NOTE: all of these
pictures were taken a few years ago when the place was less cluttered. All text is in the present tense anyway.
As promised, here is a closer look at that Superman Record
Player, copyright 1978.
Here’s a view of the top.
The top right-hand corner is the same pose & art used for the Action
340 pin-up. The bottom right is
Neal Adams’ art used for the cover of Superman 233, with “Superman Breaks
Loose!” “Kryptonite Nevermore!” and other exclamation-pointed statements.
The bottom left corner has a redrawn image of the cover art
from Action
1.
I’m pretty sure that the central image of Superman bursting
to us through a wall is also Neal Adams art, but I can’t tell you its original
appearance.
The
main image inside the top is wonderful Swanderson (Curt Swan inked by Murphy
Anderson) art originally from 1973’s Amazing World of Superman
(Metropolis Edition). The
smaller image is the same art I see on my Superman night light. (Someone else’s
is shown below).
The
actual record player works (as of 7/01/2013).
The white knob at top right of the base is the on/off-volume dial. The white tab-looking thing sticking out at
the seven-o-clock position from the turntable is the speed selector with three
settings: 45rpm, “N” for neutral, and 33rpm.
As was standard from the 1950s to the 1980s with record players of this
type, there is a larger pup-up cylinder in the center, so you can play 45rpm
records. The holes between the turntable
and the tone arm are speaker holes.
When
you close the record player, this is the edge where the handle is. As you can see, we have part of the Superman curriculum vitae. The art running across the bottom, from Amazing World of Superman (Metropolis Edition) is another gem from the Swanderson
team.
In the
above image you can see the handle to the left, so you know which side this
is. Another panel from Amazing
World of Superman (Metropolis Edition).
Now you
know that this was made in the USA by the Dejay Corp. I’m pretty sure this was a play on “deejay,”
as in Disc Jockey.
Here we
have the rest of that dynamic phrase.
Note that, unlike the Kirk Alyn serial, THIS Superman only needs one
hand (one pinkie?) to stop a train. And
comic-book magic keeps the train from plowing forward another fifteen feet with
a Superman-Pinkie-Finger hole in its front.
Art from Amazing World of Superman
(Metropolis Edition).
Here’s
what the bottom of the record player looks like.
The
first panel is Wayne Boring’s. I don’t
know if this version of Supes’s origin is from a comic or magazine … it IS NOT
from the 1973 Amazing
World of Superman (Metropolis Edition).
However,
it was also used in 1978 for a Pepsi place mat, a series of which also included
Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Batman, and this guy. I think these place mats were originally from
Pizza Hut (which is owned by PepsiCo).
They are laminated.
You
can see part of the Captain Marvel place mat at the bottom (I have two copies,
so I’ve got each side showing). It’s
called “Shazam!” because at the time Marvel Comics wouldn’t let DC use the name
of their own character because Marvel was using it for their own different
character of the same name. Of course that’s why the 1970s DC series was also
called not by his name but by what he shouted to change.
Anyway, that’s the 1978 record player. Another time we’ll see front-and-back scans
of the place mats.
