When he was a child in rural Mississippi, Jefferson Gray loved hearing stories about Superman. Gray grew up, moved to Cleveland, got a job in a steel foundry and got married. Twenty-five years ago, with small children to raise and more on the way, superheroes were the last thing on his mind. He went looking in Glenville to buy a house.
Jefferson Gray: I looked at other houses in the neighborhood, but there was something brought me right back to this house and I said 'Honey we're going to buy this house'.
Gray had no idea that his family had moved into Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel's old house. In 1986, the city of Cleveland declared the house a landmark and that's when the fans showed up. Some by the busload. Some, alone, driving hundreds of miles to pay homage to Jerry Siegel. Gray's family always let visitors tour the place where Superman was born.
Jefferson Gray: This is the bedroom where Jerry Siegel was and this is the closet most people say he wrote most of the Superman stuff.
But, Gray admits that the room - and well - much of the house is anything but beautiful. Decades of water damage have marked the house. Plaster is falling off the walls. But the cost to repair the house is in the tens of thousands of dollars, way more than the family could ever afford. Mike San Giacomo started writing about the Siegel house for the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1989.
Mike San Giacomo: I was kind of disheartened that there was no kind of plaque from the city. For last 19 years, I've been talking about the need to do something to honor Superman in Cleveland.
But nothing has happened. Then San Giacomo's friend, novelist Brad Meltzer, called up some of the biggest names in the comic book industry and formed the Sigel and Shuster Society. The nonprofit started collecting original art for an ebay auction. All the money goes to fix up the house. Meltzer says he then called Jerry Siegel's widow, Joanne, to tell her their plans.
Brad Meltzer: And suddenly she says to me, 'Brad, before my husband passed he signed six shirts and said to me that if you ever need money, sell the shirts. And no one knows these shirts exist. I want you to have one of these shirts for this auction.'
Other items on the list include a walk-on part in NBC's hit series, 'Heroes' and VIP tickets to Stephen Colbert's show, 'The Colbert Report.' Former Clevelander Brian Bendis pens the comic book, "Powers." He says his auction offering is a tribute to Siegel and Shuster. Superman's creators signed over the rights to their iconic character to a precursor of DC Comics, but then spent decades in court fighting to get them back.
Brian Bendis: Things have changed so much because of what they did that now I own my books and I can do whatever I want. And 'Powers' is a book that I own and now you can be in it, if you win the auction.
The Cleveland Restoration Society estimates that exterior repairs to the house alone will cost $50 thousand dollars. Glenville Development Corporation's Tracey Kirksey calls the house a local jewel in desperate need of a polish.
Tracey Kirksey: if we get the maximum amount, we'll restore the house top to bottom, new roof down to sidewalk repairs. If we don't, we can still kind of do work ala carte.
The Grays have agreed to give the Siegel and Shuster society the first chance to buy the house should the family ever decide to move. The online auction goes through the rest of the month. Saving Superman's house, comic book fans say, is the least they can do for their hero. Mhari Saito, 90.3.