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Home , Air Wave, Bell Syndicate, Bud Collyer, Harry Donenfeld, Jack Liebowitz, Jerry Siegel

1.1 UP, UP AND AWR-.11-Y! The Rise of , Inc. Bv /dui Ka/deft

NE afternoon last June, shortly after the owners moved into the new house on Cleve- O land's University Heights, a delegation of small boys rang the doorbell. At sight of the short, plump, heavily spectacled young man of twenty- six who answered it, their faces fell. "Aw, I told you Superman doesn't live here," the oldest one fretted. " Oh, yes, he does," insisted another. " My pop told me so." " Hold on, boys," put in the plump twenty-six- year-old. "Just wait here a minute." He bobbed back into the house, returning an instant later with an outfit familiar to millions of boys the country over: the red boots, blue tights and flowing red cape, embroidered with an enor- mous S, which Superman, America's No. 1 Comic Magazine hero, wears whenever he swings into action. The boys' faces brightened again. Hopping up and down excitedly, they squealed, " Where is he? We wanna see him !" " Well, right now," explained the plump youth, "he's engaged on one of his mysterious missions.

ACME At twenty-six, the genie they created has brought them super-success. , who does the writ- ing, watches at the drawing table.

locomotive and swims faster than a fish. His eyes are so keen that they can see through the thickest walls, his ears so acute that he is, willy-nilly, an eavesdropper on any con- versation within a hun- dred yards. His skin is so tough that nothing short of an exploding grenade can even tickle it. Bullets bounce off it like spitballs; PHOTOS BY DORIC cold steel crumples against "None of the Shusters can quite grasp what has happened to them." Joe (center left) is a bountiful provider for Brother Frank, Mamma, it like matchwood. And Papa, Sister Jeanetta. Right—Siegel invented Superman in a less luxurious bed, likes to read biographies of factual supermen. to top it all, his motivat- ing traits are "super- courage, super-goodness But he's not far away. He ought to be landing on old-fashioned parents encourage belief in Santa and super-justice"; his mission in lire" to go to the the roof any minute." Claus. Indeed, Siegel and Shuster are suspected by rescue of persecuted people and deserving persons." Until dusk fell, the boys kept circling the house, many of their friends of believing in Superman Perhaps the greatest of all Superman's achieve- their eyes glued to the roof. themselves. ments is that he is a miracle man in fact as well as Superman failed to show up that day. But when And to their deep satisfaction, material consider- in fancy. No other cartoon character ever has been their mothers called them for supper, the plump ations aside, their Man of Steel, with his super- such an all-around success at the age of three. No young man managed to send them home satisfied hearing, super-sight and super-vitality, has become other cartoon character ever has carried his creators that Superman was hovering somewhere in the all things to all boys. He has shaken the pedestal to such an accomplishment as Siegel and Shuster neighborhood. of many a classic boyhood idol: , whom he enjoy at the age of twenty-six. In the three years that Jerry Siegel, the plump can outleap and outfight; Nick Carter, whom he Three times a week, millions of young spines youth, has been writing the Superman saga, and can outsleuth; Galahad, whose purity is as tar- tingle as Superman thunders hollowly over the air Joe Shuster, his neighbor, partner and boyhood nished brass compared to his. More than this, waves, " Up, up and awa-a-y !" then soars into crony of the same age, has been illustrating it, they Superman accomplishes with casual ease feats that space to wreck an enemy Zeppelin in full flight or have assumed a solemn obligation to instill faith, are common to every boy's daydreams. He kayoes extinguish a forest fire by huffing at it, as the crisis wherever possible, in the physical reality of Super- eleven prize fighters in one second flat, leaps an may demand. His noble profile confronts them in man. They have done this in the same spirit in which eighth of a mile in any direction, runs faster than a two magazines and 230 newspapers with a com- COURTESY OF EARAMOUNT PLIASCHER STUDIOS Superman crashes the movies—a scene from his first animated cartoon, about to be released. Below —The businessmen who have made an even better thing of Superman than have his authors. is the man in the center. bined circulation of nearly 25,000,000. That boy is Although many a parent-teacher growing rare who has no Superman dungarees in group has objected to Superman, his wardrobe or no Superman -Raygun in Dr. Lauretta Bender, the psychi- his play chest. atrist, addressing the American Or- When R. H. Macy & Co. staged a Superman thopsychiatric Association, declared exhibit in its store last Christmas, it that he provides an inexpensive form took in $30,000 in thirty-cent admissions. Super- of therapy for unhappy children. man Day at the World's Fair cracked all attendance She cited the case history of a boy, records for any single children's event, drawing ignored by a flighty mother and an 36,000 of them at ten cents a head. Certificates, alcoholic father, who believed he code cards and buttons, setting them apart as would soon die. He found relief by members of the Superman Club of America, are identifying himself with the imper- proudly carried by some quarter of a million ishable Superman. " (He) would youngsters, including Mickey Rooney, Spanky seem to offer the same type of men- McFarland, Farina, a du Pont, a La Follette, tal catharsis," Doctor Bender con- Mayor La Guardia's two children, and six Annapolis cluded, "that Aristotle claimed was midshipmen. The 33rd Bombardment Squadron, an attribute of the drama." Air Corps Reserve, has adopted Superman as its Governments have taken official insignia. note of Superman. In a special strip drawn for a magazine, Siegel and Bomb-Shelter Divertissement Shuster had him demolish the Sieg- fried Line, seize both Hitler and N AMERICAN newspaper correspondent, tour- Stalin by the napes of their necks ing London's bomb shelters during a heavy and whisk them off for judgment be- raid, observed a cockney boy immersed in the pages fore the League of Nations. Das of Superman. Neither the din of antiaircraft fire Schwarze Korps, official newspaper nor shells exploding near by could distract his at- of Hitler's Elite Guards, took note tention, and in his rapture he began squirming and of their Jewish blood and counter- jostling his neighbors. After a particularly violent blasted: " The clever creator of detonation, his mother snatched the magazine out Superman is a Colorado beetle of his hands. "Give over," she bawled, "and pay (sic). . . . He stinks." ertention to the air raid." Translations used to carry Super- Among the intellectuals, Superman has been ac- man all over Europe—yes, includ- claimed the first authentic culture hero since Paul ing Scandinavia. But, banned wher- Bunyan. The New Republic recently analyzed him ever the swastika waves, he is now in terms of Nietzschean philosophy, a concept confined to the British Empire, the neither Siegel nor Shuster could ever understand. (Continued on Page 70)

