Kirk Alyn

UP, UP, AND AWAY

By TOM SOTER
from VIDEO, 1992

Kirk Alyn claims to be "about 100," but there's no doubt about the age of his one-time alter ego. Superman is 54 and still going strong. So is Alyn, the first-ever Man of Steel in the 1948 serial Superman."When I walked into the producer's office for the audition,"recalls Alyn, now retired and living somewhere in California, "the DC comics fellas said, 'He looks just like Clark Kent!'" Superman's secret identity. Producer Sam Katzman asked Alyn to take off his shirt. The well-built actor complied and was signed without a screen test.

The fast-paced serial was almost as effortless, with Alyn flying via wires and animation, facing bombs, bad guys, and speeding trains. "The director had been a silent movie stuntman and he wouldn't ask me to do anything he couldn't do himself. I figured if he could do it at his age, so could I." The super star's biggest headaches were a 90-miles-per-hour train that nearly creamed him and a smoke bomb that fell down his shirt while he was flying.

The action was non-stop and so were the crowds. Alyn starred in a sequel, Atom Man vs Superman. "I liked that better," he says. "They ironed out the special effects work and had a better heavy. Atom Man could blow the universe up. That made for a better picture."

Alyn declined to work in the 1951-57 TV series and George Reeves got the part. He saw one-and-a-half episodes and the first Christopher Reeve movie (in which he had a small part) but wasn't impressed. "George Reeves played George Reeves. He didn't give any characterization at all. Chris was great, but I didn't think much of the script. They say it cost $40 million, but where the hell was it?"

The actor, who in his pre-Superman days appeared on Broadway and in films with Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth, still gets fan mail about the Man of Steel. "Why is Superman so popular?" he asks. "Because he's an awfully nice guy, that's why."