A Super Way to Promote a Town – January 1972

Did you know that fifty years ago – way ahead of the current super hero craze gripping the country’s entertainment industry – a city in Illinois decided to promote itself as the hometown of Superman?

I didn’t either until I read about it in one of my favorite books, The New Roadside America (1986) by Mike Wilkins, Ken Smith and Doug Kirby.

As noted in the book, the city of Metropolis, Illinois “tried to fight civic anonymity by claiming to be the home” of Superman.

“In the early 1970s, faced with a decline in local industry, the town cautiously began its first association with the Man of Steel. Fanned by early success and irresponsible prodding by the media, the town was quickly deluded into starting a huge “Amazing World of Superman” theme park, to be complete with a 200-foot statue of the man of steel, legs open for cars to drive through.

“When the novelty wore off and the media quit reporting, visitors stopped dropping by, and Amazing World was scrapped halfway done. Metropolis still blames the gas crisis of 1973-1974.”

Here’s the AP news account of Metropolis beginning its association with Superman that appeared in the Journal on January 16, 1972.

The story in The New Roadside America noted that the Metropolis chamber of commerce (back in 1986, anyway) “gives away packets of multicolored Kryptonite, akin to handing out bullets in Dealey Plaza, to children.”

During a visit to the chamber of commerce, the book’s authors had a good question. They noted, “When we asked if Superman’s real hometown wasn’t Smallville, a nice chamber of commerce lady said, “Nobody’s ever questioned that.” She seemed nervous, as if the town had realized it years ago, in the hungover aftermath of civic folly, and was keeping quiet about the whole thing.”

Courtesy EnjoyIllinois.com

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Click here to visit the Metropolis tourism website, and follow this link to a great article about Metropolis and its Superman connection.

Click here to visit the Roadside American website.

Lastly, I wrote about my 2018 visit to a great Superman exhibit at the Cleveland Public Library back here.