PEP Cereal Box, featuring Superman
date: label: Date made
content: 1946
name: label: maker
content: Kellogg Company
label: maker
content: Kellogg Company
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This box of Pep cereal from the 1940's features an original Superman comic story on the back. Pep, a "vitamin fortified" wheat flake product, sponsored the popular radio serial "The Adventures of Superman." Introduced by Kellog's in 1923, and advertised for its laxative properties, Pep was discontinued in the late 1970s.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Starring the voice of future television game show host Bud Collyer as the titular hero for every season but its last, "The Adventures of Superman" ran on U.S. airwaves from 1940-1951. Over 2,000 episodes of the adventures of the "Man of Steel" were produced, most featuring actress Joan Alexander in the role of journalist Lois Lane. The show was the first to expand Superman's audience beyond comic books and is responsible for introducing characters and storylines that have become canonical elements of the character's mythos. Elements of the program, such as the phrase "It's a Bird/ It's a Plane/ It's Superman!" remain closely connected with the hero in today's popular imagination.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The character of Superman first flew into action in 1938. The costumed superhero was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two Jewish teenagers from Cleveland Ohio, who used, among other things, classical mythology and the era's popular science fiction and adventure writing for inspiration.
label: Description (Brief)
content: With his debut in Action Comics #1, Superman became an instant sensation with audiences, inspired by the "Man of Tomorrow's" virtue and heroics at time when the Nation was slowly emerging from the economic catastrophe of the Great Depression and moving closer to World War.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Born on the doomed planet Krypton, Superman was sent to Earth as a child, where our world's yellow sun granted him extraordinary powers such as flight, super-strength, near-invulnerability, as well as other extraordinary abilities including heat and X-Ray vision. As an adult living in the city of Metropolis, the alien, born Kal-El, protects his identity by assuming the persona of Clark Kent, a "mild-mannered" journalist.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Fighting for "Truth and Justice," Superman birthed a cultural fascination with superheroes, and has become one of the most recognizable and influential fictional characters in history. In addition to comic books, the character has been explored in all forms of media, including radio, television, and film, and has been used to promote a variety of successful consumer products, educational initiatives and public service campaigns.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Michigan, Battle Creek
topic: label: Subject
content: Superman
label: Subject
content: Radio
label: Subject
content: Food Culture
label: Subject
content: Comics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Entertainment
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: DC Comics, Incorporated
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1987.0213.001
label: accession number
content: 1987.0213
label: catalog number
content: 1987.0213.001
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Box, Cereal
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: cardboard (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 1/2 in x 6 1/4 in x 2 1/4 in; 21.59 cm x 15.875 cm x 5.715 cm