SupermanHawaii.com

by Jason Tayros

It was only a few weeks before the SFCCH 2005 that event coordinator Lawrence Pacheco asked me to assist Noel Neill once she arrived in our islands. He told me that she is the “first ever live-action Lois Lane”. Having never watched the original black and white serials nor the Adventures of Superman TV series (from the 1950's), the honor and importance of the duty I had then committed to hadn’t quite dawned on me. Fortunately for me, however, I would soon be able to watch some of Noel’s screen adventures as the spunky, strong-willed reporter on VHS video. I made sure to do my homework the night before the event, watching a few hours of the vintage entertainment. It was then, seeing Ms. Neill in her thespian element, that I realized the honor I had (good) lucked myself into...

On the morning of the event, I promptly made my way to Ms. Neill’s hotel to give her a ride to the event venue. I’ll confess that I was genuinely nervous. I mean, if Ms. Neill, as Lois Lane, could bust the chops of the Man of Steel (or, at least, the chops of Clark Kent), I could only imagine how tough she could be on me. I was previously told that I “can’t miss her”. I had only seen one, maybe two recent pix of Ms. Neill before the fact so I wasn’t so sure. But the idea of "I can't miss her" was right.

Ms. Neill emerged from the elevator and made her way down the hallway toward me. Even with her face hidden by the shadows of said hallway, I could somehow tell it was her. To my great relief, Ms. Neill was quite nice, quite gracious. Color me quite glad.

From my perspective, the ride to the event venue was short but pleasant. Having done a little bit of “homework” (i.e. research) on the internet the night before, I knew that Ms. Neill was born in Minnesota and I asked her about that. I even asked her about her experiences of working on the serials and working on the 50's TV show. I regretted having asked her about that, though, since she would basically would have had to repeat herself at the event later that day.

Still, the impression I got was that Noel was genuinely happy to answer questions at the SFCCH event. I was amazed at how clear her recollection of events - her experiences - is even years, sometimes decades after they had happened. She spoke well of her co-star George Reeves (R.I.P.) and seemed to reminisce positively about old times. Noel and fellow special guest, historian John Field, played well off of each other, answering questions, sometimes in tandem. It seemed obvious to me that these two people know each other from before and have previously worked together. This is not to infer that the answers were rehearsed. Not by any means. Their responses came off as genuine. Honest. Noel recalled memories of specific episodes and experiences. [I found her recollection of the ordeal of "flying" (a la Superman) with her fellow cast-member that played Jimmy Olsen quite interesting!]

Ms. Neill was also generous enough to sign autographs for the Hawaii fans in attendance. She brought along several pix of herself from the 40's and 50's, even a few with her co-stars. One photo popular with the fans, however, was one of Noel in more recent years with 70's and 80's Superman movie star Christopher Reeve not very many days before his horse riding accident.

Overall, I would say Ms. Neill was attentive and appeared happy. Personally, I was quite glad that she came to visit all of us and I was at ease, thinking that she was at peace with the people and things in her surroundings at the event. I'm truly looking forward to seeing her in the big-budget Hollywood film Superman Returns next year. One extra nice thing for the fans that attended this year's SFCCH is we'll be able to think / say, "Hey, we met her!". Many thanks to Noel Neill. It was not only an honor to have met you, but a pleasure. We hope you could tell that the spirit and values of Superman find admiration in Hawaii. Furthermore, the appreciation for intelligent, strong-willed characters like Lois Lane find admiration here as well!

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