Carl Glass

By Bruce Dettman

There are undoubtedly bigger George Reeves fans lurking somewhere in the infinite universe than Carl Glass, but anyone who knows the depth of his dedication to the late actor probably wouldn’t bet their house on it. In many ways, Carl, with his concrete achievements dedicated to preserving and protecting the legacy of what many feel to be the greatest Superman of all time, has over the last few years supplied a good portion of the glue that has held together much of the greater Superman community. Carl’s tremendous enthusiasm and unabashed adoration for all things pertaining to George Reeves is as genuine as it is infectious, and he has made believers and followers out of many who initially might have been suspicious of the intensity of his advocacy on behalf of the actor.  For make no mistake about it, Carl is the real deal and walks the walk.  His passion for learning all he can about George Reeves and his tireless advocacy in researching and promoting the actor’s work—not only his Superman stint—is as genuine and heartfelt as it gets.

Carl, born in 1954 in Clovis, California, first encountered The Adventures of Superman on a small Philco television set late in the decade. It was, in fact, the first program he ever recalled seeing. Carl admits that certain life-defining elements from a childhood marked by considerable early personal tragedy left him feeling insecure and needful until his grandfather took control and lovingly returned some of these all-important ingredients to his world.  But beyond the scope of his family and everyday life there was something about George Reeves’ performance that met and satisfied an inner need in Carl. At that time he knew of no other actor who had played the role or that Reeves had died in June of 1959. “My grandfather hid it from me but one day while attempting to get some kids to role play Superman with me, one of the boys blurted out “Superman is dead, silly.”

His unquenchable interest and curiosity about George continued beyond his early years and he haunted library shelves and watched scores of old late night movies to try and further his knowledge of the show and its magnetic star but this was hard to come by in a pre-Internet era when there were also few books on TV actors or shows. Gary Grossman’s 1976 groundbreaking work Superman from Serial to Cereal was like a revelation for Carl, but aside from this informational oasis in a desert there was little else to be found save an occasional TV marathon or random appearance of Reeves in an old movie. 

His interest continued, but he was now married, raising a family and getting on with real life. Still, the old fire for the show still burned within him and when the controversial book Hollywood Kryptonite came out in the 1990s it left a bad taste in his mouth, a feeling that there just had to be more to the story and that somehow he had to get at the truth.

Almost by accident, tapping into the embryonic Internet, he began delving deeper into the story of George Reeves, first finding such seminal Superman sites as Mary Spooner’s web page and Jim Nolt’s The Adventures Continue. Not long after this he would also discover the Dave Schutz Discussion Board where he would hookup with Lou Koza who would introduce him to such reference material as Jan Henderson’s influential Speeding Bullet as well as Lou’s own Saving George Reeves CDs. The ball was really rolling now and with the 2003 publication of author Larry Ward’s biography of actress Noel Neill, he was able to attend a TV Land Convention, where he was able to actually meet Larry and Noel, the first of many such events.

It was not long after this that Carl’s incredibly supportive wife Leslie, intuitively sensing that Carl’s interest was no mere backburner thing but could provide an ongoing avenue for his creative and investigative side, suggested that he create a web site devoted to Reeves. Carl, however, was dubious. What could be put out there that hadn’t already been covered and handled by others?  The impetus to get the ball running came from Don Holmes, who wanted to distance himself from his Superman Bloopers Page and sought out Carl to take it for his own site. That was the beginning.

Working closely with Leslie, Glass House Presents quickly became a popular site; one, they both like to think of, not only as a place of information and data, but as one of friendship and camaraderie, a philosophy they both espouse and hope always comes through in their work.

Carl not only began to broaden the scope of Glass House Presents to include sections on music and old film, but encouraged new writers, unique slants and individual columns by authors on a wide variety of subjects.

Still, no matter what new directions Glass House Presents may take, the epicenter will always be George Reeves.

Other major projects were tackled, helping with public relations with the newest big screen Superman film, Superman Returns, the restoration of two old George Reeves films by movie preservationist Kit Parker (for which Carl and others provide onscreen documentary sidebars), plus a disappointing attempt in concert with Steven Kirk and Dennis Lark to restore George Reeves’ birth home in Woolstock, Iowa which fell apart due to organization malfeasance and lack of accountability on the part of the community.

“We see ourselves as a supplement of all those who have gone before,” Carl says. “The site speaks for itself and I thank all of those who have made this possible. I’ve seen myself as a liaison in life, getting people together. I attempt to get the best and talented people around for continued success.”

“What you get with Carl,” a friend once said to this writer, “is what you see. There is no pretense, no phoniness, no politics.  His enthusiasm is real and genuine. He is what he is.”

Carl is also modest and it took a bit of doing to get him to agree to his being admitted to the George Reeves’ Hall of Fame, but it is long overdue event and one that every fan of the series and the actor should welcome. I suspect, if such a thing were possible and he was still around, George Reeves would be the first one to shake Carl’s hand and welcome him aboard.

But in his absence, let all of us just say “Congratulations, Carl. You’ve really earned it.”

July 2008