KENT TO THE RESCUE by Dave Goode

 

One of the cool things about growing up in the Silver Age was that you not only had Superman comic books. But you had reruns of The Adventures of Superman starring the great George Reeves. One  of my favorite episodes was JUNGLE DEVIL from the second season. The episode written by Peter Dixon and directed by Thomas Carr featured your standard B - Jungle Movie plot with intrepid heroes in search of a lost scientific expedition in a hostile jungle. In this case it was Daily Planet reporters Clark Kent ( George Reeves ) , Lois Lane ( Noel Neill ) and Jimmy Olsen ( Jack Larson ). And it's one of those episodes that shows just how cool George Reeves as Clark Kent was. Sure Superman gets to fight the " jungle devil " of the title. A runaway gorilla played by veteran ape - suit actor Steve Calvert. But Kent also gets all the best lines and scenes. 

It was also in this episode that Superman performs a super stunt that has became a major part of the Superman mythos since Action Comics No.115 ( Dec. 1947 ) where the Man of Steel squeezes a piece of coal into a diamond. I can say without hesitation that this is the first place that I saw this trick performed. Also in the cast of this episode are Damain O'Flynn as Dr. Ralph Harper and Doris Singleton as his wife Gloria. If you are a fan of 50s television than you'll recognize Doris Singleton as Caroline Appleby , the Ricardo's neighbor on I Love Lucy. Specifically from the episode where George Reeves appears as Superman.

 

During my 20s and 30s I had this recurring dream of riding the subway to a comic book shop in Brooklyn where they sold rare old comics that you could only dream of. One of those comics that I remembered most vividly was a Sheena Of The Jungle comic that featured photo covers of Irish Mc Calla in a leopard bikini. Sort of like the Dell Comics Tarzan comics with photo covers of Lex Barker and Gordon Scott. The other was an Adventures of Superman comic that was based on the Superman from the television series. With the characters drawn to resemble the actors who portrayed them on the series. Plus you got stories featuring alien invasions and monsters created by mad scientists. Indeed the stuff that dreams are made of.

 

 

From the fertile imagination of super-creator Dave Goode and the super-pen of Vance Capley comes this retro comic cover...

Do remember when our hero met Lucy? We do! Artist Vance Capley goes wild on this design now available at https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/2450490-my-hero-2018?store_id=140005

Yet Another Lost Opportunity by Dave Goode

Yet Another Lost Opportunity by Dave Goode

For my money the best Superman feature film made was the first. SUPERMAN AND THE MOLE MEN was released on November 23, 1951 and starred George Reeves as the caped crusader from Krypton and Phyllis Coates as Lois Lane. This flick led to production of THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN television series. A series that holds a special place in the hearts of many a Silver Age fan boy. With the success of the television series there was some talk of a sequel to SUPERMAN AND THE MOLE MAN. But it wasn't to be. Instead after the second season of the series, in which Noel Neill replaced Phyllis Coates as reporter Lois Lane there were several compilation movies made from episodes of the series with new bridging segments. Of course Noel Neill was the first live action Lois Lane appearing in Columbia's two Superman serials SUPERMAN (1948) and ATOM MAN VS. SUPERMAN (1950). Both serials starred Kirk Alyn as the Man of Steel and his alter ego mild mannered reporter Clark Kent.

The cool thing about ATOM MAN VS. SUPERMAN is that it featured Superman's arch enemy from the comic books, Lex Luthor portrayed by character actor Lyle Talbot. Sadly Talbot never got a chance to reprise the role on the television series. More's the pity. But the truth is the television show's half hour format was too limiting for a villain of Luthor's magnitude. And I'm sure no one wanted to see Luthor just appearing as someone working for a crime boss. But what if that sequel to SUPERMAN AND THE MOLE MEN had been made. Might not criminal scientist Lex Luthor have been Superman's antagonist in such a movie? Just last week I had a dream in which I was watching such a flick with Luthor performing experiments on gorillas. Increasing their strength a hundred fold and outfitting them with mind control helmets to do his bidding. Insert your own story line to fit your tastes.

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You Would Think This Would Have Been A Given by Dave Goode

A couple of years back I came across the image of a Batman comic from Brazil with a photo cover. Interestingly enough though the comic was from the Batmania era of the 1960s, the actors were from the 1949 serial. Lyle Talbot as Commissioner Gordon, Robert Lowery as Batman and Johnny Duncan as Robin the Boy Wonder. I recently saw the image again on Facebook and it made me think of something I used to wonder about in my youth. Why exactly DC didn't use the occasional photo cover for their Superman , Batman and Wonder Woman titles ?

Imagine a Superman comic book cover during the 50s featuring George Reeves as the Man of Steel. Or during the 70s with Christopher Reeve.















Or how about one with Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman.

But what really made the most sense would have been ones featuring Adam West as the "caped crusader" and Burt Ward as the "Boy Wonder". The folks at DC could have used production stills from the show. Or better still they could have had the actors from the show who played the various Bat - Villains pose for staged photos with Adam and Burt.







