Source: Neatorama
Reeves had mainly been a minor actor prior to 1951 (he was one of the Tarleton twins in Gone With the Wind), when he struck gold by being cast as Superman in the film Superman and the Mole-Men. This good fortune came about because actor Kirk Alyn, who had portrayed Superman in the movie serials of the late 1940’s, wanted too much money for the role.
Cheesy as this film is (the Mole-Men use a converted vacuum cleaner as a weapon) by today’s standards, it was a commercial success in 1951 and paved the way for the television series Adventures of Superman in 1952.
The series ran until 1958 and I can remember watching a few episodes before it went into syndication. Like most other TV series of the 1950’s, it was low-budget (as exemplified by the not-so-special effects) but audiences ate it up anyway. As explained in the IMDb:
….one must remember that only black-and-white televisions were on the market during the early 50’s. There was no color. If an early television show was produced in color it was for other reasons, say possible release on the big screen. Some producers hoped to string two or three episodes of a popular television series together and distribute it to movie houses as a feature…
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