Metallurgists as well as movie buffs might want to make plans to attend the 36th Memphis Film Festival next week: The emphasis will be on silver bullets and the Man of Steel.
“Two Great Legends — One Super Celebration” is the slogan for the festival, which will honor the 70th anniversary of Superman and the 75th anniversary of The Lone Ranger when it convenes Thursday, June 5, through Saturday, June 7, at the Whispering Woods Hotel and Conference Center, 11200 E. Goodman Rd. in Olive Branch.
Superman, the Man of Steel, first leaped into action in Action Comics No. 1 in June of 1938. Five years earlier, the silver bullet-slinging masked rider of the Old West, The Lone Ranger, debuted as a radio hero on Jan. 30; 2,965 broadcast episodes followed through 1954.
But although the Memphis Film Festival attracts comic book collectors and old-time radio buffs, the event — as its title implies — is dedicated primarily to movies and televison. Specifically, it focuses on the so-called “golden age” of filmed entertainment, when serials, B Westerns, drive-in science-fiction thrillers, detective dramas and other not-ready-for-prime-time-but-made-to-order-for-Saturday-matinee adventures thrilled the youngsters who are now devoted Memphis Film Festival fans.
To this end, many of the veteran actors and actresses scheduled to attend the festival worked opposite George “Superman” Reeves or Clayton “The Lone Ranger” Moore in episodes of their classic TV series, “Adventures of Superman” (1952-58) and “The Lone Ranger” (1949-57).
The most notable of these is the outspoken Noel Neill, 87, the first actress to play Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane. (Neill also guest-starred on a 1951 episode of “The Lone Ranger.”)
Neill debuted as Lane opposite Kirk Alyn as Clark Kent/Superman in the Columbia serials, “Superman” (1948) and “Atom Man vs. Superman” (1950), which gave viewers the first live-action depiction of the Son of Krypton. (The Bloodshot Eye reviewed these serials here.) Neill returned to the role in 1953, replacing Phyllis Coates as Lois for the final 78 episodes of “Adventures of Superman.”
In fact, Neill — who is making her third Memphis Film Festival appearance — has worked with every major Man of Steel. She made an amusing cameo appearance as young Lois Lane’s mother in the 1978 “Superman” with Christopher Reeve; and two years ago, she had a small but important role as the rich woman bilked by Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) in “Superman Returns” with newcomer Brandon Routh as the alien Earth savior.
“I’m not into all this new stuff, the flashing lights and the big effects, but it was well done,” Neill said of “Superman Returns,” directed by Bryan Singer (“The Usual Suspects,” “X-Men”).
“The boy (Routh) did very good, I think, and the director was a real Superman fan, so he kind of coached the kid,” said Neill, speaking by phone from her home near the beach in Santa Monica. “Very nice boy, very young. The only thing that worried me… I’d heard that the new Lois Lane had an illegitimate child, and I said, ‘Oh no, why did you do that, how am I gonna do all these conventions now, they’ll think I’m a naughty thing…’ And they said, ‘Don’t worry, at the end you’ll realize that maybe the kid is Superman’s child.’ ”
That twist didn’t exactly reassure Neill. In fact, it only served to demonstrate how times of changed since George Reeves wore the famous blue-and-red tights.
“We worked for nothing (on ‘Adventures of Superman’),” Neill said. “So all of the sudden, Jack (Larson, who played Jimmy Olsen) heard, ‘We’re gonna do commercials!,’ and I said, ‘Oh goody, goody, goody, we’re gonna get some extra money.’ ”
The commercials were for Kellogg’s breakfast cereals, because Kellogg’s was a major “Superman” sponsor. “So Jack did his, George (Reeves) did his, John (Hamilton, who played Perry White) did his, and I thought, ‘Wait a minute…’ So I asked one of the guys, ‘Where’s my part?,’ and they said, ‘We decided in the New York office that we can’t do commercials with you having breakfast in the morning with one of the male cast members.’ And I said, ‘For Pete’s sakes.’ If it had been made nowadays, I’d have been in bed with all three of them.”
Neill continued: “People ask me, ‘Why can’t they make shows like ‘Superman’ any more? And I say, well, that’s the fault of the people who run show biz now. All they like to see are the girls with the hooters, as I call it — no talent, any of ‘em.”
