Health & Fitness
Blog: A Little More About Superman Growing Up in Chatsworth
... And that's just part of the story of what went down at the Iverson Movie Ranch.
I had the pleasure of attending an event last week put on by the Chatsworth Historical Society where the family of Kirk Alyn — the original movie "Superman" — was also in attendance.
The centerpiece of the event, held at the society's Chatsworth history museum at the far west end of Devonshire, was a screening of some clips featuring Alyn in the 1948 Columbia serial "Superman," which filmed most of its location shots at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth. The serial also starred Noel Neill as Lois Lane and Tommy Bond — formerly the neighborhood bully "Butch" in the "Our Gang" comedies — as cub reporter Jimmy Olsen.
A teaser for the event ran on northridge.patch.com with the headline "Shocking! Superman Grew Up in Chatsworth!" — the perfect headline, so I borrowed from it for this blog post. That headline was apparently what caught the attention of Alyn's family and brought them out to the CHS meeting ... a happy ending of sorts — which is just what we've come to expect from Superman. Multiple generations of "Superman's" — well, Alyn's — brood were on hand, including his daughter, grandkids and even a great-granddaughter ... along with spouses. Alyn himself died in Texas in 1999 at age 88 after a distinguished career that included not only the two Columbia "Superman" serials (the second being "Atom Man vs. Superman" in 1950) but also a song-and-dance career in vaudeville and on Broadway along with lead roles in a number of other serials, including Republic's "Radar Patrol vs. Spy King" (1949) and Columbia's "Blackhawk" (1952).
Attached is a YouTube clip presenting part of Chapter 1 from the original "Superman" serial, which includes the production's first shots of Iverson. The Iverson material starts at about the 3:37 mark, with a scene in which an animated mini-rocket containing the infant Superman falls to Earth on the old Upper Iverson.
Among the Iverson Movie Ranch landmarks appearing in the clip: Rock in the Field, seen in the background in the initial shots of the couple in their old truck; Rocky Peak — or Pyramid Peak — at 3:49; the Molar (blink and you'll miss it, with the mini-rocket disappearing behind it at 3:53); and the Upper Iverson's Oak Grove.
But even with all those impressive landmarks, naturally, it's the infant Superman who steals the show.
I have more to write about the Iverson location work in the "Superman" serials — the second one, "Atom Man vs. Superman," is an even better showcase for the movie ranch — and some of Kirk Alyn's other work at Iverson, so check back for future posts. I'll also point you to a previous entry about the 1950s TV show "Adventures of Superman," which shot at least one memorable episode at Iverson. (Click here to see that entry.)
The two Kirk Alyn "Superman" serials finally made it to DVD a few years ago, in a well-done (and reasonably priced) set containing both serials along with a few extras. You can go to my blog on the Iverson Movie Ranch to find links to Amazon if you're interested in buying it.
