FAREWELL TO THE ORIGINAL LOIS LANE IN FILM

I hadn’t known her as long as some of the more prominent members of the George Reeves/Superman community.  I didn’t attend as many conventions as some who were privileged to be with her for extended times.  I never attended one of the Superman Festivals in Metropolis where she graced folks with her presence and would throw out an occasional baseball at the games.  While Noel was making the rounds of the college campuses, I was graduating from college myself and beginning a management position with all its responsibilities.

Until I had become involved with the George Reeves Community, I had only remembered Noel Neill from the 1950s TV series, The Adventures of Superman.  She was the Lois Lane I grew up with.  Her Lois became a wonderful example of how a woman could maintain her feminity, while competing with her male counterparts in a job that had been traditionally reserved for men.   She had become a role model for young women who sought a career, many of whom entered journalism.  Little did I know that she had appeared in the Superman serials with Kirk Alyn as the same character.

Noel and Kirk Alyn

Noel and George Reeves 

Both Ms. Neill and I were born in the Midwest.  We knew all about harsh winters and cold temperatures.  She attended Central High School in Minneapolis and was a very good student.  

Senior Class Photo

This was next to her senior picture

Field Hockey, Noel seated at right

Noel seated, 2nd from right in 1938

Noel relocated to sunny California and became a trend setter.  She was one of the first U.S. beach volleyball players and helped promote the sport.  She was also one of the first female surfers in California.  I told Larry Ward that I’d be thinking of Noel during the Olympic volleyball games in Rio because of this.

Noel's father was the editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune and hoped his daughter would follow in his footsteps. This was not to be the case, however, as she was bitten by the acting bug.  I often wonder if she thought it ironic that her signature role would be a newspaper reporter!

We didn’t speak that much about the show.  The only thing I did mention to her was the difference in her hair color in the last season from the previous ones.  Also being a redhead, I told her that my own hair color had turned over the years from strawberry blonde, to chestnut, and later to that similar to a roan horse.  That’s when she told me a story about how they hadn’t finished filming the portions of the episodes that they needed, so they pulled her in on a Sunday.  She was unable to get hold of her hair stylist so she went to the drug store and picked up a color that she thought would be similar.  Unfortunately, it was way too light, and so she ended up having to look more like a “carrot top” for the episodes in that last season.  We chuckled at how hard it is to match up a redhead and how brunettes have it so much easier.

Noel did volunteer that George Reeves was the only one who had a trailer on the set.  I told her she should have asked Perry White for a raise as it seemed she didn’t have much of a wardrobe.  She laughed and said that all the other cast members didn’t have dressing rooms, just an area with a long table, a rectangular mirror facing you with those round ball lights on the border, and a chair.  She put on her own makeup for the most part and brought her own clothes, seen on the show.  In the early seasons, Noel wore suits but switched to dresses in later years of the show.  As with all respectable women, she was seen wearing some form of pillbox hat or beret and gloves when out of the office.  I recall asking her once how she managed to look so tan on the TV show.  She told me that she never wore stockings so they had to use a sort of spray tan on her legs.  Here I thought that was a recent invention!  Little did I know that Coco Chanel had invented this back in the 1920s.

Like the song says, "If I could turn back time", I would have wanted to go see her at one of the colleges or universities that she visited.  I would have loved to have heard her speak to the young women there, and see the effect she had on college women.  She had traveled around the world, loved really good chocolate, and especially miniature Tootsie Rolls.  I will always cherish the time I spent with her, and how she always made time for her fans.

Noel attended the Superman Festivals in Metropolis, Illinois since 1997.  In 2010, she was honored with a statue of her likeness.  She will always be remembered for her devotion to the fans and her graciousness.

RIP, our First Lady of Metropolis and The Adventures of Superman.