Wicked

 

With all the hoopla of the film release of the popular play Wicked, thought it was high-time to recognise the OG film Wicked Witch of the West and Kansas counterpart Almira Gulch: Margaret Hamilton.                                                                                      Cleveland born Margaret Brainard Hamilton (December 9, 1902 – May 16, 1985) was an American actress, singer and educator, whose fifty year career in entertainment spanned theatre, film, radio and television.  A former schoolteacher, she worked as a character actress in films for seven years before she was offered the role that defined her public image. In later years, Hamilton appeared in films and made frequent cameo appearances on television sitcoms and commercials.  She also gained recognition for her work as an advocate of causes designed to benefit children and animals and retained a lifelong commitment to public education.

Check her out on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (1975)

Entry in Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

From what I could gather, there's a travelling Wizard of Oz festival that occurs in October in Ohio.  In 2025, it is expected to be in Canal Fulton.                          From OzWiki:  October (exact dates to be announced, we hope), 2025: Wizard of Oz Festival Ohio, Putters Amusement Park, Canal Fulton, Ohio. For more information, see the website at https://wizardofozohio.com/, and the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/wizardofozfestivalohio/

Life is a Cabaret

When I need a shot in the arm for some self-confidence, I can always count on revisiting RuPaul's Drag Race.  

RuPaul on How to Live Your Best Life brought tears to my eyes.

Bless her, Dakota Schiffer in S4 admits that she doesn't like musicals, which is typically my line in life.  Yet, one musical that I have always loved is Cabaret. I know why I like it as an adult but am still a little baffled why I liked it as a child and why I was allowed to even watch it.   

Of course, Liza was the star but Joel Grey (11 April 1932, Cleveland, Ohio) was mesmerizing as the Master of Ceremonies.  He won a Tony and an Oscar for his portrayal.

Grey's recent essay in The New York Times entitled 'I Starred in Cabaret.  We Need to Heed Its Warning'  

Performing 'If You Could See Her'

Fabulous article in The Guardian that references his childhood start in Cleveland

'Willkommen' on The Muppet Show

“Stick with it, be who you are. It’s going to be tough.But it’s also going to be beautiful.” - Joel Grey

For fellow SC fans:  Schitts Creek - The Making of Cabaret

Movie Monday: From Denton, Ohio to the galaxy of Transylvania

The sad news of Meat Loaf's death last week, reminded me that while in Scotland I flipped through my friend John's Xmas gift of Atlas of Imagined Places and was surprised to learn that The Rocky Horror Picture Show was partially set in Ohio.  

The story begins in Denton, Ohio as Brad Majors (Barry Bostwick) and Janet Weiss (Susan Sarandon), after getting engaged, travel to see the man who began it, but wind up at the castle of Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry), a transvestite alien from the planet Transsexual in the galaxy of Transylvania.  In The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Janet is reading The Plain Dealer, a Cleveland, Ohio newspaper, and the map seen in The Denton Affair (I) is that of southeastern Ohio.

Meat Loaf should have had two parts in RHPS

It also turns out that Meat Loaf's musical career was born in Cleveland!

Movie Monday: The Oh in Ohio

Promotional poster

The Oh in Ohio unfortunately received lackluster reviews, despite possessing an excellent cast.

Set in Cleveland, much of the film was shot on location at well-known Cleveland area landmarks such as Coventry Village and Case Western Reserve University.

Tracy Chapman...I had a feeling I could be someone

Yesterday, walking through the shopping centre between work and my train, I heard 'Fast Car' by Tracy Chapman and tears, as usual, came to my eyes as I heard the refrain: 

And I-I had a feeling that I belonged

I-I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone

Chapman was born in Cleveland, Ohio and like 'Fast Car' has always written music about poverty, human rights, and other social issues.  As a social activitst, she has done significant work for Cleveland City Schools, including an essay contest called 'Crossroads in Black History'.  

AAREG entry for Tracy Chapman:  From Ohio to the World

Billy Wilder & the American Image

I have loved Billy Wilder films since childhood and was intrigued how often Ohio is mentioned.  Why does Billy Wilder love the state of Ohio?  Perhaps the Austrian-born screenwriter/director envisaged the state as quintessentially American (right or wrong).  Perhaps, we may never know.

