It's a bird!

No, it's a plane!

*splat*

It's a bird...

Found <a href="http://superman.ws/fos/thescreen/cartoons/>this site, where you can download the original Max Fleischer cartoons!

Notice that they've reproduced the intro, and how different it is from the one we all grew up with: no "American Way". *

Keep in mind Fleischer was making those during WWII, the same time Warner Bros. were wallowing in anti-Japanese racial stereotype. Mind you, the radio version of the Supe was "kicking Nazi ass", as Tom's link reminds us... Apparently, Fleischer didn't feel the need to wrap the red, yellow and blue in the Red, White and Blue.

This, I think, boils it all down (quoted from the article):

"The ideal hasn't changed. I think when people say 'American way,' they're actually talking about what the 'American way' meant back in the '40s and '50s, which was something more noble and idealistic."

Amen to that!

[* - Funny, how the phrase "under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance at about the same time that "American Way" was added to the Superman intro. Can you say "Red scare?"]