Selling the American Way | Episode 03

Superman's catch phrase became "Truth, Justice, and The American Way," but in reality, Superman's American Way was a part of a much bigger national campaign that was crafted and marketed utilizing the tools of the media - just like the KKK's version of America. Discover who was behind the creation of this set of ideals, how Superman became a face of it, and why.

______________

This podcast was hosted by Marc Bernardin and Roth Cornet.

Created and Executive Produced
Roth Cornet 

Executive Producers
Max Dionne and Michael Chiang

Producers and Writers:
Nancy Rosenbaum
Loretta Williams
Teru Brach
Michelle Dunn
Eileen Guo
Billy Patterson
Gordie Loewen
Brett Boham 
Roth Cornet
and Marc Bernardin

Audio Engineer
Brett Boham

Researchers
Lauren Schwein
Ilana Strauss

Fact Checker
Steven Crighton

Recording was done by
Forever Dog Productions
Voice Trax

Special Thanks To:
Caleb Schneider
Sasha Perl-Raver
Brett Weiner
Eric Eisenberg
Soni Benson
Anne Brashier
Shanna Whitlow
Joe Starr
Avital Ash
Dena Crowder
Danielle Radford
Spencer Gilbert
Lon Harris
Pei Chiu

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
An airplane more powerful than a locomotive, impervious to bullets up.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
At the sky.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Look, it's a furt, it's a fight.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
It's Superman almost run of a big very beginning. Superman's
a multimedium machine.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
I think Superman was effective as a brand because it
did appeal to not just children, it appealed to adults.

Speaker 4 (00:27):
As Certainly Superman was co opted. He was used for propaganda.
So and actually I read someone that one in six
allyed soldiers a superhero comic as they were fighting.

Speaker 5 (00:40):
So we're three episodes into our podcast, Superman Versus the KKK, and.

Speaker 6 (00:44):
For anyone just tuning in, we strongly suggest that you
started episode one so you can understand how we got
here and where we're going.

Speaker 5 (00:50):
In the last episode, we discussed the resurgence and rebranding
of the KKK and their success is a money making
enterprise which capitalized on their chosen ideology hate.

Speaker 6 (01:00):
In this episode, we'll be focusing on Superman and his
meteoric rise from comic strip character to merchandising marvel to
a face of America's war effort in World War Two.

Speaker 5 (01:10):
Superman in the KKK are both intrinsically American inventions, and
when you stand inside by side, they tell a bigger
story about the history of this country.

Speaker 6 (01:18):
Its origins, and what it aspires to be.

Speaker 5 (01:20):
The battle between these two distinctly different forces all comes
down to the idea of who or what best represents
what we'll call the American Way.

Speaker 6 (01:28):
This episode is all about the battle to both create
and to find the idea of that American Way, a
clash which takes place in the mass media, corporate boardrooms,
the halls of government, and kitchen tables everywhere. I'm Roth
Cornette and I'm Mark Bernard, and this is Fandom presents
Superman versus the KKK. So, Mark, I think a lot

(01:52):
of people take for granted today that Superman is this
major brand. I mean, if you see that S symbol
on a T shirt or billboard, you know exactly what
you're looking at and what it stands for.

Speaker 5 (02:03):
The character has been around for close to one hundred
years now, and that's a lot of time to be
building a brand. But still, I think it's worth remembering
that the ideas and ideals we automatically associate with Superman's brand,
things like truth, justice in the American Way, we're all
baked into the character in a very intentional way. It
wasn't just an accident. It was at least in part manufactured.

Speaker 6 (02:24):
What we want to pull out is how things like brands, movements,
and national icons are born and how they influence us.
So in order for Superman to mean something as a brand,
to reach an audience, he needs a platform.

Speaker 5 (02:38):
Starting in the late nineteen thirties, Superman had a decent
sized platform in comic books. First issue of Action Comics
with Superman on the cover sold two hundred thousand copies
in nineteen thirty eight. Soon Superman had his own magazine,
and by nineteen thirty nine, the Superman comic strip was
syndicated in sixty newspapers all over the country.

Speaker 6 (02:55):
And it wasn't just comics. By the early nineteen forties,
Superman was showing up in movies through these animated shorts
produced by Max Fleischer Studios.

Speaker 7 (03:04):
Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a local boater,
able to leap tall buildings at a single bound. This
amazing stranger from the planet Krypton, the Man of Steel.

Speaker 8 (03:17):
Superman.

Speaker 7 (03:20):
In powered with X ray vision, Possessing remarkable physical strength,
Superman fights a never ending battle for Truth and Justice
disguised as a mild man at newspaper reporter Clark Kent.

Speaker 5 (03:36):
It's weird hearing a Superman adventure without John Williams's music.
But those technicolor films screened in thousands of theaters all
over the country. They were like the tasty appetiser before
the main course.

Speaker 6 (03:46):
Yeah, and we have to remember that the KKK's messaging
was also disseminated, at least in part, via reels that
played ahead of movies. So they're using the same tools
with very different aims but equally powerful results, getting their
brand out there to a mass audience.

Speaker 5 (04:02):
Yeah. And for Superman, these animated shorts were a new
media vehicle beyond comic books that both transmitted and defined
the character and all that he stood for.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
And so it became obvious that there was real interest
beyond just children reading comic books. The character was intriguing
enough to adult that there was definitely an appeal there.

Speaker 6 (04:24):
That's Michael Hayden. He wrote a book called Flights of Fantasy,
The Unauthorized but true story of Radio and TV's Adventures
of Superman.

Speaker 5 (04:31):
Throughout this episode, he'll help us to understand how Superman
became this iconic brand as well as a multimedia and
merchandising machine.

Speaker 6 (04:38):
Soup's multimedia rise started back in the nineteen thirties with
a couple of scrappy guys, the sons of Jewish immigrants
who grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan,
enter Harry Donenveld and Jack Lee Bowitz. Donnenvild bought the
rights to Superman from the characters original creators, Jerry Siegel
and Joe Schuster for just one hundred and thirty dollars
on March first, nineteen thirty eight. But before that, mister

(05:03):
Donnenfeld actually published works of a very different variety, the spicy.

Speaker 5 (05:08):
Kind spicy like how like salt and pepper, and like paprika.

Speaker 6 (05:13):
Well have you ever heard of pulp fiction? Oh?

Speaker 5 (05:16):
Oh yeah, yeah? The dime store novels, right, the naughty.

Speaker 6 (05:21):
Books, Yes, yes, yes, and the Tarantino film of the
same name was inspired by these types of racy, action
based genre stories that appeared in magazines printed on low
quality paper that was manufactured from wood pulps, hence pulp fiction.
They had titles like Naughty but Dead and the nympho
used a knife to do?

Speaker 4 (05:43):
What?

Speaker 9 (05:43):
What was she?

Speaker 6 (05:44):
Doing with the knife.

Speaker 5 (05:46):
Danafeld branded himself as the go to writer for these
types of stories. His publications actually had spicy in most
of their titles.

Speaker 6 (05:53):
Some fun titles include Spicy Adventure, Spicy Detectives, Spicy Mystery,
Spicy Spice, how is that? The sixth unknown and now
dead sadly spice Girl.

Speaker 5 (06:04):
So he was essentially a pornography wordsmith, got it, and
he goes from that to comic.

