Friends and Fans of George Reeves,

The iconic portrayal of Clark Kent and Superman, along with his friends, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Perry White, and Inspector Henderson, seemed like an adopted second family for many of us. Perhaps the staying power of the 1951-1957 Superman series, unlike most television programs from the period, lies in the fact that we had an adventurous second family, and could project ourselves into anyone of these characters. They were good and kind people focused on doing right.

Many fans also like Reeves, the actor and man. He was a successful fundraiser for children's medical charities and for Rancho San Antonio, the Boys Town of the West, as well as an inspiring visitor to children children in hospitals. He served as a uncle to many children and financially helped numerous friends and colleagues. His friendly and generous character, along with his keen intelligence and humor, interest in classical music, Spanish culture, and literature, and handsome, sunny countenance, make him an appealing "star" to several generations of admirers.

On this Father's Day, Lou Koza, Jim Nolt and I felt it was appropriate to honor Reeves by telling the truth about his step-father, Frank Bessolo. Years of confusing stories have suggested that Bessolo had committed suicide and that Reeves had not had a relationship with Bessolo for many years. This is not the case. This is his story. I can only provide facts, not interviews, or a psychological portrait.

From 1919-1944, Frank Bessolo was the step-father of the actor, George Reeves. He was a descendent of an early Southern California pioneer Italian-American family. He worked in the banking profession until the stock market crash, and then became a salesman for Bohemian Distributing and LA Brewing. Sometime after 1939, he owned a liquor store in Manhattan Beach. All sources report that Reeves and Bessolo enjoyed a strong father-son relationship. Reeves would have been age four when he met Bessolo. He was not deprived of a father for the majority of his childhood or early adult years.

They appear to have shared a love for good food and liquor, were both good cooks, had a zest for life and dressing, a soft spot for dogs, and a quiet, but lively personality. Lou reports that Reeves once told Walter Reed that for many years, he thought he had been an Italian (born American), until he found out he was Irish (born American).

Published accounts of the Bessolos' divorce have dealt in speculation. It seems possible that Mr. Bessolo may have lost his job at a bank, after the stock market crash. While I find much of Hollywood Kryptonite questionable, it does offer a sensible psychological portrait of Helen's possessive relationship with Reeves, as well as a few good characterizations of other people in Reeves's life, notably Lenore Lemmon. After the Bessolos divorced in 1932, Reeves continued to visit his step-father. Hollywood Kryptonite claims that Reeves did not see his step-father again. Possibly for a short time, Helen Bessolo may have prevented Reeves from visiting his step-father, who lived on South Oxford Street, in Los Angeles, only a few miles from his brother. Reeves' friends, Nati Vacio and Fred Crane, all reported to Jan Alan Henderson, that they visited Mr. Bessolo in Manhattan Beach, where he lived from 1938-1944.

It had been rumored that Mr. Bessolo had committed suicide. The following timeline provides commentary on Helen Bessolo's lifelong attempt to depict Reeves as having been Frank Bessolo's natural father, and having been born in California on April 6, 1914. While not having conducted interviews as some researchers have, I believe, based on the public records I have accessed and the books and websites I have read, that Helen Bessolo may have told Reeves as an adolescent, that his natural father, Don Brewer, had committed suicide. The story may have gotten confused in the re-telling and named Bessolo, instead. However, as you will see, Helen portrayed herself as a widow of Frank Bessolo in the 1930s. I remain uncertain about what she actually said.

Mr. Bessolo had, in fact, remarried to a woman named Alice. According to Fred Crane, he owned a liquor store in Manhattan Beach. The County of Los Angeles death certificate states that Mr. Bessolo's doctor had treated him for hypertension between February 23 and the day of his death, March 4, 1944. Mr. Bessolo died from a brain embolism, with multiple embolisms in his brain stem, possibly originating from a coronary embolism. He died in the ambulance, on route to the hospital at 9:45 p.m. on March 4, 1944. He was 51 and just shy of his 52nd birthday.

He is listed as a merchant at a retail liquor store. He lived at 113 29th Street, Manhattan Beach, California. He was married to Alice A. Bessolo, age 39.

Mr. Bessolo was buried on March 7, 1944 at Holy Cross Cemetery. According to the Los Angeles Times, he received full Catholic death rites - Mass, rosary, and burial. This would also validate in addition to the death certificate that he did not commit suicide. For much of the twentieth century, Catholic doctrine denied Catholic death rites to people who took their own life.

