Look, Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman

-Look--

-Up in the sky.

-It's a bird.

-It's a plane.

It's, it's--

Superman, Superman, Superman,

Superman, Superman!

You wanted to see me?

He was the world's

first comic-book superhero.

The fearless man

in blue tights with a red cape...

...and an S stretched

boldly across his chest.

My dad would give a dime to buy

every new issue of Superman.

Superman made

a big impact on me. . .

. . .and I guess on most of the people

who read them.

For more than 60 years,

Superman has been everything.

From a comic book to a cartoon,

to a movie star.

Easy, miss, I've got you.

Everybody when they talk about

Superman as part of their childhood. . .

. . .glows about why it's

such a great character.

Look, Superman.

I first saw Superman on television,

in George Reeves' TV series.

I just loved it.

I guess it was the idea of flying.

George Reeves would run up

and bounce out the window.

I would try to mimic that.

I mean who didn't?

Some have seen Superman

as a mythic symbol of hope...

...strength and moral certainty...

... while others would simply call him

a pop-culture phenomenon.

-It's not like I asked to be famous.

-Yeah, well, it's the price you pay.

Throughout his history, heirs found

himself in touch with the times...

...and occasionally out of fashion.

Forget it, Superman,

you just do your thing.

Right on.

Lois is in danger.

I'm going to split.

But Superman continues to endure...

...as generation after generation

have come to know him.

I watched the Justice League

cartoon on television.

That was really my exposure

to Superman.

Thank you for flying

Superman Airlines.

And with its new generation,

Superman continues to challenge...

...our collective notion

of what it means to be a hero.

There is always a time for heroes.

It's the spirit of Superman.

Someone that people can aspire to be.

The guy down the street

wanted to be a sports jock.

I wanted to save Metropolis.

It's about having a hero

who swoops down and saves you. . .

. . .who looks pretty good too.

He enables you to do everything humanly

possible that we all wanted to do.

It's the greatest fantasy in the world.

According to the comic books,

Superman began life as baby Kal-El.

Born on the distant planet of Krypton.

But Superman

was actually conceived...

...in the imaginations

of two teenage boys...

...from Cleveland, Ohio.

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster...

...both the sons of Jewish immigrants.

When they met at

Glenville High School in 1931...

... the two teenagers were shy loners

with a shared interest...

...in adventure, science-fiction

pulp magazines...

...and comic strips.

Jerry wrote articles

for his school newspaper.

Joe was an artist who enjoyed

illustrating Jerry's work.

A powerful partnership was forged.

They were about 16 years ode.

They just connected

and came up with this idea.

Jerry would write stories,

Joe would draw them. . .

. . .and they would try to make it

as comic-strip guys.

comic artists at that time were

celebrities and miIIionaires.

But Jerry and Joe's dreams

of fame and fortune collided...

. . . with the economic despair and political

uncertainty of the Great Depression.

A time when Americans

questioned...

... whether their way of life

could even survive.

In 1932 Jerry and Joe

created a mail-order periodical...

... they called Science Fiction.

It was just a little mimeographed

periodical about 8 or 10 pages.

And inside it was the story caIIed

''Reign of the Superman. ''

Appearing in January of 1933 the

''Reign of the Superman'' told the story...

...of a bald madman

who tries to use...

...his telepathic abilities

to conquer the world.

The character's name came

from the word coined...

...by German philosopher Friedrich

Nietzsche some 50 years earlier.

A few months after the story

was published...

...Jerry Siegel began to rethink

the concept.

What if the Superman

he and Joe had created...

... was a force for good

instead of evil?

And instead of telepathic abilities,

what if his powers were physical...

...just like Hercules, Samson and all

of the other legendary strongmen...

... they had read about

and tried to emulate.

Wouldn't this character be perfect to

star in a daily newspaper comic strip?

They did it in a night in Cleveland.

They kept running to each other's

houses that hot night in Cleveland.

Neither could seep.

Joe Shuster would draw pictures. . .

. . .as Jerry came up with ideas.

Over the next few weeks, Jerry and Joe

continued to refine their concept.

They made Superman a refugee

from a distant planet.

Clothed him in a muscle-defining

outfit of a circus acrobat...

...and gave him a secret identity...

...as a mild-mannered newspaper

reporter named Clark Kent.

Superman had the dual identity.

You know Zorro had had it. . .

. . .the Scarlet Pimpernel had it.

It was important to

the whole Superman mythos.

Him working as a newspaper reporter so

that he can know what was going on. . .

. . .and where his abilities were needed.

Drawing from both

pop culture and myth...

...Jerry and Joe created something

original, even visionary.

And every major newspaper

editor and publisher...

... wasted no time in rejecting it.

The editors mostly said things like,

''It looks too juvenile. ''

Who wants to read about this guy

in tights and a cape. . .

. . .who's jumping around like a flea

and bouncing busiest off his chest.

By 1935, Jerry and Joe managed

to find steady work...

...in the new medium of comic books...

... which expanded on many

of the characters and situations found...

...in the shorter daily newspaper strips.

They churned out hundreds of routine

tales featuring swashbucklers...

... vampire-hunters, and private eyes.

All for a fledging company

called National Allied publishing...

...later to be known simply as DC...

...after one of its early successes,

Detective comics.

By 1938, DC was preparing

a new anthology comic book...

... that needed a lead feature.

Fortunately for Jerry and Joe...

... the company decided to take

a chance on Superman.

That spring, Action comics #1

hit the newsstand.

It featured a full-color cover. . .

...boasted 68 pages of content

and sold for a dime.

At a time when an average American

worker made less than $ 25 a week.

In that first issue,

Superman didn't fly.

Instead, he leaped

from skyscraper to skyscraper.

He was also not as strong

as he would later become.

But what he lacked in powers,

he more than made up for in attitude.

Tackling problems ripped from

Depression-era headlines.

In 1938, we're a nation

on the verge of war. . .

. . .we are a nation that is new to this

concept of urbanization and urban crime. . .

. . .and Superman was originally

a social crusader.

He was beating up mine owners

who were mistreating their employees.

He was razing

defective buildings in Metropolis.

Action comics was a success.

And over the next years, Superman

developed a large and loyal following.

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