Radio's Superman got his voice from a talented man by the name of Bud Collyer. He almost did not!
Mr. Collyer had already some experience with voicing characters with roles such as Terry and the Pirates (Pat Ryan), Renfrew of the Mounted (a radio series based on an RMCP adventure series written for boys, as the title role), and Abie's Irish Rose (about a jewish man courting an irish catholic girl; he was Abie), on top of plenty of narrator gigs. He did not want to get tapped for another series that would get him typecast as a hero, and may have very well been tricked back into the studio after doing the part of a random, unnamed Kryptonian senator in the first episode of Superman. Eventually, it was settled that he'd do the role in secret, a move that satisfied Collyer and delighted publisher Detective Comics (later DC, of course) who had no problems promoting the idea that it was Superman himself playing himself on the radio.
He was uncredited for his role on the show until 1946, when he finally realized the positive impact Superman was having and gave an interview for Time Magazine for a piece about the show's campaign to promote racial and religious tolerance. Thereafter, he was credited to his role as the Man of Steel.
Collyer not only voiced Superman for 10 years of the 11 year run of the radio show (Michael Fitzmaurice took over for the last year), but would reprise his now famous Superman/Clark Kent voice for all 17 of the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons of 1941-1942, as you can listen to up above. During the show's run, he also hosted game shows, and in 1950 he left the show to do Beat the Clock full time. Later, he'd reprise his voice again in the 1966 animated New Adventures of Superman, although arguably it was a very, very different Superman to portray (Double Trouble here).
Collyer had a extensive background in singing, and his voice had a range he could manipulate on a dime. It was this talent that for a large part made Superman's transformation from Clark Kent easily identifible to the listeners. When he was Clark Kent he spoke in a quiet, unassuming voice; as Superman, his voice deepened an octave and took on a commanding tone of a man who could make you bounce like bullets would bounce off of his chest.
And, yes, he invented Kryptonite, or at least caused it to be created. You'd think it came about to knock Superman down a peg, keep him humbled, present the man of steel with a rusty silver bullet, to completely mangle a simile or two. Actually, the show introduced Kryptonite... so Bud Collyer could take a freaking break once in a while. See, while the shows were pre-recorded, they weren't re-run. In a gleaming example of something that was done absolutely, completely awesome, they wouldn't resort to such shenanigans as today's television industry. Recording was constantly scheduled, and Collyer, as I mentioned, had other jobs going on all the time. Introducing an object that could put the Man of Steel out of action in as plausible as a show abouta a man who could put his fist through a locomotive could muster. Kryptonite could reduce Superman into a groaning mess, a role easily filled by a stand in!
Incidentally, giving Collyer his much deserved vacation time was the reason Batman and Robin were later on introduced to the show. Please re-read that last sentence. If you felt a lump of pure joy rise up from your blackened lump of a soul, then you've decided to follow the right blog and become a fan of the right old time radio show.
Showing posts with label kryptonite. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kryptonite. Show all posts
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
What Radio brought to Superman! (1)
To keep up appearances that I am serious about keeping this blog stocked well and often, I'll be sprinkling articles now and then between the episodic reviews. There's a lot of stories about the people behind the show, as well as the general fun it can be to compare and contrast the Superman of today with the Superman-that-was.
Last Post I rattled off a list of major departures that the radio show initially made from the then-two-year-old comic book that beget it. The radio show turned around and added major characters and devices that the comic would later adopt, and so later the serials, the television show, a number of movie, and eventually led to a heavily armed Santa-Superman facing down Twin Hitlers and a army of mutant Batman clones At Earth's End. What? Damnit, wrong decade!
