Chillicothe, Illinois, a town of 6,000 on the Illinois River, may have found an identity to stir public interest.
Other towns have seized upon literary heroes. Hannibal, Mo. claims Mark Twain while Chester, Ill. is celebrated as the home of Popeye. Another southern Illinois town, Metropolis, holds the torch for Superman.
How does the boyhood home of the creator of Zorro sound?
Zorro sprung from the imagination of William Johnston McCulley, a 1901 graduate of Chillicothe High School, noted Rick Olson, the Peoria chiropractor whose original Zorro story is part of a new collection published by Bold Venture Press.
Olson, whose own published works follow the pulp fiction tradition with Rick Stihl, a private investigator, hopes to participate in future Zorro celebrations in Chillicothe.
“I plan on doing a book signing there this fall. A Zorro convention is in the works right now. It might be a year from now, in the fall of 2025,” said Olson, adding that he’s a member of the Chillicothe Historical Society. Several years ago, that group developed a Johnston McCulley exhibit at society headquarters at 723 N. Fourth St. The society also maintains the Rock Island Depot Museum at 3rd and Cedar in Chillicothe.
McCulley created Zorro in 1919 in a five-part magazine story called “The Curse of Capistrano.” Had it not been for Douglas Fairbanks, the reigning star in silent movie Hollywood, Zorro’s legacy might have been short-lived, said Olson.
After playing the masked hero in The Mark of Zorro, a blockbuster hit for Fairbanks in 1920, the actor sought out McCulley for a sequel, Olson said. But McCulley, who fashioned dozens of characters for his stories such as the Crimson Clown, Thubway Tham (a lisping pickpocket), Black Star, and Whirlwind, hadn’t planned to continue the Zorro saga. At least not until Fairbanks called.
McCulley went on to write more than 60 Zorro stories. Fairbanks starred in Don Q, Son of Zorro in 1925 and the legend was off and running with Zorro returning again and again to the screen. The Mark of Zorro featured Tyrone Power in 1940 while Walt Disney gave Zorro the TV treatment with Guy Williams in a series that ran from 1957 to 1961. More recently, Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones starred in The Mark of Zorro (1998) and The Legend of Zorro (2005).
Olson said that Zorro also inspired another of his favorite comic-book heroes. “With any origin story of Batman, you’re going to see a reference to The Mark of Zorro film. Batman creator Bob Kane, who developed Batman as a comic character in 1939, acknowledged an affection for McCulley’s hero, even joining a Zorro neighborhood club as a kid,” said Olson.
Zorro, whose daytime identity was Don Diego, a romantic type, parallels Batman and his alter ego, Bruce Wayne, the millionaire playboy of Gotham City, Olson said.
While McCulley achieved success as a writer for newspapers, magazines, and films after leaving central Illinois, his departure from the area received special coverage in the local press. The Jan. 14, 1909 edition of the Peoria Star carried a story under the headline, “Johnston McCulley leaves wife, lured to flight by pretty cloak model.”
“Lured by the smiles, dimples, and dashing style of a handsome cloak model, W. Johnston McCulley, a reporter on the Peoria Journal and a magazine writer of some repute, deserted his wife, and, in company with his fair charmer, fled the city last night,” the paper reported.
The Peoria Journal, a few days later, ran its own story on McCulley with the headline, “Local newspaper reporter drops assignment in the middle of day to run away.”
McCulley ran away to create some history. After 105 years, his masked character is still going strong.
ZORRO