THE MAN IN THE LEAD MASK

By Bruce Dettman

Psychologists would probably have a field day with me on this, but I have always had a thing about masks. Today my living-room and den walls are decorated with a wide array of ones I have collected from around the world as well as those my friends have brought me from their travels. I guess this pre-occupation dates back to when I was a kid and my favorite action characters concealed their identities behind disguises, from Zorro and the Lone Ranger to Batman and the Shadow, and I spent considerable time with safety pins and discarded clothes fashioning my own versions as well. For me the idea of a masked avenger, cloaked in mystery, was the ultimate heroic image. My all-time favorite masked hero was the character the Copperhead from the great 1940 Republic serial The Mysterious Doctor Satan which I saw on Saturday afternoon TV in the 1950s. The robot-battling Copperhead sported a kind of metallic serpent-like mask which I simulated with my yellow rain hood. I’m certain the neighbors wondered why I was running around on sunny days wearing this getup, but I suspect they early on became accustomed to my overripe imagination.

Masks obviously played a big part in the second year episode The Man In The Lead Mask, not surprisingly, given my near obsession with such disguises, one of my favorite entries at the time. The years have taken their toll on the premise, however, and it no longer ranks so high on my preferential list. It’s not a bad show, but it’s a bit talky and George Blair’s direction a tad flat. Moreover, the script by Leroy Zehren and Roy Hamilton contain certain plot elements which not only don’t work, but which are pretty outlandish. Now to be honest, the plots, aside from a very few TAOS episodes such as Panic In The Sky and Superman In Exile, have never been all that important to me. They are merely the incidental frames on which my favorite elements -- the familiar characters, the interplay of the actors, the music and the action sequences -- are hung. Still, you have to expect a bit of logic from a storyline, even from a show based on a cartoon character. Before I get to this severe lapse in logic in this particular show, I should first describe that the plot has to do with a guy named Marty Mitchell who sets up a plan to con a group of fellow crooks into believing he -- with the help of a gifted plastic surgeon – can, for the substantial fee of $50,000, alter their facial appearance, but more importantly their fingerprints. The fly in the ointment is that these guys have been on the run or hiding for a long time and are low on bucks. To get a hold of the necessary cash for the surgery they must venture out and commit crimes wearing the same sort of lead mask Marshall used earlier in the show to burglarize a post office, this to hide their identity as wanted criminals. But as Perry White (who we are informed had a twenty year career as a police reporter) says early on in the show “A trick mask isn’t exactly inconspicuous.” Now there’s a no brainer that doesn’t seem to resonate with anyone else. Nonetheless, the gang does go out wearing these masks and not one is caught committing their crimes even though the police dispatcher is head to describe the series of crimes by men wearing “those same lead masks.” This isn’t exactly a shiny day for the Metropolis Police Department; three guys walking the streets in large lead masks and no one arrests or even stops them!! See what I mean about logic?! In the end Superman discovers the whole thing is a great big ruse and the bad guys are vanquished.

A few cast notes. The fake plastic surgeon (Foley) is John Merton, a familiar bad guy in scores of movies whose son, Lane Bradford, was featured in the same season’s Jet Ace as Perry White’s nephew. John Crawford, who plays Morrill (who, by the way, had he been wearing a seat belt wouldn’t have sustained the injuries he did when Superman stopped his speeding car), is John Crawford, later the country sheriff in The Waltons. Paul Bryer, balding in the pin-striped suit, was briefly seen (but not heard – no dialog) in the first season’s A Night of Terror.

A bit of a blooper here as well. When Superman takes on the crooks at the conclusion he is unmistakably seen knocking Bryer on his keester. The very next second, however, we see Bryer on his feet empting his gun at the Man of Steel. These things happen.

One scene I particularly liked is when Kent and Inspector

Henderson are playing darts in the policeman’s office. Reeves and Robert Shayne had good chemistry on the screen and I always enjoy their scenes together. There’s friendship between them but also a kind of rivalry and competition. It works well. One question though. Isn’t Kent with his super aim taking undue advantage of Henderson by continuously beating him at the game and then making him buy him dinners as a result?

The show ends with Jimmy getting one of the lead masks stuck on his head and Superman pretending (wink) not to be able to free him from it. The irony here, from what I have read, is that in rehearsals actor Reeves, who suffered from mild claustrophobia, did experience trouble extricating himself from one of the things.

By the way, at the diner just across the street from the Daily Planet, Lois tells Clark she needs a $10.00 raise for a new hat. Let’s hope she got it. Doesn’t sound as if Lois was making much more than Noel in those days.

July 2006

The Big Freeze

by Bruce Dettman

Before I began writing this piece I sat down and tried to recall the coldest I’ve ever been in my life. I finally decided, weighing one chilly episode against another, that this would have to have been the occasion back in college during spring break when two friends and I went on a weekend camping trip into the Northern California boonies, normally not the warmest time in this part of the state. As I recall, we had skipped a traditional dinner for an all vino banquet and eventually decided what a great idea it would be to pitch our ancient tent near the thrashing sounds of the Pacific Ocean, too near as it soon turned out. I dimly recall the sensation of waking in the darkness, feeling something rising up beneath me like a great shapeless monster and pushing me upwards, smelling the recognizable scent of musty canvas as the roof of the tent collapsed on us then suddenly being under water. We three geniuses survived, but only barely. We swam to shore, realized that we had left everything in the tent including our wallets, swam back to fetch what we could (never realizing until then how much a waterlogged sleeping bag could weigh) then returned to the beach. Upon reaching our car, however, we realized we had another problem, that the car keys had not been salvaged and now residing at the bottom of the ocean along with my copy of Herman Hesse’s Steppenwolf and my new sunglasses, my buddy’s guitar and assorted cans of chili and ravioli. And for the next hour, soaked to the skins and wearing only T-shirts and shorts, as we struggled to get into that VW bug, tried hitchhiking and even attempted to wrap some sheets of nearby cardboard around us we just about froze.

