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Q: Where did the Zorro character originally come from?

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Author: 
Adam Thomlison / TV Media

From "The Curse of Capistrano," but you've probably never heard of that. Zorro, the masked fighter of corrupt Spanish rule in 1800s California, is one of those characters who has outgrown his source material.

The character, the center of such films as "The Mark of Zorro" (1920), "The Legend of Zorro" (2005) and the parody "Zorro, the Gay Blade" (1981), first appeared in a story that didn't even have his name in the title.

He actually began life in a serialized novel (that is, one that was released in installments) written by Johnston McCulley and published in the magazine All-Story Weekly in 1919. The title of the novel was "The Curse of Capistrano" -- at first.

It was a sensation when it was released, and Hollywood leapt into action, making a film out of it the following year. The film was released under the title "The Mark of Zorro," and it proved to be even more popular than the novel -- so much so that when McCulley and his publisher decided to release it in book form, they called it "The Mark of Zorro" as well.

The character has since appeared in more than 40 films, a good number of which have stuck with the "of Zorro" naming convention.

 

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