LARRY GORDON PHOTO 70 THE SATURDAY EVENING POST June 21,1941 UP, UP AND AWA-A-Y! (Continued from Page 15)

United States, Latin America ( Super- handed over to his parents. He also hombre), and the Philippines. found time to win a scholarship at the The young creators of the Man of School of Art and attend Steel would have been hailed by Doc- night classes at John Huntington Art GOOEY PIPE SINKS MARINE tor Freud as perfect clinical illustra- School, where the tuition was ten —but he's out of the dog house now! tions of psychological compensation. cents a lesson. For here are two small, shy, nervous, Five minutes after Siegel and Sinis- myopic lads, who can barely cope with ter met they were breathlessly discuss- ordinary body-building contraptions, ing , Tarzan of the Apes, let alone tear the wings off a stratoliner and other exemplars of the contem- in mid-air. As the puniest kids in porary . As soon as school school, picked on and bullied by their was out they repaired to Shuster's un- huskier classmates, they continually heated workroom, barely twelve blocks moped off into what Doctor Freud from the Siegel home, and plunged termed "infantile phantasies," wherein into an editorial conference, resuming they became colossi of brute strength, it every night and as much of the day- capable of flattening whole regiments time as they could snatch from school of class bullies by a flick of their for the next several years. pinkies. Siegel's parents are old-time Cleve- The Birth of Superman landers. His father, Michael, who died six years ago, ran a hole-in-the-wall They were years of struggle and dis- men's furnishing shop and his mother couragement. The partners brewed OUT SHE JUMPED and off she stalked. helped behind the counter. There are many a strong potion—Doctor Occult, SERGEANT FRANKLIN'S pipe was And there he stood. "Well," said the three sisters, now all married, and two a sort of astral Nick Carter who kept ranklin' the bimbo in back of the boat. older brothers—Leo, a dentist, and tangling with zombis, werewolves and "Head for the shore," she gasped. fisherman, "I see the Marines have have the situation "That briar of yours smells like landed, but don't Harry, a mailman. such; Henri Duval, a doughty musket- burning celluloid! I'm getting dizzy!" well in hand. Get wise, Mister!" Never a shining scholar, Siegel eer in the image of D'Artagnan — but daydreamed through Oliver Wendell no editor hastened to press riches on Holmes Public School, landing un- them. What few continuities they did easily in Glenville High. Everybody in place were bought by Major Malcolm the struggling Siegel family had to pull Wheeler-Nicholson, a grand-mannered, his own weight. Between classes Jerry bespatted ex-Army officer, who in made deliveries for a printing plant, February of 1935 had published New averaging four dollars a week. At all Fun Comics, first original comic mag- leisure moments, however, he nurtured azine and forerunner of some 108 his ingrown soul on an undiluted diet which now festoon the newsstands. of dime novels and comic strips, espe- [For the record, the first Comic Maga- cially the Man-From-Mars category. of any description—it contained " It inspired me to devote myself reprints only—was published by M. henceforth to writing science fiction Charles Gaines, a schoolteacher who literature," says Siegel, who often talks became production manager of Mc- like that. Clure Syndicate.] But the major Presently he was devoting himself to couldn't see Superman for two pins. it so wholeheartedly that it sometimes How, one hot night in 1932, the PUFF ENDS HUFF. The sergeant took "THAT HANDSOME UNIFORM will took two years to move him from one Man of Steel had sprung practically win no women till you clean your pipe that good advice—switch1d to Sir grade into the next. full-blown into Jerry Siegel's head is smells Walter Raleigh—and won her back an experience he never tires of de- and switch to a tobacco that mildest tobacco good. Like this here Sir Walter blend in a sniff. Try this A Cosmic Meeting scribing. of fine mild burleys. Try a load." yourself. It smells grand to everyone! " I am lying in bed counting sheep —11/1111111Mr It was in the corridors of Glenville when all of a sudden it hits me. I High that a classmate pointed out to conceive a character like Samson, Her- him a pale, pitcher-eared lad named cules and all the strong men I ever Joe Shuster, whose head was also in the heard tell of rolled into one. Only clouds above Mars. Siegel sought him more so. I hop right out of bed and KEEP OUT OF THE out. write this down, and then I go back "I understand," he said, "that you and think some more for about two DOG HOUSE draw science fiction stuff." hours and get up again and write that WITH SIR WALTER " Uh-huh," Shuster admitted, his down. This goes on all night at two-, eyes blinking behind double-thick hour intervals, until in the morning I lenses. have a complete ." By the noon recess the boys had As the dawn rose over Cleveland, formed a partnership which has pro- Siegel, shirttail flying and script gressed, unmarred by a single dispute, clutched in his fevered hands, raced to this day. through the empty streets to the The Dutch-Russian-Jewish Shusters Shuster home—one of the few violent were harder up than even the Siegels. exertions he has ever permitted him- Julius Shuster, a work-worn little self —and roused his partner. Shuster tailor, had started life in forty took fire at once. Without pausing years earlier and emigrated to Cleve- for either food or rest, they spent the land when Joe was ten. The family, rest of the day polishing off the first consisting, in addition, of Mamma twelve Superman strips. The story Shuster, brother Frank —who now told therein is now as familiar to the works as a letterer on the Siegel- average American boy as George Shuster staff—and sister Jeanetta, Washington and the cherry tree: crowded into a twenty-dollar-a-month How, split seconds before the planet flat in a down-at-the-heels district. , abode of a super-race, is Cellophane tape Some days they skipped a meal. One destroyed by earthquakes, Jorl-1, the around lid seals winter they had no coal and Joe had to great scientist, pops his flavor in, brings work at his drawing board wearing first-born into a rocket ship and you tobacco 100% cotton gloves. launches him into interplanetary space. factory-fresh ! By the time he entered Glenville Some 3,000,000,000 light-years later High he was a wage earner of experi- the rocket ship lands safely on a road- ence, having peddled newspapers, side near , U. S. A., where hawked ice-cream cones in summer, a passing motorist extricates tiny Micemv„.UNCLE WALTER'S DOG HOUSE and worked as an apprentice in a sign Jorl-1, Jr., and delivers him to an EVERY FRIDAY NIGHT * NBC * PRIZES FOR YOUR "DOG HOUSE" EXPERIENCE painter's shop. He earned as much as orphanage. Here, in an unforgettable five dollars a week, which he dutifully (Continued on Page 73)

