Hey folks, Harry here. Earlier today, a frantic Robogeek was putting me under the hot lamp on whether or not Kirk Alyn had passed away. I told him, "No, if Kirk Alyn died... I would have heard about it from geeks all over the world." Well... I was wrong. Not one letter. I was shocked to hear of Kirk Alyn's passing. Perhaps I'm a child of a vintage generation, but the first image of a person I get when I think... SUPERMAN, is Kirk Alyn. I grew up going to conventions all over the country, and Superman (Kirk Alyn) was there. As were Tarzan, Spanky, Red Ryder, Fu Manchu, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Lash LaRue, Ming the Merciless and on and on... Names like Commander Cody have real faces and meaning for me, and to hear that Kirk Alyn.... the world's first live-action Superman had passed away put a black veil on an otherwise sunny day. Good Luck finding the Serial... Video stores like BLOCKBUSTER have all but ceased to carry them... Most of them were sold at bargain basement prices a half decade ago. That's where I got mine. Kirk Alyn... He is my Superman! Now, I have to wonder... Is he that officer up in Heaven... You know the one... A GUY NAMED JOE met him once, and hopefully at some point, so will all of us. And so I leave it to the man that put me in Kirk's arms when I was just a year old. Take it away, Dad...
"Atom Man, Your moment of doom is at hand. As sure as I am the Man of Steel, you will be behind iron bars before tonight!"
"Before tonight you will have ceased to exist, Superman - your atoms will be scattered among the stars."
It is FATHER GEEK's sad misson tonight to inform you that one of moviedom's ultimate good guys both on and off the screen has died. KIRK ALYN died Sunday in a hospital north of Houston, Texas at the age of 88. A dancer in New York vaudeville, Alyn followed his roommate Red Skelton out to Hollywood and soon landed jobs in B- Westerns and small studio crime dramas. Superman had been in comics for 10 years before Tinseltown got around to filming a live action Son of Krypton motion picture. When they did Columbia Pictures cast a 37 year old Alyn as the lead. All the shifty-eyed crooks, glory-hungry masterminds, and fame-seeking newspapermen Hollywood could muster expected nothing more than meek, mild-mannered Clark Kent when they saw Kirk in his drab business suit, but when the chips were down, not to mention his pants, he gave them and us SUPERMAN, THE MAN OF STEEL. He did it in 30 Columbia serial episodes, over 500 pulse-pounding minutes of stunt filled action.
As I write this I am looking at the rare 1-sheet movie poster to chapter one "Superman Flys Again" of the 2nd of Kirk's Superman serials "ATOM MAN VS. SUPERMAN" that is hanging on the back wall of Geek Headquarter's dining room just beyond my computer station. Harry and I first met Alyn at the 1972 Houston Comic Convention. We would visit and talk with him on over 15 occasions in the following years and a nicer guy just doesn't walk the earth. Although I haven't seen him in recent years, I feel I've lost a good friend. I'll carry the stories he told us with me the rest of my life. I've used a variation of his Tomato, Mushroom, and Ham Omelet recipe that he gave me in 1973 hundred's of times over the years, the next time it will taste just a little bitter-sweet. One major ingredient will be missing. How's that for imagery, Clark Kent swapping recipes with the Hippie, Fanboy, Comicbook dealer from The Simpsons. Bizarre as it seems it's true.
KIRK ALYN flew (pretty damn well too) into the hearts of America's youth 1st in 1948's SUPERMAN. Along with Noel Neill as Lois Lane and Tommy Bond as Jimmy Olsen he fought to the finish with the malevolent Spider Lady and her fantastic Death Ray. Through 15 chapter plays he kept audiences on the edge of their seats defending Truth, Justice, and the American way.
The man from the planet Krypton returned to the silver screen in 1950's ATOM MAN VS. SUPERMAN. Lois and Jimmy returned too, to butt heads with the sinister Lyle Talbot in the role of Atom Man. Supes had to battle the mysterious nuclear nemesis and his arsenal of futuristic weapons including a flying saucer throughout another 15 episodes of blazing combat, knuckle-busting fist fights, and gut-wrenching car crashes. When all was said and done our country was safe once again.
In 1952 Kirk would play one more high-flying comicbook hero in BLACKHAWK another 15 part serial for Columbia. He would portray the aviator as he led his loyal crew of international allies Chuck, Stanislaus, Andre, and Chop Chop in battle with a real life menace this time. Alyn's foes were communist saboteurs set loose in America's factorys and led by the beautiful and seductive, but deadly Laska. Of course our hero prevailed and the enemy was once more driven from our shores.
After his time at Columbia, Kirk returned to New York and did over a dozen Broadway plays. He was in 125 commercials on TV in the late 50's and 1960's, then he retired to The Woodlands outside Houston and began to meet with his fans at shows thru the south-central US. "When I was first asked to do a nostalgia convention, I didn't know what to expect." He told Father Geek in the mid-70's. "But I was pleasantly surprised. There were Doctors, Lawyers, Students, Housewives, a cross section of America, brought together by a love of movies."
In 1978 he would be reunited on film with his Lois Lane as they played the new Lois' parents in a brief scene (snipped from some prints) on a train passing thru Smallville in Christopher Reeve's SUPERMAN. Now, Atom Man's quote at the start of my story has a new meaning for me. Superman really is..."scattered among the stars."
