. The television character was revealed to be the namesake nephew of the original Britt Reid, who took up his uncle's mantle. In the comic, his nephew named Paul Reid takes on the role of the Hornet and is assisted by a new, female Kato, as well as the Kato who assisted his predecessor. The addition of the female character, Mishi Kato, caused problems between the publishers and the property's owners, who withdrew approval of that character and mandated the return of "the Bruce Lee version."

There were two main Green Hornet series from NOW, as well as various annuals, miniseries, and spin-offs. The first began in 1989 and had reached 14 issues when the company suspended operations for several months. The second volume began in 1991 and lasted 40 issues, ending in 1995 because the publishers went out of business. Like Tonto before him, Kato got his spin-off solo adventures: a 4 issue miniseries in 1991, and a two issue follow-up in 1992, both written by Mike Baron. He also wrote a third, first announced as a two-issue mini, then as a graphic novel, but it was never released. Tales of the Green Hornet, consisting of nine issues spread out over three volumes (two, four, and three issues, respectively), presented stories of the two previous Hornets, with Volume One having a plotline, starring Green Hornet II, provided by Van Williams, the actor who played that character's basis on TV. The follow-ups, beginning with the most detailed version of the Green Hornet's origin in any professional medium, were written by James Van Hise.

Discounting depictions of the cars utilized by the 1940s and 1960s Hornets, there were two different versions of the Black Beauty used in the NOW comic series. The first was loosely based on the Corvette Indy concept car. Painted black and green, as a sports/exotic car, it was a big change from the two Black Beauty limousines used by previous Green Hornets. With the realization that such a distinctive vehicle was inappropriate to the nature of the Hornet operation, the Black Beauty was again changed to a 4 door sedan, this time based on the 91-96 Oldsmobile 98 Touring Sedan.

Prose fiction

Western Publishing subsidiary Whitman Books released four works of text fiction based on the character, targeting younger readers. There were three entries in the children's line of profusely illustrated Big Little Books, The Green Hornet Strikes!, The Green Hornet Returns, and The Green Hornet Cracks Down, in 1940, 1941 and 1942, respectively, all attributed to Fran Striker. In 1966, their line for older juveniles included Green Hornet: Case of the Disappearing Doctor, by Brandon Keith, a tie-in to the television series. At about the same time, Dell Publishing released a mass-market paperback, The Green Hornet in The Infernal Light by Ed Friend, also derived from the small-screen production, and, according to a letter-to-the-editor in one of the NOW Comics issues, "allegedly based on one of the TV episodes."

Feature Films

Aside from one feature-length movie edited from the first serial and two others from the television series, there was an unauthorized feature made in Hong Kong in 1994 [1]. Titled Qing feng xia, it starred Kar Lok Chin as a masked hero called Green Hornet (in English subtitles), but dressed like Kato, as seen in the 1960s television version. In fact, one scene had this man being reminded of those who had come before him, and he was shown a standee of Bruce Lee in his Kato costume and mask as one predecessor.

Recent developments

A new film version of the character has been in the works for decades. In the 1990s, the magazine Comics Scene reported that George Clooney and Jason Scott Lee were lined up to play the leads. Late in the 90s, Music video director Michel Gondry worked with RoboCop screenwriter Edward Neumeier on a possible Green Hornet adaptation . Subsequently, screenwriter John Fusco created a screenplay for the film around 2002.

As of the summer of 2004, Kevin Smith was writing a screenplay for a new rendition of The Green Hornet which was originally scheduled for release in 2005. It was rumored that Jet Li would portray Kato and Jake Gyllenhaal would play the Green Hornet. In 2004 Kevin Smith put the film on the back burner. After a long downtime in which his status with the project was unknown, Smith announced at the 2006 Wondercon that he officially no longer has anything to do with The Green Hornet .

A ten-minute The Green Hornet fan film was released in 2006. The short film was produced by Aurélien Poitrimoult and is distributed free on the Internet along with a making of featurette.

An episode from the radio series of The Green Hornet was played for those in attendance at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention in September 2006. Terry Salomonson, a radio historian, presented a brief history of the radio program and then shared the recording, which until that day, had been unheard since its initial broadcast back in the 1930s.

On March 20, 2007, Columbia Pictures confirmed they had bought the film rights to the character with a possible release slated for summer 2009 which Variety reported on July 20 2007 that Seth Rogen had been hired to produce (and possibly write and star in). On July 21, 2007, it was stated that Rogen would like Stephen Chow to play Kato. However, a spokesman for Stephen Chow regarding the film has said, "We haven't got any information at this time. We don't know who the director is and what the screenplay is like."

Listen to

• Botar's OTR: The Green Hornet: 20 episodes (1941-52)

External links

• Official Site
• Official Black Beauty site
• The Green Hornet fan forum
• International Superhero entry
• Grand Comic Book Database: Green Hornet in various incarnations
• Jerry Haendiges Vintage Radio Logs: The Green Hornet