On June 16, 1959, the world awoke to the news that Superman had died. The actor George Reeves, best known for playing the Man of Steel on television in the 1950s, had died early that morning in his Beverly Hills home. Reeves had been killed by a gunshot wound to the head in his upstairs bedroom, while his fiancée and three friends sat downstairs. After a week-long investigation, the police closed the case and ruled Reeves’s death a suicide. Despite being the face of Superman, Reeves had never found the success he sought in Hollywood as a serious film actor, and may have been depressed at the time of his death. But certain strange details of the crime scene and a lack of forensic evidence have kept Reeves’s loved ones and fans wondering for decades. Could Superman have been murdered?
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Our recommendations for this episode:
-The cookbook The Defined Dish https://bit.ly/2ZyMJDZ
-The podcast Your Own Backyard https://apple.co/3pL8qLK
Sources:
-AP, “Superman’s Death Probed.” Times Daily, June 22 1959. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1842&dat=19590622&id=MRUsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=uMgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=892,6038396&hl=en -E.J. Fleming, The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling and the MGM Publicity Machine. McFarland & Company, 2005.
-Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger, Hollywood Kryptonite: the Bulldog, the Lady, and the Death of Superman. St. Martin’s Press, 1996.
-John Patterson, “Who Killed Superman?” The Guardian, November 17 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/nov/18/features.weekend1
-Kristopher Tapley, “The (Tinsel) Town That Ate Superman.” The New York Times, August 20 2006. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/movies/20tapl.html?pagewanted=print
-UPI, “Friends, Businessmen Baffled Over Suicide.” Madera Tribune, June 18 1959. https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MT19590618.2.88&srpos=3&e=------195-en--20--1--txt-txIN-George+Reeves-------1
-“From the Archives: George Reeves, Superman of TV, Kills Himself in His Home.” Los Angeles Times, June 17 1959. https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-george-reeves-19590617-20160615-snap-story.html?_ga=2.178248229.1236962187.1609458293-175684537.1606196362
-“Who killed Superman? An enduring Hollywood mystery.” Independent, March 20 2016. https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/who-killed-superman-an-enduring-hollywood-mystery-34550120.html
-Biography of George Reeves https://www.biography.com/actor/george-reeves
-History of the Pasadena Community Playhouse https://www.pasadenaplayhouse.org/about/
-George Reeves’s filmography on IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001660/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1