Sound Effects Give Dramatic Voice to ‘The Shadow’

Jim Barker doesn’t have an acting part in the dramatic re-creation of the old radio classic “The Shadow,” which opens tonight in Santa Paula. But the audience will be watching his every move.

Barker is the sound-effects guy for the production, and he is a whirl of motion on the stage as he drags a comb across the edge of a Spam can to imitate a creaking door, or--when one of the characters meets a wet demise--he plunges a plastic cutting board into a splash-proof cat litter box filled with water.

He wildly beats his chest with his fists when two characters come to blows. If you close your eyes, you can imagine how it sounded to radio listeners back in the 1940s when the “The Shadow” was a hit. But if you do, you’ll miss a look at how radio actually worked in those days.

This episode of the show, “The Walking Corpse,” is full of zombies and ghoulish overtones--a Halloween offering from the Santa Paula Theater Center’s actors. Performing at the nearby Glen Tavern Inn, they’ll serve up the radio show along with dinner tonight, Oct. 24 and 31.

That’s not all the Halloween horror the center offers. For the second year, the group is hosting Ghost Walk tours--guided jaunts through historic neighborhoods where costumed spooks pop out to relate haunting tales. The tours run Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings through Oct. 27.

*

As chillers go, “The Shadow” was a 30-minute gripper in its radio heyday. The main character was wealthy man-about-town Lamont Cranston, who would slip into his alter ego, the Shadow, to fight underworld crime.

At the beginning of each broadcast, the Shadow would spit out the famous chilling lines: “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!” The deep, eerie laugh followed. Orson Welles was the best known of the actors who played the Shadow, which went off the air in 1954.

Barker has tried to keep the sounds as authentic as they were 50 years ago. In this episode, Cranston and girlfriend Margot Lane investigate a series of crimes supposedly committed by a convict after he died in the electric chair. Barker is imitating the squawk of a parrot one moment and the sound of a humming automobile the next. For the latter, he cradles a purring hand-held electric massager in a towel and holds it against the surface of a drum.

Coming up with the right sound usually involves a lot of trial and error, tinkering with anything and everything. He has also read books about how the sounds were made in the old radio shows.

“I had a heck of a time coming up with a creaking coffin,” he said. The tuna can with wire running through it wasn’t quite right, but the Spam can and comb arrangement was right on.

Barker isn’t a novice at this. For the last half a dozen years he has worked the sound effects for radio station KBBY’s local broadcast of “A Christmas Carol.”

*

During “The Shadow,” he’ll crank up his homemade wind machine, which looks like a drum for picking out raffle tickets. He’ll also be slamming a miniature door he put together.

Barker isn’t new to radio. He spent 16 years as a radio announcer, some of it with a Santa Paula station.

“I loved radio, but I wasn’t making any money,” he said. He got out in 1982 and now works as a computer graphics illustrator.

The cast for “The Shadow” includes some veteran Santa Paula Theater Center actors: Linda Livingston, Doc Reynolds, Mark Halstead and director Jim Kasmir as the Shadow.

During the Ghost Walk tours, other actors from the center will play spooks in vignettes supposedly from Santa Paula’s past--some based in fact, some simply wild tales.

There’s the one about the World War I soldier, killed in France, who comes to Santa Paula looking for the kind girl who knitted the scarf he wore into battle. Another is about a woman victimized by gold miners.

There are eight stops along the route, which takes walkers through downtown Santa Paula past historic homes and buildings. Tours depart every 15 minutes from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $6 for adults and $4 for children, ages 5 to 10.

DETAILS

* WHAT: “The Shadow,” a dramatic re-creation of the radio classic.

* WHEN: Tonight, Oct. 24 and 31. Performances at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m.

* WHERE: Glen Tavern Inn, 134 N. Mill St., Santa Paula.

* COST: $19.50 (includes meal).

* CALL: 933-3777; reservations required.

* FYI: Santa Paula Theater Center is also doing its Ghost Walk tours Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Oct. 27. For information and reservations, call 525-3073.