THE SATURDAY EVENING POST 73

(Continued from Page 70) that Donenfeld, as sole owner of panel, the diapered super-tot merrily Superman, could even hire some other balances a huge armchair on his hand team to draw him. while doctor and nurse look on, bug- The partners, who by this time had eyed. abandoned hope that Superman would We next see him grown to super- ever amount to much, mulled this over manhood, a broad-shouldered, Greek- gloomily. Then Siegel shrugged, " Well, profiled titan. In the process he has at least this way we'll see him in print." acquired a dual personality. Part of They signed the form. the time the world knows him as Clark Superman appeared in the first issue Kent, a distinctly prissy reporter for of , June, 1938. Noth- the , who tends to shy ing happened. Nor the second issue, away from unpleasantness. But let for which the partners received an- evil show its fangs and he ducks into other $130. Nor the third. But with privacy, shucks his college-cut clothes the fourth, Action Comics spurted and stands forth, bold as truth, in the mysteriously ahead of its fellow pub- gaudy working clothes of Superman. lications. Donenfeld heard the rumble This Doctor-Jekyll-and-Mr.-Hyde ar- of distant drums. " We better have a rangement enables to newsstand survey," said he. hand his paper some extraordinary scoops on Superman's latest coups. The Golden Touch Most of them are brought off in be- half of , the Planet's tooth- The survey quickened his brightest some girl reporter, whose nose for news hopes. Children were clamoring, not is constantly landing her in dire for Action Comics, but for "that straits. magazine with Superman in it." Quiv- If Major Wheeler-Nicholson's judg- ering with excitement, Donenfeld or- ment in passing up this Homeric dered Superman splashed all over the figure was faulty, it was no worse than cover of succeeding issues. They sold the judgment of practically every out. syndicate and comic-magazine editor In May of 1939 he tested a quarterly in the country. During the next six consisting of four thirteen-page Super- years all of them rejected it, some not man stories. It, too, was a sellout. The once but two or three times. following July, Superman Magazine "Frankly," wrote the editor of the bowed in as a bimonthly. It has been , "we feel that the zipping along ever since at a lively public have had their fill of super- 1,300,000, while Action Comics, fea- human subjects." The turing only one Superman story, RE PR° I explained that "we are in the market soared to 900,000. Today Superman A'S PLEAS " only for strips likely to have the most leads all other comic-magazine char- D extraordinary appeal and we do not acters, one of the few within even hail- CANA ing distance being The Bat Man — feel Superman gets into that category." • FISHING 800,000 —a bimonthly also owned by • RIDING oc United Feature thought that Super- • man was "a rather immature piece of Donenfeld. Last year the Superman GOLFING • BOATING magazine grossed $950,000. • SWIMMING • LOAFING I- work," and Esquire Features, Inc., cc suggested, "Pay a little more attention From the fall of '38 on, it was all —every form of holiday fun awaits you? to actual drawing. . . . Yours seems sail and no anchor. Amid the piteous U— crude and hurried." sounds of syndicate editors kicking HETHER you want a rest or a lively vaca- To keep eating regularly, the part- themselves, McClure negotiated with Wtion,you will finditatits best in . ners had to turn their hands to comic Donenfeld to handle the newspaper Marvelous highways will carry you to beauty valentines and cut-rate advertising rights, Donenfeld to receive 40 per spots where you can holiday with an enjoy- layouts. cent. Superman was eventually placed meat you have never experienced before. c. But 500 miles away, in a New York in 230 daily and Sunday newspapers Your money will go further, too, in Ontario office building, blind