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A Tribute to George Reeves
There are still many of us who believe his death was not suicide. |
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George Reeveswas born George Keefer Brewer In his youth, he began what he hoped would be a career in boxing, while also doing parts in community theatre using his adoptive father's last name "Bessolo". The roles kept coming, then in 1939, came his big break, a small role in what would be one of the biggest films in the biggest year film has ever known. As small a part as it was...next time someone asks you who was the first man to speak in "Gone With The Wind", you tell them it was
George Reeves |
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"The Adventures of
Superman"
There were 104 episodes filmed for television. One additional episode was filmed in 1953 as a public service for United States Savings Bonds.
INTRODUCTION...
"Faster than a speeding
bullet.
More powerful than a
locomotive.
Able to leap tall buildings at a single
bound.
Look! Up in the sky. It's a bird. It's a plane. It's Superman! Yes, it's Superman - strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Superman, who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands, and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way."
Hear it now!
Superman/Clark Kent ....... George Reeves
Lois Lane ............................(1951-1952) Phyllis Coates
Lois Lane..............................(1953-1957) Noel Neill
Jimmy Olsen ........................ Jack Larson
Perry White ........................ John Hamilton
Inspector Henderson .......... Robert Shayne
Professor Pepperwinkle ................................ Phillips Tead
Producers: Bob Maxwell, Bernard Luber (first season)
Whitney Ellsworth (1953-1957)
Theme score: Leon Klatzkin
THE EPISODES-In their original broadcast sequence
1951- Filmed at RKO-Pathe Studios, Culver City. Premiered on United States television in early 1953.
1 "Superman on Earth"
Recounts Superman's flight from doomed Krypton, being raised by the Kents, his arrival in Metropolis, and getting hired as reporter Clark Kent at the Daily Planet when scooping Lois on Superman's debut.
2 "The Haunted Lighthouse"
Superman helps Jimmy rescue his kidnapped Aunt Louisa, and a memorable parrot.
3 "The Case of the Talkative Dummy"
A ventriloquist act is being used to assist robbing armored cars.
4 "The Mystery of the Broken Statues"
Statues with hidden clues to a treasure are being smashed.
5 "The Monkey Mystery"
A monkey with a Superman costume helps recover a defense secret held by a scientist.
6 "A Night of Terror"
On vacation, Lois uncovers gangsters who hold her hostage.
7 "The Birthday Letter"
A disabled kid wanting to meet Superman, overhears gangsters by telephone.
8 "The Mind Machine"
Gangster Lou Cranek wants Dr. Stanton to use his mind machine to stops witnesses, including Lois, testifying at a hearing.
9 "Rescue"
Superman rescues Lois and a miner trapped in a cave-in.
10 "The Secret of Superman"
Superman appears to get amnesia, when trying to stop Dr. Ort.
11 "No Holds Barred"
Clark helps wrestler Wayne Winchester stop the paralysing Bad Luck Brannigan
12 "The Deserted Village"
Townspeople are being scared away by a sea monster, to allow access to the valuable hydrozite element deposits.
13 "The Stolen Costume"
When a crook finds Superman's costume in Clark's apartment, Superman is blackmailed.
14 "Mystery in Wax"
Madame Selena insanely is kidnapping people and making it appear they were suicides.
15 "Treasures of the Incas"
Superman rescues Lois and Jimmy on a foreign treasure hunt.
16 "Double Trouble"
Superman helps recover stolen radium in a U.S. base in Germany.
17 "The Runaway Robot"
Inventor Horatio Hinkle inadvertently causes trouble with his robot Hero, which is used for robberies.
18 "Drums of Death"
In Haiti, Superman saves Jimmy and Perry White's sister from a supposed voodoo death.
19 "The Evil Three"
Superman saves Perry and Jimmy from two crazed treasure hunters in an isolated hotel.
20 "Riddle of the Chinese Jade"
Superman helps a lad forced to assist in stealing a valuable jade statue from his future father-in-law.
21 "The Human Bomb"
Bet-A-Million Butler thinks he can keep Superman stymied with an explosive threat to kill Lois, while having a museum robbed.
22 "Czar of the Underworld"
Clark and Inspector Henderson stop a crime boss from sabotaging a movie based on one of Clark's investigations.
23 "The Ghost Wolf"
Clark, Lois, and Jimmy investigate arson.
24 "Crime Wave"
Superman declares war during a crime wave and unmasks the boss as being the
leader of Metropolis' citizen's action council.
25 //26 "The Unknown People" (broadcast in two episodes, originally the theatrical release ..."Superman and the Mole Men" (1951)
Superman saves four supposedly radioactive "Mole Men" who have come from their underground
world to visit the town of Silsby through the town's well shaft.
1953 - Filmed at California Studios
27 "Five Minutes to Doom"
Superman arrives with a pardon just in time to save convict Winters from execution.
