Superman's Ghost

"Superman's Ghost" is a song about a tragic actor, or is it about a comic book character, or is it about a certain singer-songwriter? This Don Mclean composition can be read on different levels, but it is basically a tribute song. George Keefer Brewer was born at Woolstock, Iowa on January 5, 1914. After a minor role in the 1939 classic Gone With The Wind, he changed his name to George Reeves. Marrying and divorcing ten years later, his career appeared to be going nowhere until 1951 when he was offered the role of Superman in a TV series. This should have been the making of him, in spite of the heavy schedule and poor pay, but Reeves felt he had become typecast, even though he did a fair amount of film work. In the small hours of June 16, 1959, he shot himself dead at his Los Angeles home aged just 45. It remains to be seen how much of George Reeves Mclean saw in himself when he wrote this song, but he never allowed himself to become typecast, and as he has pointed out on occasion to audiences, after the colossal success of "American Pie," he could retire any time he chose.