4th of an 8-part series. Click here for Part 3.
Howdy fanboys... it's the Movie MILF here with Part 4 of our series on the heroes behind Superman, leading up to Superman Returns next Wednesday. Today I'm going to focus on George Reeves, who of course portrayed Superman in the hit TV series during the 50s.
Probably the thing that everyone remember most about George Reeves is not that he was Superman, but that he supposedly killed himself, despondent over the fact that he was typecast as Superman. In fact, these days, it's difficult to find anything about Reeves that DOESN'T have to do with his death.
I was introduced to George Reeves' Superman after the popularity surge from Richard Donner's Superman in 1978. I was pretty young at the time, and my two older brothers and I were latch-key kids... we'd get home from school and watch TV Pow! on TV until our parents came home from work. They used to show Bugs Bunny cartoons, Starblazers, etc. You could call in on the phone and play video games, shouting "Pow!" into the phone every time you needed to fire... great stuff. My brother managed to call in once and told the joke about making a tissue dance by "putting a little boogie" in it, and we all thought that was hilarious.
But I digress... So anyway, they started showing the Superman TV show once the Donner movie came out. For us, Christopher Reeve was Superman. We were just stupid kids, and thought that George "Reeves" was his father or something, and that's why Chris got the job. We didn't even know that George shot himself in the head. All we knew was that he was no Christopher Reeve, the flying effects were bad, and he looked pretty scrawny for a Superman.
But then my father overheard us one day mocking the Superman TV show, and he gave us a good old-fashioned lecture, and told us how George led a very sad life, and was so depressed about not being able to be anything BUT Superman, that he killed himself, and we shouldn't make fun of him because he did the best job he could with what was given to him, and a lot of kids looked up to him.
It wasn't until I was older that I realized my dad was one of those kids who grew up watching Reeves as Superman, and that we were basically mocking his childhood hero. Sorry Dad. Hopefully this atones for some of that.
George Keefer Brewer was born in Woolstock, Iowa on January 5, 1914. In a way his midwestern heritage is a bit ironic considering Clark Kent's midwestern upbringing as well. Although everyone knows him as Superman, he was already an accomplished actor, having appeared in dozens of films, including Gone With the Wind where he played one of Scarlet's suitors early on in the film.
His film career was interrupted when he enlisted in the Armed Services, and found it difficult to find parts after the war, even going so far as to accept odd jobs like digging septic systems to make ends meet.
But eventually, he was offered the role of a lifetime as Superman for the television series. At first, he was reluctant to accept for the same reason Bud Collyer didn't want to be credited for his voice work on the radio and cartoon shorts (see Part 3 in the series). He thought he would be typecast, and as we all know now, he was absolutely right. But he did accept, instantly becoming both a national celebrity and hero to millions of kids.
At some point there was an effort by the various comic book publishers and studios to put on a ruse that Superman was a real person. This was fine for Collyer, who no one would recognize from the radio, but it was incredibly frustrating for Reeves, apparently. He would often be called on to make live appearances as Superman, having to stay in character while children would test his physical prowess by punching him and kicking him. My father told me of one story where a boy attempted to shoot him with a loaded gun, expecting to see the bullets bounce off his chest! I have no idea whether or not this actually happened... it might just be one of "those" stories, but it's a great story nonetheless.
On June 16,1959, after a late night with guests, Reeves retired to his bedroom, after which a shot was heard. He was found dead in his room, naked, with a single gun shot to his head. The death was ruled a sucide, but it's probably one of Hollywood's most notorious unsolved mysteries.
Many of Reeves acquaintances have said that he was murdered. Circumstances surrounding the death are certainly fishy, to say the least. He was to marry a woman named Lenore Lemmons, but was apparently still getting phone calls from Toni Mannix, an ex-girlfriend then married to some MGM honcho. Some acquaintainces say it was a mob hit, others say it may have been Lemmons (who admitted to police that she caused some other bullet holes to appear in the walls of Reeves' bedroom by "fooling around" with a loaded gun!), since their relationship was apparently quite volatile, with the two of them often seen arguing. The icing on the cake? Reeves left his entire estate to Toni Mannix and Lemmons skipped town the day after Reeves death.
I'm not making any accusations... Go ahead, do a Google search on "George Reeves death" and draw your own conclusions.
Like I said earlier, it's difficult to find anything on the man other than news and speculation about his death. But ultimately, I'd like everyone to take a moment and remember him as someone who made Superman real for a whole generation of children. Despite his misgivings about taking on the role, he wore the cape with a sense of responsibility, and took his job as a role model seriously. Supposedly, he even went so far as to quit smoking and not be seen in public with the ladies, so as not to tarnish the image of Superman.
I know I like to play the bitchy role on here a lot, but as a mother, that last part about Reeves really strikes a chord in me, especially in this day and age where real heroes for our kids seem to be in short supply.
MILF out.
Click Here for Part 5!
