Episode 72 | Guest: Jim Bowers

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Sir, I'm detecting a subspace message. I'll put it on speakers Subspace dare
to Wonder. Hey, this isDoug Jones and you are listening to side
Fiction Radio. Greeting sci Fi Universe, Owen Cotter here, join me,

(00:27):
your host, as we discuss allthings geek, chic and out of this
world on scien Fiction Radio, yourgalactic transmission portal to all things science fiction
and beyond. Greetings everyone on thesci fiction Awesomeness. We have an amazing

(00:54):
guest here on the back of thequantum Leap Accelerator waiting room, getting ready
to join us on this awesome superpodcast. My name is Owen Cotter.
You're watching sci fiction on side FictionRadio. If you're listening to this on
sid Fiction Radios, Episode seventy two, I'm gonna bring on Jim Bowers.
He runs kapedwonder dot Com. Let'sbring him on here. Jim can you

(01:17):
hear me? Hello, Owen,I can hear you. How's it going
there, sir? How's your daygoing? We are great out here in
Las Vegas. How about you doinggood? I love your backdrop, man.
That's awesome. Well I do too. There he is there? He
is Superman. Goodness, So likeyou've been doing. I watched that on
your IMDb and you have a newbook out you contributed to as well,
I believe. Well, yes,uh, there is a book coming out

(01:42):
from DK Books out of the UKthat's going to cover the whole DC movie
universe. I think they've done somesimilar books for Marvel, yes, and
which I've not read, but Ilike d C or d DK books a
lot. Yeah, they're very nicepeople to deal with also, So yes,
they reached out to me a fewmonths ago and we've got some content

(02:07):
going in that book, which Ithink is coming out September third this year,
and you can already pre order iton Amazon. So that's really exciting.
I always get excited when these companieswant to include Reeve material, legacy
material. So yeah, that's wonderful. We've got great things always going on,

(02:29):
always new things to look forward to. So Ohwen, I love your
website. Oh I appreciate you man. We've been working hard. We're trying
to do some upgrades and writing ananime section for fans watching and listening,
and we're going to be putting insome new bells and whistles on here soon
that's awesome. It's awesome. Mykids are both into anime. They do
conventions and they're always talking about it, and they've gotten my wife and I

(02:51):
to the theater to see different animemovies and so, not knowing anything about
it until about three years ago.It's a great new world to get into.
And I have to tell you I'venever met such an enthusiastic bunch as
I have at a movie theater withanime fans. Oh yeah, for sure.
We're actually going to be coming yourway in Las Vegas the end of

(03:12):
April. There's a massive anime,pop culture and video game event called Level
Up, Lvl Up Up. Yes, I'm familiar with that. That's because
again, my kids told me allabout it. In fact, I think
they're going to go. They're intheir twenties and thirties and very passionate about
it. So we all love popculture in this family. Yes, indeed,
awesomeness. Well, I got totalk to you, got Christopher Reeves.

(03:34):
We've had some anniversaries of the filmsover the last few years. You
know, they've done a lot.I think there's a new Blue Ray set
that just came out. Have youseen the Blue Ray set, well,
the blue ray set. There wasa big blu ray box set which happened
to have here, which was atwenty twelve release. Yeah, and this
had all of the films in it, plus Superman returns, right, what's

(04:00):
his name? Brand? Who,by the way, is a really really
nice guy. If you ever getto meet him at cons, you should
definitely make an effort to do that. Very humble, very nice guy,
very grateful for that opportunity that hehad to play the Man of Steel.
The four K box set came outlast year and it does not include Superman

(04:24):
Returns. They decided to focus onthe theatrical cuts of the Christopher Ree films,
including of course the Superman to theRichard Donner cut, which is as
we know, came out in Novembertwo thousand and six, and that of
course has always created lots of conversationamongst the fans which version they like better

(04:46):
of Superman two? But the fourcase very nice. You can buy the
individual releases. There's two versions ofthe box set. One's got a nice
metal case, the others just astandard slip case, and so those are
awesome. They did a nice joboverall, I think really the films that

(05:08):
benefited the most from this four Kwere actually Superman three and four oh wow,
although all of them have benefited,and Superman two of course looks great.
Clarity is good. I think thecostume colors and color balance overall are
greatly improved. So if you don'thave a four K player, I always

(05:30):
recommend it. I'm a big supporterof physical media. We all love streaming
because of the convenience, but reallyyou can't judge all the work that these
studios do for these movies unless youlook at the physical media, which is
the best quality. I can't denythat. Sometimes I sit down and just
open up Prime Video or Voodoo orwhatever streaming service is in front of me,

(05:54):
and sometimes I'll just watch them justbecause it's in front of me.
But I hope physical media will continueto live down the road, because,
as you are well aware, there'sa lot of challenges regarding that and what
the studios are going to do tofor physical media futures or future. So

