THIS CDS CONTAINS A COLLECTION OF RADIO TRANSMITIONS OF THIS PROGRAM IN MP3 FORMAT. The Adventures of Superman, adapted from the DC Comics character created in 1938 (see Superman), came to radio as a syndicated show on New York City's WOR on February 12, 1940. On Mutual, it was broadcast from August 31, 1942 to June 17, 1949, as a weekly serial. It was aired on a three-times-a-week schedule from January 31, 1949 to June 17, 1949. The series shifted to ABC Saturday mornings on November 5 1949, and then to twice-a-week in June, 1950, continuing on ABC until March 1, 1951. The character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster arrived on radio not long after the comic book and took on an added dimension with Bud Collyer in the title role. During World War II and the post-war years, the juvenile adventure radio serial, sponsored by Kellogg's Pep, was a huge success, with many listeners following the quest for "truth, justice and the American way" in the daily radio broadcasts, the comic book stories and the newspaper comic strip. Airing in the late afternoon (variously at 5:15pm, 5:30pm and 5:45pm), the radio serial engaged its young after-school audience with its exciting and distinctive opening:
Faster than a speeding bullet!
Able to leap tall buildings with a single bound!
Look ! Up in the sky!
It's a bird!
It's a plane!
It's Superman!
Just as Superman's true identity remained a secret, the identity of radio actor Collyer also remained a secret from 1940 until 1946, when the character of Superman was used in a promotional campaign for racial and religious tolerance and Collyer did a Time magazine interview. Since there were no reruns at that time, the series often used plot devices and plot twists to allow Collyer to have vacation time. Kryptonite was the most famous of this which allowed Superman to be incapacitated and incoherent with pain while the secondary characters took the focus instead. At other times, Batman and Robin appeared in their own stories in Superman's absence. The scripts by B.P. Freeman and Jack Johnstone were directed by Robert and Jessica Maxwell, George Lowther, Allen Ducovny and Mitchell Grayson. Sound effects were created by Jack Keane, Al Binnie, Keene Crockett and John Glennon.
