Speaker 1: Fireheart originals. This is an iHeart original.
Speaker 2: Everyone has a place they retreat to when they need
Speaker 2: to recharge. It could be your bedroom, your library, your porch.
Speaker 2: For Superman, it's his fortress of solitude, the retreat carved
Speaker 2: out of ice in the Arctic. For Mike Meyer, it's
Speaker 2: the basement of his home in the small town of
Speaker 2: Granite City, Illinois. Mike is in his late forties, and
Speaker 2: for as long as he can remember, he has loved Superman.
Speaker 2: He bought his first comic as a ten year old
Speaker 2: when they were just twenty cents. He loves the nobility
Speaker 2: of Superman, his desire to do good things. He buys
Speaker 2: as many comics, toys, and other collectibles as he can.
Speaker 2: It's not easy. Not a wealthy collector. Mike has been
Speaker 2: collecting Social Security for an intellectual disability since he was
Speaker 2: in his twenties. He works part time at a McDonald's
Speaker 2: in nearby Collinsville, but over time he's still amassed a
Speaker 2: pretty cool collection, over eighteen hundred items. There's stuff everywhere,
Speaker 2: but a lot of it fills the basement of his home.
Speaker 2: He doesn't get down here as often as he'd like.
Speaker 2: Mike's knees give him problems, and navigating the stairs is hard,
Speaker 2: but it's worth it so he can be near his friend,
Speaker 2: his favorite fictional character. But today isn't like other days. Today,
Speaker 2: when Mike turns on the light, he's astonished to see
Speaker 2: the shelves are practically bare. The comics, the toys, the
Speaker 2: decades of collecting gone. Someone didn't just rob Mike of
Speaker 2: his stuff. They robbed him of the one thing that
Speaker 2: brought him most of his happiness. Thinking of Mike in
Speaker 2: that moment, you wish you could tell him what happens next,
Speaker 2: tell him that something amazing is going to come out
Speaker 2: of this. But right now, all Mike can do is
Speaker 2: wonder what happens when you lose everything that matters. Welcome
Speaker 2: to Very Special Episodes and iHeart original podcast. I'm your
Speaker 2: host Danish Sports and this is Up, Up and Away.
Speaker 3: Hey, everybody, it's Jason English here. We've got something a
Speaker 3: little different this week. A couple of years ago, a
Speaker 3: lot of the people who work on this podcast Very
Speaker 3: Special Episodes made another podcast called Stealing Superman. Dana hosted
Speaker 3: that one. It was written by Jake Rosson, Josh Fisher,
Speaker 3: John Washington, Beheid Frasier, All the greats who work here
Speaker 3: behind the scenes worked on that as well. Stealing Superman
Speaker 3: is about a comic book heist that takes place at
Speaker 3: Nicholas Cage's bel Air mansion and follows the decade long
Speaker 3: odyssey to get his comics back. During that show, we
Speaker 3: made a bonus episode about a different Superman heist that, frankly,
Speaker 3: not a lot of people listen to. You put bonus
Speaker 3: in the title, and I guess people feel it's safe
Speaker 3: to skip. But it is a wonderful story, a great
Speaker 3: standalone episode, and now that we're getting a nice audience
Speaker 3: for what we're doing over here, I wanted to re
Speaker 3: up that as a very special episode. If you haven't
Speaker 3: gotten around to Stealing Superman yet, that's okay. There's no spoilers.
Speaker 3: It's truly its own story, and I hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 2: Over to you, Dana, There's no doubting a Superman was
Speaker 2: Mike Meyer's favorite pop culture character. His parents took him
Speaker 2: to see the first Christopher Reeve movie in nineteen seventy eight.
Speaker 2: His most prized possession, a twelve inch tall Captain action
Speaker 2: doll with Superman's costume, was acquired not long before Mike
Speaker 2: likes to draw too, and Superman was always taking shape
Speaker 2: on paper, his pencil forming a cape and the s.
