Braunstein Speaks

How Come Clark Kent Looks so Much Like Superman?

[It is Friday, and as I did not produce a column yesterday, I feel somewhat compelled to put something on paper. When all else fails, I look to what I wrote a year ago, and if the subject is still timely, present it again.

[My last column touched on super powers, and exactly one year back I published this take on Superman vs. Clark Kent, a juxtaposition of personas whose point still remains valid—and probably always will.]

I grew up with the original generation of comic books, when DC Comics only cost a dime. I remember (and this is independent memory) looking at the Sunday Funnies before I could read, and trying to interpret them by the pictures alone. By the time I started school, the comics had taught me to read.

Irony is lost on children, so in the Letters to the Editor section of Action Comics (yes, even comic-book readers were literate in those days) a young reader asked why no one seemed able to tell that Superman and his alter-ego Clark Kent were one and the same. After all, they looked exactly alike (although Clark wore eyeglasses) were the same height and weight, spoke with the same voice, and were never seen in each other’s company.

When the editor answered that actor Ralph Bellamy, who portrayed Franklin Roosevelt in the 1958 play “Sunrise at Campobello,” looked exactly like his character, that response was deemed sufficient.

I might have seen old newsreels of President Roosevelt, or I might not have; but I could certainly tell the difference between him and Ralph Bellamy!

Several actors have portrayed World War II hero General George F. Patton on screen, but since 1970, Patton would forever be George C. Scott.

Likewise, Abraham Lincoln would forever be Raymond Massey since the 1940 film, “Abe Lincoln in Illinois.”

Jesus was portrayed by former cowboy-actor Jeffery Hunter in 1961’s “King of Kings,” and then by Swedish actor Max von Sydow in “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” in 1965.

While Hunter’s Jesus was the classical Renaissance portrait, von Sydow’s character looked like someone who actually could survive 40 days in the desert.

When some film producer finally got around to casting George Washington in the 1984 television miniseries, actor Barry Bostwick showed us that Washington had blow-dried hair, a detail unobtainable in history books.

Up to that point, Washington—to say nothing of Jesus—was never shown onscreen out of respect for the historical character. Remember the scene in “Ben-Hur” (1959) when Jesus gives Charleton Heston water? All we saw of Jesus was his back, or his hands and sandals.

Today’s generation has seen photos of Barack Obama morphed into Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and even Jesus himself (certainly no accident, that) but like the children of my generation, they can certainly tell the difference between Clark Kent and Superman.

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