Adopted home of Superman flying high with tourists

With two new movies due out in 2006, residents expect even more visitors.

METROPOLIS, Ill. -- In this sleepy Ohio River town that claims Superman as its favorite son, 50-year-old Jim Hambrick has landed somewhere between reality and fantasy.

All things Superman rule here, from the 15-foot bronze statue of the buff comic-book hero standing sentry in Superman Square to the Metropolis Planet newspaper to the T-shirts emblazoned with "S" that can be found just about everywhere.

Images of Superman grace the water tower and billboards, pointing the way into downtown. A phone booth in the business district is just for show -- it doesn't have a phone.

In the midst of it all is Hambrick, proud owner of a storefront souvenir shop and Super Museum crammed with all things Man of Steel. The sign out front bills the one-time furniture store as "the Largest Superman Collection on the Planet."

"It's a borderline obsession for me; I had to channel it somewhere," the married father of four said smiling, decked out in a Superman T-shirt that hardly stands out in this town he moved to 13 years ago from Hollywood.

"We all need a hero, and Superman is the grandest of them all," he said.

The 166-year-old tourist trap town of 6,500 residents has no real connection to the fictional crime-fighter, beyond the fact that Superman's creator, Jerry Siegel, happened to choose the name "Metropolis" when he first drew the strip in the 1930s.

Locals have called this Superman's official home since the early 1970s, when the Illinois Legislature declared it to be. The local newspaper was The Metropolis News until 1972, when it became the Metropolis Planet to get it more in line with the fictional Daily Planet that had Clark Kent on the payroll.

"We're the only Metropolis in the whole United States," boasts Karla Ogle, chairwoman of the recent Superman Celebration, staged each spring for the past 27 years.

Tens of thousands of people stop in Metropolis each year, and residents expect to see that already muscular tourism trade flex even more with two new Superman-related flicks due out in 2006. One is a biopic of a detective trying to crack the puzzling 1959 death of George Reeves, television's Superman in the 1950s. The other, "Superman Returns," stars Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth and Kevin Spacey.

With those, "we've got some coattails to ride on," Hambrick said.

Inside Hambrick's store, the Superman theme blares across a wide collection of comic books and the typical tourist fare of T-shirts and action figures.

Hambrick grew up without a father and found a role model in TV's Superman. His collection, which he values at $4 million, started at age 5 with a Superman lunchbox, now on display.

"That's what started the madness," he joked.

The 75,000 items on display are just one-fifth of his total collection. His most-prized item: a glass-encased Superman costume George Reeves wore in 1957 television episodes. Hambrick values the get-up -- the last of 11 he says he's owned over the years -- at $250,000.

The museum also has props and wardrobe items from Superman television episodes and movies, as well as collectibles ranging from Superman peanut butter to Clark Kent's office as seen on TV in the 1950s.

Christopher Dennis could almost call it home. During Metropolis' recent Superman festival, the aspiring actor with dyed black hair bore a striking resemblance to the late Christopher Reeve -- Superman of film fame -- as he walked the streets posing as the Man of Steel, sporting tights and draped in a cape.

"It's a blast," Dennis, 37, says as a young boy calls out, "Hi, Superman." He shakes the boy's hand, then hoists him into his arms for a picture.

"The biggest pleasure is putting smiles on children's faces," he says.

Jeremiah Osteen, 6, and his brother Jonathan, 3, also got their picture taken while Dennis was in Hambrick's shop. The boys from Cincinnati wandered about wide-eyed as their parents scrambled to keep up.

"We always wanted to come here," said Jack Osteen, their father and a lifelong Superman fan.

The family is proof that Superman's hold on the imagination still spans generations.

"I like that he's super," Jeremiah says, staring a Superman suspended from the museum's ceiling. "I always wished I could fly, too."

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On the Net:

City of Metropolis, http://www.cityofmetropolis.com