• 4 months ago
George Reeves Mysteries & Scandals superman
Transcript
00:00You
00:16Faster than a speeding bullet
00:19More powerful than a locomotive able to leap tall buildings at a single bound
00:25Up in the sky. It's a bird
00:30George Reeves known to millions as TV Superman faster than a speeding bullet not on the night of June 16th
00:371959 the night Reeves was found dead at the age of 45
00:40Sprawled naked on his bed with a gunshot wound to the head police called it a suicide, but was it he was murdered
00:47There's no question about it. No one will ever convince me
00:50I know they never convinced Helen his mother that he took his own life on this episode of mysteries and scandals
00:57We'll examine that fateful night the night America lost the superhero
01:01We'll also feature exclusive interviews with some of Reeves Superman co-stars including the original Jimmy Olsen that there was a hit man
01:08who secretly came in the house and
01:11murdered George
01:13That did not happen and we'll hear from the two actresses who played Superman's love interest Lois Lane
01:18It's hard for me to accept that. He did commit suicide
01:22You were just stunned because having just seen him and he was happy we were going to work again and
01:30Gone the story of Superman's mysterious death will be told through rare photographs and archival footage
01:37Plus we'll recreate the death of George Reeves and try to figure out who was holding the gun that killed the superhero
01:42Was it his nightclub singer fiance afraid?
01:45She was about to be jilted did his older married lover hire a hitman to bring him down or did a drunk and despondent
01:51Superman just decide it was time to throw in the cape
01:54I'm AJ Benza
01:55Join me as we take a look at the mysterious death of Superman on this stroll down the flip side of the Walk of Fame
02:21You
02:28Immortalized as Superman George Reeves ashes are here in this mausoleum. They're his childhood home of Southern, California
02:35Even in death Reeves cannot escape his overbearing mother his ashes bookended for eternity between his mother and his aunt
02:42It's no surprise that Helen Bessel Oh wanted her ashes to rest beside her only son forever and always
02:48The one fact regarding Reeves early life that everyone agrees upon is that his mother worshipped George to the point of smothering him
02:56Reeves had something of a chaotic childhood his parents divorced when George was just a baby mother and son eventually moved to Pasadena, California
03:04Where George discovered his calling in the theater film historian Jim Beaver explains
03:10he fell in love with theater and acting and
03:13Did a great number of plays there in Pasadena?
03:17All through the late 30s while he was in a play
03:20He was spotted by a casting director and auditioned for and got the role in Gone with the Wind
03:27Which was at least in a way the beginning of his professional career
03:31Not a bad gig to start off your professional career, huh?
03:34So Reeves was just one of many actors to get his start here at the famous Pasadena Playhouse
03:39Training ground to such luminaries as William Holden Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman
03:44Anyhow, he takes this job on Gone with the Wind
03:46He was to play one of the redheaded Tarleton twins two southern gentlemen both vying for the attentions of the beautiful Scarlett O'Hara
03:54The other brother was played by Fred Crane. We were both
03:57ecstatic about
03:58Getting the part together because it was the first thing that either one of us had done in motion
04:04To celebrate Reeves suggested a night on the town indulging in one of his favorite hobbies
04:08Drinking we had Navy grogs and zombies and puka puka punches and a brew maki
04:15and we're sitting next to a very fine gentleman and
04:20We
04:22Made a lot of noise and we got off the chairs after we were through we walked out on our knees
04:26Hollywood took notice of the handsome newcomer from Gone with the Wind Reeves was cast opposite Claudette Colbert in the
04:321943 war pictures so proudly we hailed directed by Mark Sandrich just as his career was moving into high gear
04:38He joined the war effort and enlisted in the army
04:41Sandrich assured the young actor he would make him a movie star when his tour of duty ended by the time George got out of
04:47the army
04:48Which he had entered before the film was released
04:52Mark Sandrich was dead and
04:55George always said during the Superman years that if Mark Sandrich hadn't died
05:00He wouldn't be sitting there now in his monkey suit, but it was that monkey suit that brought George Reeves fame and with it frustration
05:07Reeves still dreamed of film stardom and he was embarrassed of his Superman success
05:11But was he depressed enough to end it all just ahead?