(06:15):
I'm hopeful that Warner will continue toput out some great product. Of course,
last year they were celebrating the hundredthanniversary that Warner Brothers, and I
think that's why they decided to focuson the theatrical cuts of Superman. Yeah,
you know, we we know thatthere are extended cuts of these movies.
They've all been revealed to the world, if you will. Except for

(06:36):
Superman four. We've only seen snippetsright and and low resolution uh clips from
the cut scenes, but we've notseen a full edit yet. They're very
low resolution, not as not fullk for you by any means. Oh
no, no, I mean they'reThey're really interesting to watch, and that

(06:58):
movie, despite its financial challenges,has really grown in popularity over the years.
You could call it a cult classic. I don't really call it that,
but it is the last time wesee Christopher even costume, and for
me and for many others, that'sthe reason we continue, we'll continue to

(07:19):
embrace the film because of that,the last time he appears so wonderfully as
Clark and Superman. So United Nationsspeech was pretty cool. He gave me
that too. Well, it isit is, and there's a lot to
love about the film, and theperformances and chemistry of Margot Kidder and Chris
are still very strong in that film, like we saw in the first movie.

(07:44):
Got Lex Luthor, Yeah, wegot gene Back. Jean's a great
guy. He's ninety three years oldnow, and there was a recent autograph
opportunity for you to mail in itemsfor him to sign. He lives in
New Mexico. He's retired from actinga long time ago. I think his
decision to retire was based on thefact that he didn't want to play a

(08:07):
bunch of old guys in movies,so he felt he'd done everything he could
do. And he's an author now, living a good life, and he's
probably our oldest legacy actor still around. Have you met him? Have you
got the Brian McClure. I hatehe's still alive too, right, Mark
McClure, Oh yeah, I justsaw Mark last week at the Superman in

(08:31):
concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hallin Los Angeles. How was that fantastic?
Fantastic? I got a bunch ofthe stars there. We had Sarah
Douglas, Aaron Smolensky's little baby,Clark Kent who picks the truck up,
who's also in Superman three. Somepeople may not realize that he has a

(08:52):
cameo in that film as the eightyear old boy who puts money in the
photo booth. Oh, yeah,there you go. Oh and catches Clark
changing into Superman. So that's Aaron'sHe was a local boy who had never
acted before, local up in theAlberta, Calgary, Canada area, and

(09:13):
so anyway, his mom answered acasting call and the rest is history.
So he's very engaged with the fanbase and a wonderful guy. Mark McClure
was at the concert. We hadDavid Michael Petrue. That name may be
familiar to many of you. He'sthe author of the fantastic book called The
Making of Superman the Movie. Ihear birds in the background. I love

(09:37):
it. Do you have your windowopen? Yeah, we've got a door
here. There's all kinds of chores. We're near Mexico, so there's a
lot of tropical birds down in theborder town in the Laredo in their Texas.
Oh, I love that. Yeah. I try to open my windows
here whenever I can. We havelots of hummingbirds. We have road runners
I just like to see in LooneyTunes running across the road. And they

(09:58):
taunt my cat when I take mycamp for a walk. They want I
think they want him to chase him. So, uh, yeah, of
course we got lots of coyotes walkingthrough the neighborhood. So every time I
see that, I'm thinking Looney Tunes. But anyway, let's see who else
did we have at the concert.We also had Peter McDonald, so familiar,

(10:18):
well it should be. Peter iswas the primary camera operator on Superman
the movie. Jeffrey Unsworth, ofcourse, was the cinematographer, and Jeffrey
and Peter worked together on many films, including Zardas Sean Connery. Yes,

(10:39):
yes, I think that was myfavorite Sean Connery outfit of his entire career,
floating there you go and he uh. Peter McDonald also was a second
unit director of the hof Planet scenesfor the Empires back I was a great

(11:00):
Irvin Kirshner worked on that one.Ervin Kirshner right, So Peter had to
endure all of the freezing weather andfrostbited Norway for that the coldest winter they
had at the time. Oh yeah, and my understanding is James Gunn has
gone back up in that general area, I think filming fortresss just moderated his

(11:22):
brother's panel at Vanexpo and New Orleansback in January. Super nice guy,
very nice, very nice. SoI know he's immersed in that film for
a while, just like Richard Donnerwas almost almost forty let's see seven,
eight, nine, eleven, twelve, thirteen, forty seven years ago.
On Thursday, Richard Donner started filmingSuperman March twenty eighth, nineteen seventy seven.

