I recently had a very nice, long conversation with Richard Potter, webmaster of GEORGE REEVES FOREVER (www.GeorgeReevesForever.com). At Richard’s website, you can find the George Reeves Calendar, stories, historical articles, music, animations, artwork, and even a spoof of George Reeves collectibles.  Richard is a professional software developer; he recently created a version of the George Reeves Calendar for Apple’s iPhone and iPad (the app is called GRCalendar).  Richard is also a singer/songwriter.  He has written two songs about George Reeves: “Oh, George” and “And She Loved Me.”  And his song “Noel” is dedicated to none other than Noel Neill.

I approached Richard about interviewing him and he said that he would be delighted and honored, so I called him and we spoke for almost two and a half hours about his life, likes and dislikes on all things Superman and not just George Reeves.

Chris: When did you become a Superman fan?
Richard: I think it was around the age of 6 back in 1959.  I remember my older brother had some Superman and Batman comics lying around, which I read several times.  And then the "Adventures of Superman" was on TV every day at 4:00 PM, Monday through Friday and I watched that religiously.

Chris: Tell me about that. Do you remember the first episode you ever saw?
Richard: No, unlike a lot of other people, I don't really remember which episode I saw first.  What I do remember is riding my bike home from school as fast as I could, so I would get home in time to see the show.  In the winter, when I couldn't ride my bike, I had to run home as fast as I could (which is not always easy, running in snowboots with all the snow on the sidewalks in the dead of winter in northwestern Iowa).

Chris: Was your family into Superman as well?
Richard: No, not really.  In fact, the rest of my family couldn't quite understand my fascination with comic books and the Superman TV show.  My older brother got very frustrated with me, because he was a sports nut (actually, quite an exceptional athlete, something I was not) and he always wanted me to go outside and play catch or something. I remember one day he insisted that I should go outside to toss the football around, and when I said I wanted to wait until after Superman was over, he said something like, "I don't know why you think this show is so great.  The guy who plays Superman is dead, you know.  He killed himself."  I was stunned.  I don't remember what exactly I said, probably something like, "I don't believe you" or "It doesn't matter, I still like him."  I do remember my brother storming out the door at that point.

Chris: What was it that about the TV show that made you such a big fan?
Richard: The flying scenes. I was mesmerized whenever George Reeves would fly.  Although the special effects in the “Adventures of Superman” can’t compare to today’s CGI, at the time those flying scenes were state of the art and quite amazing.  Also, I found the way Clark, Lois, Jimmy, Perry and Inspector Henderson related to each other as a family very appealing.  Last but not least, I think George was a father figure to me.

Chris: As a child growing up in the late 1950’s, what else do you remember about George Reeves and Superman?
Richard: After the show was over, I would go down to our basement and play Superman.  I made a “cape” out of red crepe paper and an S-shield out of cardboard.  I carefully cut out a piece of cardboard in the shape of Superman’s shield from an old shoe box and then drew and colored in the “S”.  I cut a slit into the shield so that I could poke my shirt button through the cardboard and that way, it would stay attached to my chest.  I even made some Clark Kent “glasses” from a Groucho Marx plastic Halloween disguise.  I used to “fly” around in our basement all the time and change back and forth from Superman to Clark Kent.

Chris: Do you have any favorite episodes or a favorite season from the TV show?
Richard: My favorite seasons are seasons 1 and 2.  I love almost all of the black-and-white episodes.  My all-time favorite is “Panic in the Sky” followed by “The Defeat of Superman” as a close second.  I am also very partial to “The Birthday Letter,” “The Stolen Costume,” “The Human Bomb,” “Czar of the Underworld,” “Crime Wave,” “Shot in the Dark,” and “Around the World with Superman”.  My all-time favorite flying scene is the one in “Shot in the Dark” – it’s the longest continuous flying sequence from the entire series.  Towards the end, you can even see Superman’s cape get tangled in the wires.  Si (aka “Thol”) Simonson was in charge of the special effects and I give him tremendous credit for doing such an outstanding job making those flying scenes so realistic.  Quite impressive considering what he had to work with. I’m not as fond of the episodes from the color seasons (seasons 3-6), although there are some good episodes there, as well.  Unfortunately, as time went by, the “film noir” quality of the series vanished, and it became more of a “kiddie” show.