Speaker 2: One of his dogs was named Crypto, after Superman's pets.
Speaker 2: If you knew Mike, you knew he loved Superman as
Speaker 2: much as he did when he was a boy, and
Speaker 2: eventually that turned out to be a problem. Before Mike
Speaker 2: started working at McDonald's, he held a job at another
Speaker 2: fast food chain, Hearty's, in the nineteen nineties. While he
Speaker 2: worked there, he struck up a conversation with a coworker
Speaker 2: named Jerry, and naturally, the talk turned to Superman. Mike
Speaker 2: and Jerry lost touch for a long time. Then in
Speaker 2: August of twenty eleven, Mike ran into Jerry at a
Speaker 2: comic book shop in Granite City. Jerry remembered Mike and
Speaker 2: his collection. He asked if he could come over and
Speaker 2: see it. Mike wasn't sure. It's not that Jerry was
Speaker 2: a bad guy, It's just that they weren't really friends,
Speaker 2: and maybe something about Jerry didn't seem right. So Mike
Speaker 2: said he was busy, sorry, maybe another time, But Jerry
Speaker 2: wasn't taking no for an answer. He got Mike's number
Speaker 2: and called him. Couldn't he please please come over and
Speaker 2: take a look. He was in the neighborhood, he could
Speaker 2: come right over. Mike said, okay, and a few moments
Speaker 2: later Jay showed up. He wanted the tour, so Mike
Speaker 2: showed him everything. The comics of which he had hundreds,
Speaker 2: all the way back to issue number ninety nine, the toys,
Speaker 2: the action figures tacked to his wall, the lunch boxes
Speaker 2: and posters and shirts, even the handsown Superman costume Mike
Speaker 2: had tucked in his closet. Jerry was impressed. He left,
Speaker 2: and Mike thought that was the end of it. Maybe
Speaker 2: he even felt some pride in showing off his collection.
Speaker 2: The next night, Jerry was back, this time with his girlfriend.
Speaker 2: He wondered if Mike would like to watch a movie
Speaker 2: all three of them, and Mike, being a non confrontational
Speaker 2: kind of person, said fine. He noticed Jerry got up
Speaker 2: and left during the movie, leaving Mike and his girlfriend alone,
Speaker 2: but he didn't think much of it. And then two
Speaker 2: days later, Mike went into his basement expecting to find
Speaker 2: everything the way it always was, everything arranged, everything in
Speaker 2: its place, but it was all almost gone, and it
Speaker 2: was obvious who had done it Jerry, his supposed friend.
Speaker 2: He reported the theft to police, but he didn't really
Speaker 2: know much about Jerry, just that they had worked at
Speaker 2: Harty's years ago, and that he drove a silver car
Speaker 2: When he apparently filled up with thousands of dollars worth
Speaker 2: of Mike's Superman collection. Someone tipped off local reporters, and
Speaker 2: pretty soon Mike was giving interviews, expressing regret that he
Speaker 2: had ever let Jerry into his house, his fortress, that
Speaker 2: the things Jerry had taken had meant a lot to him.
Speaker 2: Keith Howard was one of the people who read about Mica.
Speaker 2: The story had been picked up by local newspapers in
Speaker 2: and around Granite City and in nearby Saint Louis, Missouri,
Speaker 2: and already people were trying to contact Mike to send
Speaker 2: him things. Keith was a nurse and a fellow Superman fan.
Speaker 2: In fact, he had taken to making personal appearances in
Speaker 2: costume at the Saint Louis Children's Hospital with a costume
Speaker 2: tailored after his favorite Superman, George Reeves. Keith saw the
Speaker 2: story on the super Friends of Metropolis Facebook group, which
Speaker 2: keeps Superman fans in touch with each other before, during,
Speaker 2: and after the annual celebration in Metropolis, Illinois, every year.
Speaker 2: One of the group's members, Don Janie, posted the story
Speaker 2: here's Keith.