(11:48):
And do you know the first scenesfilmed, the fortress scenes or which
one close? Close? The veryfirst thing he filmed scenes Marlon Brando draped
in black velvet to film his monologueto Clark Kent. No dust, Yeah,
I remember he was on the thing. No dust can be on it

(12:09):
have to be a clean had tobe clean and black. So that was
the first day and they went fromthere. But it went on until almost
the end of nineteen seventy eight.Just and as you know, as many
fans know, he was filming twomovies at the same time or the other
was it Godfather or was it whichone? Well, Richard Donner was filming

(12:31):
two Superman movies, right right,So at some point they decided, well,
we have to stop filming scenes fortwo because we need to get one
done. Superman. The movie wassupposed to be a June seventy eight summer
movie, and because they got sofar behind the production, they decided to
delay it to Christmas. So nowI always consider it a Christmas movie,

(12:56):
Nothing wrong with that, Chris.I love the slogan of that film,
like you will believe a man canfly. That's right, that's right,
And that's one of a few,but this one ultimately won out. But
if you listen to some of thetrailers or TV spots, you'll also hear
this Christmas Superman brings you the giftof flight. Oh a right. And

(13:20):
then other time other prototype ads alsofeatured the Man of Steel is real cool,
and then another was someone to believein. So ultimately you'll believe a
man can fly one over, whichis great. And that was the number
one challenge they had, of course, was to make Superman fly convincingly,

(13:43):
and so once they had determined thatit was really coming along well, Richard
Donner really encouraged and pushed his Britishteam to go above and beyond anything they'd
ever done before in their career.Many of them were very seasoned people in
the dusty street, and some ofthem were not young people. They they

(14:03):
you know, already worked on alot of movies. But that was his
biggest concern and when he arrived onthe set, any of the all of
the test footage they had shown him, none of it worked. So imagine
arrived getting hired to film a movieabout the probably the most famous character that
flies and none of the footage isconvincing that they had to go back and

(14:28):
reshoot that or what was what wasthe reason the film was a lot of
it was test footage, none ofit was you know, final Uh.
He he was not the first director, He was the second guy, Hamilton
of James Bond Films. Was theyfilmed some then they filmed someone on Pinewood
Studios or was that They filmed atShepperton Studios in England and then down the

(14:50):
road at Pinewood and basically they tookover the whole The whole studio they had
was massive. They're the build allthat like inside of a massive off theater
or whatever. Right, yep.There were two locations where the fortress was
done. The interior of the fortresswas done at Shepperton and that was some

(15:13):
of the first footage they shot forthe movie. Was was jeff East as
young Clark. I had a questionabout Jeffy's did they use. I noticed
it, like on the I waswatching the streaming version recently on Amazon or
somewhere. Did they dub Christophe's voiceover his as young Clark am I correct

(15:33):
on that they did, except forscenes that are in the extended cut.
Okay, that we first saw onABC Television in February of nineteen eighty two.
If you watched that, or youwatch the Blu ray that Warner Archive
released in twenty seventeen of the extendingcut, you'll hear some of Jeff's own
voice. Cool been a lot ofdiscussion about why that was done. Basically,

(15:56):
they wanted to make it seem morelike he was the same person as
opposed to two different actors. Infact, they didn't even promote Jeff very
much because they didn't want to callattention to the fact that he was a
different actor. Okay, so thatwas the reason. Not uncommon for people's

(16:17):
voices to get dubbed in movies,or for the same actor to go back
in into a studio and watch theirscenes and re record their dialogue. I
mean, asked James L. Jones, right, well that yeah, I
asked David Prowse. David Prowse,Yeah, we've heard and seen footage of
him speaking through the Darth Vader mask. Yes, and he had a very

(16:40):
deep British accent. I guess that'snot what they were after, and it
didn't sound right speaking through the maskanyway. If they had still used his
voice, he would have had togo in and re record everything. There's
an article I read in a magazine. It was about action figures and collectibles
thing. It's called Action Figure Digest. But they do excert interviews with certain

(17:02):
actors and a great interview with DavidProwse in that book. Oh, David's
a great guy. I met himin ninety two, okay, And many
fans are aware that he was broughtin to help Christopher Reeve train Swordsman to
bulk Well, to bulk up.Yeah, Superman Chris. Chris was kind
of lanky, very tall and hada great frame to build upon, but

(17:26):
he was lanky. So once theyonce he objected to the fake muscles they
were considering, he said, no, I want to I want to work
out. So but David told methat the news and magazines have had somewhat
exaggerated his level of involvement. Hebasically came in showed Chris the basics and
he was gone, gotch Chris,he said, really didn't need his help

(17:49):
very much or very long. ButDavid was a great guy, really really
nice, polite, friendly guy,and I always like David. But yeah,
it's too bad so many people thatwe admire in these films and television

(18:11):
shows aren't with us anymore. Andthat's that's really the driving force behind why
we do and what you do,is to keep their keep their memory and
their legacy, you know, topof mind all the time. I mean,
that's what we grew up with.That's the nostalgic, you know,
aspect of it. And you know, not only is it because of our

(18:32):
memories as kids, but these filmsare just so iconic today. You set
anybody down in front of a TVset or a movie theater screen and show
them these classic films. For sure, if they're really young or have never
seen them or haven't seen them ina long time. I think many people
are surprised just how great they holdup. Yeah, they really do.
I mean the special effects even sothis day, are still solid. You