None of this, of course, is in the same league with Superman being exposed to temperatures reaching 2000 degrees below zero in The Big Freeze. This title, by the way, has always sounded a bit out of place on TAOS, something straight out of a gritty and dark film noir. Jack Webb, creator of Dragnet, used “Big” to introduce all his early shows both on radio and TV (The Big Crime, The Big Caper, The Big Girl). Wonder if David Chantler, who wrote the screenplay, for this episode was a detective fan?

In any case, this fourth year color episode was a favorite of mine even though even back then I much preferred the early shows.* I always seemed to be a fan of plots where the Man of Steel’s powers are challenged or even stripped away. Superman suddenly being rendered vulnerable was sort of an adrenalin rush – you were afraid forhim but also were

mesmerized and thrilled by wondering how he would meet this test whether from Kryptonite, radioactive poisoning, or, as in this case, being turned into a human popsicle. It was somewhat like going to horror films and looking forward to being scared by the Creature of the Black Lagoon or even The Blob. Even though you knew they’d be destroyed in the last reel you loved being threatened and terrified. Similarly, you wanted Superman to triumph but also wanted to see him in a dangerous predicament worthy of his powers.

The predicament this time comes as a result of yet another of TAOS’s seemingly inexhaustible array of mad – or at least highly eccentric – scientists. This time around it’s Doctor Watts (Rolfe Sedan), a little fuddy-duddy of a guy with a peculiar speech pattern who rigs up the ultimate ice house to freeze Superman (possibly only until he thaws out, possibly longer or even forever. Watts is not certain nor does he care). He must have been working on the idea for quite awhile given all the equipment he’s amassed (both Clark and one of the bad guys describes his lab as looking like the inside of a TV set) but the immediate goal, working for underworld kingpin Duke Taylor (George E. Stone, best known as Chester Morris’ sidekick “The Runt” in Columbia’s Boston Blackie mystery series from the 1940s) is to remove Superman’s interference on election day so Taylor’s handpicked candidate can win Metropolis’ mayoral post. Taylor’s right-hand goon Little Jack is Richard Reeves, familiar to TAOS fans from such earlier episodes as No Holds Barred and Jet Ace.

Tucked not so subtlety beneath the action plot is an obvious civics lesson. Yes, Superman is in serious trouble and his plight is the central focus, but what this episode really is about is the American electoral system and the responsibility of exercising ones franchise (Jimmy, by the way, is not yet old enough to vote). There are lots of comments and asides about people not voting and the dangers of voter apathy. One particular line of dialog has Lois almost flippantly remarking that there is no threat to the election process because Superman will be around. Clark doesn’t like this and says as much:

“Sometimes, Lois, it’s not wise for people to depend on Superman to keep their own house in order.”

Both scenes, when Superman is frozen and when, thanks to emergence in an industrial furnace, he is thawed out, are very much underplayed. The latter scene, in particular, resonates with no discernable drama. Harry Gerstad’s direction has about as much pizzazz as a three day old bottle of warm beer. Not even any dramatic music to herald the return of Metropolis’s savior. When in a frozen state Jimmy suggests he looks like a snowman, but to me he more resembles a Roman or Greek statue minus his pedestal. Although supposed to appear white, I detect a pale yellow cast to the costume. Somehow the makeup just doesn’t quite work for me.

Speaking of makeup, I must say that even as pretty gullible seven year-old I found it a tad difficult to believe that with just a bit Lois’ cosmetics Superman can temporarily and believably restore his regular complexion although Perry White does quip “Where have you been, Miami? You seem to have a tan.”

One of my problems with many of these color episodes is that there is a confined, almost claustrophobic feel about them, particularly in the action scenes as though the actors have little room to move or work. The vividness – some might even say garishness – of the color of early TV suggests too much, focuses too heavily on and betrays the obvious modesty and limitations of the sets, something I rarely if ever considered in the black and white episodes.

Had The Big Freeze been a second year episode with a better script and more adventuresome direction I think it could have been a real winner. As it is, it seems to be a lost chance with too much working against it as were several other of the better color shows.

Still, as many fans always say, any George Reeves and TAOS is better than none at all. But then I haven’t watched Mr. Zero in an awfully long time.

*For the record, our family did not own a color TV until much later, but given the state of the technology back then, Superman’s costume probably would have ended up orange and green.