Speaker 6 (06:09):
Books right in part because his business partner, an account
named Jack Leebowitz, wanted to do something more respectable than
pedal those spicy stories. And as Michael Haye tells it,
Donofeld was just fine with that so long as the
money kept flowing on in.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
Well, he was first and foremost a businessman. Donenfeld was
mainly interested, as any businessman would be, in making money,
and there was money to be had in publishing erotic fiction.
It's more Leebowitz than it is Donnenfeld who made Superman
successful because he was so insistent on pursuing something that

(06:45):
was not pornographic. But Donnenfeld just it wasn't that important
to him. The important thing was to make money, and
the important thing was to have a successful publication and
to go with what worked, So Donafel.

Speaker 6 (06:58):
Bought out a comic book publisher and launch Detective Comics.
You may recognize it by its more common Moniker DC comics.

Speaker 5 (07:04):
There's a parallel to the KKK even in the building
of Superman as an industry. As we saw there, some
of the people behind the rise of the KKK in
the nineteen twenty seemed primarily interested in money. Others were
interested in spreading their ideologies, some both. Now, we want
to be really mindful about creating any false equivalencies.

Speaker 8 (07:22):
Right.

Speaker 6 (07:23):
The KKK is a violent terrorist organization founded on hate,
so there's no question about intent there. Superman is an
artistic creation with a lot of goodwill and intent behind him,
and to like most hugely popular and influential characters, has
a nuanced history.

Speaker 5 (07:39):
Their creators are simply using similar tools in an effort
to define Americanism.

Speaker 6 (07:43):
And as we'll start to see with Superman, some want
to use the character to make money and some want
to use him to disseminate ideas, and occasionally those two
goals sync.

Speaker 3 (07:52):
Up almost run of the very beginning. Superman's a multimedia machine.
Contemporary culture might create a character it becomes huge sets
and like operates on all these different platforms things like that.
But that's not a new idea. That's actually an old idea.
The platforms changed, but the idea remains the same.

Speaker 5 (08:09):
That was Julian Chambliss. He's a professor of English and
history at Michigan State University. And I don't think he'd
be offended if I called him a comic book nerd,
given that I'd probably say the same thing about myself.
But I'd also like us to hear what he's saying.
The platforms change, but the ideas remain the same.

Speaker 6 (08:24):
Now, a guy like Donneveld isn't necessarily interested in ideas.
He's very interested in dollars, however, and you can imagine
how he sees the potential to make a big pile
of money off Superman.

Speaker 5 (08:35):
And not just off the comic books, but by manufacturing
merchandise swag if you.

Speaker 6 (08:39):
Will, swag on steroids. So in nineteen thirty nine, Donnifield
and Lebo had started Superman, Inc. The entity that controlled
the Superman trademark, and almost immediately they were signing licensing
deals left and right and pushing out all kinds of products.

Speaker 5 (08:54):
Like Superman costumes, one of which I had as a kid.

Speaker 6 (08:57):
I would love to see a picture of baby Mark
and his Superman costume.

Speaker 5 (09:01):
Unfortunately, for all of you listening at home this is
a podcast. You can't see what I'm wearing right now
because it's the costume. It still fits.

Speaker 6 (09:11):
We're gonna do a whole podcast and how that miracle
of modern textiles took place.

Speaker 5 (09:16):
Indeed, stretchy mass stretchy.

Speaker 6 (09:18):
So, speaking of merch, there were also jigsaw puzzles and pans,
and even a Superman branded muscle building hit which came
with a measuring tape so you could conveniently track how
big your muscle's got.

Speaker 5 (09:29):
Here's Michael Hayte again.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
While there were Superman ray guns, and there were Superman
film strip machines, and there were Superman records. Eventually, after
the radio show was.

Speaker 9 (09:40):
Launched, Superman Superman, the guy with the terrific muscle, Superman, Superman.
His blood is one big red corp puzzle Superman super Man.

(10:01):
He's always in perfect condition. No sniffles, no sneezes, no germs,
no diseases.

Speaker 8 (10:08):
What a man?

Speaker 9 (10:09):
What a man?

Speaker 6 (10:10):
That was Freddy Schnickelfritz Fisher and his orchestra, and the
song was of course called Superman.

Speaker 5 (10:17):
That is the hottest like forty five that nobody's talking about. Hey, listen,
we could go right now to number one of the
Billboard charts with muscle corpuscle rhyme schemes.

Speaker 6 (10:29):
I also was just thinking, like, wow, a lot of pressure,
Like no germs, no sneezes, you weaklings who get sick.

Speaker 5 (10:37):
I'm so much better than all of you.

Speaker 6 (10:39):
What a many mighty good man.

Speaker 5 (10:41):
What a mighty mighty good man. I never knew that
a Salt and Peppa jam was about the last son
of Krypton.

Speaker 6 (10:49):
Well, we're learning things in this podcast, things.

Speaker 10 (10:52):
Like in nineteen forty alone, Levos and Donnefeld netted one
hundred thousand dollars from selling this kind of birch, all
of the merch we've talking about.

Speaker 6 (11:01):
That's close to two million dollars to day, and it
just kept growing. Also, they weren't just selling stuff to kids.
They marketed products to adults too.

Speaker 5 (11:09):
You mean, like Superman shaving cream.

Speaker 6 (11:11):
And Superman certified gasoline.

Speaker 5 (11:13):
And Superman branded white bread, which is about the most
perfect thing I've ever heard.

Speaker 6 (11:19):
I mean, I guess immediately the big blue boy Scout
was being marketed as an all American symbol. If we
consider white bread an American symbol, question.

Speaker 5 (11:28):
Mark, we very much do.

Speaker 6 (11:30):
Oh sad like that might be the saddest.

Speaker 5 (11:34):
What's more American than white bread? Not pumper Nickel's not
get crazy, not right, don't be silly.

Speaker 6 (11:41):
In any event, we do want to look at merchandising
and kind of like pull that out because it does
mean something when it comes to consumer identity. When people
wear a Superman T shirt, it's because they believe that
what the character stands for also says something about who
they are and ideally what they represent. And the idea
of a line yourself with and belonging to you something

(12:02):
that has meaning is very attractive.

Speaker 5 (12:04):
And it's important to note that the KKK marketed and
sold in identity and a sense of belonging a sinister
belonging based on violence and the exclusion of others.

Speaker 6 (12:12):
Superman was providing a sense of strength, both physically and
of character.

Speaker 5 (12:17):
That mix of power and justice was part of the
character's appeal from the very start, and.

Speaker 6 (12:22):
As Michael Hayde has been telling us, Superman was impactful
enough not just as a character, but as a brand
to appeal to a mass market of American consumers.

Speaker 5 (12:30):
Money roth makes the world go round.

Speaker 6 (12:33):
It does, damn it.

Speaker 5 (12:35):
So if Superman is going to make more money, he
needs an even bigger platform than comics.

Speaker 6 (12:39):
And in the early nineteen forties, the biggest platform around
was radio.

Speaker 5 (12:44):
Let's set the scene. You're finishing up your homework as
your mother pulls her signature meat loaf out of the oven.
Your father enters, hello, family, and sets down his briefcase,
which he's never opened because he doesn't have a real job.
After sneakily feeding your mother's hard as a rock meatloaf
to the family dog under the table, you watch your
father poor himself no bourbons, and the whole family gathers
in the living room.

Speaker 6 (13:02):
Dad, you have alcohol place.