chance suddenly scattered throughout the Western ... there's a handsome premium on U.S. funds. Hemisphere. Donenfeld's 1940 cut was staggered in the partners' direction. This year there is a prize contest for the Here, on the ninth floor of 480 Lexing- $100,000. The McClure negotiations were pre- best vacation snapshots, and a contest for ton Avenue, Harry Donenfeld, owner the biggest fish caught in each of six different of a printing plant, partner in a dis- ceded by considerable unhappiness for the partners. They sensed—correctly — classes. Write for full information about tributing company and an irrepressible these contests. who once gave Jack Dempsey that syndicate editors, who had once a hot foot, had taken over the major's turned Superman down, would soon If you would like information about visit- interests, which now embraced three come to them, hat in hand. They ing the great Ontario goldfields, about canoe comic magazines. And on the well- begged Donenfeld to give back the trips, or about the rental of Crown lands for known pulp-publishing theory that it syndicate rights. cottage or camp sites, it will be furnished is practically as cheap to run four as " We can't do that," he replied, gladly on request. I- three, he had decided to bring out a "but if one of you will come to New Plan now to enjoy this year's vacation in N York, I'm sure we can work something new ten-cent monthly, Action Comics. Ontario. Let us send you full information —a But how to stock up on new material? out." about the kind of holiday you want. Write Charlie Gaines figured that McClure Sitting up all night in the coach for now, or use the coupon below. Syndicate ought to have some stuff ly- lack of sleeper fare, Siegel arrived, ing about. McClure did and Gaines rumpled and yawning, to receive the • No passport is required by U.S. citizens, simple sent over a batch of it, including the proposition: If the partners would identification papers only. There is no fuss or formality CD original Superman strips, which Mc- confine all their services to Donenfeld when entering or leaving Canada. No taxes on meals, for ten years, he would permit them to no amusements taxes, no local sales taxes, and no Clure had been on the verge of reject- toll bridge charges to pay within Ontario. Travel in ing for the third time. do strips for McClure, himself re- this lovely Province is absolutely unrestricted . . . go taining an agent's 10 per cent—of where you please, and enjoy yourself to the full . . . a Brain Child McClure's gross, however, not his own you will be very welcome. Selling 40 per cent net. In the heat of dis- Without great enthusiasm Donen- cussion Siegel was frequently re- SEND FOR FREE BOOKLET feld asked Siegel and Shuster to paste minded that Donenfeld owned all rights and could freeze the partners out. The Ontario Travel and Publicity Bureau up their original strips into a single 31 Parliament Buildings thirteen-page story and offered them boys signed a contract, which for the Toronto, Ontario, Canada first year brought them an increase of ten dollars a page. Before payment, Please send me your free 80-page book on Ontario, also however, his far-seeing general man- less than $100 a month. official road map. ager, , mailed them a Back in Cleveland, Siegel and release form, explaining, "It is cus- Shuster rented a thirty-dollar-a-month Name tomary for all our contributors to office in a remote office building. " The release all rights to us. This is the idea was to work where nobody would Address be likely to interrupt us," says Shuster. businesslike way of doing things." Town Meaning that for $130 the partners They had the telephone ripped out would be relinquishing their equity in and kept the frosted-glass door blank, all possible future profits from syndica- lest curiosity seekers swamp them. As tion, radio, movies, and so on, and it is, a few of the more persistent ones

