verontranslation

This translation of the Veronica article was provided by Margherita Van Der Veen. Thanks, Margherita. Forgive me for taking so long to post it!

Duncan Regehr has followed in the footsteps of Douglas Fairbanks, Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power and Guy Williams. As the umpteenth actor taking on the part of Don Diego de la Vega, also known as El Zorro. By order of the cable-satellite channel "The Family Channel", 22 new episodes have been made in the United States last year. On January 1st, the first episode was broadcasted in the States, and scarcely 10 months later - last week - the series made its début with Veronica (a Dutch broadcasting company, translator´s note). This week the second episode will follow.

In the past, TROS (another Dutch broadcasting company, translator´s note) was less quick in broadcasting the Zorro-series during the early seventies. By that time, the series had become fairly outdated, for the production had its début in the United States on October 10th, 1957. Guy Williams played the lead in this western - for that´s what it is - and he did so until September 24th, 1959. So the series didn´t run very long, but it was definitely popular.

In 1958, its themesong entered the American hitparade. Originally, "Zorro, the fox so cunning and free / Zorro, make the sign of a Z!" was written by George Burns and recorded by Henry Calvin, the man who played the part of Sergeant Garcia in this series. Still, it didn´t become a real hit until The Chordettes included it in an LP.

"Zorro" is Spanish for "fox", and his adventures are based on a group of young rebels terrorizing the authorities in Spanish California around 1820. And with good reason, too, for those authorities were extremely unjust towards the people and moreover, they were terribly corrupt. The story was made up and written by Johnston McCulley and was published in the pulp magazine "All Story" in 1919.

In this story, the people are being terrorized so excessively, that the old, rich Don Alejandro calls his son, Don Diego de la Vega, home from Spain. He thinks Don Diego should do something about the tyranny. To his father´s deep disappointment, Don Diego presents himself upon his arrival as a lazy aristocrat. In secret however, Don Diego does go out to fight for justice, but that´s something only known by Alejandro´s butler Bernardo. This man pretends he is a deafmute, so it´s easier for him to eavesdrop with the purpose of passing on important information to Diego. As Zorro, Diego mainly fights against captain Monastario and his stupid assistant, sergeant Garcia. No need to point out that Monastario and Garcia look the fool over and over again, being defeated by Zorro, who is always too quick for them.

Douglas Fairbanks Sr. was the first one to see something in the filming of the story. The second one by the way was Bob Kane, whose superhero "Batman" was partly based on "Zorro". Fairbanks bought the filmrights in 1920, and that same year "The Mark of Zorro" played in the cinemas. A great success, that was continued five years later with "Don Q, Son of Zorro". Fairbanks repeated the success. From 1936 onwards, Republic Pictures produced three Zorro-movies, each consisting of 12 short chapters. These chapters were shown in the cinema´s supporting programme, although later they have been edited together to make an all-evening movie. Those movies were called "The Bold Caballero" with Bob Livingston in the lead, "Zorro Rides Again" with John Carrol as "The Caped Crusader", and "Zorro´s Fighting Legion", in which Reed Hadley played the hero.

In November 1940, the very first movie by Fairbanks was filmed again. This time it had Tyrone Power in the leading part, four years later to be followed by "Zorro´s Black Whip", and in 1947 there were no less than two Zorro-movies: George Turner played "The Son of Zorro" and Clayton Moore played the lead in "The Ghost of Zorro". In 1957 the above-mentioned Disney-series started on television. Thanks to this series, Williams became so popular that a real Zorro industry came up.[1] Children scribbled Z´s all over the place, and toy-stores sold Zorro-hats, capes and masks. It wasn´t until 1975 that another Zorro-movie was being made, in which Alain Delon played the leading part. In the same year, a TV-version was made, called "The Mark of Zorro".

In 1981, George Hamilton put on the black clothing in order to play a parody: "Zorro, The Gay Blade". And of course, even a soft-porn production was made on the Zorro-theme, titled "The Erotic Adventures of Zorro". The title was a rather unhappy choice though, for Zorro is characterized by his mask, hat and cape. In this movie, no one was wearing any clothes, so it was hard to tell just who was Zorro.

Another series requiring a special mention is the 1983 comedy-series "Zorro and Son". In that series, Don Diego de la Vega has become an old man, though he still thinks he is as fit and as quick as before. And he´s not: he´s constantly confined to the couch at home nursing broken limbs, and so Bernardo (he, too, aged twenty-five years) decides that Zorro´s son will have to take over the job. But that´s the last thing the son wants; he prefers chasing the ladies and finds more pleasure in a great party than in fighting unjustice. The series was no success. After being broadcasted for less than two months, CBS decided to cancel the comedy.

[1] I know this phrase doesn´t seem to make much sense. After all, I suppose it was Zorro´s popularity, and not Guy Williams´ personal popularity that propelled this Zorro industry and made kids scribble Z´s everywhere. Still, this is what it says in the original text, so I left it that way in the translation.