Speaker 10 (13:07):
Well, it's a little grim of a picture of American
life in the nineteen forties, But whether that's true then
and now, the media was certainly different.

Speaker 6 (13:14):
In the nineteen thirties and forties. There was no internet,
no cell phones, no social media. People read newspapers and
they called their friends on something called a rotary telephone.
A lucky few had televisions, but most Americans got their
news and entertainment from the radio.

Speaker 11 (13:32):
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, this is your out on
news reporter where last minute hit the spot news brought
to you four.

Speaker 5 (13:38):
So let's reclibrate ourselves to the media landscape of the time.
It was the golden age of radio. People bought radios
that were the size of a living room easy chair,
and people gathered around them to listen, not just to
the news, but to all sorts of programs.

Speaker 9 (13:51):
Oh no, what evil looks in the hearts of men?

Speaker 8 (13:57):
Shadown knows?

Speaker 6 (14:00):
And here's an important thing to understand. The radio, along
with newspapers, was the mass media of the day.

Speaker 9 (14:08):
Chatter the Long Auburn Long, whom Lucy it's a little run.

Speaker 6 (14:19):
So around nineteen thirty two, comic book characters were suddenly
being packaged and produced as radio serials. Here's Michael Hate again.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
There was Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, all of these
speaking around the radio.

Speaker 7 (14:32):
Okay, then here we go five hundred years into the future.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
What made Superman on the radio appealing was the fact
that it had such a vast audience. Radio was the
primary media in those days, and more people listened to
the lowest rated radio show than read the most successful
comic book. There was no reason to not have a

(15:02):
Superman radio show, So that is where Bob Maxwell came in.

Speaker 5 (15:06):
Let's get into the mysterious Bob Maxwell.

Speaker 6 (15:09):
He's arguably the man most responsible for Superman's overwhelming success
on the radio and later in television.

Speaker 5 (15:15):
Robert Maxwell Jeffy grew up in a middle class Jewish
family in Brooklyn, New York. Maxwell started his career as
a freelance writer, and.

Speaker 6 (15:22):
One of his early gigs was writing some of those
spicy stories for Donnenfeld, stories with titles like he had
push and bought and paid.

Speaker 5 (15:30):
For I feel like somehow they had a randomize it.
That also made it dirty because he had push are
three words that don't necessarily mean bad, but yeah.

Speaker 6 (15:39):
What's even more impressive than taking over Superman Inc. Is
that he was also responsible for very early erotic algorithms.

Speaker 5 (15:46):
Outstanding and I can only imagine that the plotlines were
chuck full of saucy scandals.

Speaker 6 (15:52):
Yeah, well in any of it. By nineteen thirty nine,
Donnenfeld had recruited Maxwell into a Superman Inc. Inner circle.
Maxwell's job to license Superman's ancillary rights.

Speaker 5 (16:02):
So he was a big part of all that merch
selling and brand building.

Speaker 6 (16:05):
And then Donneveldt asked Maxwell to figure out how to
launch Superman into the stratosphere.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
Here's Michael hate again, because in addition to being an
author of the type of fiction that don Enfeld was publishing,
he also had some radio experience, and so consequently, when
it came time to think about moving Superman to radio,
don Enfeld thought, well, here's a guy I've been working

(16:32):
with who's a really good writer, and he's had radio experience,
so why not let's bring him on board.

Speaker 5 (16:38):
We have to remember that comic books and superheroes were
really new to this era. This was a completely new
form of media entertainment storytelling. Comics were popular, but radio
could reach a mass audience in market in ways that
comics would never be able to.

Speaker 6 (16:50):
And Maxwell was already in the business of selling Superman
merchandise to the masses, so he definitely had insights about
the characters marketing potential and appeal was.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
Just literally getting to more ears and getting the character
introduced into more households. And of course there was also
the hope that the radio show would sell more comic books.
I mean, it existed because of the comic book and
the comic strip. So the more successful you are in
a different media, hopefully that will bounce back and make

(17:24):
your original medium even more successful than it had been.

Speaker 6 (17:28):
And this is very similar today. Comic movies and shows
generate billions in revenue, but the comics are based on
have a much smaller audience.

Speaker 5 (17:35):
And just think, if Superman hadn't made the lead to
radio and eventually to television, we might not be talking
about him today on this podcast or anywhere else.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
There's no character who began in the nineteen thirties in
a comic book or a comic strip that has continued
into the twenty first century that didn't also transition successfully
to a more mainstream media such as radio or television.

(18:07):
These characters had to transition to mainstream media in order
to find mainstream acceptance, and.

Speaker 6 (18:15):
That mainstream acceptance meant two things. The impact was more
profound and widespread, and the nature of what the character
represented was far more vetted and constructed.

Speaker 5 (18:24):
Precisely so, on February twelfth, nineteen forty, the Adventure of
Superman made its debut as a pre recorded syndicated radio show.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
Boys and Girls, your attention, please presenting a new exciting
radio program featuring the thrilling adventures of an amazing and
incredible personality. Faster than an airplane, more powerful than a locomotive, impervious,
two bullets up in the sky. Look, it's a plan,

(18:52):
It's Superman.

Speaker 6 (18:58):
So at the start of its run, the show aired
three times a week on eleven stations around the United
States and overseas in places like the Philippines and Cuba.

Speaker 5 (19:06):
Ah, so Superman is not just for Americans anymore. He
could take to the skies and fly around the globe. Well,
not yet fly.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
But leap, able to leap into the air an eighth
of a mile at a single bound hurdle a twenty
story building with these raise a high powered bullet to
its target, lift tremendous weights, and rends solid steel in
his bare hands as though it were paper.

Speaker 5 (19:27):
Superman superpower set was growing. Imagine you're a kid in
the nineteen forties and you're really into the Superman comics.
Then all of a sudden, you go from reading a
comic book to actually hearing him come to life with
an actual voice and all those amazing radio sound effects.

Speaker 11 (19:40):
There's the cottage high up on the wooded Cliff all right,
I sir.

Speaker 6 (19:45):
It definitely made him feel more real, which in turn
made him even more powerful as an icon. Here's Michael
Hayte again.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
The radio show launched that February, and that made a
huge difference because now you could actually hear your actors
portraying these characters. And if the show had appealed to
men in its comic strip form, it now had an
appeal to women on the radio because housewives were mainly

(20:14):
housewives in those days, were listening to the show along
with their children, and they were enjoying the masculinity of
Superman and even of Clark Kent, and perhaps even living
vicariously through Lois Slaine, who was a very spirited reporter.

Speaker 12 (20:32):
Oh the boy wonder huh?

Speaker 13 (20:34):
Or I'm Slaine, what do you mean?

Speaker 14 (20:36):
Tell me?

Speaker 1 (20:36):
I talked yourself into a job when out west and
came back with the biggest story of the month, all
in less than a week.

Speaker 14 (20:41):
Now.

Speaker 6 (20:41):
Of course, we're speculating here and elsewhere on the demo
and what Superman may or may not have meant to
listeners and communities, but.

Speaker 5 (20:48):
It sounds like Superman is broadly appealing to this mass
audience of children, housewives, and the types of men who
were in the market for that Superman shaving cream and gasoline.
They were hawking.

Speaker 6 (20:57):
That's really it, Mark because tying these things to get
was the key. The comics paved the way for the merchandising,
which paved the way for the radio, which widened the
brand appeal to a much larger audience who could then
circle back and buy all of the merchandising in the
comics and.

