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. Events 1192 - Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I King of Jerusalem, in Tyre, two days after his title Year 1911 ( MCMXI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Events 1138 - Cardinal Gregorio Conti is elected Antipope as Victor IV, succeeding Anacletus II. Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) The City of New York Mandrake the Magician is a US Comic strip created in 1934 by Lee Falk (also creator of The Phantom) and mainly appearing Adamson Awards is a Swedish award awarded to notable cartoonists named after the famous Swedish comic strip "Adamson" (Silent Sam The National Cartoonists Society is the world's largest organization of professional Cartoonists It presents the Reuben Awards. Events 1192 - Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I King of Jerusalem, in Tyre, two days after his title Year 1911 ( MCMXI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Events 1138 - Cardinal Gregorio Conti is elected Antipope as Victor IV, succeeding Anacletus II. Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A comic strip is a sequence of drawings that tells a story Currently in the Western world, most comic strips are written and drawn by a Comics artist A superhero (sometimes rendered super-hero or super hero) is a Fictional character "of unprecedented physical prowess dedicated to acts of derring-do Mandrake the Magician is a US Comic strip created in 1934 by Lee Falk (also creator of The Phantom) and mainly appearing He was also a playwright and theatrical director/producer, leading him to direct actors such as Marlon Brando, Charlton Heston, Paul Newman, Chico Marx, and Ethel Waters. Marlon Brando Jr (April 3 1924 – July 1 2004 was an Academy Award -winning American Actor, whose body of work spanned over half a century Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4 1923 &ndash April 5 2008) was an American Actor of Paul Leonard Newman (January 26 1925 &ndash September 26 2008 was an Academy Award Leonard Marx, known as Chico, ( March 22, 1887 &ndash October 11, 1961) was one of the Marx Brothers. Ethel Waters ( October 31, 1896 &ndash September 1, 1977) was an American Blues and Jazz Vocalist Falk also contributed to a series of novels about the Phantom.

Life and career

Falk was born in St. Louis, where he spent his childhood and youth. His mother was Eleanor Alina (a name he would later on, in some form, use in both Mandrake and Phantom stories), and his father was Benjamin Gross. Benjamin Gross died when Falk was a child, and Eleanor remarried to Albert Falk Epstein, who became Falk's father figure in life.

Falk changed his surname after leaving college. He took the middle name of his stepfather, 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. King Features Syndicate, a Print syndication company owned by The Hearst Corporation, distributes about 150 Comic strips newspaper columns, 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.

During World War II, Falk 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. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including

Lee Falk married three times, with Louise Kanaseriff, Constance Moorehead 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. Falk became the father of three children, Valerie (daughter of Louise Kanaseriff), and Diane and Conley (children of Constance Moorehead Lilienthal).

Falk died of heart failure in 1999. He lived the last years of his life in New York, in an apartment with a panoramic view of the New York skyline and Central Park; he spent his summers in a 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 to the Phantom coming from Moonstone Books) and comic strips. Moonstone Books is an American Comic book, graphic novel and prose fiction publisher based in Chicago focused on pulp fiction comic books and New movie versions of both his creations are also on the schedule, with Mandrake set to premiere in 2008.

Creating Mandrake and The Phantom

Cover of Falk's novel "The Story of the Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks". See also Phantom novels "The Story of the Phantom The Ghost Who Walks" is a novel written by Lee Falk in 1973 based on his own comic strip creation Drawn by George Wilson.

Falk had a fascination for stage magicians ever since he was a kid. Falk, 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!”

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. Rodrigo (or Ruy) Díaz de Vivar (c 1040 Vivar, near Burgos &ndash 10 July 1099, Valencia) known as King Arthur is a legendary British leader who according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against the Saxon invaders History The concept of folklore developed as part of the 19th century ideology of Romantic nationalism, leading to the reshaping of oral traditions to serve modern ideological Tarzan is a Fictional character, an archetypal Feral child raised in the African jungle by Apes who later returns to civilization only to Mowgli (ˈmaʊɡli is a fictional character who originally appeared in Rudyard Kipling 's Short story "In the Rukh" (collected in Many Inventions The Jungle Book (1894 is a collection of stories written by Rudyard Kipling. Falk originally considered the idea of calling his character The Gray Ghost, but finally decided that he preferred The Phantom. Falk 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. Robin Hood is an archetypal figure in English folklore, whose story originates from medieval times but who remains significant in popular culture where In the A&E Phantom biography, he also explained that Greek busts inspired the idea of the Phantom’s pupils not showing when he wore his mask. A&E is a cable and Satellite television network with headquarters in Manhattan and offices in Stamford, Atlanta, 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 the "superhero".

