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Superman:Celebrating 75 Years of truth,justice & the American way in the Man of Steel's birth city
Cleveland.com ^ | 14/Apr/2013 | Michael Sangiacomo

Posted on 04/14/2013 5:53:09 AM PDT by Las Vegas Dave

Seventy-five years ago someone walking up to a newsstand in Cleveland might have seen something new -- a gaudy, yellow-covered comic book with a man dressed in a circus outfit lifting a car. The magazine bore the equally gaudy title of "Action Comics."

A perfect copy of that 10-cent comic recently sold for $1.2 million, but at the time just seeing that book on display would have meant more than money to the two young Glenville men who created the character.

Superman, the character Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created five years earlier while still in high school, had finally arrived. Comics would never be the same, and soon Superman would be among the most recognized characters in the world. From the steamy jungles of Brazil to the icy wastelands of Siberia, it's pretty hard to find someplace where people have not heard of him.

Yet, the superhero who spawned numerous television series and five films, including a movie due out in June, has never been fully embraced by his city of his birth. And while it's pretty hard to find a place where people have not heard of him, few know the idea came from Cleveland.

Superman rose from humble beginnings. The legend, as told by Siegel himself, says that one hot summer night in the early 1930s, the teen tossed and turned, unable to sleep in his home at 10622 Kimberley Ave., in the Glenville neighborhood of Cleveland.

He stared out his bedroom window at a giant moon, his head spinning with the tales of science fiction he loved to read. He wished he could fly.

He jumped out of bed and hastily wrote down his ideas for a man who could not exactly fly, but was so mighty that he could leap hundreds of feet into the air. He would have the strength of Hercules and the invulnerability of Achilles and would be the hero of the dispossessed and downtrodden, like the people of Depression-era Cleveland.

The character would be more than a man, he would be a superman. < snip >


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: chat; funstuff; manofsteel; superman
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The house at 10622 Kimberley Ave. in the Glenville neighborhood is where Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman.


1 posted on 04/14/2013 5:53:09 AM PDT by Las Vegas Dave
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To: Las Vegas Dave

My mom always told me reading comic books would rot my brain.

And she was right.

2 posted on 04/14/2013 5:56:09 AM PDT by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: All; ADemocratNoMore; Akron Al; arbee4bush; agrace; ATOMIC_PUNK; Badeye; Bikers4Bush; ...

Pinging the lists as a FYI..


3 posted on 04/14/2013 5:56:12 AM PDT by Las Vegas Dave
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Faster than a pinging bullet...

ff

4 posted on 04/14/2013 5:57:41 AM PDT by foreverfree
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To: Las Vegas Dave

5 posted on 04/14/2013 6:09:20 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true)
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To: Las Vegas Dave

6 posted on 04/14/2013 6:09:48 AM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Mater tua caligas exercitus gerit ;-{)
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To: Las Vegas Dave
One, Fawcett's Captain Marvel, would sometimes surpass Superman comics with sales of more than a million issues each month. The titans would battle for newsstand supremacy until DC sued Fawcett into oblivion in the early 1950s.

That was a bogus lawsuit. Captain Marvel was flying from the beginning, so Superman stole that from him. Cap was a boy in his "secret identity", Supes a full grown man with glasses. Cap got his powers from Greek, Roman and Hebrew (!) heroes of old. Supes, due to advanced Kryptonian evolution (later modified repeatedly).

Heck, Captain Marvel even had a bald headed mad scientist nemsesis before Luthor even existed!

One problem, the original Captain Marvel origin story is EXTREMELY creepy, and should NEVER be played out by children.
7 posted on 04/14/2013 6:14:50 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana (HRC:"Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping,"-NKorea)
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To: Las Vegas Dave
Have no idea whether it was a coincidence, but the initials of Cleveland's main local newspaper was and is the PD (Plain Dealer) vs. Metropolis' DP (Daily Planet).