July 2006

THE FACE AND THE VOICE

By Bruce Dettman

Let’s be honest here. There simply are no easy years if you’re Superman, no lax and uneventful stretches when you can take some time off, let things slide, kick back on a beach somewhere with a rum and coke and watch the world drift by. There’s always a nefarious somebody out there plotting to murder, rob, counterfeit, kidnap and assault. All of this said, one would have to acknowledge that the year 1953, the series’ second season, was a particularly rough one on the Man of Steel. Predictably he had to contend with the usual assortment of crooks, petty con men and hoodlums, but the real challenges came from unpredictable factors that not only put his super powers to the test, but on occasion his vulnerability and mental health as well. It wasn’t enough that he ran up against Kryptonite (and pain) for the first time. Or that he became contaminated by a dose of radiation that temporarily forced him into exile or even that he saved the world from the cataclysmic dangers of an advancing meteor and in the process lost his memory. No, on top of all of this he runs into a pretty well-thought out scheme to steal his identity by impersonation.

I remember as a kid loving The Face and the Voice which I still rate as a top notch episode. Everything is new to you when you’re young, of course, and I recall being tremendously intrigued by a couple of things in this show. First, there was the idea of a physical double, someone who could look exactly like someone else. Such a possibility had never occurred to me before. The other was the concept of plastic surgery, of actually rearranging someone’s features. That too was a new one to me. A few years later in junior high school I had an egomaniacal science teacher (he drove his fancy, girl-attracting Triumph sports car to school and if you agreed to wash it and did a good job he wouldn’t make you take the weekly test) who had a strangely waxen sheen to his bizarrely unlined face. When I made the suggestion (behind his back, of course -- he was also known to use physical punishment on boys who he didn’t like) to several classmates that plastic surgery might account for his skin condition, I was largely drawing from my memory of Face and the Voice.

In this memorable episode George Reeves hams it up royally as Boulder, the Brooklyn tough guy with a complexion like peanut brittle until a plastic surgeon rearranges his features to make him look like Superman. Reeves is simply wonderful to watch in the dual role (make that three roles if you count Clark Kent) and I suspect he had a terrific time doing the show. The doctor in question, by the way, is actor I. Stanford Jolley, a much seen face from hundreds of westerns, serial and

B films of the 1940s. In fact, the show is littered with familiar character actors. Along with Jolly there’s the always entertaining Percy Helton as the voice teacher, George Chandler, later a regular on Lassie as “Scratchy”, dependable supporting player William Newell, and an unbilled Hayden Rorke (a few years away from I Dream of Jeanie) as Clark’s doctor friend Tom. By the way, just what kind of a doctor is Tom and why would Kent have ever gone to see him? He refers to the reporter being in excellent shape. Wouldn’t a physical on the Man of Steel readily disclose some rather obvious physical traits?

In addition to playing the somewhat over-the-top Boulder, Reeves, thanks to Jackson Gillis’ smart script, also gets to stretch his Superman characterization a bit to include the Man of Steel’s frustration, anger and even self doubt as he continues to be non-plussed by reports of Boulder’s successful job of impersonating him. At one point during his conversation with his pal/doctor Tom he even begins to question his own sanity (“So there is something wrong with me?!”). The anger part also gets a good workout when Superman is chasing the frightened Inspector Henderson around his desk (“Bill, we’ve been pals for years. I’d hate to use you as a volleyball in your own office!”). By the way, Henderson has the same painting of the Golden Gate Bridge in his office that Kent once hung in his apartment living room.

One thing I’ve never understood about this episode is the scene where Boulder robs the jewelry store, is shot in the back by a guard and goes around the corner where Scratchy is waiting for him with what looks like the same pair of trousers and overcoat Superman wore in The Man In The Lead Mask. When Boulder gets back to the big boss (Carleton Young) he complains that he took a slug and that the bullet proof vest did nothing to protect his back. Then he sits down and no one ever mentions the wound again. Hmm, Superman or not, this is one tough guy. There are not too many people who can ignore a bullet in the back. This is not a complaint though, just an observation. My complaint would be the way chief villain Young goes down for the count, not by so much as a shove from Superman but rather by what has to be the lamest version of accidentally stumbling and knocking himself out you’d ever (not) want to see. This self-destructiveness on the part of the bad guys became a stable in later Superman shows. Hated it as a kid and still do. By the way, since I’m in a nit-picking sort of mood (Mondays will do that to you), Superman’s cape has some huge stains on it. Where has he been flying?

And lastly, have you ever noticed how much the unbilled actor playing Boulder hiding in the truck at the end and then bolting from the scene when the real Superman shows up looks a bit like Kirk Alyn? Nah, couldn’t be.

June 2006

PANIC IN THE SKY

By Bruce Dettman

I have a confession to make. Occasionally – but I must stress only occasionally—when I leave my desk at work and go down the hall I suddenly peel off my reading glasses and grab at my collar. This slight momentary gesture is my odd way of separating the doldrums of the day with the fantasy world that all my life has only been just a flicker of daydreams away. Ok, on the surface I freely admit that the idea of a 56 year-old man thinking he is about to shed his outer duds and turn into Superman is a bit absurd, but what can I tell you? It always gives me a certain lift (no pun intended) to imagine that there might be more to life than routine and bad coffee. I think our generation, we so-called Baby Boomers, are largely a confused lot, a group mired in memories of youthful flirtations with social and political unrest, revolt and rebellion against existing mores, customs and the cultural infrastructure, yet reared as children in the noble and self-sacrificing gestures of the Lone Ranger, Sky King, Captain Midnight and yes, Superman. The rebellious kids of today are a different breed and in some ways have it easier. It’s more of a black and white cosmos for them. They dislike everything and never had any heroes or exemplary fictional characters to suggest differently. So I tug at my tie and rip off my spectacles and for a second dream of a cleaner, more rational universe of good and bad, right and wrong, of absolutes and moral certainty, and a guy in a blue, red and yellow suit who you could always depend on, even to saving the world.

