Art by Al Plastino
The Friday, August 30, 1963, edition of the New York Times blared the headline, “Superman Meets Kennedy on Vigor.” Other newspapers across the country likewise contained the story, writing, “President Kennedy and Superman had a long talk behind closed doors at the White House Thursday. No details were announced. But Lois Lane and others who eavesdropped on the intercom gave this account: The President talked of muscle tone and stamina and the need for stronger Americans, and told the Man of Steel he wished there were more around like him. In response, Superman volunteered his services to the President’s Council on Physical Fitness.”
The article went on to explain that storyboards were in the process of being created for the resulting comic book and that Richard S. Snider, administrator of the President’s Council, would assist with its production. The White House, meanwhile, was apparently taken by surprise – when asked to comment on Superman’s involvement in the program, press secretary Pierre Salinger reportedly told United Press International, “Put me down as doubtful.”
“Superman’s Mission for President Kennedy” was eventually published in Superman #170, albeit with a publication date of July 1964 – eight months after the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. According to the opening panel, the story was originally scheduled to be released earlier but the assassination temporarily shelved it out of respect for the president’s family. At the request of Kennedy’s successor, President Lyndon Johnson, it was finally being published. There are doubts, however, regarding the validity of that account.
Nonetheless, John F. Kennedy does indeed summon Superman to the Oval Office in the early stages of “Superman’s Mission for President Kennedy” – just as the New York Times reported in August 1963 – and asks him to assist his administration “by lending your services to the important job of getting our youth into A-1 physical shape.” Kennedy goes on to add, “We must show our youngsters that everyone has to keep fit – not just sports heroes! Once we lose our physical alertness, our mental awareness will vanish as well!”
Superman readily agrees and accepts the offer. Flying through the sky, he soon spots five teens on a cross-country run. In order to get them to pick up their pace, he challenges them to a race. “I’ll cut my pace to 150 millionths of my normal speed,” Superman tells them. “The first one that catches me gets my autograph.”
The Man of Steel gives them tips during the resulting competition – “don’t try to run too fast… pace yourselves… breathe deeply… try to relax while you run” – and when they reach the end of the race, each of the five simultaneously touch Superman on the back while likewise crossing the finish line at the same time.
The superhero next helps a pair of students become better track and field athletes by creating a space dome for them to practice in. “This is the way to give them a shot of confidence,” Superman says to himself. “Let them perform here, where the Moon’s gravity is one-sixth that of Earth’s, enabling them to leap six times higher than usual.” Afterwards, the pair find the same success outside the space dome as they had within it.
In February 1963, the real-world President Kennedy came across a letter written by President Theodore Roosevelt to the commandant of the Marine Corps in 1908. In it, Roosevelt suggested that Marine officers should regularly embark on fifty mile hikes to prove their physical fitness. He also wrote that he would make the same suggestion to his White House staff.
According to JFK press secretary Pierre Salinger in his 1966 memoirs With Kennedy, President Kennedy forwarded the letter to General David Shoup, the current Marine Corps commandant. Shoup replied that Marine officers at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina would embark on a fifty mile hike the following week as a result.
“You realize, of course, that somebody from the White House will have to go down there and march with the Marines,” Kennedy told his slightly overweight, cigar-smoking press secretary. Salinger suggested another member of the staff, but the president replied, “No. It should be someone who needs the exercise – somebody who would be an inspiration to millions of other out-of-shape Americans.”
Salinger tried to get out of the hike by anonymously leaking that two generals – one from the Army and the other from the Air Force – were feuding over whose officers were in better physical fitness. The ploy backfired, however, when the Army general announced he was organizing a fifty mile hike comprised of White House personnel that would include Salinger. When the White House press corps provided little sympathy, Salinger told the journalists that they would be expected to participate in the hike as well.
Back at the Daily Planet, Clark Kent discovers that editor Perry White has suddenly become a true believer in the President’s physical fitness program. Diets are enforced, employees encouraged to take the stairs instead of elevators, and group calisthenics are held. Just when Kent thinks the worst is over, White announces, “We’re going on a ten-mile hike! I want everybody out on the park road bright and early – with full field packs, like mine!”
The next day, photojournalist Jimmy Olsen gets out of breath during the trek, confiding to Clark Kent that he might not make it the full ten miles. Fortunately it begins to rain and Olsen, Kent, White, and Lois Lane head for a nearby cave for cover. Once inside, however, a loose boulder falls from the ceiling and plugs the opening, trapping them inside.
Clark Kent suggests that they might be able to dig their way out but since everyone is tired from the hike, they should first take a nap. Once everyone is asleep, Kent dislodges the boulder and attempts to secure it back into the ceiling. The other three wake up before he is finished and are amazed by Kent’s newfound strength.
“You’d think that only Superman could do that, but it shows how our physical fitness program has made a real man out of Kent,” Perry White exclaims. “Now keep up your daily exercise, Kent, or you’ll slip back into your former weak self!”
While Pierre Salinger still hoped to find a way out of the fifty-mile hike at the White House, his press secretary counterpart at the Department of Justice, Edwin Guthman, didn’t have a choice. According to his 1971 memoirs We Band of Brothers, Guthman was in Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s office when his boss suddenly decided to embark on his own fifty-mile hike. “You’re all going with me, aren’t you?” he asked Guthman, Deputy Attorney General Louis Oberdorfer, and administrative assistant James Symington. By the time they left the next morning at 5 a.m., David Hackett of the President’s Committee on Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Crime had been recruited as well.
“It was a frigid winter morning,” Guthman remembered. “The temperature was 20 degrees. The tree-lined towpath was packed with ice and snow.” While the other four had served in the military and wore heavy shoes and brought along extra pairs of socks, Robert Kennedy “wore a pair of shiny oxfords.”
By late afternoon, Hackett, Oberdorfer, and Symington had dropped out. At the thirty-five mile mark, Edwin Guthman likewise called it quits, leaving only the Attorney General and a Life magazine reporter who had joined the hike late. Right before he left his press secretary behind, Kennedy whispered to Guthman, “You’re lucky, your brother isn’t President of the United States.”
Pierre Salinger was eventually able to convince President Kennedy to let him off the hook – with the caveat that he had to come up with a legitimate reason for the press. After meeting with council administrator Richard Snider, Salinger told journalists at the White House, “The President’s Council on Physical Fitness this morning issued a statement commending those in the nation who are successfully attempting the fifty-mile hike, but warning that those who are not in good shape should not attempt such a feat. I believe the fitness of this administration has already been amply demonstrated by the Attorney General. A further demonstration on my part would be superfluous and possible disastrous. I am therefore rescinding the hike previously announced.”
Realizing that the White House press corps was now off the hook as well, Carlton Kent of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, “Thank God, the Press Secretary is a coward.” Salinger agreed, commenting in his memoirs, “I may be plucky but I am not stupid.”
Anthony Letizia