Leon Harrison Gross, more known by the alias of Lee Falk, (April 28, 1911 - March 13, 1999) was an American writer, best known as the creator of the popular comic strip superheroes The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician, who at the height of their popularity secured him over a hundred million readers every day. He was also a playwright and theatrical director/producer, leading him to work with actors such as Marlon Brando, Charlton Heston, Paul Newman, Chico Marx, and Ethel Waters. Falk also contributed to a series of novels about the Phantom. April 28 is the 118th day of the year (119th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 247 days remaining. ... 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... March 13 is the 72nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (73rd in leap years). ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... The references in this article would be clearer with a different and/or consistent style of citation, footnoting or external linking. ... The Phantom is an American adventure comic strip created by Lee Falk, also creator of Mandrake the Magician. ... Mandrake the Magician is a U.S. comic strip created in 1934 by Lee Falk (also creator of The Phantom) and mainly appearing in syndication in newspapers. ... Marlon Brando, Jr. ... Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter on October 4, 1923) is an iconic Academy Award-winning American film actor, best known for playing larger-than-life heroic roles such as Moses in The Ten Commandments and Judah Ben-Hur in Ben-Hur. ... Paul Leonard Newman (born January 26, 1925) is an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Cannes Award, and Emmy Award winning American iconic actor and film director. ... Leonard Marx, known as Chico, (March 22, 1887 – October 11, 1961) was one of the Marx Brothers. ... Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977) was an Oscar-nominated American blues vocalist and actress. ...

Life and career

Leon was born in St. Louis, where he spent his childhood and youth. His mother was called Elanore Aleina (a name he would later on, in some form, use in both Mandrake and Phantom stories), and his father was Albert Gross. Both of his parents were Jewish. Albert Gross died when Leon was a small baby, and Elanore remarried to Albert Epstein, who became Leon's father figure in life.

Leon changed his surname after leaving college. It is not known why he took the name "Falk", but "Lee" had been his nickname since childhood. His brother, Leslie, also took the name "Falk".

When he began his comics writing career, his official biography claimed that he was an experienced world traveller who had studied with Eastern mystics, etc. In fact, he had simply made it up in order to seem more like the right kind of person to be writing about globe-trotting heroes like Mandrake and the Phantom; the trip to New York to pitch Mandrake the Magician to King Features Syndicate was at the time the farthest he'd been from home. In later life, however, he became an experienced world traveller for real - at least partly, he said, to avoid the embarrassment of having his bluff inadvertently called by genuine travellers wanting to swap anecdotes. King Features Syndicate is a syndication company owned by The Hearst Corporation; it distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles and games to thousands of newspapers around the world. ...

During World War 2, Lee also worked as chief of propaganda for the new radio station KMOX in Illinois, where he became the leader of the radio foreign language division of the Office of War Information.

Lee Falk married three times, with Louise Kanaseriff, Constance Morehead Lilienthal, and Elizabeth Moxley (interestingly, he married Elizabeth, a respected stage-director, not long before he decided to marry the Phantom and his longtime girlfriend Diana Palmer in The Phantom strip). Elizabeth would sometimes help Lee with the scripts in his last years. She also finished his last Phantom stories after he died. Lee became the father of three children, Valerie (daughter of Louise Kanaseriff), and Diane and Conley (children of Constance Morehead Lilienthal).

Lee died because of heart failure in 1999. He lived the last years of his life in New York, in a luxury apartment not far from Central Park. He also had a summer house on Cape Cod. He literally wrote his comic strips from 1934 to the last days of his life, when in hospital he tore off his oxygen mask to dictate his stories. However, his two characters, Mandrake and, in particular, The Phantom, are still active and popular, both in comic books (the newest addition of the Phantom coming from Moonstone Books) and comic strips. New movie versions of his two creations are also on the schedule. Moonstone Books is a comic book publisher based in Chicago. ...

Creating Mandrake and The Phantom

Cover of Falk's novel "The Story of the Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks". Drawn by George Wilson.