Mr. Bessolo must have been pleased to see the success of his son: married to a talented and beautiful actress; an attentive adult son; the respect of Gilmor Brown, a noted drama producer, and a job as a secretary to Brown; a credited role in the most popular film of Hollywood's Golden Age, Gone with the Wind; sharing Rita Hayworth's first Technicolor moment in Blood and Sand; and lead and supporting roles with Jimmy Cagney and Merle Oberon; the romantic lead in So Proudly We Hail!, and Broadway roles in Winged Victory and Yellow Jack.

Note: George Bessolo would have been age 6 on the date of the Census, January 8, 1920. His mother, who conceived George out of wedlock, reported his birth as April 6, 1914, rather than his real birthdate of January 5, 1914 in Woolstock, Iowa, on many public records, including his death certificate and Social Security Death Index, with the exception of his birth certificate and the Iowa State Census of 1915. According to A&E Biography, Frank Bessolo did not formally adopt George until 1927. This is the only known instance of George's middle name, Keefer, being used after his birth records and Iowa State Census for 1915, on a public document. Mr. and Mrs. Bessolo appear to have agreed to lie about George's birth history to protect Mrs. Bessolo's propriety. The 1920 Census would suggest that that George was born to Frank Bessolo, in California, on April 6, 1914.

On page 21, Hollywood Kryptonite erroneously states that Helen was married to Frank for eight years, and then divorced him. They were, in fact, married for 13-14 years, from 1918/1919 to 1932. Kashner and Schoenberger also state that Helen moved away from Pasadena, moved back, and then bought the house at 1447 N. Michigan Avenue. Census records and the Pasadena city directories show that they lived in the house as a family from 1919-1932, first as renters, then as owners. At the time of the divorce, Reeves would have been 18, hardly abandoned by a step-father, with whom they claim he had a close relationship.

On page 9, Henderson shows two photos of Reeves as an infant, that Jim Nolt received from Betty Weissman, the widow of Art Weissman, Reeves's business manager in the 1950s. On page 8, Nolt says that on the back of a photo, "Helen has written 'George at 18 months in our Pasadena home.'" On page 9, Henderson's caption reads, "Sixteen-month-old George with his nanny in the back yard of their Pasadena home." While Henderson may be referring to the same photo of 18 months-old Reeves, the handwritten text is telling. Helen Bessolo extended her cover-up to her family photos. We know that Helen and George were not living in California until at least 1916, if not later.

Note: Reeves would have been 16 on the date of the Census. The 1930 Census states that Frank was 21 at the time of his first marriage (1913) and Helen was 17 at the time of her first marriage. Helen would have been about 17 at the time of her marriage to Don Brewer in August, 1913. George L. Bessolo is listed as having been born in California. This could be interpreted with several scenarios:

a) Frank and Helen are complicit in characterizing George as the natural son of Frank. Frank would have been married to Helen one year before George's 1914 birthdate.
b) It's a typo on the Census.
c) Frank was previously married to someone other than Helen. I have found no evidence of a previous marriage in Ancestry.com database (Census, indexes). Both he and his brother lived with their Father into their late 1920s and were drafted in World War I. Both were single in 1917.

Note: Founded by Secundo Guasti, the Italian Vineyard Company was one of the largest and earliest wineries in California. John Bessolo held this prominent job during the Depression and until at least the mid-1940s.

Speculation: It is possible that Frank Bessolo worked as a railroad agent for Italian Vineyard for a brief time following the stock market crash of 1929. I would speculate that he lost his job at Citizens Savings Bank due to the crash and then found work through family connections. The larger Bessolo family was among the earliest pioneers in southern California. Frank's stepmother and other relatives were socially prominent as well as active in the Catholic Church in the Los Angeles community according to several citations in the Los Angeles Times's social pages during the 1920s and 1930s. One cousin was an architect. The 1935 Superior Court case reported in the Times that Frank contended that the stock belonged to him, and that he gave it to his wife for safekeeping in 1930 while he was frequently away on business as a "railway man."

The Italian Vineyards Company used refrigerated freight cars to ship grapes to the winery for processing for sacramental and medicinal wines during the Prohibition. Mr. Bessolo may have been involved as a supervisor.

"Grape Workers at Guasti, California" working for Italian Vineyard Company. Secundo Guasti founded a town with his name, modeled after Italian agricultural towns. He had hoped to make immigrants feel more at home with a strong Italian community, rather than having to commute to work.