And that’s exactly what he did in one of the best-remembered—and to many the undisputed best episode in the whole run of TAOS—the second season’s Panic In The Sky. It is recalled, however, not just for the drama of the Man of Steel taking on an asteroid headed for the Earth, but even more, I think, for George Reeve’s marvelous performance as a confused and uncertain hero—a victim of amnesia not only trying to sort out the truth of his identity but coming to terms with the demands and responsibilities of that remarkable identity. In the space of twenty-five minutes writer Jackson Gillis and director Tommy Carr fashioned a tight and riveting storyline with substantial emotional depth and characterization. It’s a winner in every department.

Even the start is highly memorable and offbeat with the camera focusing on a group of Metropolis citizens silently gathering outside Dick’s Meat Market to gaze up at the deadly sight of the approaching asteroid, their faces marinated in partial shadow (and hey, checkout the Noel Neill look-alike in the dark dress). This gets the audience into an apprehensive mood from the word go. And it permeates the whole show. As a child I was mesmerized, and a bit frightening, by the ominous goings-on. The whole episode resonated with a different feeling than the others,

a deadly seriousness and sense of gloom even though in the end you knew Superman would somehow triumph.

The Daily Planet crew are properly solemn as the Earth’s fate hangs in the balance yet also compassionate and caring as they struggle to help Clark with his amnesia (well, ok, Perry isn’t all that compassionate but he has lots on his mind and at one point even refers to his cub reporter as “Jiminy”). Noel Neill, Jack Larson and John Hamilton give standout performances but then when didn’t they?

Jonathan Hale (from the first year’s THE EVIL THREE) is terrific as Professor Roberts (described as Perry White as “a gloomy cuss”). He’s not just “gloomy” he’s downright nasty and rude to just about everyone except Superman. His poor assistant (Clark Howat) is the recipient of most of this temperament (“Don’t be stupid!”) but Roberts simply has no time for niceties and lets it be known in no uncertain terms. He is, however, generally concerned about Superman’s fate if he attempts to knock the asteroid off its course.

Things I will never forget about this episode from watching it as a kid—things that resonate with me to this day; indelible psychic imprints, if you will. There are the scenes of George Reeves crashing (off-screen) through the shower door (I remember almost turning my eyes away when Jimmy Olsen discovers his body); Kent accidentally discovering his extra Superman duds in his secret closet (having obviously learned his lesson about the dangers of only having one outfit from The Stolen Costume—and by the way, is that a bowling bag above the suits?); the scene in which Kent turns his back to the visiting Jimmy and unknowingly exposes the “S” of his costume; perhaps most significantly, the moment when alone in his apartment in his Superman outfit but still incongruously wearing Kent’s glasses, he studies himself in the mirror. In this second of activity the entire duplicity of the Kent/Superman identity crisis comes to a head, the outcome poised between discovery and self-revelation. In the next instant, of course, it all comes back to him (hey, what’s one shattered end table when measured against saving mankind?) and he’s his old self again.

This is the closest the series ever came to true science-fiction, another reason probably that it is recalled with such affection and vividness. That asteroid sure scared me as a kid, and today, and if you squint your eyes just right and don’t focus too hard at the string holding it up, it still looks other-worldly and menacing. When Superman finally lands on the asteroid with the detonator it looks just like the spot where the hitchhiking Kent is picked up at the beginning of the episode by the female driver (Jane Frazee, an occasional co-star of Roy Rogers) but who really cares? George’s springboard work is exceptional here, particularly as he lifts off from the observatory deck on his way to tangle to Earth’s greatest threat. If he ever got higher into the air on the thing I certainly don’t recall when.

For Jackson Gillis’ fine script and George Reeves’ exceptional performance alone, this is a sensational effort. Toss in all the other elements that made TAOS so consistently excellent, supporting cast, terrific music, taut direction and you have everything a fan would want.

Just writing and thinking about it almost makes me want to go down the hallway and whip off my glasses except that I think the boss is out there smoking.

(Thanks Mike Goldman For The Wonderful Photos).

June, 2006

BEWARE THE WRECKER

By Bruce Dettman

All kids should have at least one standout uncle and I did. He was my uncle Bill, my father’s brother, and he’s been gone about fifteen years now. I still miss him. He was not a man who did anything earth-shattering in his 70 odd years—and sometimes it was impossible not to question a few of his taller tales—but somehow the world has seemed a less interesting and drabber place since he died. I always think of him when I watch Beware The Wrecker, one of my favorite second season episodes of TAOS, mainly due to the miniature plane that the villainous Wrecker uses to blow up planes and ships and such.

