Johnston McCulley facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Johnston McCulley
|
|
|---|---|
Johnston McCulley (right) with Zorro's television portrayer, Guy Williams, c. 1958
|
|
| Born | John William Johnston McCulley February 2, 1883 Ottawa, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | November 23, 1958 (aged 75) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Pen name |
|
| Occupation |
|
| Notable works | Zorro |
John William Johnston McCulley (born February 2, 1883 – died November 23, 1958) was an American writer. He wrote many stories, novels, and screenplays for movies and TV shows. He is most famous for creating the popular hero character, Zorro.
Contents
About Johnston McCulley
Johnston McCulley was born in Ottawa, Illinois. He grew up in Chillicothe, Illinois, and finished high school in 1901. He started his career as a police reporter for The Police Gazette. During World War I, he worked as an Army public affairs officer.
McCulley loved history. He became a writer for "pulp magazines" and also wrote movie scripts. Pulp magazines were inexpensive magazines printed on cheap paper. Many of his stories were set in Southern California.
He used several different names for his writing, called pseudonyms. Some of these were Harrington Strong, Raley Brien, George Drayne, Monica Morton, Rowena Raley, Frederic Phelps, Walter Pierson, and John Mack Stone.
Besides Zorro, McCulley created many other exciting characters for pulp magazines. These included Black Star, The Spider, The Mongoose, and Thubway Tham. Many of his characters, like The Green Ghost, The Thunderbolt, and The Crimson Clown, helped inspire the masked heroes we see in movies and comics today.
McCulley's Famous Characters
Zorro: The Masked Hero
McCulley's most famous character is Zorro. Zorro is a masked hero who fights for justice. He is similar to another famous character, the Scarlet Pimpernel. Zorro first appeared in a story called "The Curse of Capistrano" in 1919. This story was published in a pulp magazine called All-Story Weekly.
Zorro quickly became very popular. In 1920, a silent movie called The Mark of Zorro was made, based on McCulley's first Zorro story. This movie starred Douglas Fairbanks. Its success led McCulley to write more Zorro adventures.
More Zorro stories appeared in Argosy magazine. These included The Further Adventures of Zorro (1922), Zorro Rides Again (1931), and The Sign of Zorro (1941). Many other novels and stories set in early Spanish California were also written by McCulley.
The Zorro character also appeared in movie serials. A serial is a movie shown in many parts. Zorro's Fighting Legion was released in 1939. In 1940, a new movie called The Mark of Zorro came out, starring Tyrone Power. This movie made Zorro even more famous.
McCulley then made a deal to write a new Zorro short story for every issue of West Magazine. These stories were published from 1944 to 1951. In total, 53 Zorro adventures appeared in West. The very last Zorro story was published in 1959, after McCulley had passed away. This was also when Walt Disney's Zorro TV show, starring Guy Williams, became very popular.
Black Star: The Gentleman Criminal
"The Black Star" was likely McCulley's second most popular character. He was a clever criminal mastermind. He was chased by Roger Verbeck-Flagellum and his partner, Muggs. Black Star first appeared in Detective Story Magazine in 1916.
Black Star was known as a "gentleman criminal." This meant he never killed anyone, and he didn't let his gang kill either. He was always polite and kept his promises. He always wore a black cloak and a black hood with a black star on it. Black Star and his gang used special "vapor bombs" and "vapor guns." These weapons made their victims instantly unconscious. This was similar to the Green Hornet's gas gun, but Black Star used it decades earlier.
These stories were very popular. Some of them were even reprinted as inexpensive books. The Black Star character continued to appear in stories until the end of 1930.
The Spider: A Mastermind Villain
The Spider was another long-running villain character created by McCulley. Some people think he was a very important "supervillain" in pulp fiction. The Spider appeared in 11 short stories and three story collections between 1918 and 1930. He was injured when he was young and used a wheelchair. But he used his amazing mental skills to run a global crime group from his office, which he called "The Spider's Den."
The Crimson Clown: A Modern Robin Hood
The Crimson Clown first appeared in Detective Story Magazine in 1926. Readers loved him right away. Two books of his adventures were quickly published: The Crimson Clown (1927) and The Crimson Clown Again (1928).
The Crimson Clown's real name was Delton Prouse. He was a rich young man, a brave soldier from World War I, and an adventurer. He acted like a modern-day Robin Hood. He would steal from the unfairly rich and give the money back to people who needed help or to good organizations. He wore a mostly red clown suit. He used a special syringe with a knockout drug, which was later replaced by a "gas gun." He often had to destroy his clown outfits to avoid being caught.
McCulley stopped writing about Delton Prouse in 1931. However, "The Crimson Clown’s Return" appeared in 1944 for one last adventure.
McCulley's Stories on Screen
Many of Johnston McCulley's stories were turned into movies. He also wrote scripts for films himself. Here are some of the movies based on his work:
- Ruth of the Rockies, 1920 (story)
- Captain Fly-by-Night, 1922 (story)
- Ride for Your Life, 1924 (story)
- The Ice Flood, 1926 (story)
- The Red Rope, 1937 (story)
- The Trusted Outlaw, 1937 (story)
- Rootin' Tootin' Rhythm, 1937 (story)
- Rose of the Rio Grande, 1938 (story)
- Doomed Caravan, 1941 (writer)
- Overland Mail, 1942 (story)
- South of the Rio Grande, 1945 (story)
- Don Ricardo Returns, 1946 (story)
- The Mark of the Renegade 1951 (story)
Johnston McCulley's Later Life and Passing
Johnston McCulley passed away on November 23, 1958, in Los Angeles, California. He was 75 years old. Newspaper reports mentioned he died "after a series of operations."
McCulley is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, in Los Angeles, California.
See also
In Spanish: Johnston McCulley para niños
