MID-September '06 Kid Cary Column

You Don't Spit into the Wind,
You Don't Step on Superman's Cape…

FOR ME, SEAN Connery is the only James Bond, Adam West is Batman, and George Reeves is the original and best Superman. I was seven or eight when Superman made it to our Packard Bell black & white TV. After watching Superman, I would run down the hall and fly on to my bed. I was a fat kid, so the bed would bounce, and the whole room would shake.

Yesterday I saw the movie Hollywoodland, and I left depressed. Not that it was a bad movie, or a very good movie, but this was my childhood, and it made Superman look bad. How could this be, stepping on Superman's cape?

I love movies about L.A., but this is no Chinatown, and the detective, Adrien Brody, is no Jack Nicholson. The movie made L.A. look good, but you really didn't get the real flavor of L.A. in the 1950s. My parents moved us from NYC to the San Fernando Valley in 1952. There was so much to do and see in L.A., and most of it was free, or very cheap. The old blended with the new; The Sunset Strip was old, but filled with new hip clubs, Santa Monica Beach had a long history, but now we had POP (Pacific Ocean Park), a new amusement park. Disneyland was three dollars. The whole town was one big playground. As Neil Diamond said "L.A.'s fine most of the time, and the feeling is laidback."

Superman was the biggest star on television in 1955, and George Reeves was not happy with his life. George Reeves first big break came at age 25, with a part in the 1939 movie Gone with the Wind. He died in 1959, for 20 years he made lots of movies with all the big stars, he dated the best-looking actresses in Hollywood, ate the best food, drank the best booze, drove any car he wanted, what's to be unhappy? I don't get it; I lived in L.A. for 27 years, I would have been happy dating just one good-looking actress in Hollywood.

Next thing you know, Hollywood will make a movie telling us smoking cigarettes is bad, Rock Hudson was gay, JFK cheated on Jackie, or Ronald Regan was President. I don't want to know.

"You don't pull the mask off the ole Lone Ranger…"
~Jim Croce.

You Don't Spit into the Wind, You Don't Step on Superman's Cape…

You Don't Spit into the Wind,
You Don't Step on Superman's Cape…