(18:56):
got, like I was watching Supermanfor a while back, even those effects
with like the the radioactive that's gotthe sun when he turns down after they
put him in an his power backup and it looks great. Well,
that's Mark Pillow, and uh,what a great guy he is. We've
had We've had him at a coupleof Caped Wonder reunions. You couldn't meet
a nicer guy. He has greatmemories of filming with Chris, and Uh,

(19:19):
I thought Chris was just a reallydynamic person. Chris Reeve directed most
of the Moon Battle scenes and uhso he really enjoyed, uh working with
him in that capacity as well asactor and director, but of course very
physically demanding. I enjoy those alot. But I look at those costumes

(19:41):
getting beat up on the set andthinking, oh, look at those costumes.
It wouldn't be great to have oneof those They had someone at the
auction, didn't they recently or well, I don't know about the ones that
were torn up in the Moonfight,but wouldn't it be great to have one
of those with the rips in itand dirt on it? And I wouldn't
even wash it. I think I'dbelieve it just like it was display case
is like, so they call itscreen these props or something the Battle used

(20:03):
costume, right, you know,I'd be the same as as a Star
Wars storm Trooper costume or something similarto that, with all the scuff marks
and imperfections that George made sure allof them had to look more realist,
like a used universe that Lucas onon on. Oh yeah, that's what
I love about it. But therehave been a number of Chris Reeve costumes,

(20:23):
some Mark Pillow Nuclear Man costumes havebeen on the auction block. The
interesting thing about these costumes is noneof them were the same in fact,
in other words, from costume tocostume, there are variations, so each
one is slightly unique. The sshield on the chest is different on each
costume. Nuclear Man had individually gluedon or he transferred on these individual dots

(20:49):
that made up the sun on hischest, and those dots, no two
were alike. So that makes itfun to try to screen match these costumes
and if you can do that,and you've really got a prize. But
it's interesting these costumes and any ofthese props from the Christopher Superman films continue
to go up in value, andthe demand seems to be very very strong

(21:11):
to this day, including autographed items. Crystals, Oh yeah, the power
like where's the crystals like the greenone to where those other museums. Well
they're still around and you can seethem on a prop Store of London has
had them on the auction block.Julian's Auctions Heritage recently had one in their

(21:32):
auction a few days ago, andin fact they also sold an original three
foot tall starship that was used inKrypton scenes, as well as a miniature
flying Superman that's super cool now.One of the things that they used to
do is have these small miniature Supermanfigures that they would fly like mockkette miniatures

(21:55):
like that with right right there haseven been a little lowest lane for some
of the scenes where they're supposed tobe very far away in the sky.
They sometimes used miniatures as opposed tothe actors or stunt people, so they
were very innovative. And they evenhad capes that had little fluttering rods called

(22:17):
a cape clapper to make the capeappear as though it's being blown by the
wind, and Chris even wore oneon his back and I have one.
They attached the cape to it.It was radio controlled and it would actually
the little fingers or the rods woulddo this to make it look like his
cape was blowing. So that's howthey got that effect when it was like

(22:37):
when he's flying them right, Becauseif you just use a wind machine or
a fan, that cape tended toblow over his head out of control and
he would have to flip it backover his head. So some of the
early test footage, I'm sure thecape was driving Chris crazy because it was
just fluttering everywhere. And as manyfans have talked about too, there were

(22:59):
all kinds of different and cape styles. There was flying cape, standing cape,
walking cape, shoder have a magneticone or something. Well, the
capes would attach to his shoulders withthese snaps and then the straps would go
under his armpits and you would tieit off underneath the tunic in the back
and it would come up out ofthe as you can see up here,

(23:21):
it would come out of his shoulders. But this was not an easy costume
to put on, and when youhad to take bathroom breaks, you had
to get help being undressed. Soit was I've put one on rather baggy
on me because I'm only five nine, one hundred and seventy pounds, but
Chris was a big guy, buthe was like sixty four. Chris was

(23:44):
sixty four. He averaged about twooh five to two fifteen to twenty on
weight. It was not easy forChris to keep his weight on between movies
because he was kind of built morelike a basketball player, very broad shoulder
and a great frame, great waist. But he'd have to bulk up between
each film and get the weight backon because one of the things that's interesting

(24:07):
about these costumes is they're very slimming. You can look big just standing there
with without a shirt on. Youput one of the costumes on and it
actually makes you look less bulky.That's one of the things that the Star
Trek the Next Generation cast that saidthey're in season one. I feel like
if you look at their season oneuniforms, they're like skin tight Picard and

(24:29):
all those really thin then then butthey're alwoso hard to get out of and
stuff like that. Right, theygot into the second season or so,
they got into the easier and morecomfortable uniforms. I hear what you're saying
on right, So, Gerard Christopher, you may know that name. He
was played super Boy YEP on TV. He was the second Super Bowl Superboy
that was also an Iliosaul Kim production, and he and I have been friends