A trained singer and dancer and former Paramount contract starlet who appeared in “Henry Aldrich” movies and other youth pictues of the 1940s (the titles are wonderful: “Junior Prom,” High School Queen,” “Campus Sleuth”), Neill has lived for more than 50 years in a “small, “small, modern house” two blocks from the beach in the Santa Monica Canyon that she bought when she was Lois Lane. It was across from “a former artist’s home,” she said, “and it was always such a nice area, but now they’re building a new monstrosity across from me.”
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The Bloodshot Eye: If people visited your home, would they realize you were Lois Lane? Do you display “Superman” memorabilia?
Neill: I have a lot of junk around, mainly from the traveling I do at conventions. Most of the people that remember you, like at the conventions, are so nice, they all kind of walk up to you and sort of hesitate, and I say, “Don’t be afraid, I’ve got gray hair, too.” But you know they grew up with “Superman,” or their father or grandfather would watch it with them, so it’s a nice relationship. All they want to do is ask a question or have a picture taken, so it really makes one happy.
Bloodshot: Is there anything you could possibly say about Lois Lane or Superman that you haven’t said before?
Neill: Of course, I miss George (Reeves) so much, he was such a nice person. Jack (Larson) and I, we’re the only ones left from the show, it’s just the two of us. (Reeves’ gunshot death, ruled a suicide) was such a shock, we were gonna do 26 more shows that year. The producer called me and said, ‘We’re starting in September,’ and I said, ‘Well, wonderful, great.’ So I went by the studio for a wardrobe fitting, and I saw George there, and he was playing gin rummy with George Blair (an “Adventures of Superman” director), a good guy.
And just a few days later this girl called me, a friend of mine from the beach, and she said, “Gee, did you hear what happened to George?” And I thought she meant her husband, and I was about to say, “No big loss,” but anyway I didn’t, and she said, “No, not my husband, I mean George Reeves.” And I said, “What do you mean, what happened to him?… Oh no, it’s not true, I can’t believe it.” So I called Mr. Ellsworth (”Superman” producer Whitney Ellsworth), and he said, “It’s true he committed suicide.” He was such a wonderful person to work with — the good die young, or whatever. [Reeves was 45 when he died.]
Bloodshot: But you’re a person who believes George did not kill himself, aren’t you?
Neill: They didn’t release too much information because of Kellogg’s, and the show being for kids. They didn’t want to make a big horror story of it. But it’s been proved he didn’t commit suicide. Jack (Larson) has kind of switched back to believing the suicide thing, but I can’t believe it.
Bloodshot: Did you see “Hollywoodland” [the recent movie about Reeves’ troubled final days and death, with Ben Affleck as George Reeves]?
Neill: (She begins to hum humorously, to show she doesn’t have anything nice to say about the film.) I had just finished the cameo part I did in the new Superman movie — both Jack and I had gone to Australia to do our little scenes. When I got back I called, and they arranged a screening (of “Hollywoodland”) for me and Larry (Larry Thomas Ward, author of “Truth, Justice, & The American Way: The Life And Times Of Noel Neill”) in Santa Monica. And I sort of had my eyes close through much of it because everybody in it was dead. I said, “Gosh, I can’t believe this awful movie.” It tried to show George as a drinker and a womanizer, which he wasn’t. It was horrible, as far as we were concerned.
Bloodshot: I take it you believe Lois Lane was a good role model…?
Neill: I’ve heard from many, many children and ladies, all through the years, that “All because of Lois Lane, we got into a men’s group,” or “We got to write,” “We got to direct.” “All because of you, I’ve spent my life working in a newspaper.” I think Lois inspired many, many women.
Bloodshot: So, are you going to take credit for Hillary Clinton? Do you think she was a Lois fan?
Neill: I don’t know. People have so many thoughts about her husband, they don’t realize that that episode he went through with that tomato, that was set up by the Republicans.
We don’t get residuals (from “Adventures of Superman”) thanks to Ronald Reagan, who was our president of the guild. [After Reagan was elected in 1959 to an unprecedented sixth term as president of the Screen Actors Guild, he negotiated a deal — still known to disgruntled actors as “The Great Giveaway” — in which the studios did not have to pay actors any residuals for work done before 1960.] He set that up with Wasserman (Lew Wasserman, MCA president and Reagan’s agent) who died (in 2002) a billionaire. I said, “I wonder if he left me anything in his will?”
For more about Neill, read Ward’s book and its new followup, “Beyond Lois Lane,” which focuses on Neill’s pre-”Superman” career. For more about George Reeves and Superman, visit fan Jim Nolt’s site, The Adventure Continues. For more about The Lone Ranger, visit Joe Southern’s site, The Lone Ranger Fan Club.
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