Speaker 5 (21:10):
As a giant pile of money isn't much.

Speaker 6 (21:14):
And Superman's brand and visibility only kept growing when Mutual
Broadcasting System picked up Adventures of Superman as a national
program in nineteen forty two. It aired every weekday on
two hundred stations and had an audience of four million listeners.
It was one of the most popular kids radio shows
at that time.

Speaker 5 (21:32):
I mean, if you had four million of an audience
for anything today, it's still pretty great.

Speaker 6 (21:38):
It's really great today, especially today.

Speaker 5 (21:40):
Yeah, no kidding. And so back then when a get
lots of houses had radios, but not every house did.
That's a huge number of people.

Speaker 6 (21:46):
Right, So it's growing and growing. And then just one
year later, Megabrand Kellogg's signed on as a national sponsor.

Speaker 15 (21:53):
This is the time when many of you are starting
back to school, and that sometimes means that you have
less time for breakfast than you're used to. But don't
get that you need a good, hearty breakfast just as
much now as you didn't vacation, perhaps even more right
there is where that super delicious cereal Kellogg's Pep can
do you a doubly good turn. And what's more, every
regular one ounce bull full of pep gives you more
vitamin B one and more Vitamin D and you can

(22:15):
get in any other nationally advertised wheat flake cereal.

Speaker 8 (22:18):
I'm wanting to bet you be.

Speaker 15 (22:19):
Right back for a second bowlful when you finished the first,
because those crisp flavorsome flakes have so much grand flavor.

Speaker 5 (22:27):
Wow. Yeah, something tells me vitamins are not the only
thing they're in path.

Speaker 6 (22:32):
They're not, according to that announcer, but the other ones
that I wanted us to hear. There's there's a series
of these pep commercials that are basically just threatening. I
mean they're like they're like, it's your pep because you
know they are like literally like kids in other countries
are starving, But this implication really isn't just like you
should be grateful, but like it's because of you that

(22:54):
they will starve. If you do not finish your bowl,
your whole bowl of pep, it will be on you
and no one else. Oh damn advertising and media manipulating
you to each your damn pet.

Speaker 15 (23:06):
And remember the name pet pep.

Speaker 5 (23:10):
Here's Michael haytinggain Well.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
I think Kellogg's signed on because they had the opportunity
to sponsor nationally a proven property. As one market proved successful,
that led to two more markets, which led to four
more markets, which led to eight more markets, and it
just grew exponentially.

Speaker 6 (23:28):
So now the reach has grown a lot, and Superman's
getting ready to add mind control over the audience to
his power set. I mean, I gid but kind of. Again.
The radio was a big part of the mass media
the day, and as we've been saying, media in all
its form, both subtly and overtly, shapes how we view ourselves,
our culture and each other, which in turn directs our actions,
decisions and the world.

Speaker 5 (23:49):
That's what you're saying is for every action, there's an
equal and opposite reaction.

Speaker 6 (23:53):
I mean, we're going on to something all media we
consume affects us positively negatively, and whether we want it,
we're not. And oftentimes we were not even really discerning
that in the moment.

Speaker 5 (24:03):
I mean, if you think about it, though, we're the media,
so technically we're manipulating you, the listener.

Speaker 6 (24:10):
Right now, Superman is a hero, but he's still a
working part of the mass media machine. So what do
you reasonably expect of us?

Speaker 5 (24:22):
As far as Soups is concerned. On his way through
the labyrinth towards mainstream acceptance, Superman became a symbol of
American culture and a defining factor of the American way.

Speaker 6 (24:31):
And a key here is that, now that people are listening,
what are they being told and sold? Besides the very
scary pep.

Speaker 5 (24:39):
This is how the story of a little alien from
out our space became so deeply tied to American identity.
Here's Julian Chandler's and this.

Speaker 3 (24:46):
Is a really important part of the American meet thos,
right Like, this is a country of emmigrants. This is
a place where you can come start over and make
something of yourself. And one of the things about Superman
as a as a character is that he's he's almost
the perfect immigrant, right. He arrives when he's very young.

(25:07):
He grows up in the heartland, the Midwest, which we
often associate with some like pure American values. Then he
goes to the city and he uses his sort of
like innate immigrant traits and the values that he learned
growing up in the heartland, and he makes the city better.

Speaker 16 (25:27):
Right.

Speaker 3 (25:27):
So he's a character that really combines a lot of
the aspirational cultural mythologies of the American mindset and really
creates a baseline by which other characters that come later
I never sort to, you know, take different strands up
and follow them to create their versions of Superman.

Speaker 5 (25:50):
And what better way to keep selling product after product
than by creating more and more versions of Superman to
appeal to more and more customers.

Speaker 6 (25:58):
And people genuinely love super Even if his grand adventures
weren't one hundred percent relatable, people had the potential to
discover their own identities through his actions and ideology.

Speaker 5 (26:08):
Here's comic book writer Jean Jung Yang, who actually wrote
a new version of the Klan of the Fiery Cross
storyline in twenty nineteen.

Speaker 17 (26:14):
One of the reasons I was so drawn to not
just Superman but superheroes in general is because at the
center of this genre is this idea of dual identity.
And I felt like I lived a dual identity once
I was a kid. I had a Chinese name at home,
I had an American name at school. I spoke two
different languages when at home and when at school. And
part of growing up was figuring out how to marry

(26:36):
these two things together, how to merge them together into
a single, unified hole.

Speaker 5 (26:41):
And here's Matthew Delmont, a professor of history at Dartmouth College.

Speaker 18 (26:45):
I think the idea that there could potentially be a
superhero like figure, a Superman type character who could sort
of soup in and save the day is what a
lot of people who are facing racism and other acts
of acts of violence.

Speaker 5 (27:00):
Would like to see.

Speaker 18 (27:01):
They'd like to see the federal government or some other
powerful agency or person you have to kind of swoop
in and fix things.

Speaker 5 (27:10):
Okay, so all these things seem like good things, right.
Superman gave people hope and help them find peace within
their identities. But Roth, we're also here to look at
how the medium manipulates us.

Speaker 6 (27:19):
Oh it does, Yeah, I mean we also want to
consider that multiple things can be true at the same time,
we contain multitudes. You know, Superman was and is a
very needed symbol of hope. We need the aspirational characters
and stories that artists bring us, and we need to
understand the complex nature of those characters and stories. And
we also need to understand and own the truth of

(27:42):
our world in history. We need it all.

Speaker 5 (27:43):
Mark, Yes, stands for hope, but on our world just
an ass and just the fact that Superman, who in
the identity of Clark Kent is a white man who
grew up in the Midwest, is the one taking on
the KKK something that deserves consideration, which'll be doing further on.

Speaker 6 (28:01):
And like we've been saying, Superman was not just peddling
pajamas anymore. He'd already been doing this to a degree,
both consciously and not, but now with a much bigger
and broader audience clinging to his every word, Superman started
selling ideas.

Speaker 5 (28:14):
That part. So in order to understand how Superman started
selling ideas and not just merch, we need to take
a step back and talk about the historical context of
the nineteen forties.

Speaker 6 (28:27):
A newsreel clip at the time, which aired about a
year before the US joined the war. Effort shows US
soldiers holding a flag of Superman posing with his chest
puffed up in front of a military tank. I mean,
they're practically adopting Superman as the military's official mascot.