05:14We'll introduce the two women in George's life. Was it one of his lovers who proved the man of steel was simply flesh and blood
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08:10That's a call I've been waiting for miss Lane everything's been taken care of except you
08:24No, I don't believe it you will Blinky you will
08:31Superman the classic 50s TV show that made George Reeves a household name
08:35I'm AJ Benz and welcome back to mysteries and scandals and I'll look back at the mysterious death of Superman
08:40after World War two George Reeves scrounged around Hollywood for film roles and then in
08:451951 his chiseled good looks and muscular physique won him the lead role of Superman on television
08:50He accepted the role for the oldest reason in the book. He needed the dough
08:55Besides Reeves was convinced the last thing America wanted to see was a grown man running around in tights
09:00He was wrong. The series was a thundering success
09:03Phyllis Coates who played Lois Lane during that first season remembers meeting her co-star
09:08George invited me over with Izzy Burns who was the was George's wardrobe man
09:14He also took care of me too because I only had two suits
09:17He'd hide one for in case I got egg on one. So George made us a martini and
09:25He said here's to the bottom of the barrel
09:29And that was how I first met George George was typecast in the Superman a role
09:35I was typecast as Jimmy Olsen and I wanted to get back into films, too
09:40and I only had a bow tie and a sweater to worry about he had the Superman insignia and
09:45What he called the monkey suit, but every year he would use the monkey suit to the delight of some needy child
09:52Superman historian Jim Hambrick recalls one of Reeves annual rituals at the end of every season
09:58George would cut the S of
10:01out of his costumes and
10:03Send the S's to kids in the hospital or somebody's birthday or whatever and destroy the rest of the costume
10:12Aren't they the cutest puppies you ever saw they sure are but did you ever see a puppy that wasn't cute?
10:18Off-screen Reeves life was exactly the opposite of the mild-mannered Clark Kent
10:22He played on TV George enjoyed a longtime affair with a wealthy society woman by the name of Tony Mannix
10:28There was only one little problem. Tony was very married to an MGM executive Eddie Mannix
10:34Hollywood kryptonite author Nancy Schoenberger fills us in George Reeves 10-year romance with Tony Mannix
10:41It was an open secret in Hollywood. She had the kind of arrangement with her with her husband that allowed her to
10:47Go after what she wanted. Eddie was an important guy at MGM a vice president. They were in a high
10:54Echelon of Hollywood society Eddie knew about their relationship and approved of it. He'd fallen in love with
11:00Tony they married they were all devout Catholic. There was never to be a divorce
11:06but there was I believe quite a bit of sinning and
11:13On Sunday morning, yes, he called her ma
11:16and
11:18They were a great twosome and she was very good to George she bought the house was quite nice, you know
11:25She really gave George a
11:27Good start she called him the boy
11:32And she took very good care of it very good indeed this trendy British roads
11:37There was also a gift from the generous Tony Mannix their affair
11:40Continued for a decade until just one year before his death when a flashy New York nightclub singer blew into his life
11:46Her name was Lenore lemon. I kid you not George that she was beautiful and she was quite beautiful
11:52But pretty is as pretty does and Lenore had a pretty unsavory reputation according to Superman historian Jan Henderson
11:59She was known for being 86 from certain clubs for brawling over men
12:05Typical thing you wouldn't think we'd go in cafe society, but that didn't matter to George. The guy was head over heels
12:12Gene LaBelle was a personal friend of George Reeves and then he said look I love the woman
12:18If you wanted a lighter cigarette with a hundred dollar bill
12:22I'd give her the hundred dollar bill George and Lenore announced their plans to marry George's longtime lover
12:27Tony Mannix was not pleased shortly after that. I heard from Tony
12:33About
12:34Leonore lemon. She wanted me to talk to George. You let me talk to the boy and I said, he's a big boy
12:41And that's not you know, I don't feel that's appropriate
12:44Tony was more beautiful than
12:51George was ever handsome and
12:53He was lucky guy
12:54I thought but George's luck was about to run out not even the man of steel was up to the task of keeping Lenore in
13:00Mind for one thing she had a temper when she drank and pretty soon George's close friends stopped coming around
13:05She wasn't the kind of person that you fall in love with
13:09She was she's a kind of a person that wants to run your life
13:12And if that wasn't enough Lenore was rumored to have connections to the mob back in her native, New York
13:17she was well known as a
13:21Party girl and she was involved with Hoffa and all of that. Look what happened to Hoffa
13:27Yeah, and look what happened to George at least they found his body
13:30But was Lenore lemon responsible or did Reeves make a decision to end it all when we come back?
