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Gerry Turnbull
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: Scotland
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| Posted: 14 July 2006 at 9:05am | IP Logged | 1
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i listened to an interview today on Radio Scotland with the Director of a documentary airing on Ch 4 Saturday night about "The Curse of Superman".
She stated that Jerry Siegel actually typed a curse while the original Superman movie was being made.I have never heard of this before, is there any truth to this?
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Jeff Lommel
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Joined: 07 July 2006
Location: United States
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| Posted: 14 July 2006 at 9:18am | IP Logged | 2
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(I'm assuming this question isn't meant for JB, right?)
Sounds about as real as the other "Superman curse" I've heard, which is because George Reeves and Christopher Reeve both died, there was a curse. The last actor to play Superman, Dean Cain, is still alive though. :)
Hold on though, isn't that about the time where he and Joe Schuster were getting their credit restored in the books? They were going through a lot of legal hassles, but from all I've read about him, I doubt he'd ever "curse" the character he loved and cocreated.
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Pierce Askegren
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Joined: 18 April 2005
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| Posted: 14 July 2006 at 9:19am | IP Logged | 3
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Sure; it was in the press release he put out (sending it to almost every media outlet of any size), and was the opening volley in the round of negotiation that got him and Shuster credit on the movie and pensions. Siegel was working as a postal clerk at the time and Shuster was essentially unable to work and living on the generosity of relatives.
TCJ had the entire thing posted on their web site for a while. I don't think it's there anymore, but I'm sure it's floating around on the Internet.
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Kurt Anderson
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Joined: 18 November 2005
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| Posted: 14 July 2006 at 9:22am | IP Logged | 4
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He put a curse on the movie itself.
His press release is shown here:
http://www.tcj.com/275/siegel1975.pdf#search='jerry%20siegel %20curse%20letter'
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Kurt Anderson
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| Posted: 14 July 2006 at 9:24am | IP Logged | 5
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If anyone disliked the movie Catwoman, that's my fault.
I put a curse on that movie as soon as they cast someone other than Julie Newmar.
My bad.
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Andrew Bitner
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| Posted: 14 July 2006 at 9:57am | IP Logged | 6
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Reminds me of the Kids in the Hall sketch where Bruce McCulloch (prodded by Dave Foley) apologizes and takes the blame for "all that cancer."
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Pierce Askegren
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| Posted: 14 July 2006 at 10:07am | IP Logged | 7
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Siegel apparently had quite a flair for the dramatic. According to Joe Simon's book The Comic Book Makers*, at some point in the 1950s, he sent out a press release announcing that he was going to jump from a skyscraper while wearing a Superman costume, in protest of how he'd been treated by the industry. (Pretty obviously, he didn't follow through.)
*At least, in the first edition. I haven't read the reissue, but I'm told that some of the more inflammatory stories got deleted.
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Marc Foxx
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| Posted: 14 July 2006 at 11:04am | IP Logged | 8
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The story is also in Gerard Jones' Men of Tomorrow which came out a few years ago. In fact, the book opens with that particular story.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
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| Posted: 14 July 2006 at 11:04am | IP Logged | 9
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Seigel and Shuster were not treated unfairly by the industry. They were treated like everybody else. I have long been of the opinion that it was that which really galled them.
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Andrew Bitner
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| Posted: 14 July 2006 at 11:11am | IP Logged | 10
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I think you've hit the nail on the head, JB. How many other young creators sold properties in 1938 that never made the owners a dime? How many other comic strips folded, instead of making big profits? I bet that National/DC could unearth dozens of them. Superman took off (no pun intended) and made a fortune... but Siegel and Shuster should've known the deal they signed for what it was, when they signed it.
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Darren Ashmore
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| Posted: 14 July 2006 at 11:14am | IP Logged | 11
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Seems to me every time some new project featuring Superman comes out, the media reel out this old chestnut, they seem to ignore the literally hundreds of other people involved with the character over the years who have gone completely unscathed. Curse! Ha! Lazy journalism more like.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
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| Posted: 14 July 2006 at 11:16am | IP Logged | 12
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And they did. The popular myth is that they were a couple of innocent farm kids from Ohio who got screwed by the big, mean, nasty corporation. But they'd both been in the business for about four years, and they both knew what was going on. They could have asked for the same deal Bob Kane got just a year later.The bottom line here is this: suppose you build a house, and then sell it. If the new owners discover oil or gold on the property, or turn the house into a hugely successful hotel, are you entitled to a piece of that action? No.
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