Speaker 1: I just kind of got a gut feeling that, you know,
Speaker 1: this is our wrong thing to happen, and the fact
Speaker 1: that he had this metal challenge made just that much
Speaker 1: more despicable.
Speaker 2: Like most people who heard the story, Keith felt it
Speaker 2: in his bones. Burglarizing someone is one thing, but someone
Speaker 2: as trusting as Mike and sealing a collection of Superman
Speaker 2: stuff it was ugly. Keith had never met Mike, never
Speaker 2: heard of him until the story, but he decided something
Speaker 2: ought to be done about it, so he made a
Speaker 2: post of his own in the group.
Speaker 1: I said, how would you guys feel if we took
Speaker 1: up a collection and people could just give what they
Speaker 1: want to get? Maybe send a card, send a note,
Speaker 1: if you have a Superman Action figure that you've got
Speaker 1: land around that you wouldn't mind donating, or just anything,
Speaker 1: you know. Just kind of threw that out there.
Speaker 2: Just getting some unwanted comics or inexpensive toys would have
Speaker 2: been plenty generous, but that's not what happened. The first
Speaker 2: thing Keith got took him by surprise.
Speaker 1: So we set up a time and I then posted
Speaker 1: to everybody that here's my address, and posted on our page.
Speaker 1: That address got out to people that I have no
Speaker 1: way of knowing how they got it, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, within three four days, I got my first delivery.
Speaker 1: And it was an envelope like they had an eight
Speaker 1: x ten in it, and it was from Noel Neil.
Speaker 1: She was the Lois Lane from the TV show Adventures
Speaker 1: of Superman and she was still alive. She was like
Speaker 1: eighty nine back then, and it was a autographed picture
Speaker 1: of her with George Reeves in costume, and she signed
Speaker 1: it Noel Neil, Lois Lane or Lois I think it
Speaker 1: quotes to Mike. And I was like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I don't even have one of those. And I was
Speaker 1: just like, oh man, this is we we just I mean,
Speaker 1: they came out swinging already. This is such a cool
Speaker 1: first gifts. And if that's the only gift that he gets,
Speaker 1: I'm sure he would treasure it forever.
Speaker 2: But that was far from the only gift.
Speaker 1: And so then the next day there was like three boxes,
Speaker 1: and then the next day there'd be three or four
Speaker 1: more boxes, and every day I'd come home, there would
Speaker 1: be boxes and boxes laid up outside my door.
Speaker 2: It wasn't just fans sending in stuff either.
Speaker 1: DC Headquarters has sent me two big, heavy boxes. One
Speaker 1: of them was a run like a series of comics
Speaker 1: that was run from like I don't know. This box
Speaker 1: had to be maybe twenty four long and sixteen wide
Speaker 1: and sixteen tall. Maybe it was full of comics. And
Speaker 1: they said those were all the comics in that run
Speaker 1: of stories. They were all brand new. They were all
Speaker 1: wrapped in the the plastic that you wrapped comics in.
Speaker 1: And then the other one was a bunch of like collectibles,
Speaker 1: figurines and plush dolls and the little bubble heads. I mean,
Speaker 1: there were some really expensive stuff in that other box too,
Speaker 1: that came from DC Headquarters. How'd they find out, I
Speaker 1: don't know.
Speaker 2: Something about Mike's story resonated with people the way it
Speaker 2: had resonated with Keith. More than eighty boxes of stuff
Speaker 2: poured in from everywhere.
Speaker 1: Things were coming from all over the world. Am I
Speaker 1: mean When I say all over the world, I mean
Speaker 1: pictures painting, Like people were painting pictures of Mike because
Speaker 1: they saw an image of Mike in the newspaper, and
Speaker 1: they were coming from like China and Brazil and Chile
Speaker 1: and the Netherlands, and I'm like, oh my gosh, this
Speaker 1: isn't just local. This story has got international.