Some of Wilder's interesting references to Ohio in films:

Love is the hardest thing in the world to write about. So simple. You've got to catch it through details, like the early morning sunlight hitting the gray tin of the rain spout in front of her house. The ringing of a telephone that sounds like Beethoven's "Pastoral." A letter scribbled on her office stationery that you carry around in your pocket because it smells of all the lilacs in Ohio.  - Don (Ray Milland), The Lost Weekend

Don (Ray Milland) also deduces that Helen (Jane Wyman) is from Toledo, Ohio by looking through her coat and finding that its maker's mark is from Alfred Spitzer.   Well, and I guess since she's from Ohio, it shouldn't be surprising that one of the presents she gives Don is 'the new Thurber book'.


The character of Sugar, played by Marilyn Monroe in the film Some Like It Hot, hailed from Sandusky, Ohio.


In Stalag 17, the cynical POW Sefton (William Holden) drills the German-speaking Price (Robert Graves) about his self-proclaimed Ohio upbringing since he suspects that he is a Nazi spy planted in the prisoner barracks.     SEFTON

Shut up!
                              (slaps his face)
                         Security Officer, eh? Screening 
                         everybody, only who screened you? 
                         Great American hero. From Cleveland, 
                         Ohio! Enlisted right after Pearl 
                         Harbor! When was Pearl Harbor, Price? 
                         Or, don't you know?

                                     PRICE
                         December seventh, forty-one.

                                     SEFTON
                         What time?

                                     PRICE
                         Six o'clock. I was having dinner.

                                     SEFTON
                         Six o'clock in Berlin. They were 
                         having lunch in Cleveland.
                              (to the others)
                         Am I boring you, boys?

                                     HOFFY
                         Go on.

                                     SEFTON
                         He's a Nazi, Price is. For all I 
                         know, his name is Preismaier or 
                         Preissinger. Sure, he lived in 
                         Cleveland, but when the war broke 
                         out he came back to the Fatherland 
                         like a good little Bundist. He spoke 
                         our lingo so they put him through 
                         spy school, gave him phony dogtags --

My absolute favourite reference:  In the beginning of Sunset Boulevard, Joe Gillis mentions in a voice-over how embarrassing it would be to move back to Dayton and work again for the Dayton Evening Post if he is unable to make it in Hollywood as a screenwriter.


The Fortune Cookie Jack Lemmon and Walter Mattheau their first movie together was filmed at St Vincent Charity Hospital as well as the old Cleveland Stadium.  CBS cameraman Harry Hinkle (Jack Lemmon) gets injured when football player Luther "Boom Boom" Jackson (Ron Rich) runs into him while he is covering a Browns game at Cleveland Stadium.   Saint Mark's Hospital is in reality St. Vincent Charity Hospital. In 1966, the scene was filmed on East 24th Street in an older section. In 1966, St. Vincent Charity had completed a then-ultramodern curved Hospital building.

Terminal Tower was the base for the law firm used. In one image, one can see Erieview Tower and construction of the Federal Building's steel skeleton.  Scenes were filmed at the Cleveland Browns vs Minnesota Vikings game at Cleveland Municipal Stadium on 31 October 1965.

Text originally from 2011.

Calvin and Hobbes, Eighth Wonder of the World

As with most things in my life, which I feel passionately about, I will procrastinate dealing with it or writing about it (ie dissertation, etc.) if I think I'm unable to do it justice.  This is definitely the case with posting an entry about my all-time favorite comic, Calvin and Hobbes. Or as Calvin once, and so much more eloquently, put it:  I'm learning real skills that I can apply throughout the rest of my life ... Procrastinating and rationalizing.

Bill Watterson looks back with no regrets, Cleveland Plain Dealer article

The Tiger Strikes Again, Washington Post

Ohio's Most Famous Recluse

Why Bill Watterson is our hero
Calvin aged 26 years:  not for the feint of heart

Ohio: The Birthplace of Serial Killers? (TBT)

Ted Levine as Jame Gumb in The Silence of the Lambs

From January, 2011:

The other day I heard a snippet of news regarding the sentencing in a kidnapping and murder case that took place in Mount Vernon around the time that I returned to Ohio this autumn.   
Ohio is often lauded for its production of U.S. presidents and astronauts but it is unsettling how many serial killers have an Ohio connection, whether it be by birth or where they perpetrated their crimes.
Strangely enough, even fictionalized serial killers are somehow connected to Ohio.  The manhunt in The Silence of the Lambs leads investigators to the killer's fictional hometown of Belvedere, Ohio and the serial killer Jame 'Buffalo Bill' Gumb was portrayed by Ted Levine, who grew up in Bellaire, Ohio (also a filming location for the film).




