The Green Hornet: Man of the airwaves and silver screen

One of the most popular mystery-men of all time, the Green Hornet first appeared not as a character of the pulps, the Hornet and his faithful valet Kato were brought into the homes of listeners on radio station WXYZ Detroit in January of 1936, which was the same station that originated other classic shows The Lone Ranger and Challenge of the Yukon, the show took off almost immediately, and lasted all the way until 1952 when it finally came to an end. An interesting note is that before Pearl Harbor, Kato was mentioned in the opening of the show as being Japanese, but after Pearl Harbor, due to the anti-Japanese sentiment in the American public, Kato was listed as being Filipino. Another interesting note is the tie in of the Green Hornet and Lone Ranger radio shows. The Lone Ranger is in fact Dan Reid, the great-uncle of Britt Reid, who fought fictional crime during America's early Western days with his Indian friend Tonto. The success of the characters lead to several comic books series during the 1940's, and two movie serials, The Green Hornet: produced by Universal Pictures in 1940 with Gordon Jones as Britt Reid/the Green Hornet and Keye Luke as Kato. The second serial The Green Hornet Strikes Again was produced in 1941: also by Universal Studios, this time with Warren Hull in the lead role, with Keye Luke returning as Kato. In the 1960's, going off of the success of the Batman tv series, the Green Hornet series aired on the ABC Network from 1966-1967, with Van Williams as the Green Hornet and Bruce Lee as Kato. Several other comic books were produced throughout the latter half of the 20th century, the longest running ones from NOW Comics, and in March of 2009, Dynamite Entertainment began a new Green Hornet comic, about the son of Britt Reid and Kato's daughter taking up their fathers roles and continuing to fight crime. And of course there is the recent Green Hornet movie with Seth Rogen in the lead role as Britt Reid and Jay Chou as Kato. If anyone wishes to hear any episodes of the classic radio series, simply click this link http://www.radiospirits.com/ and search Green Hornet, you will not be disappointed with the selection. And if anyone wishes to see what groundbreaking strides Dynamite has made in the Green Hornet comic books, simply click this link http://www.dynamiteentertainment.com/htmlfiles/ and search under titles for the various Green Hornet books being published by the company. You won't regret it!