Speaker 2: And as it piled up, Keith began thinking about what
Speaker 2: he was going to do with all of it. He'd
Speaker 2: give it all to Mike, of course, but how.
Speaker 1: So I just kind of broached the idea, you know,
Speaker 1: how cool would it be if this guy got a
Speaker 1: visit from quote Superman bearing some gifts of some sort.
Speaker 1: And I said, and says, I lived so close, I
Speaker 1: can show up as Superman. I'll do all the legwork
Speaker 1: here locally, I'll find where he is at, and I'll
Speaker 1: deliver these gifts.
Speaker 2: Keith reached out to Bill Smith, a friend of Mike's,
Speaker 2: and told him what he had planned to do.
Speaker 1: Bill told me that Mike worked as a I think
Speaker 1: the title ist porter for the McDonald's in Collinsville, which
Speaker 1: was literally like fifteen minutes from my house. And I thought, oh,
Speaker 1: how cool would it be to make this delivery at
Speaker 1: his work? So I called them, and I talked to
Speaker 1: his manager, this young lady, and explained again who I was.
Speaker 1: Everybody's kind of always you know, apprehensive to talk to
Speaker 1: you first. But the minute they heard what our intent was,
Speaker 1: everybody just overwhelmingly was like, oh my gosh, this is
Speaker 1: so cool. So she broke down crying. She was in
Speaker 1: tears the whole conversation, and I said, I'm anxious to
Speaker 1: meet Mike. You know, I've talked to his friend Bill
Speaker 1: and this story. You know, it was ugly. Bill even
Speaker 1: told me, you know, Mike just feels so depressed. Bill's
Speaker 1: hoping that this kind of brings him out of that depression.
Speaker 2: And Keith wasn't alone.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, I've got a couple of people on
Speaker 1: my page, this Facebook Superfrins page that had volunteered to
Speaker 1: dress up in costume and be there to make the
Speaker 1: delivery as well, including Don Chance, the guy who shared
Speaker 1: the post. So I said, okay, let's go ahead, and
Speaker 1: you guys. One of the guys was taking pictures of everything.
Speaker 1: And there are about five of us, including my daughter
Speaker 1: who dressed out a Supergirl, that went to make this delivery.
Speaker 1: This will be the first time I've ever met Mike.
Speaker 1: They're expecting us. He doesn't have any idea that we're coming.
Speaker 1: Thank goodness, you didn't stumble the process on the internet.
Speaker 2: Just a couple weeks after the darkest day in Mike's life,
Speaker 2: Keith pulled up to the McDonald's.
Speaker 1: And we get there and there's some news media there,
Speaker 1: and the store people are just all like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: that's so cool. And we take pictures at the front
Speaker 1: counter with Mike and he's I don't know him well
Speaker 1: enough to know how to read his reaction. Later he
Speaker 1: would tell me that it was just like the greatest
Speaker 1: thing that he'd ever experienced, and how depressed he was
Speaker 1: prior to that, and then for him to see Superman,
Speaker 1: you know, he kept calling me Superman standing right there
Speaker 1: in his store and telling him that he was there
Speaker 1: to make delivery was just more than he could process.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Keith showed up with everything, the dozens of boxes they
Speaker 2: were all for him, a bunch of awesome things given
Speaker 2: to him by complete strangers. Mike was overwhelmed. Keith helped
Speaker 2: him take it all back to his house with multiple
Speaker 2: cars full of Superman items, a caravan of generosity, and
Speaker 2: little by little, Keith got to know more about Mike
Speaker 2: that deep down he identified more with another pop culture character.
Speaker 1: We got to be decent friends after all of that,
Speaker 1: and he would open up to me and he would
Speaker 1: share some thoughts that he had about himself and his
Speaker 1: life and who he was. And Mike was a kind
Speaker 1: of a sad person. Unfortunately, Mike, he always wanted a girlfriend.