(24:52):
a long time, and he alsotalked to me about that he was already
a fitness guy and already been liftingweights, and he said, I actually
had to bulk up bigger than andI originally thought I would have to because
once I put the costume on,I look too slim. So I admire
these guys for their dedication to hittingthe gym, because that's definitely not something
I like to do. And ChrisReid did not find weightlifting very pleasurable,

(25:15):
but he was very committed to thepart, and he knew what was in
people's minds as to what Superman shouldlook like. So that dedication and that
discipline that he already brought into theroles definitely had a tremendous impact on the
believability of his dual role. Andspeaking of that, just the other day,

(25:40):
we were talking about online and socialmedia about the extraordinary transformation that Chris
could make between Clark Kent and Supermanjust with his posture, his speaking,
his mannerisms, and I don't thinkany other actor has come close to what

(26:00):
he accomplished. Yeah, and I'vealways told people that I felt that he
would probably be nominated for Best Actorif it were today because of what he
what he was able to, uhportray to the to the to the fans.
Of course, we know that scenewhere he really wants to tell Clark,
I'm sorry, I really wants totell Lois and the first film who

(26:22):
he really is. Right, hetakes his glasses off, he stands up
straight, and his voice changes andthen he reverts back to Clark again.
And for me, that's that's theOscar winning scene. I remember Roger Ebert
Siskel and Ebert back in the day, that's who we used to rely on
for movie reviews. He said,that's that's the scene, that's the moment.

(26:47):
And uh so I always admired Chrisfor that and for the fact that
he found Clark Kent more actually moreinteresting and more challenging and to play because
of his theater experience. You know, he was a stage actor, that's
right. And that was Chris hisfirst love, not film. It was
stage and he was constantly in playsin between films. That's just where he

(27:14):
started in his first love. BecauseI think part of it was he just
loved the interaction with the audience andthe feedback he would get, and every
night was a little bit different.You never knew what to anticipate on the
stage, so that I think thatwas probably just a lot of fun for
him, and he brought so muchof that discipline, in that style of
acting into these films. You know, while he was filming Superman, he

(27:37):
pretty much stayed in character sure inbetween takes, and that wasn't every actor's
style on those films. So forhim that was a little challenging that the
other actors didn't stay in characters somuch, so he had to And look
at that, my phone's ringing.I didn't mute my phone. Suck,

(28:00):
Shame on me. I wanted toask you a question, So did you
Did you ever get to meet forhim? By the way, first off,
and Christopher Eves, I did.And one of the first things that
he ever told me was oftentimes peoplecalled him Reeves because of George and yeah,

(28:23):
and he used to say, well, my last name's Reeve. I
left the S on my chest.That's how he used to address it,
because I think, you know,we know that Reeve is probably much less
common than Reeve's. But over timeof course people realized they weren't related.
They weren't uncle or father or anythinglike that, but it is interesting the

(28:45):
names were so similar. I metChris when he was still able bodied at
a convention, the only US conventionhe ever did. That was May fourteenth,
nineteen ninety four, so we're comingup on the thirtieth anniversary. Back

(29:07):
in the nineties, in the eighties, I don't think that most actors were
charging for autographs in those days atcons. I didn't start that. Adam
West and Burt Ward with dressing costumeand signed for free on them right right.
So I started going to cons inAtlanta, to the Atlanta Fantasy Fair,
okay, And that was in theeighties. And I think Sarah Douglas,

(29:29):
who played Ursa, was probably thefirst Superman actress or actor to be
at CON's from the Christopher E.Films. So I was living in Atlanta
in ninety four and I was workingin the photography industry and saw in a
paper that Chris Ree was going tobe at a con and I was in

(29:52):
total disbelief. I thought, Oh, there's no way the Dixie Trek Convention
is what it was called. Idon't think it exists anymore. I think
it's now called Dragon con Right,but at the time it was Dixie Trek.
I do believe that's what it morphedinto, if I'm not mistaken.

(30:12):
I contacted the organizer, Ron Nastrom, and said, Hey, is he
really coming? He goes absolutely,I've talked to him on the phone.
He's going to be here, andI couldn't believe it. He also invited
Noel Neil, who I'd already known. Of course, she was the original
live action Lois Lane from back thenthen the George Reeves Are Right. The

(30:33):
second season onward, she was Loisand of course she was with Kirk Allen
in the two movie serials prior tothat, so she was also going to
be a guest. And so,needless to say, I was extremely excited,
and I said to the organizer,let me help. I'll be happy
to help you whoever I can.Well, one thing led to another.

(30:56):
Chris walks in the door and I'mthe guy to greet him. Oh wow.
And you can read about it onthe Cape Wonder website. But it
was an amazing day. And oneof the things that impressed me so much
about Chris was that originally the autographsession. Of course, no charge for
autographs, but they were limited totwo because of the number of people there.