Speaker 5 (28:43):
Here. Pretty astonishing that the job would eventually go to
an old, white bearded and might I say, somewhat condescending
guy by the name of Uncle Sam. We want you.

Speaker 6 (28:53):
It's the finger wag for me. It's just rude, more
similar to Superman, if I do say so. Myself is
Rosy the Riveter. She made her debut a year after
the US entered the war with a strong message to
match her belging BICEP. We can do it.

Speaker 5 (29:07):
I mean, I don't see how you're not inspired by
Rosie the Riveter.

Speaker 6 (29:11):
Her creators would be so happy to hear it, because
she was invented for a very specific purpose to inspire
women to enter the workforce, replacing men that were serving
in the art forces. But what all these characters have
in common is that they're all used as propaganda to
promote the idea to the public that America will win
the war if all Americans pitch in and do their part.

Speaker 5 (29:31):
And it's pretty misleading to have Superman take up the
torch as the symbol of the US military might because
Superman literally has super strength and the only thing they
can to hurt him is kryptonite. The Man of Steel
is more like a tank than that infantry soldier.

Speaker 6 (29:45):
Right, And that actually created some challenges for the show eventually.
But in this instance, these soldiers were meant to be
inspired to believe that they were just as brave and
strong and invincible as Superman, but they're preparing to fight
an actual war with life or death consc sequences.

Speaker 5 (30:00):
It certainly blurs the line between fact and fiction.

Speaker 6 (30:03):
And furthering the character's advocacy for American values. Starting in
nineteen thirty nine, kids were being encouraged to join something
called the Superman of America Club. Anyone who signed up
got a letter in the mail from Superman.

Speaker 19 (30:17):
Dear member, the Superman of America Club stands for traditional
American ideals, and by following the precepts of a motto, strength, courage, injustice,
you have the foundation for building a good character and
becoming a useful American citizen, which will make our parents
proud of you.

Speaker 6 (30:30):
Okay, well, let's break this down. This is some of
the most direct language to date that specifically paints Superman
as a symbol of Americanism, cheering on children to become
useful American citizens.

Speaker 5 (30:42):
It almost sounds like a form of nationalism. I'd be
remiss if we didn't note the similarities here to the
messaging used by the KKK, though again, we're not creating
a false equivalency.

Speaker 6 (30:51):
Right, It's more about pointing out that the methods and
language used to disseminate the ideologies can be very similar.
Even exact Club is also pretty blatantly saying that if
you are not fully invested in these traditional American ideals,
then your parents will not be proud of you. Not
to mention supermen of America.

Speaker 5 (31:10):
Listen, I'm much rather being Rosie the Riveters Club.

Speaker 8 (31:13):
Me too.

Speaker 6 (31:14):
I mean, I get it. There was a war, it
was a just war, and in order to get through it,
there needed to be a willingness to come together for
a greater good. Even if the techniques are similar, the
motives are not purely corrupt and vicious in the way
the KKKS were.

Speaker 5 (31:27):
And what's interesting is this idea of children being useful
American citizens also started seeping into the content of the
Adventures of Superman radio show. Once the US officially entered
World War Two in December of nineteen forty one, Mutual
Broadcasting gave the US Treasury airtime for public service announcements.

Speaker 7 (31:43):
But before we joined Superman, here is an important method.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
It was a time of sacrifice. The sacrifice did not
extend just to the parents.

Speaker 16 (31:51):
Those girls don't ever get the idea there's nothing you
can do to help win this war.

Speaker 14 (31:56):
Just because you can't.

Speaker 16 (31:57):
Join the army, it doesn't mean that you can't see
part of this big fight. To preserve the American way
of life.

Speaker 2 (32:03):
Children were being asked to do their part two not
only on the radio, but schools were sponsoring these things
as well, and the neighborhood movie house.

Speaker 16 (32:12):
Well, we're all members of the civilian army and the
best way we can help our boys out in the
front is to buy war saving damps and bonds and
buy them regularly.

Speaker 2 (32:23):
So it wasn't just Superman. It was prevalent that messaging
was coming across everywhere and it was a way of
emulating what your parents were doing.

Speaker 16 (32:34):
Now, how did that help, Well, let me tell you,
it helps our government to finance this war. It helps
to buy guns and tanks and planes and all the
other things the Army, Navy and Marines need to knock
out the Jats and the Nazi.

Speaker 2 (32:46):
If you could kick in a dime for a stamp,
that was considered to be a very patriotic and necessary
thing to do.

Speaker 16 (32:55):
Do all you dat to build up the sale of
war saving damps and bonds, and that's what you can
do to help win the war.

Speaker 6 (33:03):
As Michael Hates's commentary in there points out, these culture
producers and the US government were spreading messages about American
values and the importance of unifying against a common enemy
to both children and adults, and they were using Superman,
sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly to achieve that. Duke University historian
Adrian Lent Smith also speaks about this.

Speaker 20 (33:24):
They did use Superman for things like, you know Office
of War information posters where Superman is fighting the Japan Nazis,
as they put it right, to create a sense of
an enemy external and a unity internal.

Speaker 4 (33:43):
I think that as certainly Superman was co opted, he
was used for propaganda. So it actually I read someone
that one in six Allied soldiers how to Superhero comic
as they were fighting.

Speaker 5 (33:55):
That's Rabbi Simka Weinstein. We heard from him in our
first episode. He wrote a book called Up Up and
Oi how Jewish history, culture and value shaped the comic
book Superhero. He's pointing out that superheroes were a deliberate
part of the war effort.

Speaker 4 (34:07):
I believe it was Captain America was the first superhero
to openly engage in the war. And the first issue
has which was six months before Pearl Harbor, has Captain
America's smashing hitler across the face. I mean that was
must have been a wild, wild thing. And I did
read that Kirby, one of the creators of Captain America.
It was literally enlisted and had to go to the

(34:29):
front lines to draw reconnaissance. So that's just wild and
the beaches of France that the creator of Captain America
was literally drawing the enemy for real, and his creation
is still in the box office today. So it's really
life imitating art, or maybe the other way around.

Speaker 5 (34:46):
And it wasn't just Steve Rogers. Storylines and supervillains that
populated the Adventures of Superman radio show during this era
were especially reflective of a world of war.

Speaker 6 (34:55):
Even before the US entered the war in nineteen forty one,
Bob Maxwell and the writers begame and producing stories where
Superman foes that were essentially proxies for the Nazis. Mark,
please introduce us to some of these Axis power villains
my pleasure.

Speaker 5 (35:12):
Doctor Deutsch, an evil German agent who is trying to
get his hands in some radium, made his debut in
May nineteen forty one. Here is a scene where doctor
Deutsch has a confrontation with Lois Lane and newspaper editor
Perry White.

Speaker 21 (35:27):
Will never be able to kill any run in disbur
that you have met me. My name is doctor port Dutch.
I thought so, But did you think he didn't think anything?

Speaker 6 (35:36):
Hegum Dwight.

Speaker 21 (35:37):
You have perpectly have wife Noll. But I know your
kind Deutsch, and if you think you can get anywhere
in this country, you're crazy. This is in France or
Belgium or Finland. This is America. We like our freedom
and we're going to keep it in spite of wretch
like you.

Speaker 5 (35:52):
Then some fighting words, mister White.

Speaker 6 (35:54):
Yeah, I mean we're not winning any friends in Europe
in any event. When the United States officially entered War
or two in December of nineteen forty one, Bob Maxwell,
the mastermind behind Superman, Inc. And the radio show, started
pushing the boundaries of his power and influence on the
show in order to take on Nazism into.

