Pop culture interview grab bag

This blog has run an eclectic range of interviews; the subjects relate to film, TV, music, literature, animation, and other aspects of pop culture. I will continually add to this list.

film

• The kids who played young Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah in the opening flashback scene of Splash. 
• The actor who played singer Marvin Berry in Back to the Future. 
• The actress who played the student Bill Murray tests/flirts with at the beginning of Ghostbusters.
• Footloose actors: Ariel's boyfriend, Ren's friend, Ren's uncle, Ariel's friend, the younger of Ren's cousins, Sarah Jessica Parker's stand-in. 
• The actor who played Argyle, the limo driver, in Die Hard.
• The actress who co-starred in director Steven Spielberg's first commercial release, the short film Amblin' (1968).
• The actress who played Elsie, the older of the two cousins, in FairyTale: A True Story.
• The photographer who took the last published photos of actress Amanda Peterson (Can't Buy Me Love). 

TV

• An oral history of 1980s sitcom Family Ties, as told by its guest stars.
• An oral history of the 1990s drama My So-Called Life, as told by its guest stars.
• Child actors who appeared on the original The Twilight Zone (1959-1964).
• One of the duo who sang the radio single version of the Happy Days theme song.
• The cast of the "Whassup!" commercial campaign for Budweiser beer (1999-2002).
• The cast of "The Bloodhound Gang" detective segment from 3-2-1 Contact.

music

• Dozens of '80s music video ingénues. Round 2.
• Singer/songwriter Mick Smiley, whose song "Magic" was in Ghostbusters.
• Singer Karla DeVito, whose song "We Are Not Alone" drove the dance sequence in The Breakfast Club. 

literature 

• Actress Ally Sheedy, who published She Was Nice to Mice, a novel for children, when she was a child herself.
• The reclusive author of the 1987 debut novel Memoirs of an Invisible Man (no interview).
• Children's authors read aloud bad reviews of their own books (not interviews but revealing nonetheless).
• The author of David and the Phoenix, a cult favorite middle grade novel from the '50s.
• The author/illustrator of Little Gorilla, a classic picture book from the '70s.
• The creator/artist of the successful Anti-Coloring Book series.
• The creators of Stone Soup, the long-running literary magazine written and drawn exclusively by young people.

animation

• Voice actors of Peanuts TV holiday specials. 
• Voice actors/songwriters of first seasons of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?
• Granddaughter of Bill Lutz, writer of season 1 of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?
• Songwriters and singers of Schoolhouse Rock.
• The girl who voiced Tuffy/Nibbles in 1950s Tom and Jerry cartoons.

superheroes

• Scores of '70s and '80s superhero performers.
• Two granddaughters (#1, #2) of the creator of Wonder Woman.
• The singer of the 1981 hit song "Theme from The Greatest American Hero (Believe It or Not)."
• The grandson of a man who may have visually inspired Clark Kent. 
• The lead singer of the theme song of the first season of the 1970s Wonder Woman show.
• A female writer of the 1970s Wonder Woman show.
• The first (known) person to play Bill Finger in a production (in this case, a play).
• The two men who broke the story of Superman's co-creators living in poverty and obscurity.
• Almost a dozen writers/artists from the Golden/Silver Age of Comics.
• Superman II actress Leueen Willoughby.
• Superman II actress Robin Pappas.
• The man who convinced the comics community that there would be a Wonder Twins movie. 
• The brother and representative of the late author of the critically-praised 1979 YA novel The Kryptonite Kid.
• The man who wrote Bob Kane's autobiography. (No, it wasn't Bob Kane.)
• The 1990 Flash show (no interview).

 

plus

• A mother who runs a playroom that is also a nonfiction library.
• A teacher who is also a ghost hunter.

“Batman ’66: The Lost Episode” and Bill Finger

Legendary Batman (and the Outsiders) writer/Bill Finger advocate Mike W. Barr wrote in with an interesting observation:

At least the climax of the recently published Batman ’66: The Lost Episode—adapting a Two-Face story from a treatment by Harlan Ellison in which Batman compels Two-Face to surrender by substituting a flawed duplicate of Two-Face’s lucky coin—was foreshadowed by Finger’s script to “The New Crimes of Two-Face!” from Batman #68 (12/51-1/52), in which Batman defeats Two-Face by exactly the same method.

Mike also noted that this story has been reprinted in the following:

• Batman Annual #3 (1961)
• Batman From the Thirties to the Seventies (Crown, 10/71)
• DC Comics Classic Library: The Batman Annuals (DC, 4/09)

from Son of the Demon, written by Mike;

too bad Bob is not here to see that Bill

is no longer forgotten...too bad Bill is not,

either... 

Thank you to Michael Savene for the scan.

"Rolling Stone" links to my "If This Is It" interviews

In 9/14, Rolling Stone counted down the best singles of 1984.

Number 49 is "If This Is It" by Huey Lewis and the News. 

