2015 Merchandise & Miscellaneous News Archives

February 10, 2015: Cleveland Makes Plans for Superman Statue

Model of Proposed Superman Statue for Cleveland As most Superman fans know, the character was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two friends living in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1930s. Now, the city of Cleveland is preparing to honor their creation by erecting a larger-than-life statue of a flying Superman near the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum as part of the elevated walkway that will connect downtown Cleveland to the lakefront.

    The statue will be about five miles from the Glenville neighborhood where Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman in the early 1930s.

    Richard Pace, of Cumberland Development who is co-developing 20 acres of city-owned land at North Coast Harbor with Trammell Crow Co. of Dallas, said the burnished steel statue of Superman is long overdue.

    "For years people have asked why Cleveland does not have a statue to commemorate the creation of Superman and honor local creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster," said Pace, a founding member of the Siegel and Shuster Society. "Now we will."

    Sculptor David Deming has been quietly working on the statue for almost seven years in his Lakewood studio as part of the Superman Monument Committee. He said the statue will be atop a 30- to 35-foot pedestal base that will be "Superman blue" with small ribbons of red and yellow through it. The statue itself will measure 12 feet from the tip of Superman's boot to his outstretched hand.

    "I want the pedestal to look crystalline and keep the Superman colors intact," said Deming, who was the former president of the Cleveland Institute of Art and a nationally renowned sculptor. "I would also like the pedestal to be illuminated from the interior."

    He said the statue itself will be a burnished steel, as in "Man of Steel," and will be placed in the center of the walkway, which curves around as it descends. The statue will be a little higher than the walkway itself. It's a classic version of Superman that owes much to artist Joe Shuster's original vision of the character.

Model of Proposed Superman Statue for Cleveland
Model of Proposed Superman Statue for Cleveland
Models of Proposed Superman Statue for Cleveland

Read the full report with additional photos at Cleveland.com



2015 Merchandise & Miscellaneous News

Listed below are all the Merchandise & Miscellaneous News items archived for 2015.


Back to the News Archive Contents page.

Back to the Latest News page.