Charles Manson - Self-styled guru and leader of the 1960s religious cult the Manson Family, Charles Manson is a convicted serial killer who never actually killed any of his victims himself.  Born "no name Maddox" on November 12th, 1934 in Cincinnati, Ohio.


Jeffrey Dahmer (Cannibal of Milwaukee) - (May 21, 1960 – November 28, 1994) was an American serial killer and sex offender. Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys – many of whom were of African or Asian descent – between 1978 and 1991, with the majority of the murders occurring between 1987 and 1991. His murders were particularly gruesome, involving rape, torture, dismemberment, necrophilia and cannibalism. On November 28, 1994, he was beaten to death by an inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institution, where he had been incarcerated.  Dahmer was born in Wisconsin but grew up in the affluent Bath, Ohio.


Neal Bradley Long - A native of Dayton, Ohio, born in 1927, Long was a violent racist who could not abide the specter of black progress in his home community.  Indicted on seven counts of murder, Long was found competent for trial in November 1975 and was eventually convicted of two counts, drawing consecutive terms of life imprisonment . To protect him from black inmates and vice versa - Long was confined at the U.S. Medical Center for federal prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, under conditions of maximum security.


James Oliver Huberty - Mass murderer who killed 21 people and injured 20 more in a shooting spree at a McDonald's in San Ysidro, California on July 18, 1984.  Huberty moved his family from Canton, Ohio to California after he was fired from his welding job and couldn't find new employment.


Larry Ralston - convicted for murdering four women in the 70s in southern Ohio (Cincinnati area)


Thomas Dillon - serial sniper/spree killer who shot and killed five men in southeastern Ohio from 1989 to 1992


Michael Swango (Doctor of Death) - intern and resident at OSU Medical Center, where one of his four admitted murders took place


Gary & Thaddeus Lewingdon - plagued the city of Columbus, Ohio and outlying areas with a series of indiscriminate and brutal murders that claimed the lives of 10 people in the late 70s.  


Alton Coleman & Debra Brown - carried out a six-state killing spree in 1984; Coleman was executed in 2002 in Lucasville's Southern Ohio Correctional Facility and Brown is still in prison in Marysville


Eric Elliott & Lewis Gilbert - responsible for cross-country crime spree, that included three murders and a kidnapping and began in Newcomerstown, Ohio (their hometown)


Moreland Baby Killer - Authorities in Dayton, Ohio, took four children from the custody of Regina Moreland's after the death of her 2-year-old grandson, the fourth child to die in her home in the past seven months. "The Morelands believe from the bottom of their hearts that no one is to blame for this tragic occurrence," said Jon Paul Rion, the family's attorney. In contrast, Sgt. Carl Bush said investigators believe Regina might be somewhat responsible for the dying children and plan to review the previous three deaths that, pointedly, were ruled as probable homicides. 


Anthony Sowell - strangled a series of women in his Cleveland home


William K. Sapp - sentenced (in 2004) to death for raping and killing at least three women in Springfield, Ohio


Donald Harvey (self-proclaimed 'The Angel of Death')


Cincinnati Strangler, Posteal Laskey - raped and strangled seven mostly elderly women in Cincinnati, Ohio between 1965 and 1966


The Cleveland Torso Murderer (aka Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run) - responsible for 12–13 murders in the Cleveland, Ohio area in the 1930s






Blog posing the question, 'Why are there so many serial killers from Ohio?'


What is it about Ohio and serial killers?


Another day, another Ohio serial killer

Fun Fact Friday: Dickens in Ohio

While nowadays, I encounter more Charles Dickens in Rochester and surrounding parts of the United Kingdom.  Yet, Dickens does have a history and left a lasting impression in the Buckeye State.  Plus, my mom is a huge fan!

