The Shadow Knows

Are you old enough to remember the popular radio series The Shadow? The Shadow character was created by Walter Gibson, using the pen name of Maxwell Grant. Walter Gibson’s writing process involved first creating a written synopsis of the longer story, a kind of storyboard. One day when Gibson was in Maine, his cousin’s children were visiting his cabin on Little Sebago Lake in Gray, entertaining themselves by reading some of Gibson’s synopses. One of the children asked Gibson why he didn’t publish the synopses as well as the stories, and this suggestion gave Gibson an idea to ask his publisher if The Shadow might be published in comic book form, depicted with illustrations as well as words.  At first, Street & Smith rejected the idea, but when they saw the success of the Superman comics, they decided to launch The Shadow Comics in 1940. The series ran monthly until 1947.

Little Sebago Lake Once a Center of Industry

Little Sebago Lake was once connected to Sebago Lake, according to an article in the Portland Press Herald  written in 2010. Little Sebago used to be a center of industry as it flowed through to big Sebago. Now, however, it flows through two smaller bodies of water, Mill Pond and Collins Pond. The change was initiated by an event in 1814 known as “the great freshet.”  This event caused the water in Little Sebago to rise and the dam to give way, causing flooding and taking out mills and bridges all the way to the Presumpscot River, according to the article written by Don Perkins. Today, Little Sebago Lake’s 24 miles of shoreline is privately owned.