Michael Siegel is speaking out about his dad

[Super Monkey]

JOURNEY INTO COMICS: SUPERMAN'S SILENT SON
by Michael San Giacomo

It could be the title straight off the cover of a comic: “Superman's Silent Son,” but it’s real.

After a lifetime of not speaking publicly about his famous father, Michael Siegel is speaking out about his dad, Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel. And he does not have a lot of nice things to say.

Michael spoke with Gerard Jones in reaction to Jones’ book Men Of Tomorrow, about the creation of Superman and the lives of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

The book included many interviews with Siegel’s extended family, but not Michael.

It was not for lack of trying though, Michael would not speak.

But after the book was published, Michael changed his mind and gave Jones so much information that there are some significant changes in the paperback version of “Men of Tomorrow,” in bookstores on October 31st.

Siegel waited until the death of his mother, Bella, Jerry’s first wife, to talk. She was even more adamant in her silence. Michael said the reason he and his mother never spoke about Jerry was her concern that doing so might break a non-disclosure agreement she had with DC.

As a reporter at the Plain Dealer in the Siegel‘s home town of Cleveland, I tried to speak to Bella and Michael several times over the years. The only response I ever received was a stern telephone call from the family’s attorney saying that any further calls to the family would be considered harassment and would be pursued legally. I was not alone. That was the typical response to journalists asking questions.

But since his mother’s very quiet, very private death in 2002, Michael has decided to be silent no longer.

Jones said the book also contains some new material about Jerry's courtship of Bella, her early role in his career, and their divorce.

“Maybe the most interesting is Mike's claim that Jerry and Bella moved from New York back to Cleveland in 1941 because Jerry couldn't meet his deadlines,” Jones said. “Bella couldn't stand covering for him with the editors who kept phoning and even sometimes ringing the doorbell demanding scripts.”

“A year after Michael's birth, Bella bore a second son,” Jones‘ book says. “This one died in infancy. Jerry began to withdraw completely from his wife. The army shipped him to Hawaii, where he worked on Stars and Stripes.”

The book says Bella got fewer letters from him, but “she did sometimes get receipts for jewelry he’d apparently bought for other women.”

Jerry divorced Bella and later married Joanne Siegel in 1948. They remained together until Jerry’s death in 1996, through very difficult years when Siegel was struggling to support them with his writing.

Michael was upset because, to quote the book, “in all the interviews he gave and all the conversations he had with fans over the next fifty years, (Siegel) never mentioned his son, Michael. He never mentioned his first wife, Bella.”

“I don¹t understand why he did that,” Michael would say. “Maybe he just couldn¹t handle being responsible for someone else.”

Jones said Michael grew up with few memories of his father, only Bella’s anger at how Jerry left them.

Jones said, according to Michael, Jerry “never tried to see me. He never asked about me even when he had to talk to my mother. And after the first few months, he didn't pay a cent of alimony or child support."

Ironically, in the late 1940s and part of the 1950s, Jerry and Joanne Siegel lived on Cleveland’s east side, within a few miles of Bella and Michael.

Jones said Michael did not have enough money to complete college and became a plumber. He ultimately open a plumbing supply business, to support himself and his mother.

Some of the new material did not make the new edition, but Jones wanted to talk about some of the material that he had to leave out.

“Partly to make up for my earlier mischaracterization of Mike, and also because it creates an intriguing contrast between father and son Siegels,” said Jones. “Michael Siegel grew up to be an athlete and a community volunteer, winning Tae Kwon Do competitions and coaching a youth Tae Kwon Do team for the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Board of Education.

“Here was Jerry Siegel, completely unathletic and never (as far as I can find out) given to community service, creating his ultramuscular public servant, Superman,” Jones continued.

“While his son, whom he had nothing to do with, grows up much closer to the ‘Superman’ role, mastering martial arts and coaching kids.”

But Jones said the most interesting new material is Mike's very compelling argument against the story that Joanne was the model for Lois Lane.

“He's just about convinced me that Jerry didn't know Joanne until after World War II, and he and Joanne made up the whole story,” Jones said.

From my perspective, (Mike San Giacomo, speaking here) you can’t swing a dead cat in Cleveland without hitting a woman who claims to have been the inspiration for Lois Lane. I’ve talked to at least three over the years.

The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, which opened earlier this month in the Cleveland suburb of Beachwood, has a section devoted to Siegel, Shuster and Superman. Part of the exhibit includes a tribute (with pictures) to a local woman Lois Rothschild who claimed to be the inspiration for Lois Lane. She's pictured with Siegel and Shuster, her Glenville High School classmates.

We may never know the truth of who inspired the two young kids in Cleveland to create the plucky reporter, but, before he died, Jerry told me that his wife, Joanne, was absolutely the model.

Jerry and Joanne insist that she responded to an advertisement in the 1935 classified section of the Plain Dealer from looking for an artist’s model. She said Joe Shuster placed the ad, and that she posed for him as the model for Lois Lane.

Joanne said she met Jerry at that time, but it would be years before the two got reacquainted and married.

Jones said he would lay out the “who modeled for Lois” story in an article sometime in the future,

“Michael also said that, according to Bella, Jerry worked on Superman with "several other artists" before Joe,” said Jones. “In the book I list three, but Bella felt there were even more.”

There were several people living around Cleveland who worked at the Siegel and Shuster studio in Cleveland who drew part or all of the comics. Most, perhaps all, have since died.

The history of the Siegels, Shusters and DC/Time/Warner is long and often bitter. For the better part of five years, they have been negotiating some kind of settlement over the rights to Superman, though neither side will talk about the progress in the case.

Jones’ book, which builds on previous books and stories about Superman and his creators, is the latest and has something new to offer.

Speaking of museums, it appears that Cleveland has once again dropped the ball on the creation of a Superman Museum. After some encouraging early efforts, the notion seems to have been forgotten by the Mayor Jane Campbell administration.

Campbell is fighting for her political life in a mayor’s race against City Councilman Frank Jackson, to be decided in November.

Perhaps the next mayor of Cleveland, whether it be Campbell or Jackson, will be more kindly disposed to the Man of Steel museum.

But I wouldn’t bet on it.

[llozymandias]

Great post.  I can understand why Michael Siegel would have mixed feelings about his father.  Also i can understand how Jerry became alienated from his first wife.  It's common for the death of a child to help destroy the marriage of his parents.  Actually it should be no surprise that Jerry had trouble meeting his deadlines.  Obviously he was overcommitted.  Writting the comics, & the comic strip, as well as the other comics characters he was creating & writting about.  One possible reason why Jerry didn't talk to or about his son over the years: feelings of guilt.  It's possible that like many people Jerry simply couldn't bring himself to deal with it.  Not good, just human.  Btw imao if there is a settlement between the Siegels & DC/TimeWarner, Michael should get part of it.  Maybe there was no one person that Lois Lane was "inspired" by.  Jerry & Joe could have based her on several people, for all we know.