Dickens called Ohio "all that America had been, is and would be" following his month-long visit in April 1842 to Cincinnati, Lebanon, Columbus, Upper Sandusky, Tiffin, Sandusky and Cleveland.
Drinking in Ohio with Dickens

Dickens in America

Fun Fact Friday: Heaven's Garden

While catching up on old episodes of Supernatural, I was surprised by a reference to Ohio, even though all states are mentioned in the show since the Winchester boys travel around America hunting monsters (and other supernatural entities).  In the episode 'The Dark Side of the Moon', the brothers are on a mission to find Joshua, who is the gardener of Heaven and God's confidant.  All souls that travel to the garden (a representation of Eden), according to Joshua, will see it differently.  Sam and Dean view it as the Cleveland Botanical Garden that they visited on a grade school field trip.

Fun Fact(s) Friday: They All Laughed

While watching an interview with Fred Astaire on The Dick Cavett Show, I was struck by the number of Ohioans mentioned in the Gershwin tune 'They All Laughed', which Astaire performed upon request. Although the only state mentioned in the lyrics is Missouri, at least five of the nine influential people cited have some connection to Ohio.  While I would love to count Fred Astaire as an Ohioan, he (like Dick Cavett) was born in Nebraska.  (Yet, it's now known that Cavett has a closer connection to Ohio than his work with Jack Paar and that's because he's married to Ohioan Martha Rogers.) Now, back to the song, the following names dropped do all bear some connection to Ohio:

Christopher Columbus:  Yea, yea, yea, I know he's an Italian that sailed for the crown of Spain, 'discovered' America and contributed to the spread of syphilis but he's also the namesake for Ohio's capital.   The world's most authentic and museum-quality replica of the flagship Santa Maria is docked in Columbus, Ohio.
(Ohio tree that predated 1492 falls)

Thomas A. Edison:  The man responsible for the phonograph, kinetoscope and the home-friendly light bulb was born in Milan, Ohio.

Orville & Wilbur Wright:  The brothers that taught the world to fly, owned a bicycle shop and lived nearly their entire lives in Dayton, Ohio.
Aviators:  The Wright Brothers by Bill Gates

Rockefeller Center is named after the philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who was born in Cleveland, Ohio.

Update:  Was pleasantly surprised to hear this exact version of 'They All Laughed' played in a cafe in Islington last week.

Ziggy's Legacy

Although Ziggy may not be my favorite comic (and yes, it also has an important Ohio connection), I do have fond childhood memories of the sweet down-trodden guy, who is now know the world over. It is therefore very sad news to hear that the funny little everyman's creator passed away on Friday.  Tom Wilson was born in West Virginia and raised in Pennsylvania but spent the majority of his adult life in Ohio with secondary homes in Hollywood and New York.  His son, who graduated from my alma mater and now lives in Loveland (a northern Cincinnati suburb), has been drawing the comic strip since 1987.

Scooby Dooby Doo

Scooby-Doo has been popping up in my life quite a bit recently and although I sometimes find myself saying 'Ruh-roh', I was never a big fan of the canine capers.  Yet, I do recall always preferring those episodes that starred legendary comedic geniuses like Jonathan Winters, Tim Conway and Phyllis Diller, all of whom as you may know or are capable of guessing, are Ohioans.

Winters grew up around Dayton, attended Kenyon College and was a central Ohio radio personality before hitting the American comedy circuit.  

Two Ohioans (Jack Paar & JW) in England

JW and Dean Martin...'it's a regular Ohio cigarette'
Certifiably Jonathan

Tim Conway was born in Willoughby, grew up in Chagrin Falls, attended Bowling Green State University, worked for a Cleveland radio station and continued to appear on Cleveland television shows after becoming famous.
Tim Conway Remembers
Dentist Sketch - The Carol Burnett Show
'Dorf' with Johnny Carson

Phyllis Diller grew up in Lima, attended Bluffton College with Hugh Downs and worked in radio in California, not Ohio, before making the big-time.
Ms. Distinctive on 'What's My Line?'
Still fab at 90 on 'Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me'
Still Cackling



Alright, now how bizarre is this, it also turns out that the hometown of Mystery Inc. is Coolsville, Ohio (not to be confused with the real Coolville, Ohio).  That's right, Scooby and the gang are all Ohioans too!!

