My first exposure to BATMAN was the Adam West TV series reruns after school each day. I loved the shows and the colors. At a friends house one day he showed me an old Batman comic book that had belonged to his older brother and I was struck by the fact that Batman was a comic book character. In those pre-VCR days you didn’t have the luxury of watching anything on demand, and learning that he was appearing in a magazine that I could read over and over again was eye opening. I was also struck by the fact that this particular issue of Batman featured a very spooky art style to it— with Batman and Robin racing in the Batmobile with a giant moon with a Joker face on it staring them down.
The discover lead to an obsession with reading comic books and back in those days there was no rhyme or reason to release schedules, you just walked in and saw what was on the racks and made your choices.
One lazy summer afternoon I happened upon West Side Pharmacy which was the place I went to buy my comic books and discovered a Treasury Sized Batman comic book that caught my eye (these are about 11x17), it’s bright red cover jumping off the racks.
It was all reprints but they were great stories from the golden age all the way up to the 1970s and to a kid reading this, it was HUGE. I think I spent the whole summer reading it over and over again.
On the front cover was the blurb BATMAN OF THE MOVIES— I wasn't aware Batman had been in any movies and was only vaguely familiar with the Adam West version, flipping to the back inside cover there was the article... (from Al Bigley’s great blog) which now featured the slightly altered title BATMAN ON THE SCREEN—
Well, there you go-- Batman the TV Show with Adam West-- no surprise there. Kind of a gyp I must have thought-- but there in the upper right corner was an image that caught my eye-- ANOTHER Batman and Robin. Eh???? “From Columbia Pictures”— I was savvy enough to know that was the outfit that put out The Three Stooges Short films.
I remember being struck by the costumes-- they looked homemade but in a good way. I wanted to find out more about it.
For years I would try to find whatever information I could-- learning eventually that this movie was actually a movie serial meaning it ran several episodes over the course of many weeks. In actuality running from mid July to mid October of 1943.
Ad for the 1948 Superman Serial- I soon learned there were other superhero serials, but BATMAN was what I wanted to find.
In those pre-internet days finding such information was difficult, and libraries offered very little in the way of information. I know all there is to know about the 1943 movie BAATAN since that came up over and over again.
Amazingly enough one Summer afternoon my best friend and I were sitting at the new Burger King that had opened in the Downtown area enjoying a couple of burgers— the manager there liked old movies and he’d set up a projector and was running a black and white film that we barely paid attention to.
One of my friends pointed to the screen and said “Boy those guys could pass for Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, couldn’t they?”
I looked over and sure enough there was a 40ish man and a 20ish boy talking in what looked like 1950s clothes. I laughed that he was right. Then they ran into a cave and changed into Batman and Robin and sped off.
I don’t remember if there was sound— I do remember that I played it cool like I didn’t care- I don’t know why that was a trapping of mine— but regardless they were only in costume for a few minutes and then the movie ended. I knew right away that this was a serial chapter.
The glimpse I got of the Batman suit made it clear that this was another serial and not the 1943— it was black not gray and the ears were different.
Lewis on the left, and Robert Lowery on the right
The chest emblem was also huge and sat closer to his stomach than his chest. My friends laughed at how dumb Batman and Robin looked, and I laughed with them, but the reality was I would have loved to have seen the whole serial. I played it cool and tossed my trash and left with them.
The early days of VCR’s came about around 1980— and for the first time they were affordable for normal folks— I laugh when I say affordable because the first one I ever bought was $1500— a lot of dough for a fifteen year old kid— believe it or not the small mom and pop video store that had them gave me a credit card and I bought my first one on time. As a huge film buff looking for the rarer works of Hitchcock and Kurosawa it was often the only way to see these movies.
Walking into FABULOUS FICTION BOOK STORE on Park Avenue, which was my backup comic book shop where I would go if my main store was out of something— FFBS also had an enormous inventory of books and related items so it was always a fun trip, I was thrilled to see they were opening a Video Rental Store in their basement— I signed up right away as I knew the owner, Bob Jennings, was himself a rare film buff and would carry things the bigger stores would never even think about.
One day there was a huge handmade poster on the wall showing the serial version of Captain America pointing his pistol at you with the words “Your Favorite Serials Now Available - $98”. I stopped in my tracks and asked Bob if 1943’s BATMAN was available.
“It sure is, but it’s a lousy serial. You’d be better off going with the 1949 serial or something like Spy Smasher or Captain America.”
I didn’t care what he thought of it- the 1943 BATMAN serial was the only thing I was interested in at the time. I told him to put a copy aside for me and I’d be right back. Hoping on my trusty moped I grabbed one of the pro-quality 35mm Cameras I owned and hawked it at my local camera shop— I told him I needed $98 for it and he obliged. I raced back to Bob’s with my $98 and plunked it down on the counter. “I’ll take BATMAN, please.”
Bob picked up the money, counted it, and said “Sure thing. It’ll be ready in about six weeks.”
Six Weeks?
They were what today we’d call Print on Demand— but the reality was these were bootleg tapes that would be run off by film-chaining the original 35 or 16mm film to video. I said okay and left. I’d waited eight years for this— I could easily wait six more weeks.
Only it wasn’t six weeks, it was more like eight— and Bob suffered as I’d ask him every third day if it was in yet. Finally one July afternoon I stopped in expecting more delays and he said it was in— he reached under the counter and produced THREE VHS tapes that were bound together with a heavy duty elastic band and slid them over to me.
“Wow— three tapes?” I might also add they were 3 regular TDK tapes with the name BATMAN written in fat marker along the spine— that was it for art— this was a no frills $98 package. In the span of the eight weeks I had saved up for the next one— and promptly ordered the sequel, 1949’s BATMAN AND ROBIN.
“Sure thing.” He said. “You’d be better off with Captain America— that’s a great serial. Batman and Robin is a lot better than the first Batman serial anyway”— and that’s how it would go everytime I ordered something.
I raced home and my then girlfriend was just arriving. I told her I hoped she was up for a marathon because this is how we were spending the afternoon. I pulled the blinds, dimmed the lights and popped the serial in. I loved it. It was like watching a newsreel of the “real” Batman and Robin.
I think I watched the entire five hour serial— I’m not sure, but I know I was very excited to see the 1949 serial since Bob had said it was so much better— better than this? it must be AMAZING.
Yeah, it wasn’t. The 1949 serial is pretty bad— like if Ed Wood made a Batman film bad. But that’s another story.
I posted previously that I’m such a fan of the serial that I went to a pair of expert craftspeople in the form of Williams Studio 2 and commissioned a full sized reproduction of Wilson's original cowl.
Photo taken in my old studio, displayed in front of a Batman Comic Book that would have been on sale at the time the serial ran.
The Williams did a spectacular job on it and it’s now a focal point of my collection, along with a near authentic belt and emblem.
The obsession started with an old comic book— and I’ll get to that another day.