Speaker 1: He had had a girlfriend, you years ago. The things
Speaker 1: didn't work out, and he was he was lonely, and
Speaker 1: he shared that with me. And Mike sort of lived
Speaker 1: in the fifties and sixties. Still in his house were
Speaker 1: all sorts of DVDs of Popeye and the Monsters and
Speaker 1: you know those old TV shows, obviously Superman and Batman,
Speaker 1: and he said he would just watch that over and
Speaker 1: over all the time. He said, you know, you know
Speaker 1: who I really connected with and who I feel like
Speaker 1: I am most like. He said, I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: like Herman Muster, just kind of big and clumsy and misunderstood,
Speaker 1: and that he would do the laugh, you know, Herman
Speaker 1: Muster had a kind of a unique laugh and he
Speaker 1: imitated very well.
Speaker 2: Keith left thinking that would be the end of it,
Speaker 2: but it wasn't. There was another twist coming. Mike's friend
Speaker 2: turned foe, Jerry, turned out to be a serial offender,
Speaker 2: just a month or so after stealing Mike's collection, he
Speaker 2: was accused of robbing an elderly man he was supposed
Speaker 2: to be doing renovations for. That led to the police,
Speaker 2: which led to their discovery of Mike's stolen Superman items.
Speaker 2: Authorities were able to return virtually everything Jerry stole from him.
Speaker 2: Now Mike had a problem, although for a Superman fan
Speaker 2: it was the best kind of problem to have.
Speaker 1: So you got eighty five gifts from us, this many
Speaker 1: gifts from Cleveland, you know. So now he's got like
Speaker 1: extras of everything. And he calls me up one day
Speaker 1: and he says, Keith, I am starting to feel guilty.
Speaker 1: You know, I got all my stuff back, and you
Speaker 1: guys all gave me stuff, and some people didn't know
Speaker 1: what the others were given. I got two or three
Speaker 1: in the same thing, and I just have so much.
Speaker 1: Now I just feel guilty. And I said Mike, first,
Speaker 1: please don't feel guilty. Those people gave because they wanted
Speaker 1: to give. It made them feel good to give. They
Speaker 1: didn't realize they were giving you duplicates. So if you
Speaker 1: want to sell those or give them away, by all means,
Speaker 1: do what you want with them, and don't feel guilty
Speaker 1: about them, and he said, yeah, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Nobody who donated to Mike wanted any of it back,
Speaker 2: even after his collection had been returned to him. They
Speaker 2: were happy to see him with all the Superman stuff
Speaker 2: he could fit in his house. So Keith made a suggestion.
Speaker 1: And I said, well, let me tell you what I do.
Speaker 1: I said, I go over to Saint Louis Children's Hospital
Speaker 1: because I work at Barnes as a nurse in the
Speaker 1: operating room. Every Wednesday, it's every two weeks or every month,
Speaker 1: they have bingo for these kids. And I've been going
Speaker 1: over there like twice a month, sometimes twice a month,
Speaker 1: mostly at least once a month, and I dressed up
Speaker 1: as Superman and I call bingo and it's so cool,
Speaker 1: I said. You know, they have a camera and kids
Speaker 1: will be in therapy or they'll be in their room
Speaker 1: because they're too sick to come down to the big
Speaker 1: playroom where we're at doing the bigo day. So they're
Speaker 1: watching me call off the bingo and then they'll call
Speaker 1: the room and they'll say I got bingo, and so
Speaker 1: then we'll run the board and yeah, yeah, that's bingo.
Speaker 1: And so then the camera pans over to this table
Speaker 1: that's got three tiers to it, and on every tier
Speaker 1: there's all these donated gifts. And I said, Mike, I
Speaker 1: thought just came to me, and this is just an idea.
Speaker 1: I said, I can talk to these guys and ask
Speaker 1: them if they'd be okay with it. But maybe you
Speaker 1: could come with me to one of these bingo days
Speaker 1: and you could bring a couple of those things that
Speaker 1: you got as extra. And so if you've got like
Speaker 1: extra comics that are new went nice, and maybe like
Speaker 1: you've got like two or three of the same action
Speaker 1: figure and you want to donate that to these kids.