7 4 THE SATURDAY EVENING POST June 21,1941

manage to break in. They invariably never uses a weapon other than his expect to see something pretty awe- bare fists. He knocks evildoers silly some. What they do see is five young at the drop of a hat, tosses them clear artists, hired by Siegel and Shuster, into the stratosphere and generally jammed cheek-by-jowl into one of the scares the daylights out of them. But world's tiniest rooms, furiously pen- those who get killed are always hoist ciling and lettering Superman panels at by their own petards, as when a gang- the rate of one thirteen-page story, one ster whams Superman on the skull Sunday page and six daily strips a with a crowbar, only to have the week. crowbar rebound and shatter his own The staff reports for work five days noggin. a week at 9:30 and knocks off around Rarely by so much as a word or a 5:00. Their salaries range from $50 to glance is the tender passion suggested $200 a week, which is more than Siegel between Superman and Lois Lane. For and Shuster got during the early years one thing, Superman himself has shyly of Superman's rise. Nobody but Shus- confessed that he would never em- ter, however, is allowed to draw Super- brace a girl, lest he inadvertently crack man's facial expressions, which run the her ribs. It is a curious evidence of gamut from sublime vacuity to steely children's precocity that most of them determination, depending upon what sense how Superman and Lois feel expression Shuster has subconsciously about each other anyway. screwed his own into at the mo- ment of creation. He also indicates the The Air Wave of Prosperity color scheme, though the actual water coloring is applied in New York. With Superman, Inc.'s, many extra- Siegel's schedule is more irregular. literary enterprises neither Shuster nor He seldom visits the office, banging out Siegel has any direct connection. his continuities, three or four at a Radio, for instance. In 1939, Bob crack, in his own glossy study at home, Maxwell, one of Donenfeld's brain- a Benny Goodman record swinging at trusters, sat down with a script writer his elbow to stimulate inspiration. He to together a series of fifteen- sends the first draft to New York for minute recorded cliff-hangers. The suggestions, corrections and general project dragged along for six months. editing. A highly individual stylist, he The toughest problem was sound is partial to phrases like "within the effects. What sort of noise would room," prefers "commences" to "be- Superman make taking off, anyway? gins" and has been known to split an They finally solved that one by mix- infinitive three ways. To Whitney Ells- ing a newsreel recording of a bomb worth, one of the harassed Donenfeld falling in the Spanish war, a fifty- editors, falls the delicate task of curb- mile gale and a hand-operated wind ing these tendencies without diluting machine. The result was a gratifying Superman's fruity mode of speech: " Who-o-o-sh." " So Luthor is still alive and plotting They found a sponsor and on the the downfall and subjugation of evening of February 12, 1940, over present-day civilization ! The world ten scattered stations, was first heard: will never be safe until that fiend is " Up in the sky ! Look ! It's a bird ! destroyed—and somehow I've got to It's a plane ! It's Superman !" accomplish it." Ten weeks later it had a Crossley Besides being the greatest solilo- rating of 5.6, establishing it as the quizer since Hamlet, Superman is also most popular children's program wher- IT MAY BE TRUE! Awkward and ugly, of course. But the prim- a humorist full of whimsey and light ever broadcast. itive Eskimo's slit fishbone is better, safer glare-protection than you'll get banter. No matter how rough the At this writing it is being broadcast from some sun glasses. * * * How can you be sure the sun glasses you buy action or how grim the crisis, he is al- three to five times a week on sixty- ways ready to toss off some blithe three stations, its sponsors including are scientifically safe and efficient? What makes the difference between gaiety. " May I get in on this?" he in- an Atlanta, Georgia, wet-wash laun- correct and incorrect glare-protection? Scientists of American Optical quires with elaborate mock courtesy, dry and a Hawaiian Swiss-watch firm, Company give the answers in the vital truths presented here. as he slams himself through brick and bringing the total annual radio income glass into Luthor's hide-out. Dangling to $75,000. A nationally known spon- FOR YOUR EYES' SAKE ... KNOW THESE FACTS from the underside of a speeding auto sor, whose identity is still a closely LENS QUALITY is the