Masked
crimefighter who, along with his valet
Kato, fought crime on the
radio and in movies, television, and comics.
The Green Hornet was secretly newspaper publisher Britt Reid, owner of the Daily Sentinel. While still a crime reporter for the paper, Reid saved Kato's life in Japan and the two became inseparable. When fighting evil as the Hornet Reid wore a green mask, hat, and coat; Kato dressed in a black mask and a chauffeur's uniform and cap. They tore around town in a sleek black automobile called the Black Beauty. The Hornet marked his defeated foes with a stylized hornet as his calling card.
Two especially interesting things about the Green Hornet:
- He was hunted by the police. Reid felt that the best way to infiltrate the underworld was to become a part of it, so he let on that his alter ego was himself a criminal.
- Reid was the great-nephew of John Reid, better known as the Lone Ranger. Writer George W. Trendle created them both, though a great deal of credit for the Hornet mythos must go to Trendle's chief writer Fran Striker.
The Green Hornet's theme song on the radio was the Flight of the Bumblebee. In the 1960s he was played on television by Van Williams, with then-unknown Bruce Lee as Kato. During World War Two Kato's nationality was changed from Japanese to Filipino.