Short Biography of Secundo Guasti from California State University at Pomona's Library's Special Collections. Click Here.

Note: As of 5/27/07, I am waiting for the LASC archive copy of the case.

Note: Helen Bessolo began listing herself as a widow and continued to do so through the early 1950s for the Pasadena City Directory. In fact, Frank Bessolo would remarry a woman named Alice, who was eleven years his junior, sometime between 1939-1943. The Wikipedia entry on George Reeves cites Jim Beaver as having been told by Reeves's cousin, Catherine Chase, that at the time of the divorce, Helen told George that Frank had committed suicide and had not told him that Frank was his step-father. However, according to the A&E Biography episode, Reeves wanted to live with his father after the 1932 divorce. I would infer that it appears there may have been a short time between the suicide story, in order to cover up the divorce, and Reeves's discovery of the truth. The divorce, lawsuit, and then subsequent story that Frank had committed suicide must have created deep acrimony between Helen and Frank and Helen and George. Jan Alan Henderson had reported to Lou Koza that Reeves and the actor Walter Reed, whom met Reeves during the Broadway production of Winged Victory, visited Frank Bessolo in Manhattan Beach in 1943. Lou Koza also says that by the late 1930s Reeves and other friends, such as Nati Vacio, visited his step-father at his house in Manhattan Beach.

Hollywood Kryptonite reports on page 20 that Helen Bessolo told Reeves of the existence of his natural father, sometime in his youth, and that his father had "committed suicide by shooting himself in the head." Obviously, there are several conflicting accounts involving both fathers. It seems more likely that Mrs. Bessolo had told Reeves that Don Brewer had committed suicide, and that the story had gotten confused with re-telling, and named Frank Bessolo as the suicide. Various unsourced rumors state that Bessolo was druggist, where, in fact, Don Brewer was a pharmacist. It seems unlikely that Reeves interrupted his relationship with his adopted father, given the reports of his friends. It is possible that Helen found it convenient to "eliminate" both her husbands to save her social standing and draw Reeves closer to her. In any case, Frank Bessolo must have been despondent at the loss of his banking career and his loss in the divorce settlement.

Note: The Pasadena City Directories do not list Reeves living with his mother from 1937-1940. There were no listings for a "George Reeves," either.

Note: Henderson's Speeding Bullet (page 13) states Fred Crane as having visited Mr. Bessolo with Reeves in Manhattan Beach where, according to Crane, Mr. Bessolo "owned a liquor store."

Comment: Various unsourced rumors over the years stated that Frank Bessolo committed suicide. He did not. He received full Catholic death rites, which would have been withdrawn under Catholic doctrine had he committed suicide.

Note: At that time of this article, there have been no published accounts, online, in print, or on film, concerning Reeves's relationship with the Bessolo family and whether he maintained a relationship with his uncle and his family. Nor are there reports of his relationship with his grandfather, Ferdinando Bessolo, and his second wife, Lorenza Bessolo, who lived at least through the 1940s. This timeline did not include information about other possible Bessolo cousins living in Los Angeles and active members of the greater Los Angeles community as reported in articles in the Los Angeles Times in the 1920s and 1930s.

" Bessolo Family Dog.

Without a source, Kashner and Schoenberger (page 123) claim that Reeves's ownership of his dog, Sam, a schnauzer, in the 1950s, was inspired by his Father's schnauzer. In Henderson's Speeding Bullet (page 12), a photo from Jim Nolt, of "George with his stepfather, Frank Bessolo," shows a dapper Frank Bessolo on the steps of their home. Next to him in a small bush is the head of a friendly-looking brown dog, possibly a lab or a dachshund. On the right, Reeves, about age five or six, sits on a three-wheeled bicycle. It is possible, given Helen Bessolo's love of dogs (newspaper obituaries of Helen Bessolo in the 1960s say that the bulk of her estate went to her dogs) that the family owned several, or owned a schnauzer at a later date. The dog in the photo is not a schnauzer.

Note on Research: Public records can have errors due to stenography and accuracy of the information given by the reporting individual(s).

Special thanks to Lou Koza and Jim Nolt for their encouragement, as well as my respect for their non-sensational approach to researching and honoring the life of George Reeves.

This one is for you George. Happy Father's Day. Serena Enger June 17, 2007.