The Super Museum and the Official Home Town of Superman
In 1969, a man named Bob Westerfield moved to a small town called Metropolis, Illinois. He was inspired by its name, and proposed the idea of making it the official home town of Superman. The town’s chamber of commerce received the idea very well. Local businessmen along with Westerfield worked together and bought the rights for $50,000.
In 1993, Jim Hambrick, a devoted Superman fan who had been amassing an incredible collection of everything Superman, moved to Metropolis and opened the Super Museum. Hambrick and his entire family moved from Los Angeles, to open the museum, which has over 70,000 Superman related items. “This was my dad’s dream, to open the museum” Jim’s daughter, Morgan Seibert, shared while on The Atlas Obscure podcast.
Morgan and her husband Adam now run the Super Museum and are still expanding the collection. Her father is now an advisor to the museum.
Each year, Metropolis has a Superman celebration where the inhabitants and visitors dress up in Superman related costumes. Many of the actors who have played Superman have attended the parade and visited the museum.
If you want to hear a some more about this fascinating story, go check out the short podcast episode done by The Atlas Obscure where they interview Morgan Seibert.