(31:19):
Oh yeah, it makes sense.And it was a small con in
an older hotel, very quaint comparedto cons today. Now, oh my
god, it's amazing, isn't it. But this was a small con,
very nicely done. And he said, where am I going to be signing
autographs? And I think this ishow the story went. They said,

(31:44):
well, we've put the table upon the stage where you'll be speaking later
and later on he did a ninetyminute self hosted Q and a panel,
which was fantastic, and I filmedthe whole thing. Where is that on
the site on Cape Wonder? Yes, it's on It's on the website.
Cool. So he said, where'sthe table going to be? They said,
well, we thought we'd put itup on stage. People would wait

(32:06):
in line at the bottom of thestairs, walk up the stairs, come
up to you, it's autograph signed, and then walk off the stage on
the other side down the stairs.He said, well, I would prefer
that them not have to walk upon the stairs because they might trip and
hurt themselves. So he said,why don't you move the table down to
the floor, but turn it sidewaysso there's not a barrier between the fan

(32:31):
and me. I want the fanto be able to walk right up to
me, we talk, sign autographs, and then I can immediately stand and
take pictures. There's no table now. There was the table, but it
was sideways, right, So thatimpressed the heck out of me. And
I've never seen a star do thatsince. Of course, every con we
go to now and many of thecelebrities don't come around the table. You

(32:54):
have to lean in and take apicture with them, right, And I
think that's probably the most common thingyou see because later on you can go
do the photo ops. All thecons have turned into this separate photo ops
section. So that impressed me alot. And I sat with him for
most of the autograph session while hetalked to people. He was very engaged

(33:15):
with everybody, and I remember himlooking up at the line which was going
out the door, and he said, are all those people waiting for me?
I said, they sure are.He said, well, I'm not
leaving until I've spoken with everybody.And the minute the last person was in
the line and spoke with him,he had to leave because he was going
to film a movie with Michael Keatoncalled Speechless Orse On the set, what

(33:37):
do you think they were doing thewhole time? Yes, they were joking
that Batman and Superman were doing amovie together. So Dixie Trek was fantastic.
We did some I did a photosession with the two of them.
Here it is. That's one ofmany photos I shot of them together.
And then I sent the photo toboth of them and they signed it.

(33:59):
So I've been a photographer for fortyyears, so for me this is extra
special because they autographed one of myphotos and they were so gracious. And
of course, Noel is always acrowd pleaser. I knew were for almost
thirty years, and she loved Chris, she loved George. She said they
were both very much gentlemen and theirinterest was honing the craft of acting,

(34:24):
not so much being movie stars.And it just so happened that Chris came
along at a great time in ourhistory when I think the world really needed
a great, positive Superman movie,and that's what we got in nineteen seventy
eight. So I think that's whythat movie and all of its sequels are

(34:44):
just still so popular today. Andwhat I really love today is now we
have parents and grandparents introducing these moviesto their kids and grandkids. So it's
always a delight to go to amovie theater and see that they brought the
young ones to experience these movies.Yeah, so that that makes you feel
great that these are going to liveon. So here we are at forty

(35:06):
five years last Christmas for Superman themovie yep. And of course the movie
was continuing to play in the theaterwell into nineteen seventy nine yep. So
like Star Wars, it ran inthe theater a long time. And I
don't really why too. I don'tknow what year you were born, but
when I was seventeen when the firstSuperman movie hit the screen and movies stayed

(35:30):
in the theater a long time,I was born eighty four. You were
born in eighty four May eighty fourMay of eighty four. I was an
officer in the army when you wereborn. My grandfather the army as well.
He was like you get up tothe rink of Colonel all the Apollo
astronauts like Virgil grism of those guyswould hang out at his house with the

(35:51):
corvettes. He worked at Redster andArsenal. He was like when I was
a kid, we used to hehad his own like private parking space at
Red Star. We we go upthrough like King there you go go to
the Comma series. Well, Igrew up with an Army colonel and an
Army general, my grandfather and mydad. So I grew up an army
bratt and then I was in theArmy. And so needless to say,

(36:12):
when you're an army kid, youare taught all about morals and values and
yes sir and yes ma'am, andbeing polite holding the door for ladies,
and etiquette at the table, anddressing up nicely and treating your neighbors well.
So of course that's one of thereasons, one of many reasons why
Superman always appealed to me. Now, I was not a comic book reader,

(36:37):
never read a comic book my wholechildhood, just because I didn't have
access to them. So it wasGeorge Reeves that introduced me to Superman,
and I'd watch him on a littlethirteen inch black and white TV before i'd
go to school. And then whenSuperman the movie came out, that just
everything just took off, literally andfiguratively. It just really really took off

(37:00):
from me and caped wonder. Youknow, our mission has been your mission
is a brighter future, right,positive future? Yeah? I love that.
Love that. So we're all aboutcelebrating the legacy of Christopher Reeve.
Sure, and it's just continued togrow and grow. Where year twenty two

(37:23):
is coming? Yeah? Yeah.And so it started off as a very
humble little website and I decided toshare a bunch of pictures that I had
gotten from Pinewood Studios that had neverbeen released. The very first picture I
ever showed on the website was thisone. Oh wow, do you have