13:36We'll take a look at all the theories surrounding that deadly night in 1959 when Superman bit the bullet after this
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16:28You
16:28Welcome back. I'm AJ Benza at the famous Chasen's restaurant where TV Superman had his last supper. It was June 16th
16:361959 and Chasen's was the hot spot in town as always the place was packed with showbiz bigwigs
16:41Spirits were high liquor was flowing George Reeves was there with his fiance the tempestuous party girl Lenore lemon
16:48Just hours later. The man of steel was found dead naked and alone in his bedroom
16:53The newspaper headlines the next morning stunned America the official word was that Reeves died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound when he died
17:02Everybody was obviously in shock. All the kids our age
17:06It was a big thing on schoolyards. You go to school that day and every kid was rattled
17:12George's close friends weren't buying the suicide story
17:16According to Superman historian John Field Reeves had too much to live for
17:20He was going to direct another season of Superman coming up another 26 episodes of Superman
17:26He was going to direct a science fiction feature with Phyllis Coates. He said I have a script
17:31it's a science fiction script and
17:34I'm in the gil now and I'm going to direct this and I'd like you to do the lead would you and
17:40He was very up about that. He looked wonderful
17:44George had always been a big drinker
17:46Maybe all the booze was beginning to take its toll the autopsy revealed an alarming 0.27 alcohol level when he died
17:53That's a lot of cocktails even for Superman this amount of alcohol
17:59which
18:00Was extremely substantial
18:03in a case like this, I
18:07Think contributed more to what happened than to any of the sinister things that have been speculated upon and that is
18:14a
18:15Depressed enough state where he could take his own life a man comes in
18:20sits down on his bed and
18:22slumps with his head tilted to one side fires a bullet through his head and hitting the ceiling this fellow called me up
18:31listen to the radio George's
18:34just committed suicide and
18:37I said
18:39Baloney so if it wasn't a suicide how did Reeves die?
18:42One of the most outlandish stories is that Tony Mannix George's married lover hired a hitman to knock him off
18:49The scenario goes like this neighbor William bliss dropped by Reeves home late that night when Lenora Lemon went downstairs
18:56Heard the doorbell open the door was chatting with Bill Bliss at the front door
19:01The gunman who had been waiting for his opportunity went upstairs shot George and escaped out of a an upper story bedroom
19:09The great mystery to us was was Bill Bliss there by accident or by design the idea that
19:17Lenore Lemon stood at the door
19:19talking with William bliss while someone sneaked in the back door of
19:25George's house and crept up the stairs is ludicrous now
19:29Let's take a look at the Lenore Lemon theory rumors were rampant that George was thinking about calling off their marriage
19:35Did Lenore catch wind of it and fly off the handle I would bet my life on it that Lenore Lemon came up there
19:42got a gun and
19:44Shot him. He wants to go to bed. She's wired. She doesn't want to go to bed and he ignores her
19:51She gets the gun
19:54Shoots five holes in the floor. He doesn't react to it and then puts one on the at his head
20:02Thinking the gun was empty and blew his brains out. I think she did it because she was inebriated
20:09I don't know what happened that night. No one knows what happened that night
20:14Well, we do know one thing Superman was dead and the investigation that followed was a joke
20:19Did the police just drop the ball or did some big shot Hollywood insider tell the cops to back off when we return?
20:25We'll take a look at that Boston investigation and a grieving mother's fight to save her son's reputation
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23:49The end of the line for the man of steel and the mystery surrounding George Reeves violent death remains
23:55I'm AJ Benza. Welcome back to mysteries and scandals
23:58No one who was close to George Reeves not even his possessive mother Helen bought the suicide theory
24:03Here's some reasons why number one there were no fingerprints on the gun number two
24:07There were no powder burns on the body number three
24:09The shell casing was found under the corpse and the best reason of all there were five
24:14random bullet holes later found in George's bedroom a
24:17Distraught Tony Mannix Reeves longtime lover called his co-star Phyllis Coates with the news
24:22She said the boy is dead
24:24There are five random bullet holes around the room
24:26The gunsmen wiped clean and the sheets are in the bin deck and I said my god what where?