Chris: There are some exceptions such as “The Perils of Superman” and my favorites, “The Wedding of Superman” and “The Bully of Dry Gulch”.  What are your favorites from the color era?
Richard: I also like “The Perils of Superman” and now, as an adult, I can appreciate “The Wedding of Superman,” although I still remember that as a boy, all that “lovey-dovey” stuff made me cringe!  I also liked “The Big Freeze,” “Divide and Conquer,” and “The Mysterious Cube.”

Chris: At your website, you have three pages of flying scenes from the show.  Was it difficult to put those animations together?
Richard: Some of them took a very long time.  In order to reduce the number of frames involved, I had to “sample” each scene by selecting, say, every third frame.  And, since the original print was often “dirty” – several frames had blobs or jagged lines -- I had to carefully remove the “dirt” by hand.  In some cases, I had to redraw the parts of the scene that had been obscured by the “dirt”.

Chris: One thing I found interesting at your website was the “Collectibles for Sale” page.  Obviously, none of the so-called “collectibles” is real.  Why are you pretending to sell these bogus George Reeves “souvenirs”?
Richard: I am having a little fun at the expense of those people who sell fake George Reeves “collectibles” on eBay and other such venues.  It is sort of my way of performing a “public service” – it is my hope that if somebody looks at what I have “for sale” and realizes it’s all a sham, then perhaps they won’t be quite so easily taken in by some of the vultures who prey upon others on eBay.  You know, if you added up all the “authentic” George Reeves Superman capes and S-shields that have been sold on eBay and elsewhere over the years, you’d be forced to conclude that George must have had enough Superman costumes to cover the earth!

Chris: According to Jack Larson, George’s part in the movie “From Here to Eternity” was cut down when the audience shouted, “There’s Superman!” during early screenings.  Based on your research, what do you make of this?
Richard: Well, it’s certainly an urban myth but I don’t think it’s accurate – no offense to Jack Larson!  According to what I have heard, the director of the film, Fred Zinnemann, has been asked on more than one occasion about this and he has flatly denied it every time.  George’s character did not play a big part in the movie if you look at the screenplay, so I am inclined to believe Zinnemann.

Chris: Then why do you think Jack Larson has this recollection?
Richard: I don’t know; it could be that Jack is remembering some other screening of some other film in which George had a part.  George appeared in “Westward Ho the Wagons”, a Disney film.  I could imagine that during initial screenings, members of the audience – which would have consisted mostly of children, I assume – might have yelled out, “Hey, look, it’s Superman!”  Perhaps Jack is remembering that event but incorrectly connecting it with the movie “From Here to Eternity.”

Chris: Do you like any other versions of Superman, besides the George Reeves interpretation?
Richard: I really liked the first two Chris Reeve Superman films.  My interest in Superman had kind of died down as I grew older, but when “Superman: The Movie” was released in 1978 with the tagline, “You Will Believe a Man Can Fly”, I was very excited and my long-time fascination with Superman was reborn.

Chris: Did you ever watch “Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” and did you like that series?
Richard: Whenever a new Superman movie or TV series comes out, you can be sure that I will always check it out!  So, yes, I tuned into “Lois and Clark.”  I really liked the first two seasons, since the scripts were mostly based on John Byrne’s redefinition of the character that took place in the comics in 1986.  I thought Teri Hatcher was fantastic as Lois Lane.  I did not like what happened as the series evolved, and by the time they got to the frog-eating clone, the series had definitely “jumped the shark” as far as I was concerned.

Chris: Any reaction to Smallville?
Richard: Smallville started out great.  I loved the way they played with and extended the mythology of the character.  The idea of there being “meteor freaks” – people who were affected by exposure to kryptonite -- was wonderful. Although I should note that this idea had already been explored in the “Adventures of Superman,” in “The Deadly Rock”; however, Smallville took that idea and really flew with it.  (No pun intended!)  I thought the interaction between Tom Welling as Clark Kent and his earth parents, played by John Schneider and Annette O’Toole, was extremely well done.  But overall, the series has been somewhat uneven in my opinion.  Some episodes are outstanding; in particular, those that explored Clark’s Kryptonian heritage.  And I loved seeing Christopher Reeve appear on the show.  That was great. 