One Christmas in the late 1950s, Uncle Bill gave me this incredible model plane for a gift. It was a powder blue plastic replica of a P-38 and it was indeed a thing of beauty. I couldn’t wait to see it fly. We waited until morning, however, when my father, uncle and brother took it up to the local playground to send it skyward. Well, my father had first go at guiding it across a bright blue, cloud-covered horizon followed by my uncle and brother taking their turns. I had never flown such a plane before, but I was confident that when my chance came I would have no trouble. That’s what I thought anyway. The reality was that when I took the controls the plane suddenly made one great half turn then quickly nosedived into the playground cement. There was very little left of it save scattered chunks of blue. I looked at my father who was shaking his head with disappointment, then at my brother who was mouthing some obscenity in my direction. The worst part of this nightmare was confronting my uncle who had given me this beautiful plane now completely destroyed thanks to my incompetence. I was looking down at the cement, fighting off tears, when I sensed him approach, felt his firm hand on my shoulder then heard his voice. “Guess the Navy’s the place for you,” he said through a laugh. “Let’s go get some pancakes.”

Like I said, I still miss the guy.

In any case, model planes figures prominently in Beware the Wrecker as the unseen blackmailing mastermind uses these as carriers of explosives to destroy airplanes, steamships and freight trains with threats to continue this mass mayhem unless his financial demands, directed at Inspector Henderson, are met. When you think of all the people killed in these attacks this has to be the most violent of all episodes though the human element is never addressed.

Despite the serious nature of the violent plot (rumors persist that this segment was dropped from the syndication package after the 911 attacks), I have to confess that I also recall it for its lighter moments, some of them on the humorous side As a great fan of exchanges between Jimmy and Perry White, I have to say that the scene in this episode as the cub reporter tries to persuade the editor that he can crack the Wrecker case, is among my favorites.

It would not be possible to convey in writing how good the comedic timing, facial, expressions and delivery are in this short bit of business—which I have dubbed the “I blame myself” scene—but I have never been able to watch it without laughing out loud. Both John Hamilton and Jack Larson

are simply brilliant in it. There are other things that come to my mind about this show, a crazy quilt of thoughts and images. Lois (Noel Neil) looks great and actually gets to wear a few different outfits for once including a sweater with a curious emblem that wouldn’t be out of place on Flash Gordon. Then there’s Superman with his super hearing not being able to tell that the Wrecker (on a recording played over the phone) has the same voice as Crane of the steamship company (William Forrest) even though it’s pretty obvious. In the carnival scene Clark’s ego gets in the way and he breaks the bell at the 'test your strength' booth (obviously Lois’ crack that if he was Superman she was “Queen of the May” got to him a bit). He then is seen by himself having a go at the ring toss a game (and misses!!!!!). A couple of interesting faces in the cast are long-time character actor Denver Pyle as Hatch, who rigs the planes and is then bumped off, and Pierre Watkin, who played Perry White in the Kirk Alyn serials, as one of the transportation magnates. Oddly, Royale Cole’s script has Henderson, usually very formal, calling the Daily Planet staff by their first names (odd to hear him address the editor as Perry).

Most important though is the fact that as things turn out the much maligned, verbally abused Jimmy had it right from the beginning. Crane was the Wrecker.

I’d like to think Perry apologized and gave him a raise but somehow I rather doubt it.

June 2006

SUPERMAN IN EXILE

By Bruce Dettman

A close relative of mine designs security systems for nuclear power plants, admittedly a somewhat stressful and demanding occupation given the state of the world. On one occasion a few years ago he allowed me to accompany him to one of these plants for a quick look-see. I didn’t really get all that much of a chance to observe things given the degree of security, but I was thoroughly frisked and allowed inside with an admittance badge about the size of Wyoming pinned to my chest. This tour was a nice gesture on the part of my relative—it took him several weeks to arrange, even given his exalted position with the nuclear folks. I’m quite certain that he would have looked decidedly askance at me had he known that I while I was taking the walkthrough of the innards of this technological marvel and nodding my head as if I were listening to every word, I was actually thinking of Superman coming to the rescue of an out of control nuclear pile in the 1953 episode Superman In Exile. Yep, there was this very serious guy in a kind of fatigue-green jump suit pointing out this or that control panel to me and all the time my mind’s eye was seeing Superman at Project X (which looks strangely like the prison complex from Five Minutes to Doom) battling to insert the tube into its proper niche and neutralize a possible chain reaction in the exciting opening scenes from this particular second year show.

This very serious entry was certainly ahead of its time. While there were big screen films and TV episodes that dealt with the dangers of atomic explosions and the possibility of nuclear devastation (On The Beach, Failsafe, Twilight Zone, etc.) very few people were thinking or writing about meltdowns from nuclear power plants, not for several years anyway. It took the 1970s blockbuster hit The China Syndrome—not to mention a little real life incident called Chernobyl—to bring the possibilities of such a cataclysmic scenario to the general public’s attention. One line in particular that Superman delivers, after realizing the extent of his contamination, is still as relevant today as it was fifty years ago. “But it’s new, isn’t it?” he asks soberly. “You haven’t quite figured out how to handle it?”

This was 1952 though and the writers and special effects guys were a bit limited budget-wise on what they could show. Still, Si Simonson and his crew did a pretty good job. The sputtering, flame vomiting, crackling reactor they came up with looked pretty darn dangerous, particularly to the kids then watching the show. I’m sure director Tommy Carr had to helm the scenes with Superman approaching the fire-belching monster pretty darn carefully or George Reeves might not have gotten involved and you could hardly blame him.