And the write-up links (the word "report") to my interview with the two women in the video:

Trivial Pursuit perpetuates the Nazis-banned-Superman myth

In 2008, both in Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman and here, I addressed the recurring claim that Hitler or his Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels personally indicted and banned Superman at a Nazi meeting. 

It turns up in sources including Superman at Fifty (1988; page 32), Men of Tomorrow by Gerard Jones (2004; page 162), and Jerry Robinson’s essay in the Breman Jewish Heritage Museum exhibition catalog Zap! Pow! Bam! The Superhero—The Golden Age of Comic Books 1938-1950 (2004; page 21).

However, the Nazis were famously fanatical about documentation and we haven’t found mention of this incident in their—or any other—records. So believable though it may be, there is no known proof that it really happened. Researchers including Dwight Decker determined a likely source of what we must consider a myth.

I learned recently that Trivial Pursuit (Genus 5 edition) isn’t helping:

Student research challenge: find the oldest house on your street

Teachers tend to love when authors who visit their schools excite students about research. It’s one thing to say research is adventure and quite another to show that…but it’s not always easy for teachers to come up with effective, age-suitable examples.

My school visit presentations emphasize the thrill of primary research, focusing on the detective work I did to write Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman and Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman. This involved everything from tracking down Bill Finger’s son Fred’s 1992 settlement of estate document at a New York surrogate’s court to cold-calling everyone in Florida with the last name “Finger”—not the kind of things most elementary students can or should be doing.

So how to make primary research accessible to young people?

Doing is believing, so I suggest challenging them to determine which house or building on their street is the oldest. It’s localized and limited (well, depending on how long any particular street is), so in most cases, it’s an assignment that young researchers can embrace. A street’s oldest house is not information a Google search will provide, so it will require them to think creatively. How else can they find out the answer?

Teachers, if you put this challenge to your students, please let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear some stories.

1/19/15 addendum: For students who live on too big a street to take on this challenge, here is another: uncover a story about a person (especially a person you do not recognize) in a black-and-white family photo in your house or apartment.

“Holding Kryptonite: Truth, Justice, and America’s First Superhero”

To paraphrase the back cover of the 2014 self-published book Holding Kryptonite by Lauren Agostino and A.L. Newberg: “In 1997, a young law firm assistant stumbled on a secret cache from Superman’s creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. These original documents, private correspondence, legal papers, and artwork expose the muted history of the relationships of the early Superman family.”

In other words, this is a study of Jerry and Joe—particularly Jerry—that we haven’t seen before. Not even close. The authors reproduce a fascinating series of letters in order from 1937 to 1947, which reveals to an unmatched degree just how noodgy—whether justified or not—Jerry was, and just how much this exasperated Jack Liebowitz, co-owner of National Allied Publications (later DC Comics).

Naturally I’m interested in any book about Siegel and Shuster, but this one struck me on another level. Lauren was neither a more-than-casual Superman fan nor a writer before she discovered this discarded collection of materials. But she took the time to read it and was inspired to not only share it but also do additional research to expand on it. An interview with Lauren and A.L. is below, but first…

I took notes as I read:

page xv – For Jerry’s retyped letters, the authors used the font that came close to matching Jerry’s typewriter, a Royal Portable Quiet Deluxe. Nice touch.

14 – $6 to draw a cover of Action Comics!

18 – Upon reading the 1938 Jerry letter here, I noted “neither dumb nor greedy.” (Though as Jerry’s frustration mounts over the coming years, a lack of clarity—and eventually a sense of desperation—begins to seep into his correspondence.)

21 – Jack to Jerry: “If I thought for a moment that our magazine depended on your strip…” Perhaps it was too early to see this, but within a year of debuting, it was clear to anyone paying attention that Action very much depended on Superman. Kids asked not for Action but for the comic “with Superman in it.”

Also on 21, in response to Jerry stating (top of page 18) that Superman was the most popular feature in Action, Jack cites that while Superman got 30% of the votes in a reader poll, each of the remaining characters got between 15% and 25%. In other words, Superman did not win by a landslide. (However, this is a bit manipulative on Jack’s part—Superman was still the favorite, which is all Jerry said.)

25 (and subsequent chapter-ending pages) – I see the point in comparing Jerry and Joe’s salaries to the national average, but on one level that’s unfair. Jerry was not asking to be paid more than anyone else; he was simply asking to be paid what he felt he and Joe deserved based on the success of their creation.

30 – I don’t think I knew that the assistant artists were paid solely from Joe’s half.

34 – I don’t think I knew that Jerry and Joe got a 5% royalty on commercial use.

50-51 – I wonder if anyone has tried to track down the Pauls, Cassidy and Lauretta (and other assistant artists named here and on page 162 of Super Boys). I’m sure they’re gone, but if not, they’d have some stories.

54 – There was a Superman song and Jerry wrote lyrics. Why couldn’t those have been salvaged?

