Thursday, September 15, 2011

Super ‘70s and ‘80s: “Superman: The Movie”—introduction

Introduction to series “Super ‘70s and ‘80s.”

Actors interviewed (3 parts):

Aaron Smolinski (Kal-El as a toddler)
Jeff East (Clark Kent as a teenager)
Bo Rucker (pimp/fashion consultant)

The fact that I still get a thrill from the 1978 movie was one of several reasons why I wanted to include it as a Super '70s and '80s subseries.

My book Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman is about writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, who were just out of high school when they dreamed up the version of Superman that endures to this day.

But Aaron Smolinski and Jeff East are the cinematic Boys of Steel (and Aaron was the first person I interviewed for this entire series).

A YouTuber called Bo Rucker’s single line of dialogue “the most important moment in the Superman saga.” Considering how many can quote it decades later, he may be on to something. (In case you are not one of them: “Say, Jim—whoa! That’s a bad out-fit! Whoo!”)

When I told Bo he has Superman fans who want to meet him at conventions, he was hugely skeptical because he spoke only one line in the movie. My friend Jamie Reigle is also a friend of Aaron Smolinski’s; upon hearing Bo’s comment, Jamie said people line up for Aaron…and his role had no lines!

I got permission to post all images from personal collections; if you want to repost, please do the same and ask me first.

Welcome to a look at the lesser-known history of Superman: The Movie.



Some probably think they remember the logo appearing in the opening credits
as it does at top of this post
, but here is the actual screen grab.

2 comments:

The Hoffbeast said...

Marc, this is a great series!
Thank you for this well done and interesting project.

Marc Tyler Nobleman said...

Thanks Hoffbeast! Please check out the rest of the series - 100 interviews in all, most DC superhero related!