Falk thought that his comic strips would last a few weeks at best; however,he wrote them for more than six decades, until the last days of his life.

Theatre

Falk's biggest passion was the theatre. During a lifetime, he ran five theaters, and produced around 300 plays, and directed 100 of them. He wrote twelve plays, two of them musicals; "Happy Dollar" and "Mandrake the Magician", based on his comic strip creation. After Falk's death, his widow Elizabeth directed a musical called "Mandrake the Magician and the Enchantress", which was written by Falk, and was essentially the same as the previous "Mandrake the Magician" musical. Some of his plays starred well known actors like Marlon Brando, Charlton Heston, Celeste Holm, Constance Moore, 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 (April 3 1924 – July 1 2004 was an Academy Award -winning American Actor, whose body of work spanned over half a century Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4 1923 &ndash April 5 2008) was an American Actor of Celeste Holm (born April 29, 1917) is an American stage, Film, and Television actress, perhaps best remembered Constance Moore ( January 18, 1920 - September 16, 2005 in Los Angeles, California) was a singer and actress Basil Rathbone, MC (13 June 1892 – 21 July 1967 was a South African-born English Actor most famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Leonard Marx, known as Chico, ( March 22, 1887 &ndash October 11, 1961) was one of the Marx Brothers. Ethel Waters ( October 31, 1896 &ndash September 1, 1977) was an American Blues and Jazz Vocalist Paul Leonard Newman (January 26 1925 &ndash September 26 2008 was an Academy Award The Italian bass Ezio Pinza ( 18 May 1892 - 9 May 1957 was one of the outstanding Opera singers of the first half James Neville Mason ( 15 May 1909 – 27 July 1984) was a three-time Academy Award -nominated British Actor who This article is about Jack Warner the English film and television actor Shelley Winters (August 18 1920 &ndash January 14 2006 was an American actress who appeared in dozens of films as well as on stage and television Farley Granger (born July 1, 1925 in San Jose California) is an American Actor. Eve Arden ( April 30, 1908 – November 12, 1990) was an Academy Award -nominated and Emmy -winning American Alexis Smith (June 8 1921 - June 9 1993 was a Canadian actress. Victor Jory ( November 23, 1902 &ndash February 12, 1982) was a Canadian Actor. Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke KBE (19 February 1893 - 6 August 1964 was a notable English actor Eva Marie Saint (born July 4, 1924) is an Academy Award -winning American actress. Eva Gabor ( February 11 1919 &ndash July 4 1995) was a Hungarian -born actress best known as Lisa Douglas, the Sarah Millicent Hermione Tuchet-Jesson Baroness Audley ( née Churchill ( October 7, 1914 &ndash September 24, 1982) was a James Donn (1758–1813 was an English Botanist. He was Curator of the Cambridge University Botanic Gardens Cambridge, from Edward Vincent "Eddie" Bracken ( February 7 1915 - November 14 2002) was an American Actor. Ann Corio ( November 29, 1914 – March 1, 1999) was a prominent American Burlesque ecdysiast and Robert Wilcox ( May 19, 1910, Rochester New York &ndash June 11, 1955, New York City) was a U Paul LeRoy Bustill Robeson ( April 9, 1898 &ndash January 23, 1976) was a multi-lingual American Actor, athlete

The actors were all paid to perform, but many of them worked on fractions on what they would normally earn with their movie work. Falk 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 Falk in Boston in 1953 in the play "Arms and the Man". Broadway theater, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 39 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located His Boston contract was less than $500 a week.

Awards and recognition

Falk 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. Adamson Awards is a Swedish award awarded to notable cartoonists named after the famous Swedish comic strip "Adamson" (Silent Sam The National Cartoonists Society is the world's largest organization of professional Cartoonists It presents the Reuben Awards. Louis honored him with Lee Falk Day.

On the premiere of The Phantom movie starring Billy Zane, Falk received a letter from President Bill Clinton, congratulating him with his achievements. William George "Billy" Zane Jr (born February 24, 1966) is an American Actor and director. William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III, August 19 1946 served as the forty-second President of the United States

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.

Quotes

"I give 100% of my time to theatre, and what's left goes to comics. . . "

(When asked about his age): "Never older than age thirty-nine. "

"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