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Only once in his lifetime, Bill Finger received a “written by” credit on a first-run Batman story, and it wasn’t a comic book.
And though he wrote Superman stories, too (he created Lana Lang!), same deal—one credit, in TV:
This is from The New Adventures of Superman, a Filmation series of animated shorts that debuted in 1966.
Though there is currently almost no trace online that Bill wrote for this series, in 2006, I did follow a path to determine that this was the case. But I didn’t look for the visual proof until now.Thank you to Bill Davis of Toronto for prompting me to revisit this.
Adios, Señor Superhombre.
Bonus:
Excerpts from emails with Bill’s second wife Lyn Simmons, and one other, in figuring this out:From: Marc Tyler Nobleman
To: Lyn Simmons
Sent: Saturday, October 14, 2006 9:02 AM
Subject: Hi Lyn - Superman movie
You said they called Bill to ask him to come to California to write a script for the Superman movie. I've talked with a few people who were involved with the film and they don't remember that. Are you sure?
There was another writer named Alfred Bester who was friends with Bill who was definitely asked—there are written accounts online. Did you know Alfred? Is it possible you're confusing the two? Can you remember any more details?
From: Lyn Simmons
Sent: Saturday, October 14, 2006 4:25 PM
good to hear from you marc. bester's name rings a bell but don't think i ever met him. i'm pretty sure that bill received invitation to ca to write superman films. it's so long ago and i could be mistaken but I don't think so. in any event he never went. he had anxiety about flying and about leaving nyc.
bill may never have told his fellow writers about ca because he didn't want to explain why he wasn't going.
From: Pierre Spengler
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2006 1:05 PM
We purchased the rights in november 1974 and therefore started hunting for writer in the beginning of 1975. Very soon thereafter we engaged Mario Puzo. Therefore we never approached Bill Finger.
From: Lyn Simmons
Date: Tuesday, December 19, 2006 10:18 AM
i believe he was asked to come out to ca in the late 60s. i'm pretty sure it was superman. maybe they wanted him out there for ideas or stories a year or so before he died which i think was in '74. but perhaps it was for cartoons.
In honor of today's opening of Man of Steel, the first live-action Superman movie since Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman came out, I was thrilled to introduce the book to not one, not two, but three people who have portrayed Superman as a child in a feature film.
So just like the post title says, it's Boys of Steel meet Boys of Steel:
Aaron Smolinski, toddler Superman in Superman: The Movie (1978);
Here are all three in a younger day:
Aaron
Colgan twins (of steel)
The first two photos above were taken on 6/13/13. Thank you again to Aaron and Candice (the twins' mom) for your willingness to take and send these photos.
Introduction to series “Super ‘70s and ‘80s.”Between 12/09 and 7/11, I compiled this series; what started as a few unconnected interviews ended up being an expansive, cohesive feature that, when pasted into Word, fills more pages than I would be sane to reveal.
Along the way, I was fortunate to meet seven of the people I interviewed, most of whom I
’d been curious about since childhood. As it happens, those seven people represented five of the ten subseries in this series without repeats.
Thank you again to you seven...
with Jody Spence and Reyna Blasko, Sea World skiers
April 2010, Las Vegas
with Bo Rucker, the pimp from Superman: The Movie
May 2010, New York
with Liberty Williams and Michael Bell, the Wonder Twins from Super Friends
July 2011, Los Angeles
Introduction to series “Super ‘70s and ‘80s.”
Introduction to subseries “Superman: The Movie” (including list of interviewees).
How did you get cast in Superman: The Movie?
Through an agent.
What was your thought when you heard it was Superman?
When you’re in the business, you don’t jump over broomsticks. You don’t jump and down. You just go and give it a shot. You always believe you can do it.
What were you doing before that?
I was just starting out as an actor. I’d been studying acting. I met someone from an agency at the health club, a gym. I’ve worked out all my life. At the time I think I was doing an off-Broadway play. I was playing Bigger Thomas in Native Son. I was knocking down commercials. I used to do a lot of commercials—McDonald’s, shaving. The money’s very good in commercials. You get paid for 2-3 years for one commercial.
Was that your first film role?
Yes.
How many days were you on set?
About four days. They make sure you don’t go nowhere. They might’ve paid for me the whole week just to have me on call.
Always at night?
My scene was at night.
Where was it filmed?
