Title:

Fu Manchu

Type:

Serial melodrama

Length:

30 minutes

Broadcast history:

1929 - 1931 Blue network. First heard as part of the 60 minute Collier

Hour, a series of 12-chapter serials, following the stories then

being serialized in Collier's Magazine.

Sept. 26, 1932 - April 24, 1933 Monday's on CBS at 8:45 PM. Sponsored by Campana Balm

May 8, 1939 - Nov. 1, 1939 New York dates of 15 minute transcribed syndication,

The Shadow of Fu Manchu.

March 18, 1940 - Sept. 11, 1940 Rebroadcast of the 1939 syndication series.

Cast:

Arthur Hughes as Dr. Fu Manchu (1929 -1931)

John Daly as Dr. Fu Manchu (1932 - 1933)

Harold Huber as Dr. Fu Manchu (1932 - 1933)

Charles Warburton as Nayland Smith

Bob White as Dr. James Petrie

Sunda Love as Karamaneh

Charotte Manson as Karamaneh

Stanley Andrews as Malik

Hanley Stafford as Nayland Smith (1939 - 1940)

Gale Gordon as Dr. James Petrie (1939 - 1940)

Fu Manchu was a Chinese villain and evil mad scientist created by writer Sax Rohmer. The Fu Manchu character was portrayed as a genius that could have revolutionized science but chose evil instead.

He was chased by hero's Nayland Smith and Dr. James Petrie, who were drugged, threatened, and tortured by such weapons as a snake in a cane handle, killer fungi, a paralyzing "flower of silence", a "coughing death", a sacred white peacock, poisoned claws, etc.. The show succeeded very well in capturing the moody atmosphere of London at night and the sense of evil that were a large part of Rohmer's books. The show was an effective early thriller.

Source:

On the Air - John Dunning

The Big Broadcast, 1920 - 1950 -- Buxton and Owen