the greatest success
story in modern fiction, was the creation of two Cleveland teenagers, Jerry
Siegal and Joel Shuster. Tales of a strange visitor from another planet able
to leap tall buildings would make a heckuva comic strip, they believed, and
Action Comics' publisher Harry Donenfeld agreed.
But the character's amazing powers wasn't what attracted Donenfeld, it was
his disguise as the shy, bumbling, more complicated Earthling, Clark Kent. It would be Kent who would pull in readers.
Supporting characters Perry White
and Jimmy Olsen came in with the radio series. And Kryptonite, that green
glowing stuff that robbed Superman of his powers, was introduced on the show. But it was the voice of Clayton "Bud" Collyer that made everything work. On radio, when the meek transformed into the mighty, Collyer's vocal duality
was magic.
Superman leaped onto the big screen in 1941 in a series of animated shorts
recreating the radio series. Produced by Paramount Pictures, each ten minute
short required six months to complete at four times the cost of other shorts. Meanwhile, for Columbia Pictures, Kirk Alyn was recreating radio's Superman
in a live action serial and talking about another. "I'd rather work in the
salt mines," was his answer to starring in a third serial and a TV series,
and the role went to George Reeves who didn't want it, either. But he not
only made it work, he made it difficult for fans to believe he wasn't
Superman.
And Christopher Reeve made believers of us all, first with the finest kind
of acting as the high-flying Superman, and later as the wheelchair-bound
activist who transformed a tragic accident into a personal crusade for
spinal-cord research. Here was an amazing individual, always focusing on
opportunities ahead, always urging others to join him in tackling important
issues. He became a director to tackle those issues.