57th Street. The building has a big red “9” in front. Everyone had a trailer. A lot of time I’d be down on the set watching them shoot other stuff.
What did your family think about your involvement with something as famous as Superman?
I’ve always been very subtle. I’m a humble person. People usually don’t know I did something till they see it on the screen or stage. Like when I’ve done Broadway, they learn from the reviews.
Do you still save reviews of your Broadway work?
Down there somewhere. I’m sure if I went digging I could find it. They keep reviews at the library at Lincoln Center. I did Streamers off-Broadway. I got a lot of play out of that. Native Son, I won a Theatre World Award. It was my first play!
4 Comments on Super ‘70s and ‘80s: “Superman: The Movie”—Bo Rucker (pimp), last added: 9/18/2011
Introduction to series “Super ‘70s and ‘80s.”
Introduction to subseries “Superman: The Movie” (including list of interviewees).
How did you get cast in Superman: The Movie?
I was cast by Richard Donner in April 1977 at Lynn Stallmaster’s office in Los Angeles. Richard had seen me star in a film called The Hazing and he had me come in and cast me on the spot.
What was the first movie you were in?
Tom Sawyer (1973) with Johnny Whitaker and Jody Foster. I was Huck Finn.
Before filming STM, what did you want to do for a living? Did you change your mind after filming it?
I have been an actor since I was 14.
What do you remember about filming your scenes?
I was uncomfortable with the wig and nose piece at first, but eventually got used to it. It was fun to travel to London to shoot and Canada as well.
Where were your scenes shot?
London and Calgary.
If it was an actual location, not a set, have you been back there since?
I have not been back.
Do you know how many days your shoot was?
I was on the film from April through October 1977.
What was your impression of Christopher Reeve?
Chris Reeve and I got along okay. I would say it was a professional respect for each other but he was a little uneasy having another person playing him at a young age.
Any funny, scary, or just odd stories from the set? Did you hang out with the other actors at night/when not shooting?
Lana Lang and I had a fling.
2 Comments on Super ‘70s and ‘80s: “Superman: The Movie”—Jeff East (Clark Kent as a teenager), last added: 9/18/2011
Introduction to series “Super ‘70s and ‘80s.”
Actors interviewed (3 parts):
Aaron Smolinski (Kal-El as a toddler)
Jeff East (Clark Kent as a teenager)
Bo Rucker (pimp/fashion consultant)
The fact that I still get a thrill from the 1978 movie was one of several reasons why I wanted to include it as a Super '70s and '80s subseries:
Aaron Smolinski and Jeff East are the cinematic Boys of Steel (and Aaron was the first person I interviewed for this entire series).
A YouTube poster called Bo Rucker’s single line of dialogue “the most important moment in the Superman saga.” Considering how many can quote it decades later, he may be on to something. (In case you are not one of them: “Say, Jim—whoa! That’s a bad out-fit! Whoo!”)
When I told Bo he has Superman fans who want to meet him at conventions, he was hugely skeptical because he spoke only one line in the movie. My friend Jamie Reigle is also a friend of Aaron Smolinski’s; upon hearing Bo’s comment, Jamie said people line up for Aaron…and his role had no lines!
I got permission to post all images from personal collections; if you want to repost, please do the same and ask me first.
Welcome to a look at the lesser-known history of Superman: The Movie.
Some probably think they remember the logo appearing in the opening credits
as it does at top of this post, but here is the actual screen grab.
Two years ago this month, I made someone angry. And that was the part of the story I left out when I blogged about it.
For some reason, I feel now is the time to tell the rest of the story.
Bryant Park in New York City was culminating its summer outdoor screenings with Superman: The Movie. I learned that a week before the show.
I contacted the Bryant Park Corporation to ask if I and an established bookstore could sell Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman before the screening. The book had come out only a month earlier, was (and still is) the only standalone biography of writer Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and seemed like perfect synergy with the crowd that would be coming to the movie that night: young parents with young children. And the book was not a chintzy souvenir that wouldn't survive to the next yard sale. It was something of educational and entertainment value, a behind-the-scenes story of the very passion that drew people to the movie that night.
But Bryant Park said no. Had I contacted them earlier, they said, we might have been able to work something out. And they said they did try to find a way to make it work even with the short notice. But they usually didn't allow vendors during the films so attendees would not feel bombarded. Besides, the park would be too crowded.
