I hadn't expected to get this deep into The Mystery of Who Played Superman at the 1940 World's Fair…but we're into it so let's take this a little farther. I'm becoming convinced that the man in the suit wasn't actor Ray Middleton and I have a new theory to throw out there. First, let's look at some faces. The middle one is the guy who played Superman. The left and right ones are, I'm told, Ray Middleton…
Does the guy in the center pic look like the guy in the other two pics? Not to me. I wouldn't send someone to the gas chamber based on a photo I.D. like that but I might say it's not the same guy. The photo at right was sent to me by several folks. The photo at left was sent to me by my buddy Jim Brochu, who knew or knows every actor who ever set foot on a Broadway stage. Jim writes, " I got to know Ray in his later years and I would swear (even though Wikipedia and IMDB says it is) that he was not the guy in the Superman suit. I've attached a 1942 pic of Ray and you can see the chin and hairline are very very different. Ray was tall (6'3 or 6'4) and very barrel chested and this guy in the pic doesn't have the same body type." I'm inclined to agree.
So now here's what I'm thinking. Where did the identification of Ray Middleton as the man who played Superman originate? Did it possibly come from this first day issue envelope?
Because if it did, I have a thought. Let's look a little closer at what it says there in the lower left-hand corner…
"Ray Middleton appeared as Superman at the fair for a live radio broadcast." It doesn't say he put on the costume. Is it possible that to play Superman in the live radio broadcast, they hired Mr. Middleton, who was a trained actor…and then to ride the float dressed as Superman, they just found some muscular guy who looked kinda like the character Joe Shuster was drawing? Wouldn't that make sense? That would sure explain the New York Times reporter seeing Middleton functioning as a judge but not identifying him as the person who played Superman.
So my question is: Is there any other source that says Ray Middleton dressed up as Superman and posed for photos that day? Because if there isn't and the identification of him came wholly from that envelope…well, that envelope doesn't say he did. It just says he played Superman in a radio broadcast.
I have quite a few messages arguing the Jerry Siegel/Bill Gaines identification, including some from folks who are pretty sure of opposing views. But I'll get to that tomorrow or the next day. I also have more than fifty messages from people who made the same joke; that the reason the Times reporter couldn't identify Middleton as Superman is that Middleton disguised himself by wearing glasses.