'Scooby-Doo Theme Song' performed by the bubblegum pop group Ohio Express.

Fun Fact Friday: Bueller? .....Bueller?

I had such high hopes for Without A Clue, a comedy with Ben Kingsley and Michael Caine that's an alternate representation of Sherlock Holmes as a fictional concoction of Dr. Watson, but it just wasn't that funny or engaging.  Yet, it did have Jeffrey Jones as Inspector Lestrade, which reminded me of an important John Hughes film, Ferris Bueller's Day Off (well to be fair, Ferris has also come up in many conversations recently).  Jones is probably best known for his role as Ed Rooney, the principal determined to track down the charming and elusive truant Ferris.  This was one of those seminal films in my adolescence and was in a constant viewing rotation with The Goonies and The Lost Boys.  It may be set in Chi-town but it wouldn't have been much of anything without Ohio.  Well, at the very least, some of the most memorable characters would perhaps be quite different in our minds today if Ohio wasn't a factor:

1.  Alan Ruck (Cameron Frye) was born in Cleveland and attended high school in Parma.
2.  Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller) is married to Sarah Jessica Parker (Sex and the City fame), who was born in Nelsonville, Ohio and later moved to Cincinnati, Ohio before moving to New York to further her career as a child actor.  SJP attended The School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA) when her family was based in Cincinnati.
3.  Jennifer Grey's (Jeannie Bueller) father is Joel Grey, who is perhaps best known as the Master of Ceremonies in the film version of Cabaret.  Joel grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and began his career as a child actor in the Cleveland Playhouse.
4.  Charlie Sheen's (Boy in Police Station) dad, Martin Sheen, grew up in Dayton, Ohio

FBDO Trailer
Cameron Montage
Broderick interview with focus on FBDO
Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Grey in FBDO
Obama campaign ad Ferris Bueller-style

Did They Mention The Music?

Henry Mancini, arguably the best-known film composer of his time, was born April 16th, 1924 (today) in Cleveland, Ohio.  Some of his most well-known titles include:  Moon River, The Pink Panther Theme, Peter Gunn, Baby Elephant Walk, Two for the Road, Days of Wine and Roses, and Love Theme from Romeo & Juliet.

Henry Mancini Mix
Henry Mancini Website
NY Times Entry

The Deer Hunter

After finally viewing the critically acclaimed The Deer Hunter for the first time (yes, I apparently have had some sort of prejudice against films from the 60s and 70s. .. . my current obsession with Dick Cavett and the feigned despair exhibited by a certain Englishman every time I admitted not having seen a seminal film like Easy Rider or Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid have inspired me to remedy this oversight), I was naturally interested in the importance that my home state played in the making of this Midwestern mentality film. The Deer Hunter may be set in Pennsylvania and Vietnam but Ohio plays a significant role in the filming and creation of this emotional powerhouse. Some of the most important (memorable) scenes were filmed in different Ohio locales.

Production Notes:

Christopher Walken: "What appeals to me most about this film, is we've made it real, made it happen now. For instance, we created an entire wedding reception party with real ethnic types who sing and dance as they do at any of the giant family weddings they have in Cleveland. We've filmed The Deer Hunter right where it would have happened if the story wasn't fictional. We worked in steel mills, community halls, the most beautiful Russian Orthodox church I've seen (St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Cleveland), and in a tavern which we built as a composite of scores we visited while researching the film."

A Run-down of Ohio locations:

• Some mill and neighborhood shots were of Steubenville, Ohio.
• External house and long-range road shots were taken in Struthers, Ohio.
• The opening steel factory scenes, where the actors were allowed on the floor, were shot in US Steel's Blast Furnace, Cleveland, after nervous studio execs insured the stars at $5 million. The plant is ominously referred to as the Widowmaker.
• The wedding of Steven and Angela was filmed in St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Cathedral, Cleveland, which is claimed to be an exact replica of the Czar's cathedral inside the Kremlin, Moscow.
• The reception was held in Lemko Hall at Literary Avenue in the same Cleveland district as the cathedral. The hall has been since developed into shops and restaurants.
• The Eagle Supermarket, in which Linda (Meryl Streep) worked, is now Brown's Market and is just down the street from the aforementioned cathedral.
• Welsh's Bar was specially constructed in an empty storefront in Mingo Junction, Ohio for $25,000. It later became an actual saloon for local steel mill workers.
• The bowling alley in the film is actually the Bowladrome Lanes located at 56 State Street, Struthers, Ohio.
• The emotional scene in which Michael visits an embittered and physically injured Steven took place in Louis Stokes Cleveland Veteran's Administration Medical Center, 10701 East Boulevard.