Anyway, Superman does indeed get involved and saves the day but at a high cost, total radiation poisoning. It doesn’t kill him, of course, but he’s got the stuff throughout his whole body and can’t therefore get close to others for risk of endangering them. Clark Kent has a similar problem.

This is a good show for Reeves.

Lots of super angst for the actor to showboat and he does a good job of it given the restrictions of half hour formula TV. He’s earnest, vulnerable, and believable. You really feel for the Man of Steel and as a kid, even though I knew nothing of radioactivity (even though I begged my father for a family bomb shelter), I was pretty concerned for him and wondered how he was going to be his old self again.

He achieves this by flying through a lightning storm, a dubious solution on the part of writer Jackson Gillis, but who cares? Gillis also felt it necessary to toss a crime subplot into the proceedings which isn’t really necessary and highly forgettable, but the episode still is a winner and highly memorable, if nothing else for George Reeve’s fine and measured performance which for once made Superman a very vulnerable character. And isn’t it nice to know that when things get a bit hectic, he has a nice and cozy cabin in the mountains to get away to?

April 2006

THE DEFEAT OF SUPERMAN

by Bruce Dettman

Some moments resonate so deeply within our consciousness, both collective and individual, that they can never to be erased or diminished. Pearl Harbor, 1941, Dallas, 1963, September 11, 2001 are certainly dramatic evidence of this. However, all such events are not culled from life’s true experiences but in special circumstances can be connected to the fragile tissue of fiction and make-believe. Anyone who grew up with the new invention of television remembers when Davy Crockett in the person of Fess Parker died at the Alamo. I still recall the horror of thinking one of my favorite characters had actually been killed and having my father--and later the Encyclopedia Britannica--confirm that yes, Crockett had indeed perished in battle. Years later I would meet the actor and tell him–as undoubtedly thousands had already done–how enormously this moment had affected me. In response, he mentioned that as originally filmed Crockett was seen actually falling from his wounds, but that producer Walt Disney rethought things and had him die off camera so as to spare the children of America. Parker, by the way, was a wonderful host and gave me a tour of his winery near Santa Barbara. However, I must say, there was something almost surrealistic about having one of my boyhood heroes pour me a cup of coffee. The thought actually entered my head that at any minute Rod Serling would walk through the door and introduce a Twilight Zone episode. In any case, I probably would have felt the same way had George Reeves lived and I’d had the chance to meet him. Like everyone else, I mourned his loss when he died, but it was not the first time I lamented his mortality. Here, of course, we’re back to that thin line that can often separate fact from fiction.

Now I’m not sure if it was in the second season episode The Defeat of Superman that I first became familiar with Kryptonite. Perhaps I had run across it earlier in my comic book reading but somehow I don’t think so. The reason I question this is the profound and stomach-wrenching effect the show had on me when I saw it for the first time. It was bad enough that in the earlier “Crime Wave” I had thought for a few moments that someone had found out a way to hurt Superman, but as it turned out his supposed vulnerability to a room of electrical sparks was a ruse on the Man of Steel’s part to trick and capture the bad guys. But this was different. In Jackson Gillis’ script criminal kingpin Happy J. King (Peter Mamakos) hires eccentric scientist Professor Meldini (the gloriously overacting Maurice Cass) to probe for weaknesses in Superman. Apparently by this time it’s common knowledge that Superman’s home turf is the extinct planet Krypton although I’m not certain how even Superman would know this unless his real parents included an explanatory note in the missile that brought him to earth. With this in mind and with some scientific flim-flam bantered about, Meldini rigs up an experiment to see if his theory that kryptonite can harm Superman is correct. Photographing his reaction to being shot by a kryptonite bullet (at 360 Warehouse Street, to be exact) confirms this so he goes on to make up a batch of synthetic Kryptonite with the intention of luring Superman to his lair. By this time Jimmy and Lois are in the thick of things and are captured by King. Superman finds this out and shows up to rescue his two friends but the tables are quickly turned on him when he is exposed to the kryptonite brick. I still recall as a kid my stomach caving in when Superman drops to the ground like a lead weight. Being a child and not able to rationalize that I was watching a popular TV show and there was no way the hero was going to be killed off I was completely terrified that my hero was actually facing death. Through nearly half a century I can still hear Lois shouting to Jimmy that his [Superman’s] breathing has become labored. I don’t know if I began to cry at this point but I do know that my own breathing began to slow down as I stared in wide-eyed disbelief. This couldn’t be happening!!!!! But then Jimmy made sense out of Superman’s weak-voiced reference to lead and

before you knew it he was back on his feet smashing in doors and launching the deadly metal into space (a byproduct of this causing the automobile crash and death of King and associates)

Noel Neill and Jack Larsen as Lois and Jimmy are not only loyal and resourceful in this episode but give great performances, particularly Ms. Neill. She’s fairly antagonistic towards Clark at the beginning of the show, even being unethical enough to tear up his mail to prevent his participation in things. Later she gets ruffled when one of the crooks suggests that she’s practically Superman’s girlfriend.

“I am not!!!” she nearly shrieks.

Me thinks the lady protests too much.

I also like the fact that prior to Superman’s arrival when she thinks that he might be spared contact with Kryptonite but that Jimmy and she might perish,

she is anything but pleased. Martyrdom is nice but better worn by someone else even if it means Superman might be challenged. Lois is human and quite obviously not interested in dying.