28 "The Big Squeeze"
Superman helps Dan Grayson (Hugh Beaumont, a.k.a. Beaver Cleaver's Dad...Ward) who is being blackmailed on his criminal past.
29 "The Man Who Could Read Minds"
Swami Amada is mixed up in Lois and Jimmy's search for a burglar.
30 "Jet Ace"
Foreign agents kidnap a convalescing test pilot.
31 "Shot in the Dark"
A woman comes to Clark for help after her nephew takes a picture of Clark changing into Superman.
32 "The Defeat of Superman"
Criminal scientist Meldini tricks Superman into being exposed to
kryptonite.
33 "Superman in Exile"
After preventing an out of control nuclear accident, Superman's body is saturated with radiation that makes him a hazard to other people.
34 "A Ghost for Scotland Yard"
In England, Clark and Jimmy encounter a supposed ghost trying to kill people.
35 "The Dog Who Knew Superman"
Clark has trouble when Corky, a criminal's dog, uses his nose to figure out who is Superman.
36 "The Face and the Voice"
A Superman impersonator committing crimes, has Superman momentarily questioning his sanity. Great Reeves performance in a dual role.
37 "The Man in the Lead Mask"
Criminal Marty Mitchell supposedly has had surgery to change his identity.
38 "Panic in the Sky"
After saving Earth from being hit by a meteor laced with kryptonite, Superman has amnesia while a new meteor threat looms.
39 "Machine That Could Plot Crimes"
Uncle Oscar (Sterling Holloway) invents a robotic brain that figures out who is Superman, and inadvertently is being used to plot crimes.
40 "Jungle Devil"
The reporters are on a jungle expedition that involves a valuable diamond used as an idol's eye. Superman creates a diamond by compressing coal.
41 "My Friend Superman"
A diner owner (Tito Vuolo, one of Reeves' good friends) who claims to know Superman is pressured to pay "insurance" by crooks.
42 "The Clown Who Cried"
A crooked crown impersonates Rollo the Crown to steal charitable donations.
43 "The Boy Who Hated Superman"
Misguided juvenile delinquent Frankie's revenge plot against Superman ends up getting Jimmy kidnapped by gangster Duke.
44 "Semi-Private Eye"
Lois hires private eye Homer Garrity (Elisha Cook Jr) to find out if Clark is Superman.
45 "Perry White's Scoop"
Perry decides he'll investigate the mystery of a corpse found in a diving suit.
46 "Beware the Wrecker"
Superman exposes The Wrecker who causes several disasters to be a public official after insurance money.
47 "The Golden Vulture"
When Lois and Jimmy uncover a sea captain using a ship to convert stolen jewelry, noble Clark ends up apparently drowned.
48 "Jimmy Olsen, Boy Editor"
Because of Youth Day, Jimmy becomes editor and decides to run a fake story to get criminal Legs Lemmy.
49 "Lady in Black"
A smuggler concocts an elaborate film noir hoax to ruin Jimmy's credibility.
50 "Star of Fate"
Superman must go to Egypt to save Lois after she is cursed by a sapphire.
51 "The Whistling Bird"
While trying to invent a new glue, Uncle Oscar comes up with a new explosive. Crooks steal his parakeet which has memorized part of the formula.
52 "Around the World"
Superman helps cure a blind girl, and gives her a world tour.
Extra Episode--Public Service Program: United States Savings Bonds "Stamp Day for Superman".
Never shown on broadcast TV as part of the series.
1954 - Filmed at California Studios
The 1954-1957 shows were filmed in color, although originally broadcast in Black and White.
53 "Through the Time Barrier"
Professor Twiddle (Sterling Holloway) proves his time machine works by taking the reporters and a crook into the prehistoric past.
54 "The Talking Clue"
Clark edits tape reels together to help find Inspector Henderson's kidnapped son.
55 "The Lucky Cat"
Clark and Jimmy check out the anti-superstition club.
56 "Superman Week"
A crook makes Jimmy tell what happened to the kryptonite from The Defeat of Superman, while Clark must interview Superman on tv.
57 "Great Caesar's Ghost"
Crooks try to discredit trial witness Perry White, by making Perry think he is seeing Julius Caesar's ghost.
58 "Test of a Warrior"
Superman helps an indian with a ceremony.
59 "Olsen's Millions"
Although Superman has saved a wealthy woman's cat, she mistakenly credits Jimmy and thanks him with a million dollars.
60 "Clark Kent, Outlaw"
Clark goes undercover supposedly helping a gang of criminals.
61 "The Magic Necklace"
Jimmy is involved with a presumed magic necklace wanted by a crook.
62 "The Bully of Dry Gulch"
A bully, Gunner, is scamming people by acting out winning shoot-outs, and has targeted visitors Lois and Jimmy.
