Fairbanks picked up the movie rights for the sequel that year. In response to public demand fueled by the film, McCulley wrote more than sixty more Zorro stories, beginning in 1922 with The Further Adventures of Zorro, which was also serialized in Argosy All-Story Weekly. The novel has since been reprinted using both titles. The movie was a commercial success, and the 1924 reprint of McCulley's story by publisher Grosset & Dunlap used the same title, capitalizing on the movie's popularity.
The novel was adapted as the film The Mark of Zorro (1920), which Fairbanks produced, co-wrote and starred in as Diego/Zorro. The story was originally meant as a standalone tale, and at the denouement, Zorro's true identity is revealed to all.ĭouglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, on their honeymoon, selected the story as the inaugural picture for their new studio, United Artists, beginning the character's cinematic tradition.
Zorro debuted in Johnston McCulley's novel The Curse of Capistrano, serialized in five parts between August 9 and September 6, 1919, in the pulp magazine All-Story Weekly. Zorro's debut in the novel The Curse of Capistrano (1919). Other media featuring Zorro include stories by other authors, audio/radio dramas, comic books and strips, stage productions and video games.īeing one of the earliest examples of a fictional masked avenger with a double identity, Zorro inspired the creation of several similar characters in pulp magazines and other media, and is a precursor of the superheroes of American comic books, with Batman drawing particularly close parallels to the character.
While the rest of McCulley's Zorro stories did not enjoy the same popularity, as most of them were never reprinted until the 21st century, the character also appears in over 40 films and in ten TV series, the most famous being the Disney-produced Zorro series of 1957–1959, starring Guy Williams. The Curse of Capistrano eventually sold more than 50 million copies, becoming one of the best-selling books of all time. However, the success of the 1920 film adaptation The Mark of Zorro starring Douglas Fairbanks convinced McCulley to write more Zorro stories for about four decades: the character was featured in a total of five serialized stories and 57 short stories, the last one appearing in print posthumously in 1959, the year after his death. Zorro made his debut in the 1919 novel The Curse of Capistrano, originally meant as a stand-alone story. In order to divert suspicion about his identity, Diego hides his fighting abilities while also pretending to be a coward and a fop. Diego is usually shown living with his father in a huge hacienda, which contains a number of secret passages and tunnels, leading to a secret cave sometimes called "the Fox Den" that serves as headquarters for Zorro's operations and as Tornado's hiding place. In most versions, Diego learned his swordsmanship while at university in Spain, and created his masked alter ego after he was unexpectedly summoned home by his father because California had fallen into the hands of an oppressive dictator. Zorro is the secret identity of Don Diego de la Vega (originally Don Diego Vega), a young man who is the only son of Don Alejandro de la Vega, the richest landowner in California, while Diego's mother is dead. He is also an accomplished rider, his trusty steed being a black horse called Tornado. Zorro is an acrobat and an expert in various weapons, but the one he employs most frequently is his rapier, which he uses often to carve the initial "Z" on his defeated foes, and other objects to "sign his work". Because of this, the townspeople started calling him "El Zorro" due to his foxlike cunning and charm. In the stories, Zorro has a high bounty on his head, but is too skilled and cunning for the bumbling authorities to catch, and he also delights in publicly humiliating them. His signature all-black costume includes a cape, a hat known as a sombrero cordobés, and a mask covering the upper half of his face. He is typically portrayed as a dashing masked vigilante who defends the commoners and indigenous peoples of California against corrupt and tyrannical officials and other villains. Zorro ( Spanish for 'Fox') is a fictional character created in 1919 by American pulp writer Johnston McCulley, and appearing in works set in the Pueblo of Los Angeles in Alta California.