Speaker 5 (36:12):
The Wolf, who first showed up as a railroad saboteur
in nineteen forty oh In nineteen forty two, he was
recast as a Nazi agent. He'll bent on destroying a
train carrying US troops.

Speaker 11 (36:23):
There he is facing the door, ready to shoot. All right, Wolf,
this is the end.

Speaker 7 (36:29):
No ch, same bank, shoot ahead that empty your gun?

Speaker 8 (36:36):
No all thor now it might art now.

Speaker 16 (36:46):
And last?

Speaker 15 (36:47):
Sorry, long did you Wolf?

Speaker 11 (36:48):
I'll just leave you there crumpled in the corner until
a police break in along rat.

Speaker 6 (36:54):
Clearly Maxwell had a thing against rats.

Speaker 5 (36:56):
Well, he is from New York, after all, they got
rats the size of media that's for.

Speaker 6 (37:01):
So we have doctor Deutsch the Wolf. And then in
nineteen forty four, Maxwell introduces another German supervillain, de.

Speaker 5 (37:08):
Teufhol Deteifel literally means the devil in German. These are
no longer subtle references. They're pretty overt.

Speaker 6 (37:15):
Knowing that he's a Nazi scientist who specializes in atomic weapons,
he's the villain that introduces Kryptonity.

Speaker 11 (37:24):
Good evening. Yes, you wanted to see me, didn't you.
I was that telephone call? Your idea of a joke.
The dev does not joke, my friend. And drop that
toy pistol. It's the funniest thing I've seen in a
long time. You will not find it so funny when
I press the trigger. You are a Nazi, an't you?
And evidently you haven't been here very long, otherwise you'd

(37:44):
know that guns don't frighten me.

Speaker 15 (37:45):
Not drop it.

Speaker 8 (37:46):
Stand back, your fool.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
This is no ordinary gun.

Speaker 11 (37:49):
Ordinary or not. I'm going to kick you, see and
you cannot move the atomic dement something you get in
your friends?

Speaker 8 (37:57):
What is it? What?

Speaker 3 (37:59):
What happening?

Speaker 8 (38:00):
Give?

Speaker 21 (38:00):
It's the beginning of a new order.

Speaker 8 (38:03):
I am holding you you.

Speaker 6 (38:08):
Okay? Is leis ever not tied up? Kind of like
he's kind of a yeah.

Speaker 5 (38:17):
And also that's your German accent, dude, like come on? Otherwise,
no notes. I think it's great.

Speaker 6 (38:22):
I think it's a genius. I think it's like Superman's
kind of being a jerk in a way that I
appreciate well deserved against this villain, of course, But the accent.
We have questions about, but if you've seen House of Gucci,
we're not necessarily any better today with the accents.

Speaker 5 (38:39):
Indeed, and so clearly Maxwell seems to be going all in.
I'm using German and also Japanese villains.

Speaker 6 (38:44):
He allegedly got a lot of pushback from parents who
complained that the radio show could be too violent and
unmistakably racist. Then, in nineteen forty three, the Office of
War Information OWI sent a letter to Superman, Inc. Which
kicked off a war of words between Maxwell and the
American war machine.

Speaker 5 (39:01):
Wartime unity propaganda was a major focus of the o
WI during World War Two. They used their connections in
both Hollywood and the advertising industry to push messages through
popular culture. Superman was a part of that.

Speaker 6 (39:12):
And apparently the OWI didn't jibe with how Maxwell was
producing his own kind of propaganda for millions of American children.
Here's an excerpt from owi's letter.

Speaker 5 (39:22):
Okay, hold on, I want to get the voice of
propaganda machine just right.

Speaker 19 (39:27):
The notion that it is necessary to hate our enemies
is crude and childish and unreal, and the invention of
frustrated civilians who don't know anything about war. The notion
is morally contemptible and socially disastrous. Back of it all
is a profound for the servical distinction between hatred of
evil and the.

Speaker 5 (39:45):
Evil doer OWI is basically telling Maxwell not to classify
all Germans as Nazis and to tone it down with
the hate margerie. Even the US government thought that Maxwell
was painting the Axis powers with too broad a brush.
The US government thought something was too racist.

Speaker 6 (40:00):
Yeah, and Maxwell isn't having it. He writes back to
the WI and doubles down on his position.

Speaker 5 (40:06):
I'm to channel my best Bob Maxwell here, but he
also uses some words that definitely ain't mine. But do
feel it. They're in a place for nineteen forty Believe me.

Speaker 19 (40:16):
I go so deeply into this because I feel a
great responsibility. I control the destinies of three juvenile radio
programs with audiences running into the millions. I can, in
some small way, formulated ideologies for these youngsters. I am
at present teaching this vast audience to hate, if not
hate individuals, to hate that which they stand for. And unfortunately,

(40:37):
there is no cleavage between the individual and the state
whose ideology he defends. A German is a Nazi and
a Jap as a little yellow man who knifed us
in the back at Pearl Harbor. You're asking too much
to expect active democracy, sensitive American boys who've been drilled
in the principles of fair play to swallow the utopian
anodyne that these Japs are not our na means per

(41:00):
se and should not be hated. We will make for confusion.

Speaker 6 (41:05):
Oh Maxwell, damn whoa damn Yeah, throttle back, dude, dude.

Speaker 8 (41:13):
I mean, my god.

Speaker 6 (41:14):
And OK, A couple things. One, the OWI is actually
advocating for the kind of aspirational values that Superman in
the Klan of the Fiery Cross represents and that is
embedded in so many of Americans take on this idea
of the American way. I mean, these are the kind
of values that we want our kids to have. You
don't need to hate an adversary to fight a righteous cause.

(41:35):
You do not judge individuals based on their race, ethnicity,
and country of origin. I mean, of course, the US
government was also in turning Japanese citizens during the war.

Speaker 5 (41:44):
Indeed they did, and Maxwell here is openly admitting and
practically bragging about the fact that Superman's influence is molding
the minds of American youth, whether the OWI likes it
or not, and he has no intention of relinquishing or
redirecting that influence. And even though Maxwell's viewpoints are prejudiced,
this correspondence highlights just how much of an impact the

(42:04):
Superman radio program was having on American culture.

Speaker 6 (42:06):
So much so that the US government felt they needed
to intervene and take control back of the narrative, which
is honestly insane and fascinating given the nature of this
podcast and the storyline that inspired it. I mean, just
a short while later, at the Klan of the Fiery Cross,
which Maxwell produced, had Superman saying that that kind of
hatred and bigotry was distinctly un American. I mean, Maxwell

(42:28):
even pointed out in his letter that he could teach
kids date in one moment and then change that perception later.
It's pretty amazing to think about how much power he's
giving himself there. I mean, he's saying that his power
to shape beliefs is so strong that the individuals listening
to his work will believe that those ideas and perceptions
about Germans or Japanese citizens are coming from their own

(42:48):
minds are just a given fact. I mean, I think
we have to highlight that, as discussed in our previous episode,
the KKK used a movie Birth of a Nation as
their launching pad for their rebranding in the nineteen twenties,
and that the depiction of African Americans in that movie
was full of the kind of racist tropes that we
saw continued in film and television for the next century,

(43:09):
and those images influence believes the same way that the
OWI feared that Maxwell's rendering of German and Japanese characters would.
So I do not want to hear the movies don't
have an influence.

