Jerome ‘Jerry’ Siegel (1914-1996) was an America Jew. He’s remembered not only for dreaming up the concept of Superman (in 1934, together with his life-long friend Joe Shuster), but perhaps more so for (in 1938) selling to DC Comics, for a mere US$130, all rights to what became the billion-dollar cultural and commercial Superman juggernaut. Siegel’s failure to safeguard his rights soured him on the man-of-steel; in 1975 he said ‘To me he has become an alien thing’. In 1978 DC Comics, bowing to public opinion, restored Siegel’s and Shuster’s by-line, and gave each man a US$20,000-a-year annuity, later increased to US$30,000. But both men died poor and bitter. Ruth Kedar, Jewish and now aged 53, was born in Brazil, and when young migrated to Israel. In 1979 she graduated in Architecture at the Haifa Technion. In 1985 she moved to the USA to undertake a Masters degree in Design at Stanford University. Afterwards she remained in the US and opened a design studio. Ten years ago, two Stanford students asked her to create a logo for their new internet search company. She did so, was paid a modest fee, and moved on. Those students were Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and their company was Google. Siegel and Kedar both came to ‘pivot points’, made their decisions, and lost out on great wealth. That’s life.
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