first consideration. what color shades cut over-brilliant light, and bouncing his head against the guarded secret, has just bid double that Some sun glass lenses are bent or blown yet admit adequate "seeing" light ... affect curb at every turn, he observes airily, for exclusive ownership and plans to re- glass containing invisible, but eye-taxing volors least, and blend with complexions. "Just a good scalp massage." When lease it in the fall over a coast-to-coast defects. AO Sun Glass lenses are made FRAMES of inferior products may interfere an artillery squad fires a Big Bertha at hookup. only of fine quality ophthalmic glass, to with , chafe or bind. AO frames are him, he catches the shell in his bare Of the 250 people employed in Super- high optical standards. optical quality, smart, finely finished, de- hands, chuckles, " Oh, wanna play, man enterprises, the only one who ap- ABSORPTIVE POWER or ability to stop rays signed for efficient seeing. eh?" and hurls it right back at them. proaches the physical and spiritual that cause strain and discomfort may be IF YOUR EYES BURN or ache, have them ideal is Superman's radio voice, Clay- very low in inferior lenses. All AO examined. Even the finest sun glasses are Pen-and-Ink Morals ton (Bud) Collyer, an extravagantly Sun Glass lenses shut out excessive ultra- not the answer for eye trouble. Personal handsome young Williams graduate, violet (sunburn) rays, and some also sun glasses, with lenses ground to pre- When Ellsworth returns his con- six feet tall, weighing 170 pounds, most absorb excess infra-red (heat) rays. scription, add to outdoor pleasures of tinuity, Siegel prepares a final draft of it in his chest and shoulders, who LENS COLOR may be guesswork in poor wearers of eyeglasses . . . are available and runs through it with the entire superintends his community church sun glasses. AO scientifically determines through the optical profession. staff. Shuster then blueprints the main and neither smokes nor drinks. sequence of action and allots the draw- When first offered the role of Super- SAY "AO" ... AND BE SURE! ing chores, each to its proper specialist. man, Collyer, a $300-a-week performer Four Types, Many Styles ... $1.00 and up. Every two or three months Siegel on such programs as Cavalcade of Choose sun glasses that carry the famous AU mark. flies to New York to sit in on a policy America and Battle of the Boroughs, It stands for more than 100 years of optical experience ... pioneering in absorptive lenses ... recognized serv- conference. With millions of parents thought it sounded pretty silly. Now ice to the optical professions, Army, Navy and Industry. ready to ban Superman from the house he loves it. He gets twenty dollars a AO CALOBAR Sun Glass lenses meet specifications AO POLAROID Day Glasses employ the sensational should ever his high moral sense falter, recording and usually records three of U. S. Army Air Corps. Considered by many optical Polaroid light control that stops reflected glare. Also the company takes its civic responsi- episodes at a single session. He takes experts the finest lens of its kind, Calobar absorbs dim over-brilliant light and absorb excess ultra-violet rays. Adult and children's . . . $1.95 up. bilities seriously. excess ultra-violet and infra-red rays. $3.00 up. a lot of ribbing from his adult friends. AO SUN VEIL Sun Glasses have lenses made to Superman is never allowed, for ex- AO COOL-RAY Sun Glasses afford complete pro- - The elevator starter in the recording the specifications of genuine Crookes glass, that absorb tection. The exceptionally fine lenses meet U. S. Army ample, to destroy property belonging studio building never fails to hoot, excess ultra-violet. Truly fine glare protection that Air Corps specifications for infra-red and ultra-violet anyone can afford . . . $1.00 up. to anybody except the villain, and " Why don't you fly up?" But Collyer absorption. 12.50 up. then only when absolutely unavoid- takes comfort from the hordes of kids able. He will readily project himself who wait for him to get off the train through a building, rendering it ut- nights in Jackson Heights, Long Is- meric an :T terly uninhabitable, but only when land, and follow him, shouting, " Hi-ya, "Lb -----zz:::- UC'S Lois Lane's predicament inside is so Superman ! Make like Superman, will desperate that to use the conventional ya?" (Collyer uses a tenor for Clark ptical Company entrance might mean a fatal delay. Kent, a basso profundo for Superman.) ..:outhbridge. Mass.—Branches in Principal Cities .. 41,/ Superman never kills anybody and (Continued on Page 76) THE SATURDAY EVENING POST June 21,1941