Lee had a fascination for stage magicians ever since he was a kid. Lee, according to himself, sketched the first few Mandrake strips himself. When asked why the magician looked so much like himself, he replied, “Well, of course he did. I was alone in a room with a mirror when I drew him!” Image File history File links PHANTOM_Avon_NOVEL.jpg‎ Cover to The Story of the Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks, written by Lee Falk for Avon Books in 1972. ... Image File history File links PHANTOM_Avon_NOVEL.jpg‎ Cover to The Story of the Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks, written by Lee Falk for Avon Books in 1972. ...

The Phantom was inspired by Falk’s fascination for myths and legends, like the ones about El Cid, King Arthur, Nordic and Greek folklore, and popular fictional characters like Tarzan and Mowgli from The Jungle Book. Falk originally tinkered with the idea of calling his character The Gray Ghost, but finally decided that he preferred The Phantom. Lee revealed in an interview that Robin Hood, who often wore tights in the stories about him, inspired the skin-tight costume of the Phantom, which is known to have influenced the entire superhero-industry. In the A&E Phantom biography, he also told that Greek busts inspired the idea of the Phantom’s pupils not showing when he wore his mask. The Greek busts had no pupils, which Falk felt gave them an inhuman, interesting look. It is known that the look of the Phantom inspired the look of what has today become known as superheroes. Statue of El Cid in Burgos. ... A bronze Arthur in plate armour with visor raised and with jousting shield wearing Kastenbrust armour (early 15th century) by Peter Vischer, typical of later anachronistic depictions of Arthur. ... Folklore is the body of expressive culture, including tales, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs, material culture, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions (including oral traditions) of that culture, subculture, or group. ... James H. Pierce and Joan Burroughs Pierce starred in the 1932-34 Tarzan radio series 1964 Edition of Tarzan of the Apes Tarzan, a fictional character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, first appeared in the 1912 novel Tarzan of the Apes, and then in twenty-three sequels. ... Mowgli by John Lockwood Kipling (father of Rudyard Kipling). ... Cover of a modern edition of the Jungle Book The Jungle Book (1894) is a collection of stories written by Rudyard Kipling. ... Robin Hood memorial statue in Nottingham. ... Biography is one of A&Es longest-running and most popular programs. ... The references in this article would be clearer with a different and/or consistent style of citation, footnoting or external linking. ...

Lee thought that his comic strips would last a few weeks at best. Still, he ended up writing them for 65 years, until the last days of his life.

Theatre

Lee's biggest passion was the theatre. During a lifetime, he ran 5 theaters, and produced around 300 plays, and directed 100 of them. He wrote 12 plays, two of them musicals; "Happy Dollar" and "Mandrake the Magician", based on his comic strip creation. After Lee's death, his widow Elizabeth directed a musical called "Mandrake the Magician and the Enchantress", which was written by Lee, which was essentially the same as the previous "Mandrake the Magician" musical. Some of his plays starred well known actors like Marlon Brando, Charlton Heston, Basil Rathbone, Chico Marx, Ethel Waters, Paul Newman, Ezio Pinza, James Mason, Jack Warner, Shelley Winters, Farley Granger, Eve Arden, Alexis Smith, Victor Jory, Cedric Hardwicke, Eva Marie Saint, Eva Gabor, Sarah Churchill, James Donn, Eddie Bracken, Ann Corio, Robert Wilcox, and Paul Robeson. Marlon Brando, Jr. ... Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter on October 4, 1923) is an iconic Academy Award-winning American film actor, best known for playing larger-than-life heroic roles such as Moses in The Ten Commandments and Judah Ben-Hur in Ben-Hur. ... Basil Rathbone (13 June 1892 – 21 July 1967) was an English actor most famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes and swashbuckler film villain roles. ... Leonard Marx, known as Chico, (March 22, 1887 – October 11, 1961) was one of the Marx Brothers. ... Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977) was an Oscar-nominated American blues vocalist and actress. ... Paul Leonard Newman (born January 26, 1925) is an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Cannes Award, and Emmy Award winning American iconic actor and film director. ... Ezio Pinza The Italian bass Ezio Pinza (18 May 1892 - 9 May 1957) was one of the outstanding opera singers of the first half of the 20th century. ... James Neville Mason (May 15, 1909 – July 27, 1984) was a three-time Academy Award nominated English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. ... This article is about Jack Warner, the head of Warner Brothers. ... Winters in Cry of the City (1948) Shelley Winters (August 18, 1920 – January 14, 2006) was a two-time Academy Award-winning American actress. ... Actor Farley Granger Farley Granger (born July 1, 1925) is an American actor. ... Eve Arden (April 30, 1908 – November 12, 1990) was an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy--winning American actress, who established a lengthy career as a supporting and character actor but was best remembered for playing a sardonically engaging high school teacher in the radio and television classic Our Miss Brooks. ... Alexis Smith Alexis Smith (June 8, 1921 – June 9, 1993) was an actress. ... Victor Jory (November 23, 1902 – February 12, 1982) was a Canadian actor. ... Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke (February 19, 1893 - August 6, 1964) was a British actor. ... Eva Marie Saint (born July 4, 1924) is an Academy Award-winning American actress. ... Eva Gabor (in Hungarian Gábor Éva) (February 11, 1919 – July 4, 1995) was a British-Hungarian actress. ... Sarah Churchill, née Jennings, Duchess of Marlborough (May 29, 1660 - October 18, 1744), rose to be one of the most influential women in British history, largely as a result of her close friendship with Queen Anne. ... James Donn (1758–1813) was an English botanist. ... Eddie Bracken (born February 7, 1915; died November 14, 2002) was an American comic actor. ... Ann Corio in YANK magazine, 1943 Ann Corio (November 29, 1914 - March 1, 1999) was a prominent American burlesque dancer and actress. ... Robert William Wilcox led unsuccessful rebellions to restore the monarchy. ... Paul Robeson USPS Black Heritage stamp of Paul Robeson. ...