Later, of course, when Superman is really in trouble the waterworks get turned on and she is disconsolate, even frantic.

It’s my favorite Noel Neill performance in the series, and I think Jack is great too.

Check and double check. Mr. King.

January 2006

THE CLOWN WHO CRIED

By Bruce Dettman

It took me a long time to realize that I was not alone in hating clowns. Stephen King, for instance, would eventually let his readers know how he viewed them in his epic horror novel It, but that was a long time in the future. Back when I was a kid, grown-ups took it for granted that you loved clowns the way you loved Oreos, Silly Putty, Mattel Fanner 50s, PEZ, long summer days, and yes, Superman. Even if you secretly wanted to keep your distance from these characters, whose exaggerated, multi-colored features and limbs often made them seem more grotesque and sinister than amusing, it wasn’t easy because they seemed to be everywhere. There was Clarabell from The Howdy Doody Show, assorted variations on programs like Super Circus, internationally famous clowns such as Emmett Kelly and of course Bozo whose copyrighted likeness was utilized by dozens of kiddie show hosts across the nation. My parents once gave me a boxed set of .78 records called Bozo Under The Sea which came with a large storybook. To keep Bozo breathing when he was submerged you had to turn the page each time you heard the sound of bubbles. Needless to say, there were numerous occasions when I’d refuse to touch the page to see what would happen, but much to my dismay Bozo always managed to survive.

I suppose this is why the episode The Clown That Cried initially so appealed to me since one of the two clowns involved (Crackers played by Peter Brocco) turned out to be a pretty nasty character, the first time, I imagine, I had seen a bad guy clown. I suppose I felt a bit vindicated by this. The other good clown is Rollo, portrayed by William Wayne. Now this gets a bit confusing because although the plot has Crackers

knocking out Rollo and assuming his identity, the producers of the show kept using Wayne in his makeup now impersonating Brocco. I guess Brocco with his totally different facial structure looked too different to be palmed off as Rollo (Superman’s X-Ray vision apparently doesn’t work through makeup).

The background plot has the Daily Planet Staff putting on a telethon to raise money for a kid’s camp--given the entertainment they’ve recruited I can understand why it was a hard sell. Rollo has been asked to participate which, as good clown, he is more than happy to do. Bad clown Crackers, however, gets wind of this and decides to steal the funds raised. Superman finally shows up to make an appeal for donations, gets wind of the scheme and saves Rollo who is in a rooftop fight with Crackers.

A word about a couple of the cast members. Peter Brocco made a few other appearances on TAOS, but I will always remember him most vividly as Krog one of Commando Cody’s lunar nemesis in the cliffhanger Radar Men From the Moon where it was his frustrating job to try and invade the

earth aided only by two petty crooks (including the Lone Ranger’s Clayton Moore). Mickey Simpson, who played Hercules, was a beefy character actor, invariably cast as a burly henchman, whose on-screen credentials included fighting against the Earps at the OK Corral in John Ford’s My Darling Clementine to TV roles in shows like The Rifleman. He was also a regular on the syndicated series Captain David Grief that about five people in the entire world ever saw but which for some reason I recall liking. In his pre-acting days Simpson had been the boxing champion of New York State and once did a stint as Claudette Colbert’s chauffeur. As a child I recall being afraid that Hercules might actually be a match for Superman but he lasted one head thump.

Just for the record, my feelings about clowns haven’t changed, a fact attested to by the reality that late one night a few years back, when I was alone in a train station, a very drunk guy in clown suit pretended to be stalking me. Fortunately the train showed up in the nick of time. I have to admit, I was awfully glad to see it.

October 2005

Perry White’s Scoop

by Bruce Dettman

While strong debate might exist as to which actress was the best Lois Lane or even who made the most effective Superman (yes, sacrilegious as it might be, there really are people who prefer Christopher Reeve and even Kirk Alyn to George Reeves) you would get few arguments, at least among Baby Boomers, as to who was the most memorable Perry White. While assorted actors including Pierre Watkin, Jackie Copper and Lane Smith have portrayed the intrepid editor of the Daily Planet, some with great skill, it is really only John Hamilton who is cemented in the public’s mind as the feisty, frustrated, bombastic and cigar-chewing White. I have to admit from the start that I am an unabashed giant fan of Hamilton’s performance, particularly when Jack Larson (as Jimmy) and he are locking verbal horns. What makes these confrontations so noteworthy and effective (not to mention pretty darn funny on occasion) is that there is also a sense, beneath the surface rancor, that White is actually quite fond of Jimmy, the whole staff, for that matter. To be quite honest, I’m often disappointed when we leave his office. There’s just never enough Perry White in most episodes to suit me, but there are a few exceptions and this one happens to be my favorite (with The Evil Three running a close second).

For one thing, it gets off to a slam-bang start with the guy in the deep sea diving uniform getting plugged by a gunman from a car parked across the street from the Planet. As a kid I found this a fascinating visual concept. Later, when Superman also dons undersea gear in a successful attempt to lure out the same assassin and we see him tear off the canvas outer clothing to reveal his super duds I recall thinking it was one of the coolest scenes I had ever seen.