63 "Flight to the North"
To win a bet, Louie Lyman (Ben Welden) needs a pie being delivered by yokel Sylvester J. Superman (Chuck Connors) and his mule to a serviceman in Alaska.
64 "The Seven Souvenirs"
A crook hopes to trick Superman into converting an allow used in phony Superman souvenir knives into valuable radium by using X-ray vision.
65 "King for a Day"
Jimmy helps out by impersonating Prince Gregory of Burgonia, and ends up targeted for assassination.
1955 - Filmed at Chaplin Studios-La Brea near Sunset Blvd. Hollywood. Was also longtime home of A & M Records
66 "Joey"
Two crooks meddle with Joey, a horse owned by child Alice.
67 "The Unlucky Number"
Clark helps Mrs. Exbrook count the number of jelly beans in a contest.
68 "The Big Freeze"
Superman nearly gets frozen by a villainous scientist, when stopping election corruption.
69 "Peril By Sea"
Perry does research on extracting uranium from seawater.
70 "Topsy Turvy"
A crook plans to use one of Professor Pepperwinkle's inventions that makes things appear upside down.
71 "Jimmy the Kid"
Jimmy is kidnapped and replaced by Kid Collins, a double trying to stop an investigation by Clark.
72 "The Girl Who Hired Superman"
Wealthy Myra Van Clever needs Superman help in stopping a smuggling ring.
73 "The Wedding of Superman"
Lois daydreams about being saved and married to Superman.
74 "Dagger Island"
When Perry acts as administrator of a will, Clark, Lois and Jimmy end up on an island treasure hunt.
75 "Blackmail"
Lois and Jimmy investigate a plot to blackmail Inspector Henderson with stolen money.
76 "The Deadly Rock"
When a professor offers to kill Superman with kryptonite, Gary Allens is mistaken to be Superman because he has developed a weakness to it after a plane accident triggered by events in Panic in the Sky.
77 "The Phantom Ring"
Clark ends up tossed out of a plane by The Spectre's gang, when he doesn't join them in their invisible crimes.
78 "The Jolly Roger"
Clark, Lois, and Jimmy end up hostages of derelict pirates on an island scheduled for bombardment by the Navy.
1956 - filmed at ZIV Studios
79 "Peril in Paris"
Clark and Jimmy meet Inspector Lona (Robert Shayne), a lookalike for Henderson, when Superman helps a woman save her jewels.
80 "Tin Hero"
Perry hires timid Frank Smullins, when Smullins manages to stop a crime.
81 "Money to Burn"
Two crooks pose as Fireman's Friends while using an asbestos suit to rob safes during fires.
82 "The Town That Wasn't"
Jimmy is targeted for a bogus police crackdown on speeders.
83 "The Tomb of Zaharan"
When Lois is mistaken for being a princess, she and Jimmy are kidnapped.
84 "The Man Who Made Dreams Come True"
Superman helps a foreign king from losing his kingdom and life to con-man Rutherford Jones.
85 "Disappearing Lois"
Lois competes with Clark to obtain a story on a paroled killer.
86 "Close Shave"
A barber and Superman help a criminal go straight.
87 "The Phony Alibi"
Crooks use an invention of Professor Pepperwinkle that transmits people through telephone lines to provide alibis for their crimes.
88 "The Prince Albert Coat"
Superman saves a dam and recovers an old coat which has a grandfather's life savings hidden inside.
89 "The Stolen Elephant"
Two crooks kidnap a circus elephant and hide it in an impoverished family's barn where a kid thinks it is a birthday gift.
90 "Mr. Zero"
Two crooks dupe a martian who can freeze people into helping them.
91 "Whatever Goes Up"
Jimmy Olsen cooks up an anti-gravity formula wanted by a crook and the government.
1957- filmed at ZIV Studios
92 "The Last Knight"
Lois and Jimmy are kidnapped by some wouldbe knights involved with an insurance policy.
93 "The Magic Secret"
Superman needs to use a levitating magic trick on Lois, when a crime boss gets a scientist to use a kryptonite ray against Superman.
94 "Divide and Conquer"
When Superman is arrested in another country, he must try a theory of Professor LaSerne (Everett Glass) and mentally split in two to save the country's president from assassination at a mine.
95 "The Mysterious Cube"
Professor LaSerne again theorizes a way for Superman to apprehend a crook attempting to escape the statutes of limitations by living in an impenetrable cube. Superman mentally walks through the wall.
96 "The Atomic Captive"
Lois and Jimmy find a scientist who is in isolation after exposure to radiation, and being pursued by foreign operatives.
97 "The Superman Silver Mine"
An impostor kidnaps a philanthropist along with Lois and Jimmy, while trying to locate a silver mine.