Locals are aware of the connection, although it receives far less publicity than the first on air use of the phrase "Rock and Roll" (in the black community jargon at the time it referred to the "beast with two backs") to describe the phenomenon of 1950's white boys making negro blues acceptable to a wider audience by adding their twangy voices, drums, and an upbeat rhythm. There is now a Superman statue in Hopkins Airport, although it is a recent addition.

8 posted on 04/14/2013 6:15:10 AM PDT by katana (Just my opinions)
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To: Las Vegas Dave
Superman was modeled after the pulp hero, Doc Savage, who had seventy novels under his belt BEFORE Action Comics #1 was published. 'Man of Bronze', 'Man of Steel'...Clark Savage, Clark Kent...Doc Savage had his 'Fortress of Solitude' YEARS before anyone else made off with the idea.

To celebrate Doc's 80th anniversary, 'Skull Island' was recently published...Doc vs. King Kong, who is also celebrating his 80th.

9 posted on 04/14/2013 6:16:43 AM PDT by who knows what evil? (G-d saved more animals than people on the ark...www.siameserescue.org.)
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To: knarf

Thanks for the post.


10 posted on 04/14/2013 6:17:31 AM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: Las Vegas Dave

The slogan “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” was created for the campy 1950s television show, and was not part of the original comic.


11 posted on 04/14/2013 6:23:04 AM PDT by Clemenza ("History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil governm)
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To: Las Vegas Dave
... in the Man of Steel’s birth city...

Kryptonopolis

12 posted on 04/14/2013 6:32:16 AM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: Las Vegas Dave

Would politically correct, diversity-compliant gay super heroes protect the America of the Superman era? Somehow I do’t think so. Superman was the hero of the people of the Land of the Free, of the Greatest Generation and their immediate children. America is now the Land of the Dependent and Entitled where school children are taught how to fill out 61 page applications for free health care and ObamaPhones (tm).


13 posted on 04/14/2013 6:39:42 AM PDT by theBuckwheat
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To: Las Vegas Dave
the superhero who spawned numerous television series and five films, including a movie due out in June,

Including the upcoming Man of Steel, there are six movies. The four Christopher Reeve films and "Superman Returns" staring Brandon Routh.

Of course I could forgive the writer if he was just pretending "Superman IV, the Quest for Peace" never happened.
14 posted on 04/14/2013 6:42:22 AM PDT by tanknetter
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To: Vaquero

“Terry and the Pirates” was my favorite comic strip. Followed closely by “Steve Canyon”.


15 posted on 04/14/2013 6:43:37 AM PDT by NKP_Vet ("The only glory in war is surviving")
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To: P.O.E.

I learned a lot about science from reading DC comics, which proved to be accurate when I got to science class.


16 posted on 04/14/2013 7:01:49 AM PDT by Daveinyork (."Trusting government with power and money is like trusting teenaged boys with whiskey and car keys,)
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To: Daveinyork
I learned a lot about science from reading DC comics, which proved to be accurate when I got to science class.

Agreed...sadly; science has been replaced by social agenda in today's perverted DC line...

17 posted on 04/14/2013 7:03:30 AM PDT by who knows what evil? (G-d saved more animals than people on the ark...www.siameserescue.org.)
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To: Las Vegas Dave
Finally Clark and Lois's grand daughter can be revealed..well almost!

Now that's Super!!!

18 posted on 04/14/2013 7:04:27 AM PDT by Young Werther (Julius Caesar said "Quae cum ita sunt. Since these things are so.".)
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To: NKP_Vet

Lt Col Canyon took on commie MiGs wherever he found them. Terry took on Snow Flower & the Dragon Lady.

These guys made Dagwood look like, well, you know what.


19 posted on 04/14/2013 7:07:32 AM PDT by elcid1970 ("The Second Amendment is more important than Islam.")
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To: Las Vegas Dave

Thanks Dave.

I never knew that Superman was a Cleveland native.


20 posted on 04/14/2013 7:38:44 AM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
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