Experience the strength of Superman in Metropolis, Ill.
When heading through southern Illinois, there is one town that stands out from most others, Metropolis, Ill., the home town of Superman.
“On Jan. 21, 1972, the only Metropolis in America adopted Superman as its home town hero,” said Rebecca Lambert, a receptionist for the Metropolis Chamber of Commerce. “The man who began the movement, Bob Westerfield, came to Metropolis a few years prior and had wondered why the only Metropolis in America didn’t have any affiliation with Superman.
“We didn’t do it before because no one had ever given it much thought to know that we are the only Metropolis in the United States,” she said. “Since we don’t have a movie theater we never really made that connection.”
The connection now includes several name references and a festival that brings fans to the town each summer.
“We also have a Superman Celebration every summer for four days,” Lambert said. “We get a lot of tourists specifically for the celebration. We get all kinds of collectors and fans from the ones who have multi-thousand dollar collections to avid fans to accidental fans who happen to come in to town on the days of the festival.”
Lambert said there are many actors from the Superman films and TV shows who come to the town to help with the festival. Past guests have included Gerard Christopher, Margo Kidder and Lane Smith.
“The guests are always surprised by how much Superman has influenced our town every time they come,” Lambert said.
However, because there is not a theater in Metropolis, there has been little reaction to rumors of a new Superman movie.
“There was talk at one point of putting in a new theater, but since there are so many cities close by with big theaters there is no way we could compete with them,” Lambert said. “Since the population in Metropolis is so small, most of our fan base comes from out of town through the celebration.”
In a town of 7,000 people, the sudden influx of about 20,000 tourists makes some of the residents uneasy.
“Many people like the festival because of the influx of visitors it brings, but there are also those who want Metropolis to remain a quiet small town,” she said.
The city also honors their hero with a 15-foot-tall bronze painted statue of Superman on the north side of the courthouse overlooking the business district.
“People in the district can see the statue for blocks, and there is always someone taking pictures on it,” Lambert said.
The town also has a weekly newspaper called The Metropolis Planet, giving homage to the newspaper Clark Kent wrote for.
“We didn’t call it the Daily Planet for two reasons – first, the paper is only weekly, and second there are certain copyrights that we couldn’t get by,” Lambert said. “We have a written contract of things we can use from DC comics, but we have to be really careful about what we use and how we use it. Most of the things we can use have very strict guidelines on them that cannot be broken.”