THE ADVENTURES OF THE FALCON

Michael Waring, aka The Falcon, is an agent with American Intelligence.

Okay, to get the really, really confusing elements out of the way, there are several people 'out there' with the moniker of The Falcon. It isn't my fault nor, apparently, the fault of the chronicler of the adventures of the first of these Falcons. Blame the movie studios, I say! Them and the second author. More on this in a bit.

The Falcon appears first in print form penned by Drexel Drake and when he does, he can be described as an adventurer. I have also seen him listed as a freelance investigator (like a private eye but he does it for fun!) and as a troubleshooter (again freelance but still out to fix problems). Later a chap named Waring and going by The Falcon would start working for the government as a traveling operative and problem-solver. I am assuming that the Waring's are the same.

This (first) Falcon went by the name of Malcolm J. Wingate which might be his real name (other people have certainly thought as much) but he also identified himself in one of the adventures as 'Jeffries Gate' so who knows!? Certainly adding nothing to solving of this mystery is the fact that the chronicler always refers to the man as The Falcon and not by any real name. Was he ever addressed as Michael or Mike Waring? Unlikely, at least I could not find it.

This iteration of The Falcon is said to be an American who was raised a fair amount in, and educated in, England so his speech is reminiscent of our English cousins. He was left a very tidy sum by his parents so a day job was not necessary. His avocation, though, is definite - he likes to "liberate stolen funds and property from thieves" and return the bulk to their rightful owners. He might in the process help fray his expenses with some of the booty. He is aided in his anti-larceny by a former police officer named Steve Hardy who goes by the nickname of 'Sarge', a very close friend to the Falcon and one who is as eager to cause mayhem as his pal. 'Sarge' does not help in the solving of the name issue as he always refers to his buddy as 'Chief'.

As Frank Derato commented in an article printed in the Thrilling Detective website, the Falcon takes the attitude that "property that had been already removed from its rightful ownership by the process of crime was proper spoils for a smarter, more adept criminal." Obviously the Falcon deems himself that more capable person and the results of the several adventures we have initially bear this out. Mr. Derato also explains that Wingate gave himself the nickname of The Falcon while on a train heading to London after seeing a falcon in the sky and thinking, "The falcon, powerful of wing and indomitable of courage, takes its quarry as it moves, plunging down upon it from above". That was rather fitting, considering the line of work he would go into.

Now we move into the confusing phase.

Two years after the third and last of the full-length adventures of the Wingate Falcon was released to the public, the second chronicler (named Michael Arlen) came out with a short story adventure about a man named Gay Stanhope Falcon. This fellow, who at least had the decency to have Falcon as his actual name, was also an adventurer who loved to stick his nose into other people's problems.

Author Arlen was already a very successful movie screenplay writer very much in demand. That short story, named Gay Falcon after the hero's name, Gaylord Falcon, was snatched up by a major movie studio (RKO) and turned into a movie. In typical Hollywood love of muddying waters, the film version of 'Gay Falcon' would be called 'The Gay Falcon' but his actual name would be switch to Gay Laurence. Why? Who on earth knows!!!

This Falcon/Laurence is quite a lot different than the fellow above, not least of it being the name getting switched soon (in the second movie) to be spelled Lawrence. He is not into relieving crooks of their ill-gotten gains so much as just stopping them for further ill-getting. Seeing a crime committed and the unknown culprit yet free drives this fellow into a dither and he does something about it. He is invariably accompanied by a beautiful woman, often intending at any moment to be the wife of the Falcon - though the woman would change from adventure to adventure, each lady being obviously disappointed that she would not long be by his side. Falcon is also constantly palling around with Jonathan 'Goldy' Locke, an amusing sidekick who has more staying power than the aforementioned ladies.

This Falcon does love excitement as much as the earlier one and is successful enough to find it on four recorded adventures before tragedy strikes and he meets his end.

Enter Tom Lawrence, brother to Gaylord, who is initially out to find his sibling's killer(s) and making sure justice happens. Tom is apparently a couple years older than Gay but just as much into the love of adventure and righting wrongs as his younger bro. His adventures in such a pursuit will continue for quite some time (more than twice as many as Gay) and he would be accompanied briefly by Goldy Locke (though his appearance would change as would the spelling).

Even as Tom 'The Falcon' Lawrence was going solo after getting vengeance for Gay 'The Falcon' Lawrence in 1943, 'The Falcon' attributed to the original author, Drexel Drake, would become a popular source for adventure on the radio. This Falcon was definitely named Michael (Mike) Waring.

Is this Drexel Drake Falcon the same as Malcolm Wingate? Unknown but unlikely but what do I know! He never ever uses the Wingate name and there is never an appearance or mention of Sarge so ... probably not.

Now he is earning a living (if Wingate, did he run out of his inheritance?) as a private investigator. Apparently he made the decision to actually have an office to go into, a place where he also became quite friendly with his new gal, Nancy who would share a lot of his escapades and had one very understanding nature to her. An incredible number of adventures (480+) would be related to listeners.

"Ready with a hand for oppressed men and an eye for repressed women" is one quote I read about the Falcon's radio adventures. 

Towards the end of his adventures over this medium, his cases switched to missions and he is said to have been more and more involved in helping American Intelligence out on matters of national security and spy-hunting.

Two years after Tom Lawrence's last appearance and well into that long run of radio adventures, Michael 'The Falcon' Waring returns to the big screen, albeit initially confusing us by having his last name overdubbed as Watling before switching back to Waring for two more adventures. He was still in the same line of work, i.e., investigator.

Even as his radio adventures were just completing, Michael Waring would begin having stories told about his exploits on the small screen. He was largely working fulltime for the government. His travels would become even more frequent, heading to all sort of places outside his normal Big Apple haunts. His cases would expand tremendously as well with having to go up against enemy agents, traitors, and international criminals while still fighting injustice at home with breaking up smugglers and catching murderers and counterfeiters.

Note: There are other characters out there with the sobriquet of The Falcon but nothing close to those mentioned above and definitely not anything that would fall inside the criteria for this compendium. Two are worth mentioning, though.

The first is the British superhero told in comicbook format in the Radio Fun magazine starting in 1947 and lasting until 1960; said fellow being referred to as the "Robin Hood of Crime". He was the "Man of Many Disguises" about whom the tag line read: "Police can't catch him! All crooks fear him!" He had a nifty winged suit that let him either fly or glide (couldn't tell which) and he was pretty handy with his fists (duh!).

The second is the American superhero whose real name is Sam Wilson, a black man who had one very impressive rig on his back which let him truly fly like his namesake avian. He would become a very close ally of Captain America.