(37:44):
this box set? Which one isthat one? That is the Christopher Reeve
Superman Collection DVD from two thousand andsix. It's all kind of do have
that one with the kind of likethe clear, kind of reflective front?
Yeah, I do have that?Yeah, Well that photo Warner Brothers licensed
from me and anyway, that andthen they colorized it and put it on

(38:07):
the box. So that's the veryfirst picture I ever released on the website,
and it was never used in publicityby Warner I don't know why because
it's such an iconic picture, butthat's how we started on the website,
and I started hearing from lots offans all over the world back in the
early internet days. Really exciting whenyou get your first email or message from

(38:30):
someone in Europe. Right, Wejust got our first message the other day
and a lovely, lovely multi paragraphletter from a gentleman named Aiden. It
was Noah's name, Aiden Sterling.If you're listening to the broadcast, thank
you so much for the letter.He is very complimentary of the site and
he said that he makes it hisgo to resource for sci fi news and
all that stuff. Well, that'sawesome. That's really awesome. Makes you

(38:52):
feel great that you're on the rightpath and what you're doing and all the
time and effort you put into thisis worthwhile. And that's what I'm loving
about social media is we're connecting withnew people all the time from all over
the world that have great stories.And that's that's the most gratifying part of
all this is the connections, thenetworking with fans of all ages. We're

(39:16):
trying to get more ladies to chimein because we're about ninety percent guys.
But that's okay. But I lovehearing stories about other people who have met
Chris or other actors in the movies, or maybe their relatives worked on the
movies. So we've gotten great storiesfrom them. And back in twenty fifteen,

(39:39):
we did the largest Christopher Reeves Supermanreunion and it was at wonder Con
in Anaheim, California, your sisterto San Diego. I guess you would
consider it that, yeah, butthat was our biggest reunion. And my
friend Jay Towers, is a radiopersonality and newscaster for Fox out of Detroit,

(40:04):
gave me a call and he said, Hey, I see you're doing
a wonder Con reunion. I wantto help cool. And I'd never spoken
with Jay before, but I knewhe was around and was a big fan.
And it just exploded at that pointbecause he provided so much great coverage.
You know, he's a great radioguy. And we had twelve hundred

(40:25):
people at our panel. Wow,I couldn't believe it. I walked in
this empty panel room and I couldn'tbelieve wonder Kin had given me a room
so big. It's like quarter asbig as the biggest panel that Comic Con.
Though I know it, I wasjust flabbergasted that they decided to give
me such a big room, andI had no idea who was going to

(40:45):
show up. And we walk outbecause Jay co hosted the panel with me,
and there's twelve hundred people sitting there, and my mind was absolutely blown.
I was shaking with excitement. Jayof course, super comfortable and in
front of people. You know,he's in front of people all the time
doing charity work and all that.I'm that way generally. But it's the

(41:07):
anticipation of getting up there and talkingthat's uh, you know, and be
a little nerve w acting, andthen you get into it and you're like,
nail it. Yeah, because you'reso passionate about it. You can
talk about it all day. It'sit's so familiar and and the stars are
so supportive. That's the thing aboutthis group of of actors and crew.

(41:29):
It's is that they were very muchuh family on the sets and that continues,
and they're so grateful for the opportunitiesthey had to play these characters.
Whether it was Jimmy Olsen or martMcClure, it was Lenny, you know,
Lex Luthor's nephew and Man four.It didn't matter which movie or which

(41:50):
part. They all had great Theyall have great stories, and the stories
are what really drive all of thisis what are the stories? What are
your memories? So so Jay afew years later in twenty eighteen, said,
hey, I'm on iHeartRadio. Isaid you are. He goes,
Yes, my radio shows on iHeartRadio. Of course it's also on other podcasts
platforms, but being on iHeart Radiois a big deal. He said,

(42:15):
would you consider doing a podcast forcaped Wonder And I'm like, Wow,
never done anything like that before.If you know how to do it,
I'm all in. So we're atover fifty episodes now. We don't do
them on a regular basis. Wedo them occasionally throughout the year as we

(42:35):
find really compelling, interesting guests.We're after the people that the fans don't
necessarily know or have ever heard of, that worked on these movies, uncredited
heroes. I call them. That'scome you know, like young people who
were apprentices. We recently spoke witha guy who was an apprentice. He
was about nineteen and he helped makethe crystals for the fortress. He was

(43:02):
new to the business. He didwhatever they asked him to do, and
he jumped right in there and hadthis amazing opportunity and great stories have come
out of it, and that's whowe're always looking for, not or in
addition to the actors and crew thatpeople know so well, so we try

(43:22):
to mix it up. But it'sreally fun to try to dig around and
see who we can find or whomight come forward. And we have people
fairly regularly tell us about someone.Hey, you may want to talk to
this guy. He worked under thisperson for Star Wars, Superman, et
cetera. And it is amazing asyou can well imagine owing the overlap of

