“At first the Superman radio serial extolled his devotion simply to “truth and justice.” But in 1942, two years after its premiere and with World War II raging, the serial added “the American way” to its opening narration[…]
-Samantha Baskind, Smithsonian Magazine, 07/03/2025
The above image is artwork by comic book illustrator Guiruhiru for the comic miniseries “Superman Smashes the Klan,” written by Gene Luen Yang. The was adapted from a segment of the 1946 Superman radio serial. The serial segment was entitled “Clan of the Fiery Cross,” where Superman fights off the machinations of a fictionalized analogue of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). To authentically depict their villains, while also educate the public on the threat the KKK posed to American society, the producers of the radio serial consulted with activist Stetson Kennedy. Kennedy had gone undercover and infiltrated the KKK and took detailed account of how their organization operated, including their methods of coded communcation among members. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/tools-and-resources/documents/superman-radio-show.pdf
in 1951, the first ever feature Superman film was released. Entitled “Superman & the Mole Men, the film followed Superman (investigating as his mild-mannered reporter alter ego, Clark Kent), preventing a panicked small-town lynch mob from murdering a race of subterranean beings (after forcing them to the surface through invasive oil drilling).
Superman & The Mole Men, 1951. Directed by Lee Sholem, produced by Lippert Pictures. Starring George Reeves and Phyllis Coates.