Speaker 5 (43:21):
I mean, that's my rant. It's a pretty good rant,
you know, and it is definitely worth saying that the
way that African Americans were depicted in a film specifically
like Birth of a Nation, but other entertainments at the time,
did lead directly to the dehumanizing of them African Americans
in the South specifically, you know. And only just now
are we today making a thing called lynching illegal federally

(43:43):
in this country, because it had been just going on
rampant in the South, very much based on those tropes
and the alleged fear and the alleged threats of black
people visa v. White women, and it is definitely not
a thing to be taken lightly. And to imagine that
Superman could be used to help direct that same kind
of antipathy towards German immigrants and Japanese immigrants feel somewhat unconscionable.

Speaker 6 (44:08):
It really does. And thus the ranting, you know, the ranting.
It's that what we see influences how we act, and
I guess that's why we keep hitting the nail on that.

Speaker 5 (44:20):
As to Superman in Maxwell, the good news is that
even at that time where Maxwell crossed the line, there
were other creative forces behind the scenes. Here's Michael Hate again.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
While there were several writers involved on the Superman show,
and one of them was a woman named Olga Druce
who had been and educate her and she came up
and she became involved with Superman because there had been
some complaints from parents about some of the violent aspects
of the show.

Speaker 6 (44:47):
At the time, Olga Drews was the co chair of
the Committee of Youth in Wartime for the American Theater Wing,
So she had this diverse background and cultural productions that
dealt directly with wartime issues. She also speeches for the USO,
whose principal messaging to service members was built around the
notion of tolerance.

Speaker 5 (45:06):
So in the fall of nineteen forty two, the storyline
debuted Involving the Wolf, which introduced Superman's patented catchphrase into
the lexicon.

Speaker 7 (45:13):
Superman, who can thank the course of mighty rivers? Then
see you and it's their hands, and who disguise as
roked in mild maned reporter for a great Metropolitan newspaper
write a never ending battle for proof, justice and the
American Ways.

Speaker 5 (45:28):
Wow, this is such a defining moment the history of
all things Superman. I mean, that catchphrase is as synonymous
with Superman as we can do. It is to Rosie the.

Speaker 6 (45:36):
Riveter, it really is. And old Jerws is the one
who coined it. Here's Michael Hayte again.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
And of course, by nineteen forty two we were in
the war and we were fighting to preserve the American
Way quote unquote, So it just and since Superman was
going to be tackling wartime themes more specifically than he
had been in the syndicated show, it stood to reason

(46:02):
that that adding that phrase truth, justice, and the American
Way would be would have its own appeal.

Speaker 5 (46:12):
Okay, so we know all about truth and justice to
the degree that we do, but what exactly is the
American Way.

Speaker 6 (46:18):
The American Way is an idea and an ideal that
was gaining a lot of traction in this era. Here's
Wendy Wall, author of Inventing the American Way, to explain.

Speaker 12 (46:27):
I think really started in the late nineteen thirties, and
it was partly because there were that was a time
of tremendous tumult in the US. There was a lot
of labor strife, there were crackdowns on labor. It was
a time of rising religious and ethnic and racial animosity.

Speaker 6 (46:54):
So Americans were divided, and coming out of the Great Depression,
the seeds of American unification began to sprout. In fact,
they were very pointedly constructed and created.

Speaker 12 (47:03):
Obviously saw fascism overseas, but they also saw what seemed
to them like domestic fascism. And then there were a
lot of people on the right, you know, the business
types in corporate America, who looked at the growing popularity
of the Communist Party in the United States and support
for labor and strikes and things like that, and they

(47:25):
saw the emergence of a sort of domestic form of socialism,
and so on both the left and the right. You
hat people who were trying to create a kind of
common ground, an American way, something, an americanism that was
not one of these foreignisms.

Speaker 6 (47:43):
So essentially, this is my take, things were so fragmented
that there was a fear that the American experiment would
fail if we did not find some common ideals to
bind us, and conversely others that were distinctly not us.
Because controlling and broadening that definition of the American way
and identity was an important part of uniting the country before, during,
and even after the war effort, even if it could

(48:05):
be prone to misuse, and.

Speaker 5 (48:06):
We want to emphasize this effort came out of the
Great Depression continued during World War Two and even following
the war, when Americans no longer had an immediate common
enemy to unite against, and there was an attempt to
give the people something to unite behind the plan of
the Fiery Cross storyline, which we'll be looking at it
in our next episode and inspire this podcast took place
in that post war period.

Speaker 6 (48:27):
One striking example of the effort to find common ground
that came after the war, when there was still interest
in solidifying unity was the Freedom Train.

Speaker 5 (48:35):
And if you're asking yourself, what is a freedom train, Well,
it was a patriotic train tour conceived by US government
officials in Hollywood studios.

Speaker 6 (48:43):
The red, white, blue stripe train traveled from city to
city displaying documents considered critical to the American identity. One
advertising executive involved in planning the event described it as
quote a campaign to sell America to Americans.

Speaker 5 (48:57):
It's probably worth noting while the exhibit was integrated and
attended by both black and white audiences, the only document
related to the black experience included in the collections was
the Emancipation Proclamation.

Speaker 6 (49:09):
Right, and according to Wall's book, words were parsed and
the word democracy was considered too controversial, so the word
freedom was chosen.

Speaker 5 (49:17):
Huh. That seems like there's nothing new under the sun.

Speaker 6 (49:20):
Nothing I mean. I think a key takeaway is that
the idea of the American Way and the ideals that
it represents is not necessarily a given. I mean, it
was a creation born of a cultural and political need.
Of course, it has roots in the founding of the
country and its aspirations. Another important thing to remember about
the American Way is that different groups used it to

(49:41):
mean nearly opposite things, and we certainly see that in
how the KKK and Superman are using the same words
American or un American.

Speaker 5 (49:50):
So the idea of the American Way was created coming
out of the crisis of the nineteen thirties. It's super
complex and fragmented, but the key here is that when
the likelihood of the US entering the war sort of brewing,
a crop of quasi governmental organizations were formed to create
and spread wartime propaganda, all pushing the idea of unity
as a uniquely American quality for all American citizens to

(50:11):
embrace the idea that we must preserve our American way.

Speaker 6 (50:15):
And at that time, some of it was influenced by
France's fall to Hitler. Here's Wendy Wall.

Speaker 12 (50:20):
One sort of pivotal point is June of nineteen forty,
which may seem crazy for an American, but that's when
France fell very suddenly and unexpectedly to the Nazis. And
France had been sort of sitting behind the Madreno line,
and there were lots of people who just assumed that,
you know, France would never follow, they would put up
this very long fight, something like that had happened in

(50:42):
World War One. The speed with which France fell alarmed
and astonished many American elites, many people in government, And
the only explanation people could come up with was that
basically it was rotten within, that this unity within France,
fifth columns and that kind of thing had sort of destroyed.

(51:03):
The US destroyed France from within.

Speaker 6 (51:06):
In an attempt to make sure that the same thing
didn't happen to America's war effort, the push to disseminate
messages of unity ramped up.

Speaker 5 (51:12):
One organization that was part of this push was the
War Advertising Council, the other ones responsible for Our Girl,
Rosie the Riveter, those Loose Lips, Sink Ships, posters, and
the aforementioned Freedom Train.