The actors were all paid to perform, but many of them worked on fractions on what they would normally earn with their movie work. Lee was proud to tell that Marlon Brando turned down an offer of $10 000 a week to act on Broadway, in favor of working for Lee in Boston in 1953 in the play "Arms and the Man". His Boston contract was less than $500 a week. Broadway theatre[1] is often considered the highest professional form of theatre in the United States. ... Nickname: City on the Hill, Beantown, The Hub (of the Universe)1, Athens of America, The Cradle of Revolution, Puritan City, Americas Walking City Location in Massachusetts, USA Counties Suffolk County Mayor Thomas M. Menino(D) Area    - City 232. ...

Awards and recognition

Lee won many awards for his dedication to the field of writing for comics and theatre. Here are a selected few of them:

• The Yellow Kid Award (1971)
• The Roman Lifetime Achievement Award
• The Adamson Award for best foreign comics creator (Sweden, 1977)
• The Golden Adamson (Sweden, 1986)
• Silver T-Square Award (Reuben Award, 1986)
• In May 1994, his birthplace St. Louis honored him with Lee Falk Day.

On the premiere of The Phantom movie starring Billy Zane, Lee received a letter from President Bill Clinton, congratulating him with his achievements. Adamson Awards have been presented by the Swedish Academy of Comic Art (SACA) at the annual Gothenburg Book Fair since 1965. ... The Reuben Awards, named for Rube Goldberg, are presented each year by the National Cartoonists Society. ... William George Zane, Jr. ... William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ...

Lee Falk has also been a candidate for the St. Louis Walk of Fame many times, but has so far not reached enough votes from the committee. Some of his fans have started an online campaign to give him this star. [1]

Quotes

Panel from 1930s Mandrake the Magician daily strip. Art by Phil Davis.

"I give 100% of my time to theatre, and what's left goes to comics..." Image File history File links Panel from 1930s Mandrake the Magician daily strip. ... Image File history File links Panel from 1930s Mandrake the Magician daily strip. ... See also Comic strip and Sunday strip. ... Philip Davis (born in Grays, Essex, England) is film actor and director. ...

(When asked about his age): "Just plain old."

"My only politics is up with democracy and down with dictatorships."

"Each artist, out of his own interests and imagination, creates his own world in his strip - this is true of Peanuts, Beetle Bailey, Popeye, all good strips. And you accomplish this not by imitating others - you come up with your own idea. To me, The Phantom and Mandrake are very real - much more than the people walking around whom I don't see very much. You have to believe in your own characters."

"The Phantom is a marvelous role model because he wins against evil. Evil does not triumph against the Phantom... He hates dictatorship and is in favor of democracy. He is also opposed to any violation of human rights."

References

• Lee Falk: Father of the Phantom