Behind the Scenes:
Super Collector

California native and born promoter found a home for himself and extensive Superman collection in southernmost Illinois.
By Kathie Sutin

 

Chat with Jim Hambrick, owner of the Super Museum in Metropolis, Ill., and you’re reminded of that old saying, “You can take the boy out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the boy.” In Hambrick’s case, the saying might be, “You can take the boy out of Hollywood but you can’t take Hollywood out of the boy.”

Above: The Super Museum in Metropolis, Ill. (photo courtesy Ohio River Scenic Byway)   Below: Jim Hambrick moved from California to open the Super Museum in 1993. (Kathie Sutin photo)

Hambrick is from Huntington Park, Calif. Growing up, he could see the Hollywood sign from his house and Tinsel Town’s movie and television studios were an easy bike ride away.
  
His mother gave him a Superman lunch box for his fifth birthday and that triggered his obsession with the Man of Steel. Even at that tender age, he began amassing Superman items. In just three years, the collection was large enough for 8-year-old Hambrick, a born marketer, to charge classmates a quarter each to see it.
  
As time went on, the collection grew to massive proportions. Hambrick grew up and started a marketing firm that promoted house wares. On the side, he created a traveling exhibit with some of his Superman items. He worked strip mall openings, state and county fairs. Eventually, he hired employees to handle the task.
  
In the early 1990s, tired of the frenetic pace of the big city, Hambrick cast about for a permanent home for his massive collection.
  
“I just figured it was probably time to put it in a place people expect it to be—and that was Metropolis, Ill.,” he said.
  
In 1993, Hambrick brought Superman to the small southern Illinois city that shares the name of the superhero’s fictitious hometown.
  
Some 75,000 items, a small part of his collection, are crammed into the two-room Super Museum, he said. That includes the phone booth where the first Superman donned his tights and cape, the brown and grey costume George Reeves as Superman wore for black and white television, early versions of the DC Comic books, every manner of Superman kitsch—and of course, that lunchbox.  He rotates items from the main collection to keep customers coming back.

Marketing the museum and Metropolis
  
Hambrick’s efforts to market his museum also draw tourists off the highway into Metropolis.
  
“The statue is a major draw,” he said. “The museum itself is a major draw. When I say draw, it’s not just about getting in their car and driving up to the stop sign and looking through their windshield. We need them out of their car.”
  
Hambrick has no lack of ideas when it comes to getting those folks out of their cars. For instance, when he first came to Metropolis he ignited the city’s annual Superman Celebration, a four-day event in the middle of June. It had been a sleepy small-town happening, according to Hambrick.
  
“It was a local picnic at the park,” he said.
  
Hambrick brought in Kirk Alyn, the first Superman, who traveled with his show for 12 years.
   “
Boom! All of a sudden it sets the pace,” Hambrick said. “You’ve got a celebrity who comes in and signs autographs so you theme the celebration around that celebrity. That’s how you wrap it up, that’s how you package it and that’s how you market it.
  
“From there on out we had one celebrity every year at the celebration. That makes the difference because if you don’t have that celebrity, it’s just funnel cakes and corn dogs and a carnival and it’s the same every year just like every other small town.”
  
He applauds the creation a few years ago of the 180-mile long Ohio River Scenic Byway that meanders through Metropolis. “That has really done a lot for tourism,” he said.
  
Next year, a life-sized Lois Lane statue will go up at the other end of Market Street. He sees the Lane statue as just the beginning.
  
“I want a Jimmy Olsen, a Perry White, a Clark Kent, a Lex Luther all over the city,” he said. “Create a trail for photo opportunities and you’ll get people out of their cars. Businesses near the photo opportunities will benefit.”

Bubbling with ideas
  
Hambrick bubbles with more ideas for Metropolis, including a Superman Walk of Fame. He would also like to turn the vacant theater across from city hall into a multi-purpose center.
    
“It’s the perfect place for a George Reeves theater/museum/dinner theatre type of thing that serves four or five different functions,” he said.
  
Like many attractions these days, the Super Museum is suffering from the economic downturn. But that just means the Hambrick marketing machine is kicking into overdrive.
  
“I’m putting a little bit more energy into it (promotion)—certainly spending less time with a fishing pole in my hand,” he said, laughing.
  
Kathie Sutin is a contributor from St. Louis, Mo.