(Continued from Page 74) time—listening to classical music. He him to thirty days in the pen for In October, Paramount Pictures will has also bought a fancy automobile, vagrancy. A local reporter had the wit release the first of a series of twelve shelves of detective stories and a to suggest that Shuster establish his Fleischer technicolor cartoons. Under camera. But Mamma Shuster still identity by drawing Superman. Face a guaranty-and-percentage contract, cooks and waits on table, the only con- crimson, the court let him go. Superman, Inc., will net an estimated cession to her improved status being a $120,000. Another healthy source of colored maid who comes in twice a Aladdin's Lamp profit, developed only within the last week to house-clean. Joe wants his six months, is thirty-three licensed father to retire, but Papa Shuster in- Jerry Siegel has spread himself products, which have poured $100,000 sists on going downtown every day, economically a little bit more. With no more into the till, bringing the com- where, for something to do, he operates dependents save the buxom, twenty- pany's 1940-41 income to a jolly total an elevator. None of the Shusters can year-old sweetheart of high-school of approximately $1,500,000—and this quite grasp what has happened to days, whom he married last year, he exclusive of the $1,100,000 from Don- them. put $15,000 into an air-conditioned, enfeld's other publications. To Joe Shuster the most important rock-wool-insulated, weather-stripped It was only after anguished appeals thing money has brought is the chance house with so many laborsaving gadg- that Siegel and Shuster finally man- to build up his body. For years he ets that Bella Siegel has little to do all aged, in 1940, to wangle sizable profits tried Lionel Strongfort correspondence- day except flip switches. Their pride for themselves: $75,000, of which $16,- school methods, dynamic tension and and joy is a paneled playroom in the 000 goes in staff salaries and overhead. scores of physical-culture magazines— basement, complete with dart game, At the end of the first year, when they without result. Now he lifts weights ping-pong table and bar, though neither were still making $130 on a purely three times a week in Barney Kofron's drinks or even knows how to mix a cock- salaried basis, they had asked Liebo- gym—he can handle 175 pounds— tail. Every room has a radio and gleams witz for a five-dollar raise per page. consumes a T-bone steak and two with silken drapes and chromium fix- He professed to be shocked, but, as quarts of milk a day. This regimen has ings. Jerry has bought Bella a mink Liebowitz later expressed it, "An artist increased his weight from 112 to 128 coat and a diamond bracelet. must be happy," and he granted the pounds. To increase his height of five- Four months younger than Shuster, raise. The following year, after learn- feet-two, he wears built-up shoes. But Siegel is an incurable jitterer, who ing that Superman profits were sky- he still looks like an undernourished, hums softly to himself during con- rocketing, the boys again complained, bewildered schoolboy of sixteen. versational lulls and rolls reams of and won a brand-new contract, whereby Last December in Miami Beach, paper into little pellets. Four inches they got another five-dollar raise, or where he liked to loiter, hatless and in taller than Shuster, he weighs forty- twenty dollars a page, and 5 per cent shabby clothes, along uppity Lincoln two pounds more. Up in his attic he of all other Superman revenues. Road, gawking at the expensive auto- keeps a lazy man's hip-reducing ma- In the same year Superman was pro- mobiles, a policeman approached Shus- chine which shakes itself and him silly claimed by editors almost everywhere ter, bristling with dark suspicions. when he pushes the button. He tops among comic magazines. This Probably nothing would have hap- doesn't use it much. He and Bella emboldened the boys to plead for still pened had Shuster not protested that spend half their waking lives in the more money. They are now making he was Superman's co-creator and movies, Siegel's pockets always thirty-five dollars a page. flashed $147 in large bills to show he crammed with four or five candy bars. Meantime, their syndicate profits was no derelict. The policeman ar- Next to movies, he likes best to stretch have leaped to $600 a week. They will rested him and a magistrate sentenced (Continued on Page 78) OARING guns, screaming planes and rum- soon be doubling, then quadrupling R bling tanks have had no part in a revolu- their weekly output, with an eye to tion that has taken place all around you during the past ten years. Quietly, steadily, new types bringing out Superman monthly and, of machine tools have been developed and if possible, twice a month. Next year, produced to meet modern manufacturing con- with revenues from radio, movies and ditions, until now, in thousands of factories licenses coming in, they stand to and shops throughout the world, hundreds of make $150,000. Their ten-year term of thousands of these new tools have displaced service, however, is not reciprocal. E older, slower and much more expensive ma- Donenfeld remains free at any time to BRQDX chines! discharge them. [I-Pups Behind this quiet revolution lies an unusual How much he personally pockets rc L story of inventive ingenuity and manufacturing from Superman is a question much de- skill. More than ten years ago, Delta engineers bated in New York publishing circles. set out to design and produce wood and metal- In his various publishing corporations working machines that would be lighter, more he owns 75 per cent of the stock; an flexible, handier and more efficient than any machines then on the market—uhich would old business associate, Paul Sampliner, cost only one fourth to one third as much as older owns the rest. Liebowitz cautiously machines—yet would accomplish the same admits that his boss last year paid an work. Today, so low in cost are these Delta income tax on "more than $100,000." machines, produced by modern manufacturing Donenfeld himself, in an expansive methods, that they can he purchased by the mood, once told a reporter that he very smallest of "one-man" shops! netted $500,000 from Superman alone. Behind these Delta light machine tools— The best available estimates come to now used so successfully and economically by about half that. thousands of the finest of American shops— lie years of research and experiment; years of Living Up to a Character development and patient testing in the field. Asa result, practically every worth-while im- Siegel and Shuster sometimes fall to provement in light wood and metal-working brooding about how nice it would have machinery, for the past fourteen years, has been had they held out for a fat per- come from the drafting boards of Delta engi- centage of all future profits. But in the neers. Today, from the largest airplane and armament plants to the smallest basement end they always reach the same Polly- workshop, Delta machines are recognized as annaism: " Even if we were making the standard of high quality and performance. three or four times as much, we wouldn't be doing anything very dif- Let us tell you about Delta machines, and ferent than we're doing now. As it is, how they can serve your needs. we have to keep pinching ourselves." The Delta Manufacturing Company Money has not addled their brains. 703 E. Vienna Avenue Milwaukee, Wisconsin They have read too many horror stories depicting the plight of improvident celebrities not to salt away a fair slice of their incomes. As good provider for his whole family, Shuster recently moved them into a better neighborhood D ELTA and a ten-room, wooden-frame house at seventy-five dollars a month. One of his few extravagances has been fill- MILWAUKEE ing it with shiny new furniture, in-