But then there were other episodes that have been downright embarrassing such as the one where Lana and Lois become martial artists and spin in the air.  Sort of a “Witches of Eastwick” meets “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”  Absolutely awful.

Chris: What did you think of “Superman Returns”?
Richard: I enjoyed the movie.  In particular, I loved the flying scenes and special effects.  When Superman took off like a rocket, I thought, “Finally!  They finally got it right!” They did it exactly the way I imagine Superman would take off at super-speed.  And whenever he’s in flight, they got the cape to flow correctly and all the little details to make it look as real as possible.  The scene in which he’s trying to rescue the falling space-plane was nothing short of amazing and should have won them an Oscar. 

However, I didn’t like the dark color of the uniform.  I know the director, Bryan Singer, took a lot of flak for that. A lot of people complained that he didn’t get the uniform “right”.  But he correctly pointed out that there have been many renditions of the costume over the years, so when you talk about “Superman’s costume” or his “S-shield” you have to ask, “Which one?  The Joe Shuster version? Or Curt Swan’s? Or the Alex Ross version? Etc.”

Lastly, I found Brandon Routh’s interpretation of Superman was a bit wooden.  And it seemed as though his Clark Kent was a deliberate imitation of Chris Reeve’s, which didn’t work for me.

Chris: Tell us about meeting Noel Neill for the first time.
Richard: That was a very special moment for me.  I met her in the Superman Museum in Metropolis, IL in 2007.  I was attending the annual Superman Celebration there and some friends invited me to come over to the museum to meet her.  When she walked up to me, I was quite surprised – here was this sweet, little old lady with beautiful, long silver hair.  But her voice was unmistakable.  My producer and I had just finished my tribute song “Noel”, so I gave her the first copy of the CD single.  She looked at it and said, “Thank you.  You know, you look like Lex Luthor.”  I was a little disappointed at her reaction, but then I realized that people are probably giving her things all the time, so she is pretty used to that.  Later on, I found out from her biographer, Larry Ward, that when she got back home to California and finally had a chance to listen to the CD, she was very moved.  That meant the world to me!

Chris: Speaking of your music, didn’t you once have a video on YouTube for your song, “Oh, George”?  Whatever happened to that?
Richard: Yes, there used to be an “Oh, George” video on YouTube, but the guy who created it was forced to remove it, under threat of copyright violations.  It’s a shame, because he did a marvelous job on that.

Chris: Have any of your songs ever been included in a movie soundtrack or TV show?
Richard: “Oh, George” was included as one of the “extras” on the “George Reeves Double Feature” DVD that was released in 2006.  And one of my songs was played on 100.7 FM “The River”, which is a commercial radio station.  “Noel” was played at the end of an interview with Noel Neill on NPR radio.  But beyond that, I’m afraid not.  I was told that when the producers of “Hollywoodland” were putting together the soundtrack, they briefly considered using “Oh, George” but decided it did not work with the rest of the musical score.  I had to agree with them; the music on that soundtrack is quite excellent but “Oh, George” really doesn’t fit with the tone they established.  Yet for a brief moment, I dreamed that my song would play at the end of the movie when they rolled the credits!

Chris: You have said before that “Oh, George” generated hate mail.  What can you tell us about that?
Richard: I was pretty shocked when I received the first such email.  I didn’t know what to think – the last thing on my mind when I released the song was that anyone would react in that way.  I knew that not everyone agreed with the suicide theory of George’s death, but I had assumed that the listener would be able to put aside their own pet theory as to how George died and hear the love and respect embodied in the song.  But I was very wrong. And then when the video went up on YouTube, although some of the comments were extremely positive, others were very negative, to the point of being hateful.  One thing that really struck a nerve was the accusation that I was exploiting the memory of George Reeves for my own selfish financial gain.

