Parlor Spider...Step In, Little Fly

Insightful thoughts and/or rants from atop the soapbox from one who wishes to share the "right" opinion with everyone.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Great Caesar's Ghost! A Mystery!



It's not as if I don't like Ben Affleck a.k.a. "Bennifer." I mean, who didn't like that Kevin Smith movie where Alanis Morrissette (as God) explodes his head for daring to think he could get back to heaven after defying the Almighty Power? That's some powerful dogma for you. Just between us, though, whenever I see the guy sitting smugly in his Boston Red Sox cap, I just want to whale on him with a wiffle bat. But, as I implied, this isn't really about him: it's about Superman.
I'm old enough to have watched George Reeves (the ONLY real Superman) every day on TV as a kid. The Man of Steel was the first superhero to get a comic book, and the first superhero to get his own TV show. He could do anything and was immune to Lois Lane's obvious charms...that was good enough for me. I believed he lived...unlike the little kid who approached George Reeves at a celebrity deal with a loaded pistol wanting to find out the truth about those bouncing bullets. I needed no further proof than the 14-in screen on our console TV.
February of 1959 was a bad, bad month. Buddy Holly died on February 3 of that year, and even though I was not going to hear his music for a few years, I anguish over his passing. On June 16 of that year, George Reeves also died...supposedly from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. This is where the story gets interesting.
Somehow, the Kellogg's Company, which sponsored the daily TV show, kept from me the awful truth of the "suicide" of Superman. It's just as well, for I would not have believed it. Now, however, I have begun to see the mystery as it is. Ben Affleck is starring in a new movie called "Hollywoodland" which deals with the unanswered questions surrounding Reeves' death. For example, he was dating a beautiful New York actress, he was taking the first serious role after Superman as the detective in Hitchcock's "Psycho" and had everything to live for. (Could Martin Balsam have done it? After all, he got that role which made him a household face).
Anyway, Reeves had guests, went upstairs and a shot was heard. The police were not called for 45 minutes after the shot rang out! HMMM. The luger which fired the fatal bullet was found on the floor, and Reeves was LYING ON the ejected cartridge after supposedly having put the shot through his head and into the ceiling.HMMM. This incident followed two suspicious car "accidents" and a breakup with a woman who had supposed Mafia ties (you know, the silk ones with little machine guns embroidered on them).
I doubt if I'll see the movie, but I do believe there's a mystery here that MAYBE Ben can help us solve.
Sorry to say, Superman has been supplanted by Doc Savage as far as superheroes in my book, but he's still the Man of Steel...but only as George Reeves.

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