98 "The Big Forget"
Professor Pepperwinkle has invented a gas that causes amnesia, which helps when Clark has to show he's Superman to save his friends.
99 "The Gentle Monster"
Professor Pepperwinkle's robot Mr. McTavish is powered by kryptonite and sought by a crook.
100 "Superman's Wife"
Superman plans a phony marriage to a cop in order to trap a criminal Mr. X.
101 "Three in One"
Three circus performers(a human fly, strongman, and magician) work together and try framing Superman.
102 "The Brainy Burro"
In Mexico, Lois and Jimmy meet Carmelita, a mind-reading donkey.
103 "The Perils of Superman"
A masked criminal apparently finds out who is Superman, when he plots revenge against Superman by trying to kill the Daily Planet reporters.
104 "All That Glitters"
Professor Pepperwinkle has invented a machine that converts ingredients into gold. When a crook comes after the invention, Jimmy temporarily dreams the Professor has invented a way to give people superpowers too.
George Reeves directed the final three episodes.
Tag Line-"Don't miss the next thrill packed episode in the amazing Adventures of Superman! Superman is based on the original character appearing in Superman magazine."
Source: "Superman: Serial To Cereal" by Gary Grossman/and viewing of episodes I have them all on tape.
*Note: George Reeves appears as Superman in a 1956 episode of I Love Lucy ("Lucy Meets Superman") - When Superman is in town for an appearance at Macy's, little Ricky hopes he'll come to his birthday party. Lucy tries to substitute until Ricky Sr. finds the real Superman, who has to rescue Lucy from the ledge of her apartment in a downpour. George asks Ricky "Wait a minute, Ricardo...you mean to tell me you've been married to her for 15 years!?". Ricky tells him yes and George has the hilarious last word..."and they call ME Superman!"
Screen capture of "Lucy Meets
Superman"
Films in
which George Reeves appeared...
1939: Gone With The Wind, The Monroe Doctrine, Ride Cowboy Ride, Pony Express Days, Smashing the Money Ring, Espionage Agent, Four Wives, On Dress Parade
1940: Tear Gas Squad, The Fighting 69th, Torrid Zone, Argentine Nights, Gambling on the High Seas, Till We Meet Again, Father is a Prince, Ladies Must Live, Virginia City, Calling All Husbands, Calling Philo Vance, Knute Rockne -- All American, The Man Who Talked Too Much, Always A Bride
1941: Strawberry Blonde, Lydia, Dead Men Tell, Man At Large, Blood and Sand, Blue White and Perfect
1942: Hoppy Serves A Writ, The Leather Burners, Last Will and Testament of Tom Smith, Bar 20, The Mad Martindales, Colt Comrades
1943: So Proudly We Hail!, Border Patrol
1944: Winged Victory
1947: Variety Girl, Champagne For Two
1948: Sainted Sisters, Special Agent, Jungle Jim, Thunder In The Pines, Jungle Goddess
1949: Adventures of Sir Galahad (a serial), The Great Lover, Samson and Delilah, The Mutineers
1950: The Good Humor Man
1951: Superman And The Mole-Men
1952: Rancho Notorious, Bugles In The Afternoon
1953: From Here To Eternity,Forever Female, The Blue Gardenia
1956: Westward Ho The Wagons
Source-Internet Movie Database
It's been a topic of debate in and out of Hollywood since June 16, 1959, and some still say George's death was not suicide.1-Why would a man engaged to be married take his own life? Some theorize that he just couldn't take the fact that he was forever typecast as Superman. But this theory doesn't wash. Fact is, that George reported back to work on the Superman set two days before his death, because he loved acting...whatever the part.
2-Why do rumors persist that he "had too much to drink" the night he died? The fact is that he may have been an easy target for anyone who wanted him dead. In a car accident just weeks before, George sustained head injuries that required serious pain medication. Add a coctail or two to that and anybody could come in the
bedroom and kill the man with no struggle or fight at all.This
is just one theory.
to tell all they knew? Most are dead now, and the ones
who were closed mouthed then...still are. |
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For more insight into the mystery surrounding
the death of George Reeves, read "Superman, Serial to
Cereal" by Gary Grossman and "TV Babylon" by Jeff Rovin.
And for a Super Snack, click here...Honest George's Cookie Recipe Page
Or...simply go to the "master" on the subject - Jim Nolt! The Adventures Continue website.
To E-Mail Me regarding this tribute...Click Here
Notice: This page is meant solely as a tribute to Mr. George Reeves and to his memory. No copyright infringement is intended in any way and
I make no money from this tribute page. The pictures contained herein are publicity stills for or screen shots from
"The Adventures of Superman".
Thanks to my buddy G.J. for inspiring me to put this page here.
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January
1, 2002
Page Design © 1998, 2002 - Gaetano LaMotta