World's largest exclusive manufacturers of low-cost, cluding a sixteen-tube radio-phono- high quality drill presses • grinders • abrasive - graph console, so that he and Mamma ishing machines • cut off machines • circular saws band saws • scroll saws • lathes • jointers and shapers Shuster can share their favorite pas- "There's nothing wrong with you that a year in the Army won't fix."

THE SATURDAY EVENING POST June 21,1941

(Continued from Page 76) He got the advance. out on his outsize bed and read history Messrs. Shuster and Siegel are now or biography. in the throes of creating another comic Shortly after Siegel received his last strip. check from New York he telephoned It will be called and will Liebowitz for an advance of $500. confine itself to Superman's adoles- " But we just mailed you a check," cence, when his supermuscles— the exclaimed Liebowitz. mind recoils from the possibilities— " I know," replied Siegel, " but I were employed in practical jokes. have nineteen thousand five hundred "It will be," Siegel explains, "about dollars in my bank account and I want Superman before he developed a social to round it out to an even twenty." conscience." UNCLE SHARKEY AND THE WALKING MATCH (Continued from Page 17)

handicaps and lap miles. In Lou's, light put the finisher on everything. quoits were interrupted to demon- We only used it at special times, and strate Sharkey's stride, and the pitch- that red hall light always put some- ers waited, understandingly. thing grand and exciting into an eve- Sometimes one would break in, ning. Pop came downstairs, putting on " Hold on there! You ain't got that arm bands; he fished a cigar from be- exactly right ! Here, lemme show you." hind the , stuck a paper spill And a quoit in each hand, the pitcher through the stove front, and lit up. would demonstrate, and the quoits He wasn't fidgety, but sat in his rocker finally get under way. Glowing ac- beside the stove, knees crossed, and I counts were abroad about The Mold- knew he was thinking of those Belgian er's speed and staying power, but our homers and that new forge blower. camp countered with large gobs of Mother came down, convinced her- silence, garnished with overbearing, self it was cold enough for a muff; she serene confidence. made a quick round of the dampers, dimmed the gas mantle, called strict After the secret workout, I was posi- orders up the stairs about that dog tive Sharkey'd come in first, even Gumption on those beds, and after a ahead of Buckman. I imagined it so hasty look in the hall-rack mirror, she often, it settled itself that way, and the finally was ready. night of the first I dreamed it, We took the trolley uptown and and could hardly wait to get the morn- walked over, and when we went into ing paper out of the vestibule to read the armory, a wave of hot air met us, about him leading. laden with tobacco smoke, perfume BUCKMAN STEALS SHOW BEFORE 4000 FANS and liniment, and I couldn't see the track for the awful jam of people. Started off in whirlwind style, maintain- There were five thousand there, but ing it throughout. . . . Great favorite we had track-side seats. The whole with the fans because of his unassuming place was flag-draped, smoke dipped deportment on the track. in hazy layers against the lights, and And a lot more. When I complained near the roof the flags swayed from the that it was so different from what I'd rising heat. The band was playing Star- expected, pop said I was just the age shine. Peanut and soft-drink hawkers to start learning that there's disap- were busy, and I could smell frank- pointments as you go down the pike, furters. ' It and this was one of them. But the Then a man in a swallow-tail coat • • second and third nights were the same. yelled through a megaphone, and grad- 4 The grind weeded out fourteen start- ually the noise died around him in 4 ers, seven were left, and Buckman had rings that got wider and wider, finally pocketed the match, trailed by Carlisle reaching the outside edges of the crowd. • and Jackson. Jackson developed pleu- I picked out Sharkey in the line-up; risy, Carlisle was plagued with leg his face was thinner and his uniform cramps, and Lockwood fought blis- slacker; a green sash hung on his right tered feet. The Molder, Padgett, a local hip. He was near a heavy-shouldered, dark horse, and Sharkey were miles be- long-armed man I knew was The hind the professionals, and definitely Molder. His dark hair stood up in a out of the big money, but their three- brush and his thighs looked thick as cornered battle had grown more bitter pickle kegs. He sported a leopardskin with each hotly contested lap. At the belt. Padgett was a slim-jim, yellow recollection of his man in tail position, hair parted down the middle, and the Norrie muttered that someone must've backs of his legs bulged with muscle. lit holy candles against Sharkey. He When the names were announced, we drew absently on a cold pipe, and Dixie all gave Sharkey a hand, for it was an sat morosely on the bench, too dejected honor to be out there, still in his walk- even to chew. What was worse, could ing shoes. any of the three stick out another The band played The Star-Spangled night? The boards had pounded their Banner, everybody stood and sang, but 2 pal Cct feet unmercifully and they were worn not the walkers. They just stood, and ;$100 to what Dixie called of a from what we'd heard about their feet, frazzle. I bet they wished the band would play -a 'id at soc. sy another verse, but it didn't. Pop stood *star-••- lwaintss I didn't know I was to go on Satur- me between his knees to see the start. 1,401•1•7( CP ••■ GOOD HOUSEKEEPING day, till grandmom came over to mind At the gun, they broke from rigid •S ADVERTISED THEREIN my younger brothers. Mother bundled stance into full stride, and though I the three of us into the tub, saying she knew I should watch Uncle Sharkey, I didn't have time for any singles, what couldn't take my eyes off Buckman, with getting herself ready, putting in the champion of the world, leading off. pop's studs and links, and tying his His head was high and proud, but bow tie after he'd made the usual mess with a pride that wouldn't annoy you, PA' tY'r of it. I was ready first, and got the for he was entitled to carry his head THE LARGEST MANUFACTURER OF MEN'S SOC fidgets, but enjoyed the air of excite- that way. Each step struck on the ment in our house, and our red hall heel, rolled across the arch onto the