Yes, anyway, we're back in the early 1940's when Superman had yet to strangle himself under years of conflicting continuities, crossovers, and camp. We're back at the time when the radio show introduced:
Perry White - That's right. Superman's editor in the comics was a man named George Taylor (but usually called Chief or 'the Editor'). The show gave us the grumpy, lovable old Perry White, and he took over Taylor's place in the comic book in 1941. Radio's Perry White *is* Perry White, and actors in other medias would depicted him as voice actor Julian Noa did. Perry's a particular favorite of mine, as he's a risk-taker, taking a chance on a resume-less, literally-walked-in-off-the-street greenhorn named Kent to cover a story he claimed could be 'bigger than the Lindbergh Baby!' Also fun was the time he appeared more concerned that a bomb would destroy his presses than he was evacuating the freaking building. His memory is as notoriously short as his temper, going as far as threatening to fire Kent over petty things. Kent, the man who not only broke open many, many sensational Daily Planet exclusives for White, but also saved White's life repeatedly, (and not as Superman). Then again, you don't get to run a newspaper by being soft with your minions. Oh, speaking of soft - hey look it's copy-boy
Jimmy Olsen - Superman's pal, although technically he's the second Jimmy Superman became pals with (see episode 2). (Jimmy was probably introduced to keep with the status quo of heroes having boy sidekicks, a trend begun by Dick Tracy and Junior in the funny papers.) He first shows up as a copyboy employed the Daily Planet, and jumps into our hearts with a tale of woe as his widow mother being shaken down for protection money for her failing candy-store, shit which obviously did not fly with a superman who took the idea of 'shaking down' rather literally. After that Jimmy accompanied Kent on many adventures, some invited, some not; at least he didn't get under foot too much. He certainly never gained super-powers ("Golly!") or had a time machine ("Golly!", Radio Jimmy was more likely to assist Clark with the mystery of the week, getting trapped in a burning hotel, cave-in, or flooding pirate cave. Interestingly, his voice actor was briefly replaced with a prepubescent boy, before resuming the tone of a teenager. And of course, Jimmy found his way back into the comics and even got his own series! In contrast, the first Jimmy appeared in only one episode and we never find out if he ever got to the fair after Superman flew away. Yes, flew because of
Superman's ability to fly - Yep, calling it, Superman flew first on the radio. As I mentioned last post, Comics Superman jumped around with the proportionate strength of a human-size grasshopper; he could glide, but that's not the same thing of being able to fly under your own power, hover, etc (you're just jumping really high and controlling your fall creatively). Try to convey that to a radio audience, however, using a sound-effect. Superman's original 'whoosh' stood in for him flying, not jumping around, and it was easier to describe (and for the audience to picture) a flying man than get into the technicalities of the thing. Depicting Television's Superman flying involved putting a man into a complicated harness, and even that was easier than trying to simulate a jumping Superman, so it follows that form follows function in this case. Regardless, the artifact of Superman's jump-no-fly days seems to be the famous line: "Leap tall buildings with a single bound!". I have to wonder if Superman never was on the radio, if he would have stayed a jumper rather than a flyer.
Kryptonite - Superman's infamous green Achilles' heel. It deserves an article all on its own, because it owes its existence to the benefit of Bud Coyller, the talented voice actor who gave the iconic superhero his first real voice. Although the radio show was pre-recorded ('transcripted'), re-runs were unheard of and production was a constant thing. Writers could give a voice actor a break (or replace them!) ahead of time by writing his or her character out for a few shows, either by having the character not present, unable to speak, or simply have the narrator describe what the character is doing in passing reference (the latter led to a notable storyline where Lois gets in the thick of some gangsters over the course of several shows, without actually saying a line!). Mr. Collyer, of course, was both Superman and Clark Kent, and had a speaking part the vast majority of the shows. Small breaks could be fudged where Collyer could miss a recording session, but in order to give the man a vacation, kryptonite was invented as a way to incapacitate the nigh invincible Superman in a believable manner.
Bonus: On the subject of giving Bud a break, there was one other way his vacations influenced the show. Although the comics had the crossovers first, five years in Batman and Robin started to guest-star in the show, occasionally filling in whole episodes, keeping kryptonite from becoming a one trick pony, or making it come out with other colors than green or some such nonsense as that.
Well, tonight is the night the first episode, 'Baby from Krypton' debuted! I'll be posting it then. Enjoy!
Last Post I rattled off a list of major departures that the radio show initially made from the then-two-year-old comic book that beget it. The radio show turned around and added major characters and devices that the comic would later adopt, and so later the serials, the television show, a number of movie, and eventually led to a heavily armed Santa-Superman facing down Twin Hitlers and a army of mutant Batman clones At Earth's End. What? Damnit, wrong decade!