I tried to convince them that attendees would not be offended by such an innocuous (and thematically apropos) product. I said we wouldn't be barking at passersby; we'd simply give them the option of drifting over if they wanted to. I explained that all we needed was a table (which we'd provide) and the footprint to place it on. We would not be in the way.
Bryant Park said they own even the sidewalks surrounding the park so I was forbidden from setting up a table there. However, I learned from a list maintained by the Department of Consumer Affairs that Bryant Park doesn't own all of that sidewalk. The city approves part of it for vendors. So I contacted a bookstore friend and they were keen to partner with me. I told them Bryant Park had declined me but they said the list is king.
With that list in hand, we asked a Bryant Park police officer if we could set up our table in a spot that was both authorized and unobtrusive. He looked at the list and said yes. So we did. The bookstore was wonderfully supportive.
Maybe I'm just delusional, but somehow it seemed heartfelt to promote that book just before that movie screened. The book had come about because I love Superman and I love Superman because I read many Superman comics as a kid and I read those comics because I became fascinated with the character in Superman: The Movie. It felt like I had to have the book there, at that event in the city in which the film was shot and the character was first published. And the gracious crowd bore that out.
We sold for two hours. It was not the kind of synergy people expected to see and that is part of what made it special.
9 Comments on Conflict on the sidewalk, last added: 9/1/2010
First read part 1.
Jerry Siegel’s house is still standing (in the Glenville section of Cleveland):
Taken January 2007.
So technically, the race would be from Jerry’s house to the site of Joe’s apartment. That distance is a sixth of a mile (just shy of how far the first published incarnation of Superman could leap). I figured it would take the average person about four minutes to run. So this would be a race in which even non-runners could participate.I was hoping that staging what I inelegantly called the Jerry Siegel Race through the largely impoverished neighborhood would be a spirit boost. Yet I also wanted to keep it as simple (and inexpensive) as possible. To do that, I wanted to get the community involved.
I planned to approach local radio stations to find one willing to “score” the race. Say the race was set to start at 3 p.m. At precisely that moment, the station would begin to play the familiar and stirring theme from Superman: The Movie. (Hey, I like to run to it.)
But I didn’t want to have to get into renting and setting up big speakers along the route. Besides, plenty of speakers were already there—in private homes. So in advance, we’d distribute flyers to the neighbors along the 9.5-block route. We’d announce the date of the race and encourage them to take part as a runner—or a DJ.
To be specific, we’d ask them to turn to the designated station(s), put their radios up to their front windows, open those windows, and at 3 p.m., crank up the volume. Voila—instant and continuous soundtrack, perfectly in sync. I’d never heard of a race like this and thought it would be quite electrifying to witness.(I envisioned that we could also use the flyers to promote summer reading.)Perhaps the station(s) that agreed to play the theme during the race would also help raise money by asking each listener to pledge a single dollar toward the cause. The tagline: "Help Superman's hood with a single buck" (playing off of "Leaps tall buildings in a single bound,"
When writer Jerry Siegel (at age 19) and artist Joe Shuster (19 or 20) dreamed up Superman in the summer of 1934, they not only created the "modern" superhero but also unwittingly jump-started the comic book industry and—stay with me—built the engine that is currently powering Hollywood.
Hollywood tends to make a majority of its money in the summer and most of its summer money on movies about superheroes—even more acutely in the past decade:
Batman, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Spider-Man and its sequels, Iron Man, and the X-Men trilogy are only some of the superhero films that became among the biggest hits (in the hottest months) of their respective years.
But these movies might not have happened if not for Superman: The Movie (1978), the first big-budget theatrical release about a superhero.
(I'm not counting the campy 1966 Batman film and the various 1940s superhero serials, but not just because of their lower budgets; Superman: The Movie was the first theatrical release about a superhero done "realistically." Another qualification: although Superman: The Movie debuted in December, most superhero movies in its wake have come out in summer.)
Before Superman: The Movie, Hollywood questioned who besides 10-year-old boys would go to a movie about a comic book character. Especially a comic book character done realistically. (And wouldn't that then scare off the 10-year-old boys as well?)
Yet Hollywood did, of course, take the risk on Superman: The Movie, probably due in some part to the heart of the film—and it wasn't just 10-year-old boys (or comics fans of any age) who made it an epic success.
The simple (and partially obvious) summary thus far:
- There might not be big-budget superhero movies without Superman: The Movie.