24:31She said you've got to go over to the house with me
24:33Well, who knows who put the sheets in the washing machine?
24:35That was just one of the strange things that happened at Reeves home
24:39For example George's fiancee Lenore returned to the scene after the police split
24:44It was later discovered that Lenore lemon had broken the seal to go in the house to get food out of the refrigerator
24:49and booze out of the home and
24:52also
24:53Travelers checks that George had written in his name for them to use on a vacation
24:57Lenore's little escapade wasn't the only bizarre happening following the death of Superman the police investigation
25:03Seemed to be bungled from the beginning
25:05No photos of the crime scene have ever been found and Reeves body was embalmed before the autopsy was performed
25:12George's mother Helen was irate. She was also determined to salvage her son's reputation
25:17Private investigator Marlowe Spiriglio worked on the Reeves case. He remembers Helen's determination to prove her son was murdered
25:24She had his body frozen
25:26It was put in a train back to their hometown
25:31At that point his second autopsy was performed and it was concluded during the second autopsy
25:38that there was a probability of homicide a
25:41probability but no hard proof
25:44There were those who believed that Eddie Mannix Tony's husband used his power as an MGM executive to put a lid on the police inquiry
25:50The last thing Mannix wanted was to have his wife involved in a scandal
25:54Hey money talks, especially in Hollywood. It was one of the sloppiest investigations ever back in those days
26:02They wanted to protect
26:04celebrities
26:05Particularly the studios. They were very powerful in
26:10Hollywood at the time so Tony Mannix his name stay out of the newspapers
26:13But her involvement with Reeves certainly wasn't over as Jack Larson
26:17Discovered when he and Tony went to George's house just a few days after his death
26:20I saw and recognized that there was old blood of
26:24George's and I began to get a bit sick and at that point I heard a tap tap and tap tap and she was
26:31Tapping up these blessings on the bullet holes go figure although her behavior was strange
26:38There was no evidence to connect Tony Mannix to the death of George Reeves. I
26:42believe that Tony Mannix
26:45Would never in a million years
26:49Have killed George Reeves if Tony was gonna get rid of anybody it would have been Lenore lemon
26:55And she really hated her now Reeves other lady love Lenore lemon is another story
27:00She split town without even attending his memorial service
27:03Classy gal I think she looked on George's death to a large extent as a huge inconvenience in her life
27:11One day we were talking back and forth
27:12We're actually arguing and she told me do you want to hear that? I killed George Reeves. I says well only if you did
27:19Okay, I killed George Reeves. Are you satisfied and she hung up on me sounds like a confession to me
27:24But we'll never really know no one not even Lenore lemon was ever brought in for questioning
27:29Smells like a cover-up, that's the
27:32$64,000 question
27:33Who knows who pressured who to do what to cover this up?
27:37I felt the police were amateur time in Dixie and poor Tony Mannix
27:42The woman could never let go of George's memory Edward Losey befriended Tony in her later years
27:48He remembers the bizarre prayer session. She held for George twice a week in a home usually on Tuesdays and
27:55Friday nights, we would actually kneel down together and hold hands and she would start a prayer ceremony a liturgy to him
28:04Okay, but it does make you wonder how old George would like to be remembered after all these years
28:12Not a Superman I
28:15Think George would like to have been remembered as just a
28:20A decent human being a fun-loving kind generous
28:27Decent human being which is what he was. I'm sure George would like to be remembered as honest George the people's friend. I
28:35always remember him as a
28:37southern gentleman
28:39he was so
28:41So kind such a gentleman and as opposed to so many people in this business, and he would just couldn't be sweeter
28:49George's impact on pop culture will forever be remembered here at the Superman Museum in Metropolis, Illinois
28:54home of the superhero the people
28:57Stopped the longest to see the George Reeves exhibit to see the costume which to a lot of fans of the show is like the Holy
29:03Grail to this day in this museum
29:06The 200 people a day that come in here the the original the real Superman is George Reeves
29:12And will always be
29:20And who disguised as Clark Kent mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper fights a never-ending battle for truth
29:28justice and the American way
29:33Truth justice, well, we'll probably never know the truth or whether justice was served
29:38But George Reeves and Superman will always be synonymous with the American way forever remembered as our favorite superhero Superman
29:45I'm AJ Benza. Join me the next time our paths cross on mysteries and scandals
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