The Shadow Club membership came in an envelope marked "CONFIDENTIAL FOR YOUR EYES ONLY" in all red and had the image of The Shadow Club in the lower left. Interestingly, the return address for the club was G.A.R.C. Inc out of Orlando, Florida. The club newsletter indicates that the Great American Ring Club (GARC) seemed to be running and responsible for the club.
Issue 1 (January 1995) of The Shadow News was included. I was pretty impressed with the newsletter as it has noted Shadow scholars/historians such as Anthony Tollin and Will Murray as contributors. Will Murray contributes an article entitled "Fiery Opal" which gives the historical background of The Shadow's girasol ring. There are also facts about The Shadow movie, a chronology of The Shadow in print and some other good little articles.
Shadow Club members also received a Certificate of Membership certifying them as an "authorized and accredited agent" of the club. Agents signed the lower right portion and The Shadow's signature is on the lower left!
Once you've signed the Certificate of Membership, you can start flashing your Special Agent membership card.
Club members received an "autographed" picture of The Shadow. I wrote more about it here.
The Shadow Club also had a secret code. There were six variations of the code printed on a small (4 1/4" X 5 1/2") card.
The final pieces of the membership kit were The Shadow Club ring and badge (button).
I don't know if there were ever any further issues of The Shadow Club newsletter printed and sent out. Also, I'm not sure how long the club stayed in existence after the movie premiered. These are things that I'm looking to see if I can find some answers!
The Shadow Club membership kit would have been something fun and exciting for a kid to have received in the mail. I was excited when I was finally able to find one complete! I hope you've enjoyed this brief look at another tie-in to the 1994 The Shadow movie!
I think I had this back in the day. I'm not sure where it may have ended up. A couple of moves in the last quarter century tends to lose things that one doesn't want to lose. Like the mind, for instance.
ReplyDeleteHi, Special Agent #00723 here! There were two other issues of the newsletter that were printed and sent out - issue #2 came out in June of 1995, and issue #3 came out in December of that year (I still have them both as well as the initial membership kit). In a "Note from the Editor" on the front page of the third issue, the editor said that four issues were promised for the club's first year, and they were hoping to send the fourth issue out at the end of January. I never received mine. I also renewed my club membership that January, but received nothing from the club after that second issue, so I'm assuming the club only remained in existence for that first year.
ReplyDeleteThe editor had also mentioned in his note in issue #3 that "this last year for The Shadow Club has been a shaky one for us at GARC". With the film not performing as well at the box office as expected, and perhaps the sales of the Shadow Agent rings produced by GARC also not selling well, it's understandable why the club was short-lived.
Here is a photo online that I found that displays the entire membership kit as well as the two newsletters that followed: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-1995-shadow-club-membership-1818998307. Since they are not displaying a fourth issue of the newsletter, I think it's safe to say that it was never sent out to any of the club members.
Below the Shadow Club button in that photo, you can see a shiny gold disc with the Shadow's portrait and logo on it. This is a cardboard milk cap or "Pog" that was included with the second issue. Pogs were all the rage back then, and 2000 were made for the Shadow Club, with GARC sending a free one to each current member with the second newsletter and keeping the rest for future Shadow agents. Anything to keep up interest in The Shadow, I suppose!
I hope this helps answer some of your questions about this iteration of The Shadow Club.