Pittsburgh Press, 13 July
1941, p. 3.
Sewickley Boy Discovers He's Not Superman
4-Year-Old Tries to Fly From Window, Suffers Bruises
Only
Arms
outstretched, four-year-old [five-years-old in some other reports] Frank Toia
poised on the window-sill of his second floor bedroom in Sewickley and called
to his brother Timmy, 6: "Here's how Superman flies." The lad, son of
Sewickley patrolman Thomas Toia is recovering today in the Valley Hospital from
bruises sustained in the 30-foot fall into a cellar areaway. Examination
revealed Frankie had shattered nothing but his belief that he could duplicate
the feats of famous "Superman," flying hero of the comic strip.
New York Post
28 May 2001
'SUPERMAN' BOY, 9, DIES IN
BRONX ROOFTOP PLUNGE
A 9-year-old boy plunged five stories to his death
last night while trying to leap from one Bronx rooftop to another - shouting,
"Look, I'm Superman!" Julian Roman, a friendly third-grader who loved
karate, went up to the roof at 2730 Decatur Ave. in Bedford Park with a group
of friends in the early evening. […]
=====
As the foregoing reports demonstrate, there’s no
doubt that children who imitate gravity-defying superheroes can risk injury or
worse (see, for example, Patrick Davies, Julia Surridge, Laura Hole, & Lisa
Munro-Davies, “Superhero-related injuries in paediatrics: a case series,” Archives of Disease in Childhood, 2007, vol.
92, no. 3, 242-243). But is it true that children’s Superman capes once carried
the label: “Warning:
Cape Does Not Enable You to Fly”? I don’t know of any indisputable proof of
that claim, but apparently Captain Marvel capes did include a similar warning: “PLAY CAPE—DOES NOT POSSESS SUPERHUMAN POWERS.”
Chip Kidd
& Geoff Spear, Shazam! The Golden Age
of the World’s Mightiest Mortal. New York: Abrams ComicArts, 2010,
unpaginated. “This extremely rare Captain Marvel novelty cape from 1948 is the
only known surviving example. Note the disclaimer just above the patent pending
line.”
