PAGE 8A
THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MAN OF STEEL
Superman creator honored on 75th anniversary
In this Tuesday, April 2, 2013 photo shows a man riding his bicycle past the Home of Superman plaque in Cleveland. Superman collaborators Jerry Siegel and Shuster lived several blocks apart in the Glenville neighborhood which shaped their lives. dreams for the future and their imagery of the Man of Steel.
LASSOCIATED PRESS
CLEVELAND — Superman's 75th anniversary is giving his creators' blue-collar hometown a renewed chance to claim the superhero as its own.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The city is making a start with a Superman day proclaimed by the mayor and giving out birthday cake at the airport's Superman display.
Fans hope Thursday's anniversary, including lighting city hall with Supermans colors, will raise the profile of co-creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
The June release of Hollywood's latest Superman tale, "Man of Steel" also should renew fan interest. The film offers a fresh start for the kid from Krypton, with Henry Cavill as the boy who falls to Earth and becomes its protector.
Siegel and Shuster labored on their creation for years in the throttling grip of the Great Depression before finally selling Superman to a publisher.
The Man of Steel became a Depression-era bootstrap strategy for the Siegel/Shuster team, according to Brad Ricca, a professor at nearby Case Western Reserve University who uses Superman in his classes.
"They really just saw it as a way out," he said.
In his upcoming book "Super Boys," Ricca says the story of Superman's creation is mostly about their friendship: two boys in the city's Glenville neighborhood dreaming of "fame, riches and girls" in a time when such dreams are all the easier to imagine because of the crushing economic misery.
Ricca said Siegel and Shuster reflected Cleveland's ethnic mix; both were sons of Jewish immigrants, struggled during the Depression and hustled to make something of themselves.
Superman's first appearance, in Action Comics No. 1, was April 18, 1938.
The first and greatest superhero has gone on to appear in nearly 1,000 Action Comics and has evolved with the times, including a 1940s radio serial, a 1950s TV series and as a reliable staple for Hollywood. Pop culture expert Charles Coletta at Bowling Green State University said Superman ranks globally with George Washington and the Super Bowl as American icons.
But it wasn't just hardscrawl circumstances that tempered the Man of Steel, Siegel's daughter said.
Laura Siegel Larson said Cleveland's public library, comic pages and high school mentors all nurtured her father's creativity.
"The encouragement that he received from his English teachers and the editors at the Glencroft High School newspaper and the literary magazine gave my dad a real confidence in his talents," she said by phone Monday from Los Angeles. She plans to be in Cleveland for the Thursday anniversary.
The tale of Superman's first moments begins in Siegel's bedroom. He once recalled coming up with the idea while looking up at the stars and imaging a powerful hero who looked out for those in distress.
Today, Siegel's home is easy to pick out on a street with a mix of renovated and dilapidated homes: a stylized red Superman "S" adorns the fence and a sign identifies the home as "the house where Superman was born."
And like the Man of Steel, the neighborhood is tough.
"You better have 'S' on your chest if you come out after dark," grinned Tommie Jones, 50, helping move furniture several doors away.
Hattie Gray, 61, who moved into the home nearly 30 years ago unaware of its history, has gotten used to the parade of Superman fans walking by or knocking, trying to savor a piece of comics lure.
"I get people all the time, people all the way from Japan, from Australia," she said. "It's a great joy to live here."
The top floor, where Siegel went to write, still offers the nighttime view of the sky over Lake Erie that inspired Siegel.
Gray has heard the talk about Glennville being tough, but said crime that might merit Superman's attention can be found anywhere. "The neighborhood is not really bad, it's just the people are poor. That's all," she said.
Shuster's home has been demolished and replaced by another, but the fence has oversized Superman comic book pages displayed.
Comic store owner Markus Benn thinks hometown fans want to see the Man of Steel rendered in granite.
"I don't understand why Cleveland won't own up to owning Superman," he said. "What do I suggest for a Superman statue? He should be downtown, he should
have the shield or the eagle, that classic pose where he's standing up with the eagle on his arm."
The low Superman profile in Cleveland may be because Siegel and Shuster weren't self-promoters and sold their rights to Superman so early, according to Mike Olszewski, a longtime Cleveland broadcaster and president of the nonprofit Siegel & Shuster Society.
Last year the $412 check that DC Comics wrote in 1938 to acquire Superman and other creative works by Shuster and Siegel sold for $160,000 in an online auction.
"Funky Winkerbean" creator
Tatjik Batiuk shares roots in the
Cleveland area with Superman and that inspired him.
"When I was in elementary school, I found an entry in a school encyclopedia about Jerry Siegel." Batiuk said in an email to The Associated Press.
"The fact that he was the one of the creators of Superman immediately caught my attention, but what was even more astounding to me was the fact that he was from Cleveland. The fact that someone from my area could do something like that was revelatory and inspirational."
Reserved seat tickets are on sale in the KU ticket offices: University Theatre, 864-3982; Lied Center, 864-ARTS, and online at www.kutheatre.com. Tickets are $20 for the public, $19 for senior citizens and KU faculty and staff, and $10 for all students. All major credit cards are accepted.The University Theatre is partially funded by the KU Student Senate Activity Fee. The University Theatre's 2012-13 season is sponsored by the KU Credit Union.
7:30 p.m.
April 19,25,27,2013
2:30 p.m.
April 21,2013
Crafton-Preyer Theatre
THE HOOK UP
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Google Inc. is expected to announce it's taking over a troubled municipal fiber-optic system in a high-tech corridor of Utah, making Provo the third Google Fiber city.
Google fiber names third city
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SALT LAKE CITY — Google will take over a troubled municipal fiber-optic system and make Provo, Utah, the third city to get its high-speed Internet service via fiber-optic cables, the company announced Wednesday.
Google Fiber was rolled out in Kansas City, Mo., last year. The Mountain View, Calif., company announced earlier this month it will make Austin, Texas, the second city to get ultra-fast Internet service.
The Provo deal is the first time Google plans to acquire an existing fiber-optic system. The city of 115,000 created the fiber-optic network, iProvo, in 2004. It planned to operate the system itself for Internet, television and phone service but found the operation too daunting and turned it over to a succession of private partners that have struggled to break even.
A Google official said the company will offer basic Internet service at no charge to Provo residents, who can opt to pay for service 100 times faster than the competition. The system also can provide cable or satellite TV providers.
Provo officials said Google will charge customers a $30 activation fee. The free service provides speeds of 5 megabits per second. Google didn't say how much it planned to charge for faster service, but it would hook up schools, hospitals and libraries to the faster service at no charge.
Google Inc. said more than
In Kansas City, Google charges customers $70 a month for a gigabit connection.
"Once connected, Provo will be one of the first cities in the world where access to broadband will flow like water or electricity," Kevin Lo, general manager of Google Fiber, said Wednesday.
1,100 cities applied for its services starting in 2010, and some used gimmicks or elaborate videos in hopes of outshining the competition. Topeka, Kan., even informally renamed itself to "Google, Kansas."
Kansas City wound up prevailing, and Google began signing up residents there last year. By the end of 2013, Google expects that 180 neighborhoods that were selected for service based on demand will be completed.
The $70 fee in Kansas City is more than what cable or phone companies charge for basic Internet service, but the service is also much faster. Gigabit speeds, or 1,000 megabits per second, are generally unavailable from other companies. One exception is the city-owned electric utility in Chattanooga, Tenn., which has pulled its own fiber and sells gigabit service for $350 per month.