Speaker 1: How did you feel about that? He said, Oh, it's
Speaker 1: a wonderful idea.
Speaker 2: At the end of twenty eleven, Mike and Keith went
Speaker 2: to Saint Louis Children's Hospital bearing gifts, a lot of gifts.
Speaker 2: Keith was in costume, but Mike was the hero, wearing
Speaker 2: a Superman T shirt and a big smile. They played
Speaker 2: bingo with the patients, handing out prizes. That something so
Speaker 2: good had come out of what happened was indescribable. Maybe
Speaker 2: Mike saw flashes of himself in those kids. Maybe he
Speaker 2: turned some of them into lifelong Superman fans that day.
Speaker 1: So I called them and they said, sure, yeah, come on.
Speaker 1: So one Wednesday we went up to Sales Children's Hospital
Speaker 1: and we called Bigo and I introduced the group there
Speaker 1: to Mike, who was the reason why all that Superman
Speaker 1: stuff was there, and he was given that to them,
Speaker 1: and they just showered Mike with love, and Mike felt
Speaker 1: like the king of the world that day. And I
Speaker 1: just loved it because here's a guy who just stood
Speaker 1: a couple of months earlier, was depressed, felt big and
Speaker 1: clumsy and unloved and everything was going wrong for him.
Speaker 1: To now people are making a fuss over just being
Speaker 1: around him. They have special events and people come and
Speaker 1: turn up for it to meet him.
Speaker 2: Around the same time, Mike had gotten an invitation to
Speaker 2: visit Cleveland, Ohio, the home of Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster,
Speaker 2: the co creators of Superman. A comic book store owner
Speaker 2: named John Dudas offered to pay for the trip.
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh my gosh, you guys can't
Speaker 1: be serious, and he said yeah, and we've included airfare
Speaker 1: for two all expenses paid. Three days We've got your hotel,
Speaker 1: we've got your meals, we've got your transferation. And whilst
Speaker 1: Mike gets here, I have six other comic bookstores in
Speaker 1: the area. All have donated a fifty dollars gift certificate
Speaker 1: that Mike can go, and we will take you to
Speaker 1: all six of these comic stores and he can spend
Speaker 1: that gift certificate in every comic bookstore that donated.
Speaker 2: Mike was excited. He really wanted to go, but Mike
Speaker 2: worried his close friend Bill Smith might not be able
Speaker 2: to accompany him.
Speaker 1: At one point, I pulled Mike aside and I said, Mike,
Speaker 1: I want you to know that in one of these
Speaker 1: boxes there are airline tickets for two to go to Cleveland.
Speaker 1: And he said, I've never flown before and I said
Speaker 1: I wondered about that. Yeah, I said are you Are
Speaker 1: you still interested in going? And he said, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: who am I going to take. I said, well, I
Speaker 1: talk to your friend Bill Smith. I know you're good
Speaker 1: friends with Bill. Maybe Bill kids and get some time
Speaker 1: off work and he go with you. He kind of
Speaker 1: paused and he said, you're like George Reeves to me,
Speaker 1: and I said, well, that is the costume I'm were
Speaker 1: and he said, yeah, I recognize that costume. He said,
Speaker 1: I never got to meet George Reeves, obviously, but he said,
Speaker 1: in a weird way, I feel like I'm talking to
Speaker 1: him standing here talking to you. And I said, I
Speaker 1: don't know what to say to that. Mike. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's it's flattering that that you know, you would think
Speaker 1: that I look enough like him, and and but I
Speaker 1: get it, I know what you mean. And I said
Speaker 1: I did. I've had a number of people tell me
Speaker 1: that I sort of have brought that childhood character back
Speaker 1: to life for them. He said, what about you? And
Speaker 1: I said, what do you mean? He said, well, you
Speaker 1: know that remember that episode where Superman takes that girl
Speaker 1: and he flies her around and he gives her like
Speaker 1: a tour from the air. And he said, I know
Speaker 1: you can't live, but if you flew with me to Cleveland,
Speaker 1: it would be kind of like that episode with that girl.