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Bettie Page...B-Movie Starlet by Dave Goode

Time for another excursion into that alternate universe that my mind sometimes populates. Where Johnny Weissmuller played Prince Namor in a Sub-Mariner movie and Esther Williams played Wonder Woman. Where Bernard Gorcey won an Academy Award portraying a burlesque club owner in a movie where George Reeves portrayed an investigative reporter minus glasses.And where Steve Holland played Steve Zodiac in a live-action Fireball XL-5 movie. This week's Goode Stuff blog looks at Bettie Page...B-Movie starlet.






Miss Bettie Mae Page of Tennessee went to Hume-Fogg High School where she was a member of the debate team and graduated salutatorian of her class. She would later graduate from George Peabody College with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Eventually she made her way to New York where she worked as a secretary while she looked for work as an actress. She was discovered in 1950 by NYC Police Officer Jerry Tibbs ,an amateur photographer. It was Tibbs who suggested to Page to adapt her now iconic bang.

Bettie would find work for a number of "camera clubs" during the 50s. But it was her work for Irving Klaw that would earn her cult status. From 1952 to 1957 she would appear in dozens of 8mm and 16mm "specialty films" for Klaw. In 1953 she appeared in the grindhouse movie STRIPORAMA for Jerald Intrator. In 1954 she appeared in the Irving Klaw produced VARIETEASE. And in 1955 , the same year she was Playboy's Miss January she appeared in TEASERAMA also produced and directed by Klaw.

Reportedly Bettie had a screen-test with 20th Century Fox. But nothing ever came of it. It was rumored that her Tennessee accent cost her a shot at stardom. But while re-watching the Johnny Weissmuller Jungle Jim movie VOODOO TIGER I started imagining Bettie as eye-candy in a number of B-Movies. Imagine Bettie as one of the Vesuvian soldiers in QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE or as one of the daughters of the 40 Thieves in the Howard Hughes produced THE SON OF SINBAD.

But as long as we're playing "just imagine", imagine Bettie as Fox Comics Rulah,
Jungle Goddess, one of the many Sheena imitations found in comics. Or imagine Bettie as Fox's cult comic book heroine the Phantom Lady. That would have been a natural.

"Judo" George Reeves by Dave Goode

Like all fan-boys I like to imagine certain actors playing certain comic book characters. For instance when I imagine a big-budget 1940s Batman movie it stars Robert Taylor as Bruce Wayne/Batman.Paulette Goddard is Catwoman. Conrad Veidt is the Joker. And Burgess Meredith is the Penguin. No getting around it. Meredith is the Penguin no matter what era. So when I was imagining what actor would play my comic book creation there was a very short list. Richard Egan and George Reeves.

Egan had been a judo instructor during World War Two. And George (no relation to Steve) Reeves was a student of two-time National A.A.U Judo Champion Gene LeBell. LeBell a pro wrestler of note had even done personal appearances with Reeves as the black-clad villain "Mr.Kryptonite".

   

George Reeves had boxed and wrestled in college and would have been great as Dr.Judo, a high school gym teacher and wrestling coach turned pro wrestler and part-time superhero.
 

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Now, what are creators
Dave Goode and Vance Capley
up to this week? Watch this weeks' Judo Comics TV 
 

And Who Disguised As Clark Kent.... by Dave Goode

Born at the tail-end of the "baby boom" I grew up on reruns of The Adventures of Superman.As such there really isn't any other Superman to me other than George (no relation to Steve) Reeves. Long before the Ilya Salkind produced movies Reeves made us all believe that "a man could fly". And more importantly he taught us to believe in "truth , justice and the American way". But as great as he was as Superman, Reeves may have been even cooler as Clark Kent. 

 

As a kid you watch a show titled The Adventures of Superman to see the titled hero fly, smash through walls, have bullets bounce off him and punch out bad guys. It was as I grew older I began to appreciate Reeves performance as Kent. It was Kent who carried the show. He did the leg work. And he was private eye cool doing it.No one looked quite as casual cool as Reeves acting with his hands in his pockets. Watching Reeves as the investigative reporter you could easily imagine him starring in a series of detective movies for Monogram.

The Clark Kent as written for Reeves was respected by the police , who in the form of Metropolis police inspector William Henderson , often sought out his advice. His employer Perry White , editor of the Daily Planet completely trusted and respected him as well. Someone else who respected Kent were the members of the underworld who feared that he would figure out and expose their nefarious schemes. The only person that didn't seem to respect Kent was fellow Daily Planet reporter portrayed by Phyllis Coates in the shows 1st season. In subsequent seasons when the character was played by Noel Neill she respected Kent as much as everyone else. Though they were rivals.

George Reeves was far from the Clark Kent created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster for the comics. But you have to remember they created him at a time when comic books still had a comic quality. Many adventure features had comic relief sidekicks. The Superman comic books had Superman as his own comic relief in the form of Clark Kent. Kirk Alyn and Christopher Reeve portrayed Kent in that manner. But as for myself and the millions who grew up with George Reeves we prefer our Clark Kent mild-mannered not wimpy.