Chris: It is hard to understand why people react the way they do sometimes.  It’s pretty clear from the lyrics that you are telling the story from the perspective of a little boy from that era.  And let’s face it, back then, and for many years later, the only theory we knew was the suicide theory.  In fact, for many years, it wasn’t regarded as a theory, it was just taken as a fact: George Reeves killed himself.
Richard: That’s exactly right.  So, I figured that anyone listening to the song would get that and understand the context.  But not everybody did.  However, the vast majority of those who contacted me about my song were very positive.  I even heard from Gary Grossman, the author of Superman: From Serial to Cereal, who told me how much he enjoyed my song.  That was a wonderful piece of feedback.

Chris: As long as we’re on the subject of George’s death, I have always been convinced that Leonore Lemmon killed him. What is your opinion?
Richard: I believe that George Reeves committed suicide. My conclusion is based on the research that Jim Beaver has done on this subject. Although the alternative theories have some merit, the suicide hypothesis is the one that is most consistent with the forensic evidence. For example, the shell casing from the bullet was found beneath the body. This is consistent with suicide. If George held the gun against his temple in the most natural way, which is with the butt of the gun pointing upwards, rather than downwards as most people assume, then the shell casing would have been ejected towards his back and he would have fallen on it. The police frequently find the shell casing beneath the body in exactly the same way when they investigate a suicide shooting.

Furthermore, there were no powder burns on George’s temple. Contrary to popular belief, this does not imply that the gun was held at a distance from George’s head. In fact, just the opposite is the case. When the muzzle of a gun is held up against the body, all the powder from the gunshot is injected into the wound itself and there are no burns around the entry point. This is exactly how the wound in George’s temple was described.

On the other hand, if George had been shot by Leonore during a struggle, then you would expect to find powder burns around the entry point. But you don’t. Of course, you could argue that perhaps during the struggle, as they were both holding onto the Lugar, Leonore forced the mouth of the gun against George’s temple before she pulled the trigger. But how likely is it that a small woman like Leonore would be able to overpower an athletic man like George to the point that she could force the gun that close to his head?

Last but not least, I have studied martial arts and in all the “gun defense” exercises we performed, in which you try to disarm your attacker, I never got “shot” in the side of the head. I was often “shot” in the chest and the face. But never in the side of the head at point-blank range.

Of course, everybody is entitled to their opinion; and at this point, we will probably never know what really happened.

Chris: Returning to the subject of your music. How many CDs have you released so far?  Where can one buy your music?
Richard: I’ve released two CDs: Surreal Love Songs, and my latest, Number Theory.  You can order these albums as digital downloads from iTunes and Amazon.com.  Or, you can visit my other website, RICHARD POTTER SONGS (www.RichardPotterSongs.com) and buy the CDs there.  At the RICHARD POTTER SONGS website, you can also read the lyrics for my songs and see the performance credits.

Chris: You mentioned earlier that you’ve been accused of exploiting George Reeves’ memory with your music.  How do you respond to that?
Richard: I find it very bizarre.  For example, there are folks out there who write books about George and they get royalties from selling their books.  But does anybody accuse them of exploiting George Reeves?  Not to my knowledge.  So there is a weird double standard here – if you make money from writing a book about George Reeves, no problem.  But if you make money from writing a song about George Reeves, you’re scum.

Incidentally, it might interest your readers to know that I have never made a dime off George Reeves.  As anyone who visits my website can attest, I do not sell advertisement space.  Although I do sell posters and my CDs, all the revenue for those sales goes to the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America.  (Editor’s note: The MGFA was one of the charitable causes that George Reeves promoted during his lifetime.  Patricia Ellsworth, the daughter of “Adventures of Superman” producer Whitney Ellsworth and his wife Jane, was afflicted with the disease.)  In fact, all the money that I’ve made from the sale of Surreal Love Songs, whether sold from my website, iTunes, Amazon.com, what have you, has all gone to the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America.

Chris: Thank You Richard for sharing your story with us.
Richard: My pleasure, Chris!