Speaker 1: And I said, Mike, if Bill can't go, I'd be honored.
Speaker 1: I'd be honored to go. And he said, I think
Speaker 1: I'd like you to go. And I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: I just met Mike.
Speaker 2: Mike and Keith went to Cleveland and got the full tour,
Speaker 2: They saw the boyhood home of Jerry, saw the tributes
Speaker 2: to Superman. Mike even sat down at the same table
Speaker 2: where Joe Schuster used to draw Superman, and the community's
Speaker 2: affection for Mike didn't stop there, not even close.
Speaker 1: Brandon Ralth from Superman returns back in two thousand and six.
Speaker 1: He finds out about this Mike story and he is
Speaker 1: somehow he finds Mike's phone number and calls Mike on
Speaker 1: the telephone and for thirty minutes Brandon Ralph talks to
Speaker 1: Mike Meyer on the phone. He told me, oh my gosh, Keeeth,
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how cool that was. I got
Speaker 1: to talk to Superman for a half hour, and I said,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, Mike, that is amazing. And then a
Speaker 1: few weeks after we came back from Cleveland, Mike gets
Speaker 1: a letter from or call from Warner Brothers. They're making
Speaker 1: a Man of Steel movie with Henry Cavill and they
Speaker 1: tell Mike that they heard about his story and they
Speaker 1: would love to fly him and the person of his
Speaker 1: choice to Georgia Air Force Base or Edwards, one of
Speaker 1: those out in California where they were filming this tarmac
Speaker 1: scene and They said, bring whoever you want. We would
Speaker 1: like to have you on the set that day and
Speaker 1: you'll get to meet Henry in costume. And sure enough,
Speaker 1: Mike goes out there. He is sitting in like one
Speaker 1: of those director's chairs, and he gets to meet Henry Cavill.
Speaker 2: It was well, it was perfect. It's how you want
Speaker 2: all stories like this to end. Mike became something of
Speaker 2: a celebrity. Jerry was sentenced to six years in prison
Speaker 2: for his theft of Mike's stuff as well as the
Speaker 2: other incident, and Mike and Keith stayed friends.
Speaker 1: Things kind of died down after all that. Obviously, Mike
Speaker 1: got his stuff back and goes back to life as normal.
Speaker 1: But Mike's normal as a new normal now. He starts
Speaker 1: going to Metropolis every year. He asked me to help
Speaker 1: him make a Superman costume, which I did. It was
Speaker 1: very meager, but he had to wear Superman out to Metropolis.
Speaker 1: One year, he dressed up as Jimmy Olsen. In a
Speaker 1: few years, people in Metropolis made a big fuss over
Speaker 1: Mike like he had been everywhere else. All those friends
Speaker 1: of Metropolis that donated and got to meet Mike in person.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty two, Keith got a call from Mike.
Speaker 1: That his health started going and he reached out to
Speaker 1: me a few months ago. He asked me questions about
Speaker 1: his kidneys. He knew I was a nurse and just
Speaker 1: wanted to get advice, and I told him what I felt,
Speaker 1: but had no idea he was so far gone because
Speaker 1: after a few more calls of you know, just yeah,
Speaker 1: not Fianna Rouell, and then all of a sudden, I
Speaker 1: hear the news that he's gone. I thought, man, the stings,
Speaker 1: you know, I got robbed of my chance to at
Speaker 1: least see him and say goodbye. And he just he
Speaker 1: just was not there anymore.
