Iowa's Original Superman: Iowa Time Machine January 5, 1914

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On January 5, 1914, future Superman George Reeves was born in Woolstock. Best known for his work as the Man of Steel in the 1950s era Superman television series, Reeves captured the imaginations of people throughout the country as the first ‘Man of Steel.’

Born to newlyweds George Keefer and Helen Lescher in the rural Wright County town of Woolstock, Reeves moved to Kentucky with his mother at a young age when his parents separated. Eventually relocating again to California, Reeves began acting and singing in high school before first performing on stage at Pasadena Junior College.

During the late 1930s, Reeves performed at the Pasadena Playhouse and played one of Scarlett O’Hara’s suitors in the iconic 1939 film ‘Gone With the Wind.’ A series of small parts, including a brief run in five Hopalong Cassidy westerns, continued to build his career until the US Army drafted him for service in 1943, where he spent time making training reels for the Army Air Force’s First Motion Picture Unit.

Reeves struggled to find steady parts immediately after the war. Still, in June of 1951, Reeves agreed to appear in a picture called “Superman and the Mole Men,” both intended as a movie and a pilot for a potential television series. As television started taking off in America in the early 1950s, so did ‘The Adventures of Superman.’ Reeves went ‘up, up, and away’ to national stardom while the program ran until 1958. #Iowa #OTD #History #Superman #Comics