(43:45):
Star Wars and Superman crew. Ibet so many of the same people or
in the same area. Visual,oh yeah, and model making James Bond.
Of course, Mettings did so manyminiatures. He did all the great
miniature work or most of it inthe Superman one and two. Spio loved

(44:07):
me his great tanker you know thatswallows up the submarines. They film that
at Double O seven sound stage,just like the film The Arctic. For
the fortress, so they had tobuild the interior of the fortress at Shepperton
film all of that, and thenlater go to Pinewood and build the exterior

(44:27):
of the fortress and film all thatwhen he throws the crystal in it.
The crystal's that's the double O sevensound stage that they flooded and brought in
all this styrofoam like dry ice orsomething, right, and they had to
cut the styrofoam and dry ice andpretend that they were very cold, when
actually it was really really hot onthose sound stages. And Chris was just

(44:51):
melting in that costume. So theywere always having to change his tunics because
his armpits would start sweating and they'dsay, oh, cut, let's put
another tunic on you. Right.So I think of all the parts of
his costume, the tunic was whathe probably changed out the most. But
yeah, so many great things.But if you have never been on Caped,

(45:12):
wonder you know. I had areally golden opportunity. Back in the
nineties. Pinewood Studios was starting toclean house and they had in one of
their storage units a whole lot ofcontent from Superman that the story goes they
were going to throw away or getrid of it or give it away or

(45:35):
something. Well, through a wonderfulcontact here in the US, I connected
with a guy in England and gotmost of it, and that's where we
finally got to see what Richard Donnerreally shot for Superman two, and so
many other photographs behind the scenes thatreally give us a beautiful idea of what

(45:58):
the photographic journey was. And whenI got all this content, I thought,
I've got to share this. Howam I going to do that?
And this is the nineties now Internet'sjust getting started, very beginnings of the
Internet, right. So I wasin the advertising of marketing at the time,
and my graphic designer said, whydon't you start a website. I

(46:20):
said, I don't know anything aboutthat. He says, I can get
you going, So there you go. We started Caped Wonder in the name
of course Cape came out of thenewspaper that we see in the first movie.
And I know you know the newspaper, Oh yeah, Caped right.
So that paper was on my wallbecause I got that paper from Pinewood and

(46:45):
I literally looked up one day andsaw it framed in front of me,
and I said, there's my domainname. That's awesome. It's perfect because
it automatically connects it to the ChrisReeve films. I've never heard of Superman
being called Caped Wonder till the firstSuperman film. I don't think he was
ever in the comic books, andI'm never in the comic books, and

(47:06):
I've never heard of you since,And I really don't know who came up
with the name. That's one ofthe great Superman movie mysteries is who came
up with it. Regardless, that'sthat's a name I thought would be perfect,
and uh, the rest is history. Well, when we did a
redesign of our logo on our sightof this last year, so we actually

(47:27):
our original logo was kind of flatand plain and blue, and I wanted
something to be you know, likethe title effects and the first that come
on. Oh yeah, so wwasn't that kind of a three D effect
with some blue and hey kind ofpans he flies of the horizon of the
sun. Then put the eclipse ofthat, and they had the comment kind
of going up so it's going tothe stars. So it's kind of moving
forward positive into the future. Themotif the new logo, Hey, I

(47:52):
love that, and I love thatpositive is a key word in what you
do, because that was That's beensomething I've always focused on when I'm doing
anything related to Superman. Appreciate whetherI'm having conversation with people online, or
just the way we communicate with peoplethrough imagery, through articles, through our

(48:15):
videos, through our podcast. Ifocus on the positive, on the positive
elements why we love this character somuch. That he's all about being positive
and hopeful. He's a friend andencouraging and that that's really that was really
important to Chris that he be portrayedas a friend, someone that you're not

(48:35):
afraid of, someone that you welcome, that you can you can inspire others
from the gifts you've been given,and that's that was something that he was
adamant about communicating. So that thatto me, when she says who are
you? Is is a really importantscene that sets the tone really for the
entire series. You don't hear himsay that anymore except in the first film.

(49:00):
It's the first film. I wantedto thank you Jim for joining us
here on this broadcast. We gota about thirty seconds or so if we
wrap up the time slot. Oneof the very much thank you for joining
in. On your websites, Kpedwonderdot com. Everybody check it out.
If you're in Superman DC. Iwant to find all kind of good news.
Jim, thank you so much sirfor joining us. Oh, and
I appreciate it and I wish yougreat success. And I love that you

(49:23):
had Jeffrey Morris on your h He'sawesome. I just met him at Superman
in concert. What a great guy. Jeffrey's awesome. Well, thank you
so much, Jim. May theForce be with you always, so say
we all Superman goodness and live longand prosper stay super Okay, thank you
so yusual like, have a greatday. This is going cotter. Thank

(49:45):
you for listening to sign Fiction Radio. Don't forget to visit our website at
www dot signfiction dot com. MHM as a dream yrone pretty well see

(50:22):
Subspace Dare to Wonder