By now, a pattern is clear: Jerry often makes what I feel are valid points. However, he makes them in a long-winded manner, and too often. The more resistance he got, the more he pushed. As a creator and freelancer myself, I understand.

64 – The Hitler myth again.

65 – I love that the glass pane in the door of Joe’s studio door was frosted to reduce the risk of fans walking in. I’d love to know if that ever actually happened. I will never know.

81 – Jerry signed away rights to Robotman, too! Sounds funny, but at least Robotman wasn’t a big hit…

97 – Jerry on Joe: “He seems to have developed a genius for saying the wrong things at the wrong times to the wrong people.” Ouch. A side of Jerry I wish I hadn’t seen.

98 – When Jerry and Joe collectively signed autographs for fans, Jerry said he always passed the sheet to Joe but Joe didn’t always pass it to Jerry. More ouch.

112 – They hired Winsor McCay Jr.! They considered “lending” him to Superman! Worlds almost collided.

116 – “I’m pretty sure, though, that I won’t be a civilian much longer.” Haunting, even though Jerry did not end up serving in a combat capacity.

137 – Though it’s a bit wackadoo, I love that editor Mort Weisinger (who developed a quite fearsome reputation) advises Jerry that he’s spending too much on postage. His suggestion on what to do with the extra money: “buy Junior some ice cream cones.”

Q&A with Lauren and A.L.:

Were you a Superman fan before finding these documents?

Lauren: No. Wonder Woman was my girl.
Andrew: I was a Superman fan in the way many kids were—by movie and by “legacy.”  There’s a great oral history attributed to Superman.  Generations of kids are referred to Superman to “be brave…like Superman,” “be strong…like Superman.”

Why did you decide to do a book, and how long after you found the documents?

Lauren: A book was the best medium to share my find and tell this fascinating story. It was 13 years after I found them.

Did you first try to publish the book through a traditional publisher? If so, what happened? If not, why not?

Lauren:  I explored the traditional route and chose self-publishing because it allowed me to include a lot of material that told the authentic story. 
Andrew: We wanted the control of presenting these documents as Lauren wished—“as I found them…without all the mildew and mold.”

Why did you write the book in the third person even though you, Lauren, are listed as the co-author?

Andrew: We had many versions with different structures, different story elements and dabbled with first and third and even second person. What was important and remains important to Lauren is that the reader finds these documents the way she did. Third person seemed the best POV to give the reader this opportunity.

Where did you find the annual earnings for Jerry and Joe?

Andrew: In the documents that Lauren found, the information of their annual earnings was included in the court-ordered audit that was submitted as evidence by Joe and Jerry.

What is a favorite reaction you’ve gotten on the book?

Lauren: I have had so much amazing feedback that it’s hard to pick just one. 
Andrew: My favorite reaction is from the readers who respond to me with a surprised lilt in their voice “I actually really found this interesting—and I’m not even into comics!” I do feel this book appeals to people whether they’ve read a comic or haven’t.

Have you heard from anyone whose opinion about Jerry changed after reading your book?

Andrew: I have and it is largely from people who are in the creative arts. They were unaware of the relative success that Jerry and Joe had. Yes, it is not comparable to the ledgers of DC, but relative to the industry—they were paid well. As you see from the correspondence in the book, DC knew they had a hit and kept it a hit through hard work and diligence. Many artists who read this go into it one way and come out with a different experience. Our job isn’t to make that decision; we wanted to provide the material to let people arrive at their own conclusion. As inequitable as the relationship appeared, agreements and terms were not hidden.

Have you gotten a copy of the book to the Siegel and Shuster families?

Andrew: We have not. We haven’t sent this to Detective Comics or Warner Bros. either.

What is your overall takeaway from the Siegel and Shuster story?

Lauren: This is a large chunk to an even bigger story. It’s an important one so I hope whatever people can take away is useful in their understanding. 
Andrew: Well, the toughie with that question is that whatever my takeaway is will be entirely different than someone else. It’s complicated…just like the story.

Where are the letters now? Do you plan to keep them, sell them, donate them?

Lauren: I don’t have any plans of selling them.

Are you writing another book—or planning to?

Lauren: At the moment, no. 
Andrew: When Lauren wants to share her personal journey with this material—that will be the next book I’ll write on the subject of Superman. She’s the story.

Anything you’d like to add?

Andrew: I have been introduced to a community of amazingly talented writers, researchers, and scholars on the subject of not only Superman but the entire comic industry. They continue to preserve the rich history of one of our culture’s most important exports: imagination. Through the years, no matter what was going on, to escape or re-imagine things through the comics has proved incredibly valuable; that has helped many to personally navigate tricky times. We hope that this information Lauren has generously and bravely shared will help those scholars complete a picture that has faded in some panels of the overall story. The men and women of both the creative and business side must coexist to exist. They each need recognition.