Reeves didn't "fly on wires." They started that way but at one point early on a wire broke, he fell, and was injured. He refused to use wires again so they came up with a "flying pan" - a partial body cast of his front torso and legs that was attached to a bar which allowed a crew to move him about. This went *under* the suit. He'd lay on it and they'd move him about. It gave a far greater range of movement than using wires plus was safer.I was 9 when I saw Superman the Movie. It looked so incredible after all those years of watching George Reeves fly on wires.
I still love it. The best superhero origin story ever on the big screen. And it’s pretty much flawlessly cast (perhaps with the exception of Jeff East as Clark - I never bought that he grew up into Christopher Reeve). Margot Kidder is still the definitive Lois in my book.
If you look closely at some of his flying shots you can just see the outline of the pan under the suit.
That incident is also what prompted them to come up with the spring board for taking off (they'd originally used wires for that, too).
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