Speaker 2: In September of twenty twenty two, Mike Meyer passed away
Speaker 2: at the age of fifty eight. The tribute came pouring in,
Speaker 2: with people filling his Facebook feed with photos of Mike
Speaker 2: at conventions, photos of Mike's artwork, or just sentiments from
Speaker 2: people who miss Superman's biggest fan. There's an element of
Speaker 2: this story that makes it easy to see why people
Speaker 2: pulled for Mike. He had certain limitations in life, but
Speaker 2: that's not the whole story. Superman is just a fiction character, sure,
Speaker 2: but there's an aspirational quality to him. It's hard to
Speaker 2: be a fan of Superman and not want to emulate
Speaker 2: what he stands for. Honesty, justice. People would have helped
Speaker 2: Mike no matter what. But would it have been the
Speaker 2: same if he collected punish our comics or baseball cards
Speaker 2: or horror movies? Or did Superman bring something deeper out
Speaker 2: of the people who heard Mike's story, something that led
Speaker 2: people from around the world to write to him and
Speaker 2: try to help replace what he had lost.
Speaker 1: I got many calls from other news reporters and radio
Speaker 1: celebrities wanted to interview me online. The story just got
Speaker 1: so big, and finally asked somebody, I said, what is it?
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm thrilled that you guys are interested in
Speaker 1: this story. I'm just curious, how is this a story
Speaker 1: for you? What makes this a story for you? And
Speaker 1: on more than one they said, we write about horrible
Speaker 1: events daily, and we do year after year, and it
Speaker 1: is so rare to have a feel good story. And
Speaker 1: what you guys are doing is just like, when have
Speaker 1: you ever heard about anything like this? When have you
Speaker 1: seen a story similar to what you guys are living on?
Speaker 1: And I said, I don't remember reading a story like that,
Speaker 1: and they said, that's what it is. It's rare, it
Speaker 1: never happens. And so what you guys have done has
Speaker 1: spread like wildfire because you've turned this out of a
Speaker 1: situation into something beautiful. And the fact that I had
Speaker 1: this connection to Superman and how Superman in portraying that
Speaker 1: character made me want to do better and be better
Speaker 1: and exemplify everything that Superman is the driving force as
Speaker 1: much as anything.
Speaker 2: When Mike's family organized his memorial, they told friends and
Speaker 2: family to come wearing casual clothing or if they wanted
Speaker 2: their favorite superhero costume.
Speaker 3: That was a very special episode. At the end of
Speaker 3: these we usually like to name a very special character.
Speaker 3: Dana and Zaren are better at this than me, but
Speaker 3: this time, almost everyone in this story could be nominated. Mike, Keith,
Speaker 3: all the people who send stuff to Mike and Keith,
Speaker 3: the staff at the Saint Louis Children's Hospital, Henry Cavill,
Speaker 3: not Jerry. Jerry would not be in the running for
Speaker 3: this particular honor, but there's a lot of people doing
Speaker 3: a lot of good here. I will name Mike my
Speaker 3: very special character. And if this was the first time
Speaker 3: you've heard of the Stealing Superman podcast. The rest of
Speaker 3: the show tells a very different story about a different
Speaker 3: Superman heist. That one involves Nicholas Cage and his comic books,
Speaker 3: and you can go and binge that one from the beginning,
Speaker 3: and we will see you here next week. Very Special
Speaker 3: Episodes is made by some very special people. This episode
Speaker 3: was written by Jake Rawson. Our producer and sound designer
Speaker 3: is Josh Fisher. Additional editing by John Washington, mixing and
Speaker 3: mastering by Beheid Fraser. Original music by Alis McCoy. Show
Speaker 3: logo by Nick Turbo Benson. Your hosts are Danish Swartz,
Speaker 3: Zaron Burnett, and me Jason English. I'm your executive producer,
Speaker 3: and we'll meet you back here with something special next week.
Speaker 3: If you're enjoying Very Special Episodes, leave us a rating,
Speaker 3: give us a good you. Tell your friends text them
Speaker 3: right now, tell them listen to this. You'll enjoy it.
Speaker 3: Then go check out the back catalog. Very Special Episodes
Speaker 3: is a production of iHeart Podcasts.