• Fun Trivia on The Deer Hunter
• The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations: The Deer Hunter

Hmmm, now I need to start watching some more important films from this era, after the big film moguls released their grip on the industry, and see if there are any more important Ohio connections to be found.

Say Goodnight, Gracie

One of the most famously happy partnerships was made legally binding in Ohio. After performing together in vaudeville for three years, George Burns and Gracie Allen were married in Cleveland on January 7, 1926.

From George Burns' Gracie: A Love Story:

"We decided to get married in Cleveland at the end of January. But first we were going to break in Lamb Chops. We were both very nervous; getting married was one thing, but breaking in a new act was serious business...

As soon as Izzy and Mary arrive, we hopped into a cab and drove to the justice of the peace. The justice of the peace was ready to leave on a fishing trip when we got there, and he wasn't interesting in spending time marrying folks... He spoke so fast I didn't know if Gracie and I had gotten married or had bought land in Florida. All I remember is he asked, "Do you?" I said, "I do." He said, "Good--I'm going fishing."

Our cab was waiting for us. The entire ceremony had cost twenty cents on the meter."

Burns & Allen Marriage License

'St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture' entry

Notable American Women: Gracie Allen

The Man Who Took On American Football

Cover of Meggysey's controversial book 

I've been on quite a Dick Cavett kick lately and today while watching three episodes of his talk show that featured Janis Joplin, I was wonderfully surprised by an incredibly articulate (and left-winged) American footballer who was promoting his controversial book Out of Their League. Dave Meggyesy left at the height of his career as an outside linebacker for the St. Louis Cardinals in order to address and expose the dehumanizing aspects of the game. The man never gave up on the sport that he loved but tried to improve it and promote player welfare through his work with the NFLPA and Athletes United for Peace. Once Meggysey mentioned to Cavett that he grew up in a cowtown where the cows actually came to watch his high school football games, I had a feeling that he grew up in Ohio. It turns out this this is indeed the case and that Meggyesy (born in Cleveland) grew up on a pig farm in Glenwillow, Ohio and attended Solon High School. This amusing and quaint actuality about the spectator cows is not a strange concept to those of us who have grown up in a small Midwestern town but something about Meggysey seemed distinctly Ohioan to me. Perhaps it was simply his apparent lack of an accent or the fact that even Ohio's capital city is referred to as Cowtown but I think there's something more binding about the innate characteristics of Ohioans, which I may never actually put my finger on. Yet, I like to think that Ohioans, especially those of the Northeastern variety, question the status quo and try to make positive changes to systems from the inside out.

Interview in 2009

Clip of Dave Meggyesy on The Dick Cavett Show

Still On The Outside, Sports Illustrated article from 1987

The Edge of Sports Interview

Superman is from Krypton? Nah. . . . he's from Cleveland

I have often joked with friends across the pond that all Americans want to be like Ohioans. Perhaps it's not so much that we're ideal Americans but that we do a great job of idealizing America. A case in point is "The Man of Steel", who is a universally recognized and a positive image of America created in the Buckeye State. The cultural icon that stands for "Truth, Justice and the American Way" was imagined in 1933 by two Cleveland teenage boys from Jewish immigrant families. Jerry Siegel (October 17, 1914 – January 28, 1996) and Joe Shuster (July 10, 1914 - July 30, 1992).  The co-creators of the DC Comics character Superman both attended Glenville High School and worked on the weekly student newspaper, The Torch. Siegel and Shuster together also published what may have been the first SF fanzine, Cosmic Stories.

Cleveland, the True Birthplace of Superman - Smithsonian article by Anne Trubeck

The Flaming Lips - Waitin' for a Superman

The Big Red S