Yes, anyway, we're back in the early 1940's when Superman had yet to strangle himself under years of conflicting continuities, crossovers, and camp. We're back at the time when the radio show introduced:
Perry White - That's right. Superman's editor in the comics was a man named George Taylor (but usually called Chief or 'the Editor'). The show gave us the grumpy, lovable old Perry White, and he took over Taylor's place in the comic book in 1941. Radio's Perry White *is* Perry White, and actors in other medias would depicted him as voice actor Julian Noa did. Perry's a particular favorite of mine, as he's a risk-taker, taking a chance on a resume-less, literally-walked-in-off-the-street greenhorn named Kent to cover a story he claimed could be 'bigger than the Lindbergh Baby!' Also fun was the time he appeared more concerned that a bomb would destroy his presses than he was evacuating the freaking building. His memory is as notoriously short as his temper, going as far as threatening to fire Kent over petty things. Kent, the man who not only broke open many, many sensational Daily Planet exclusives for White, but also saved White's life repeatedly, (and not as Superman). Then again, you don't get to run a newspaper by being soft with your minions. Oh, speaking of soft - hey look it's copy-boy
Jimmy Olsen - Superman's pal, although technically he's the second Jimmy Superman became pals with (see episode 2). (Jimmy was probably introduced to keep with the status quo of heroes having boy sidekicks, a trend begun by Dick Tracy and Junior in the funny papers.) He first shows up as a copyboy employed the Daily Planet, and jumps into our hearts with a tale of woe as his widow mother being shaken down for protection money for her failing candy-store, shit which obviously did not fly with a superman who took the idea of 'shaking down' rather literally. After that Jimmy accompanied Kent on many adventures, some invited, some not; at least he didn't get under foot too much. He certainly never gained super-powers ("Golly!") or had a time machine ("Golly!", Radio Jimmy was more likely to assist Clark with the mystery of the week, getting trapped in a burning hotel, cave-in, or flooding pirate cave. Interestingly, his voice actor was briefly replaced with a prepubescent boy, before resuming the tone of a teenager. And of course, Jimmy found his way back into the comics and even got his own series! In contrast, the first Jimmy appeared in only one episode and we never find out if he ever got to the fair after Superman flew away. Yes, flew because of
Superman's ability to fly - Yep, calling it, Superman flew first on the radio. As I mentioned last post, Comics Superman jumped around with the proportionate strength of a human-size grasshopper; he could glide, but that's not the same thing of being able to fly under your own power, hover, etc (you're just jumping really high and controlling your fall creatively). Try to convey that to a radio audience, however, using a sound-effect. Superman's original 'whoosh' stood in for him flying, not jumping around, and it was easier to describe (and for the audience to picture) a flying man than get into the technicalities of the thing. Depicting Television's Superman flying involved putting a man into a complicated harness, and even that was easier than trying to simulate a jumping Superman, so it follows that form follows function in this case. Regardless, the artifact of Superman's jump-no-fly days seems to be the famous line: "Leap tall buildings with a single bound!". I have to wonder if Superman never was on the radio, if he would have stayed a jumper rather than a flyer.
Kryptonite - Superman's infamous green Achilles' heel. It deserves an article all on its own, because it owes its existence to the benefit of Bud Coyller, the talented voice actor who gave the iconic superhero his first real voice. Although the radio show was pre-recorded ('transcripted'), re-runs were unheard of and production was a constant thing. Writers could give a voice actor a break (or replace them!) ahead of time by writing his or her character out for a few shows, either by having the character not present, unable to speak, or simply have the narrator describe what the character is doing in passing reference (the latter led to a notable storyline where Lois gets in the thick of some gangsters over the course of several shows, without actually saying a line!). Mr. Collyer, of course, was both Superman and Clark Kent, and had a speaking part the vast majority of the shows. Small breaks could be fudged where Collyer could miss a recording session, but in order to give the man a vacation, kryptonite was invented as a way to incapacitate the nigh invincible Superman in a believable manner.
Bonus: On the subject of giving Bud a break, there was one other way his vacations influenced the show. Although the comics had the crossovers first, five years in Batman and Robin started to guest-star in the show, occasionally filling in whole episodes, keeping kryptonite from becoming a one trick pony, or making it come out with other colors than green or some such nonsense as that.
Well, tonight is the night the first episode, 'Baby from Krypton' debuted! I'll be posting it then. Enjoy!
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