Image Forthcoming

The killing of the diver creates a chance for White, who’s been somewhat critical of his reporting staff of late, to return to his roots as an investigative reporter and solve the mystery. This sets up a lot of great scenes and dialog between Jimmy, Lois, Clark and the aging editor as they pile up the clues. Structurally, I think this is one of the best-constructed episodes of the entire run with sharp dialog by Roy Hamilton and tight directing by George Blair. There’s humor too. I particularly like the scene where Perry decides to be the one to put on the diving suit and take his chances with the killer downstairs. Clark doesn’t think much of the idea and secretly crushes the helmet making it unusable. “I can’t get that thing over my head”, White hollers. “Oh, I don’t know” Jimmy says through a grin. Clark thinks this is pretty funny too.

I also enjoy the scene where Clark and White visit a downtown gym. There they are met by counterfeiters Steve Pendelton and Robert Wilke (who in his long career would play in everything from The Cat Man of Paris, to bits in Roy Rogers’ westerns, to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and perhaps most memorably, the target of James Colburn’s switchblade in The Magnificent Seven) who suggests Clark take a shot at the heavy bag. Clark does just this and pulverizes the thing. “Guess I sometimes don’t know my own strength” he explains. Now why Clark did this is anyone’s guess. He did something similar in Beware the Wrecker when swinging a mallet in a strength contest he destroyed the bell at the carnival. Guess there were just times when he couldn’t resist showing off a bit. Anyway, the action continues with the Perry being saved from a locked steam cabinet and the whole group plus Jimmy nearly burned to death in a parked railway car. Superman shows up to send Wilke to dreamland and to blow out the flames and even Jimmy gets into the action with a well-delivered right cross to Jan Aruan’s mug.

This episode showcases some good detective work, lots of great musical queues, a clever script, some exciting Superman moments but most significantly it offers one of the best chances to watch John Hamilton at work. Because of this, I suppose, Perry White’s Scoop will always remain a great favorite of mine.

“And don’t call me Chief!”

SIDE NOTE: Like a lot of fifties families, it was an unwritten law that we all sit down each night at the kitchen table and break bread together (in the case of my brother and I it was certainly preferable to breaking each other’s skulls). However, the one exception was the night TAOS was aired. On this evening I was allowed to sit in front of the TV to watch the show, usually wearing the nifty Superman suit my parents had fashioned for me one Halloween. I thought this was pretty nice of them since during scenes like the one described above, I often got carried away with the action on the screen and would invariably topple over my glass sending a mini tidal wave of milk into my mother’s treasured beige carpet.

August 2005

FIVE MINUTES TO DOOM

by Bruce Dettman

Funny, no matter how old I get, when I see George Reeves as Superman I always view him as older, wiser and more mature than yours truly, even though I am presently ten years older than Reeves was at the time of his death. This is hardly the case with other actors when they have donned the Superman outfit. Dean Cain always looked to me as if he just got his driver’s license and was probably still battling acne, and while I liked and respected Christopher Reeve, I always thought of him as just a few years out of college and probably still paying back his student loan. So as I sat down to watch Five Minutes To Doom, the premiere episode of the second season and the first installment produced by Whitney Ellsworth and now with Noel Neil as Lois rather than the first season’s Phyllis Coates, I once again fell under Reeve’s impressively magnetic and lofty spell. Thematically this episode, dealing with Superman’s efforts to prove an imprisoned man innocent of a murder he has been framed for, is thankfully light years away from the later color episodes with their silly plots and buffoonish villains.

As I mentioned, this is gritty, no-nonsense and serious stuff. The innocent man is the great Dabbs Greer who in my opinion gives one of the best acting jobs ever seen on TAOS. Jean Willes, playing the bad guy’s ethical secretary, was featured with Greer in the classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) although they shared no scenes. In her long career, this sexy, cat-eyed brunette played opposite everyone from Lucille Ball to the Three Stooges. Dale Van Sickel is also in the cast as the foreman who tangles with Greer and is murdered. Van Sickel was one of the movie’s greatest stuntmen. Mostly working at Republic alongside fellow athletic stand-ins Dave Sharpe and Tom Steele, he occasionally put on a costume hero’s outfit such as when took over the action stuff for Dick Pursell in Captain America. He even played the Frankenstein Monster once. Another familiar face is John Kellogg, a fine character actor, who also appeared in The Big Squeeze and Night of Terror on TAOS. He did lots of films and TV work although I’ll always remember him most vividly as Jack Chandler on the Peyton Place TV series and for catching a Robert Mitchum right cross in the great film noir classic Out of the Past., it’s a great and I think under-rated episode. Reeves was never better or more believable as Superman while Jack Larson has great moments with John Hamilton (and attempting to sell a vacuum cleaner). And even though I know Superman will ultimately save Dabbs, I can never watch the episode without feeling some of the excitement I did as a boy when time is beginning to wear out. Ok, it’s hard not to ask Lois if she still sees no resemblance between Clark and Superman when the former loses his glasses. And I have never figured out why it takes the Man of Steel a whole hour to fly a

few hundred miles to the state prison, but these minor issues aside this is a consistently well written, directed and acted show.

Photo courtesy of Jim Nolt (that's Jim and Dabbs!)

April 2005

Read Dabbs Greer in the Green Mile by Colete Morlock

Thanks for Watching.

Lou (March 6, 2011)   

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