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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

"Faster Than A Streak of Lightning!" What?!


"Faster than a streak of lightning, more powerful than the pounding surf, mightier than a roaring hurricane, the amazing stranger from the planet Krypto, Superman!"  Do these words sound familiar?  Sort of!  We are all more familiar with a different set of words describing Earth's mightiest hero.  Yet the words above were penned by the same man who penned "faster than a speeding bullet",  Jay Morton. 

Jay Morton, who may not be familiar to us, was a writer and artist that worked on projects that are much more familiar, such as Felix the Cat, Betty Boop, Popeye and of course our favorite, Superman.  Morton worked with Fleischer Studios on 25 of the animated superman films until the 1940's when he left and became the publisher of newspapers and trade papers in Florida.  It was during his time with Fleischer Studios that he coined the phrase above in describing Superman.  He later reworked it and came up the line we all know today...


"Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Look! Up in the sky!  It's a bird; it's a plane; no it's...Superman!"

Morton's film credits include Superman (1941), Terror On The Midway (1942), Showdown (1942), Destruction, Inc. (1942), The Mummy Strikes (1943), Jungle Drums (1943), The Underground World (1943), and The Adventures of Superman TV series (1952).  He was also appeared as Stinky in "Our Gang", the little rich kid who ended up on the wrong side of the pranks by the "Little Rascals". 

Not only was Jay Morton a writer and artist, but a sculptor as well.  In the entrance of the courthouse in Westchester, Virginia, is an 8 foot bronze sculptor of Admiral Richard E. Byrd, the famous explorer of Antarctica.  Westchester is the home town of Admiral Byrd and the statue was erected by Jay Morton.

What is most fascinating about Jay Morton, however, is that his wealth was not as a result of his work in film and animation but from invention.  After cutting his foot on an old style drinking can pop-tab while walking on the beach, he invented the current style tab that stays attached to the can.  His invention (U.S. Patent No. 5,062,542)  made him extremely wealthy!

On September 6, 2003, Jay Morton died in Charlotte, NC, from a brain aneurysm at the age of 92. 

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