- There would be no Superman: The Movie without Superman.
- There would be no Superman without Jerry and Joe.
And now, even some blockbusters not about superheroes can be traced back to Jerry and Joe.
Avatar and Sherlock Holmes don't feature superheroes as traditionally defined, and Avatar isn't based on material established in another
By:
Marc Tyler,
on 8/3/2009
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Batman: The Brave and the Bold,
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Last Son by Brad Ricca.
Men of Tomorrow by Gerard Jones.
Secret Identity by Craig Yoe.
The Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer (plus the triumphant 2008 campaign he spearheaded to renovate Jerry Siegel's former Cleveland home).
Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman by golly.
To name only five.
A friend asked me why I think the last few years have seen a surge in interest in Siegel and Shuster. Good question, and it also begs a more specific one: is this increased interest only within the comics community or also among the general public?
Either way, I don't think it has as much to do with Michael Chabon as some might say. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (which came out in 2000) wonderfully helped bring a certain mainstream validation to comics, but I don't think the book inspired the average reader to then pick up, say, Men of Tomorrow. And despite its popularity, it didn't make Siegel and Shuster household names (not that it was necessarily trying to). To comics people, Kavalier & Clay was an engaging new lens through which to consider the Siegel and Shuster story. To non-comics people, it was just another good book.
My friend wondered if the surge in interest might relate to the litigation between the Siegel family and DC Comics. But that is not on the radar of most people beyond the industry, at least not those I talk to.
I think the interest is at least in part because of a suddenly urgent sense of posterity—the last of the Golden Agers are dying now, so people are scrambling to document them while those original creators (or people they knew) are still around to speak for themselves.
I think it also has to do with the timing of the formative years of our generation. Many of the people researching Siegel and Shuster today grew up in the 1970s and 1980s. The superhero culture of that period has had a distinct influence in what has been happening recently at DC:
- the acclaimed mini-series Justice written by Jim Krueger and Alex Ross paid tribute to the Legion of Doom from the cartoon Super Friends (which debuted in 1973)
- the Hall of Justice and Wendy and Marvin, also from Super Friends, have been brought into print "continuity"
- other characters created for that cartoon (the Wonder Twins, Black Vulcan, Samurai, Apache Chief) are getting the action figure treatment (strange, when you think about it, that it took as long as it did)
- artists are drawing Superman to resemble Christopher Reeve (the first Reeve Superman movie came out in 1978)
- the animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold is based on a comic whose glory days were the 1970s
The 1970s were also the period in which Siegel and Shuster became known to a wider public. In 1975, they won the settlement from Warner Communications, which made the New York Times and the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. In 1976, their names were restored to all Superman stories in all media, starting with Superman #302 and culminating majestically with Superman: The Movie (see at 2:45). They (especially Jerry) began to attend comics conventions and at least one movie premiere.In terms of comics, we are the first generation fueled less by the clinical nature of precedent and more by the emotional nature of nostalgia. We are creating superhero content by deepening the superhero content of our youth, and I think at a certain point, it's natural for that interest to extend from the fictional history to the real life history of these characters.Though I loved Super Friends and Superman: The Movie and Superman comics, I wrote my book on Jerry and Joe without reflecting consciously on any of the thoughts above. (And at the time, none of the Siegel and Shuster projects listed at the start of this post were out.)I simply found a surprising gap in the market and wanted to try to fill it with a book for both kids and adults that could do its small part to spread the word about two visionary guys (long gone) and their grand achievement (here to stay). It has been so gratifying that so many others have simultaneously helped bring the men behind the Man out from behind their glasses.
By: Rebecca,
on 9/25/2007
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Philip Davis, our favorite new blogger is back with more commentary today. Davis is professor of English literature at Liverpool University, author of Bernard Malamud: A Writer’s Life, and editor of The Reader. This post originally appeared on Moreover.
Dear America,
This week someone from Education (it would be) said to me, ‘I am comfortable with my belief-systems.’ I blame you, collectively, for this. (more…)
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It was an excellent series, Marc. Thank you for compiling it and, moreover, thank you for sharing it with us. "Super Friends," "Superman: The Movie" and "Scooby Doo" are integral pieces of my childhood and I really enjoyed learning more about the often-unacknowledged people behind them.
Thank you so much for this kind message, Michael. It was my pleasure and passion. I'm sad it's over. Maybe I will need to do a sequel...ideas?