Speaker 6 (51:23):
We should also note that advertisers were often behind not
just the ads in radio shows, but the content of
the storylines as well, and these images of national unity.
This idea that all Americans were banding together to fight
the common enemy and become united as one really was
relentlessly propagated, not just by the government but by the
media as well.

Speaker 5 (51:42):
So there's not necessarily a moral high ground here. It's
at least in part still essentially a profit driven move.
Of course, as we've been seeing, things can be both.

Speaker 22 (51:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (51:51):
I mean, a lot of the leadership in Hollywood and
in the advertising were children of immigrants. Many probably did
believe in supporting things like religious equality.

Speaker 5 (52:00):
Similarly, the US needed to create a sense of teamwork
we're all in it together in order to succeed as
part of the war effort, and many likely truly believed
in these ideals.

Speaker 6 (52:09):
Right, and teamwork came to also include tolerance. The key
here is that tolerance did not necessarily mean equality according
to all. In any event, Hollywood was also a part
of this. There's this film starring Frank Sinatra called The
House I Live In, which is basically a love letter
to tolerance in unity.

Speaker 5 (52:26):
Spoiler alert for all you. Sinatra stands out there in it.
Frank's he's a group of boys chasing after another boy
because he's Jewish. Old Blue Eyes intervenes, of course, and
gives the group a stern talking to about the importance
of religious tolerance and that effectively we all bleed the
same blood.

Speaker 22 (52:41):
Look, fellas, religion makes no difference except maybe to a
Nazi or somebody as stupid. Why people all over the
world worship God in many different ways. God created everybody.
He didn't create one people better than another. Your blood's
the same as mine, mine's the same as.

Speaker 5 (53:00):
And here's where we point out the duality of these messages. Yes,
tolerance is a beneficial one, as is the idea that
we bleed the same blood. But in reality, that's not
how Black Americans were being treated during the war effort.
Here's Wendy Wallinggan.

Speaker 12 (53:13):
White and black blood plasma were segregated during the war
because lots of white soldiers did not want black blood
in their veins. And so it was basically preaching a
message that was about that was cast in terms of
religious tolerance, but using an example that was really about race,

(53:39):
if that makes any sense.

Speaker 5 (53:40):
What wall is essentially saying is that the creators of
this film were willing to take on the idea that
we all bled the same blood when it comes to
religious tolerance, but not racial equality.

Speaker 6 (53:49):
And we'll explore some of why that may have been
and the consequences for not addressing things directly in future episode.

Speaker 5 (53:54):
And this idea of unity was a common theme across
all forms of media. At this point, many civic organizations
started popping up in service of this mantra, groups like
the Anti Defamation League it formed pre nineteen twenty, and
the National Council of Christians and Jews in nineteen forty two.
There were campaigns evolving around the doctrine of tolerance and
unity as well.

Speaker 12 (54:12):
There wasn't a single definition. There were a lot of
people who used common language, and particularly this term the
American way, but they meant somewhat different things by it.

Speaker 6 (54:21):
This messaging really was embraced by a wide spectrum of groups,
interfaith organization, businesses, nonprofits, Hollywood and the government, and the list.

Speaker 5 (54:30):
Goes on, don't forget about our boys, Superman and his
brand new signature.

Speaker 6 (54:33):
Catchphrase, definitely, and the challenges. Like we've been saying, they
were co opting the same language in different ways and
with very different motives. So when captains of industry say
teamwork and unity, they can also mean don't dissent, don't
question what we're doing. Of course, we see this continue
today partly.

Speaker 12 (54:52):
Because people were afraid that once the war was over
and the kind of unity that the war brought, that
the nation would fall into a period of disunity.

Speaker 5 (55:04):
Again, that's wall raising the question, so what next. So
we've got this idea of the American way, this ideology
of unity in tolerance that Superman is representing on the
radio show, all funnel through the lens of war propaganda
and mass media. But what happens when the war ends?
Where does all that unity go? That's what we're going
to be talking about going forward.

Speaker 6 (55:22):
In nineteen forty five, the war officially ends. Take a
listen to this newsroom.

Speaker 13 (55:27):
May of nineteen forty five saw the lights go on
again once more. The nation's capital was blazing in all
its glory, and in cities throughout the nation. The Black
opp was ended. Germany had surrendered, the war in Europe
was over. There was still a war to be fought
to a finish in the Pacific, but that couldn't dim
the celebration that marked the fall of Hitler on the
end of his dreams of world conquest.

Speaker 6 (55:49):
And as American soldiers arrived back home, it becomes pretty
obvious that this moment of unity has been an illusion.
Here's Matthew Delmont.

Speaker 18 (55:56):
We want to think about America, particularly then of World
War two, as being a a fully functioning democracy that
was really fighting, had defeated the Nazis and was trying
to remove not just the country but the world in
better directions. But the reality in that in nineteen forty

(56:16):
six was that America was a deeply, deeply divided country,
particularly on issues of race and racism. And I think
that's what makes the story of Superman versus a kk
so interesting.

Speaker 5 (56:24):
In our next episode, Superman comes face to face with
an enemy at home prejudice in America.

Speaker 14 (56:29):
Yes, it's Superman, rained visitor from another planet who came
to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of
mortal Man, Superman Defender of Law and Order camp. You
know they were right, violent, courageous fighter against the fourth
is a pagan prejudice.

Speaker 5 (56:45):
Join us next time as we witness the ultimate sharedown
between Superman and the KKK, and look at how every choice,
every decision that was made in the construction of that
storyline's carefully crafting, and I suddenly to teach us about
who we are.

Speaker 6 (56:58):
This podcast was hosted by Mark Bernard and Roth Purnett,
created and executive produced by Roth Cournett, with executive producers
Max Dion and Michael Chang with producers and writers Nancy Rosenbaum,
Loretta Williams, Taro Bratch, Michelle Dunn, Eileen Gaw, Billy Patterson, Gordie,
Loehen Roth, Cornette, and Mark Bernardin.

Speaker 23 (57:19):
Our audio engineer is Brett Boehen. Our researchers are Lauren
Schwend and Elana Strauss. Our fact checker is Stephen Krechen.
Recording was done by Forever Dog Productions and Voice Tracks.
A very special thanks to Caleb Schneider, Sasha Parol River,
Brett Weiner, Eric Eisenberg, Sonny Benson, Anne Brasher, Shanna Whitlow,

(57:43):
Joe Starr, alvitaal Ash, Dina Crowder, Danielle Radber, Spencer, Gilbert
ln Harris, and Paige Chew. On the next episode of
Superman Versus the KKK.

Speaker 8 (58:00):
Today we begin a brand new story, a story of
baseball and the discovery of a menace that will laid
Superman and his friend through many dangerous adventurers.

Speaker 6 (58:11):
The problem was in post World War two America.

Speaker 4 (58:14):
Superman has exhausted all of his traditional enemies in.

Speaker 14 (58:18):
A glade, casting weird shadows over the nearby hills and
lighting the sky above burns a huge Wooden Cross before
a new half one hundred men clothed in long rolls.

Speaker 18 (58:28):
I think it was actually pretty bold to hell Superman
fight the ca Cake in nineteen forty six, because I
think a lot of white Americans are pretty sympathetic with
the ca Cake. He was arguing for, honestly, what I
can't understand.

Speaker 21 (58:37):
Mister Candace, why the Fiery Cross Clan should burn across
in front of Tommy Lee's house. But they're nice people.