Earlier, I posted a link to a New York Times story about the family of Jerry Siegel winning a court battle over the copyright to Superman's first appearance. Shortly after I put up that link, the Times added some illustrations to its online story, including the above.
Maybe I shouldn't be bothered by this but it has always annoyed me that so many folks have trouble with the names of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Those aren't difficult names but just Google some of the obvious misspellings and you'll find Seigel, Siegal, Segel, Schuster and other variations, along with many instances of their first names being swapped or their last names confused with Simon and Kirby or Simon and Schuster. Once upon a time, the names of Jerry and Joe appeared nowhere in conjunction with their creation and a lot of battles were fought to get them their right and proper credit. So I wince when I see one or both spelled wrong…which means I wince a lot.
During the biggest of those battles, Jerry and Joe appeared on Saturday Night Live With Howard Cosell, which was then a big-time ABC prime time TV series. It may have been the only time Joe ever appeared on television…and Cosell introduced him as John Shuster.
And now, here we are with maybe the most important news story in years about them in what may be the most important newspaper in the world…and he's turned into Max Shuster. Sigh and double sigh.
Incidentally, there's a special poignancy in both those photos. Joe is posing with a copy of (but probably did not read) The Amazing World of Superman, a 1973 special edition that DC published in connection with a promotion involving Metropolis, Illinois. The book was a history of Superman…containing no mention of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
The photo of Jerry shows him with his old typewriter. A couple times in the late sixties or early seventies, when money was tight in the Siegel household, Jerry took out ads to sell that machine…the typewriter on which the first Superman story was created. I don't know what became of it but I know he was disappointed that he got no offers for significant cash.
Both those photos represent sad moments in the lives of those two men, so it's meaningful to see them juxtaposed with that article. And almost tragically comic to see them get Joe's name wrong.