- COLUMBIA PICTURES ‘THE BATMAN’ (1943)
In late 1942, Columbia Pictures announced its serial offerings for the 1942–43 season, which would include The Secret Code, The Valley of Vanishing Men, The Fighting General, The Phantom, and The Batman. The Batman serial was promoted as being “by the creators of Superman,” and based on the exploits of the popular Batman magazine cartoon character. Casting was quickly drawn from Columbia’s roster of contract players. Lewis Wilson was cast in his first leading role, with Shirley Patterson as his girlfriend, Linda Page; Douglas Croft as his ward, Dick Grayson; and J. Carrol Naish as Batman’s archvillain, the Joker.
Filming began in early spring 1943, but not without controversy. National Comics (now DC Comics) objected to the portrayal of the Joker as the head of a spy ring. In response, the screenwriters simply altered the role being played by J. Carrol Naish, transforming the character into a Japanese prince named Dr. Tito Daka.
Naish nevertheless chewed up the scenery, and the production retained his secret headquarters in a distinctly Joker-like setting: a carnival sideshow. One can only imagine what the performance might have been had Naish been allowed to play the Joker himself.
Lewis Gilbert Wilson was born on January 28, 1920, in Framingham, Massachusetts, a city located approximately twenty miles west of Boston. He grew up in Littleton, Massachusetts, with his parents, Lucile and John Henry Wilson. His father served as minister of the First Unitarian Church from 1927 to 1945.
Wilson attended the prestigious Worcester Academy, an institution with long-standing generational ties to his family. He graduated from the Worcester, Massachusetts school in 1939, continuing a family legacy that spanned multiple generations.
Wilson’s costume has been called cheap with strong objections to the devil ears, but the cowl is shaped very much like the earliest Batman comics– and it’s important to remember the character had only been around for about four years when the serial began production.
At just twenty-three years old, Wilson remains the youngest actor to portray Batman. He brings an unexpected maturity and humor to the role, giving his Bruce Wayne a faint Don Diego–style languor while infusing his Batman with genuine menace.
Douglas Croft as Robin is the only actor to date to actually be a teenager when he played the Boy Wonder– records aren’t clear but he was between 14-16 years old during filming, and he actually behaves like a kid, often causing some frustration with Batman when he makes a mistake. Still the two leads had a nice chemistry and rather than the more associated adult and boy relationship they come across more like brothers.
The serial debuted on July 20, 1943, and ran for fifteen weeks through October. Backed by an extensive publicity campaign, it played successfully in movie houses throughout its run.
Despite their popularity, serials were not considered “legitimate” filmmaking at the time, The Batman did little to advance Wilson’s career. He continued to appear in small roles at Columbia until 1944, when he was drafted into the U.S. Army and served in the European Theater, including participation in the Battle of the Bulge.
Upon returning to civilian life, film roles proved even harder to secure as established actors returned from wartime service. Wilson ultimately turned back to Broadway, where he found a measure of success and frequently performed alongside his wife, Dana, whom he had married in 1941.
In the 1950s, Wilson turned to television, including a regular role on Craig Kennedy, Criminologist. By this time, however, heavy drinking had taken its toll, and his once-boyish good looks had hardened noticeably.
After Lewis and Dana co-starred in Wild Women (1953)—a zero-budget jungle film that would have embarrassed even Ed Wood—the couple divorced. In 1954, Wilson left acting altogether and accepted a sales position with General Foods.
Lewis and Dana had one son, Michael, who would later go on to produce the James Bond film franchise after his mother married Bond producer Cubby Broccoli.
In 1966, a reporter tracked Wilson down in North Hollywood, where he had begun a new family, and interviewed him about the Batmania craze sweeping the country following the success of the Adam West television series. Asked whether he had considered accepting a guest appearance on the show, the forty-three-year-old Wilson replied that he would have welcomed the opportunity to play a villain, though the producers never approached him.
In retirement, Wilson said he never regretted playing Batman, recalling that he had enjoyed the role and the modest notoriety it brought him. He passed away on August 9, 2000, in San Francisco, at the age of eighty. Lewis Wilson remains a pivotal figure in film history as the first live-action Batman and the first DC Comics character to be adapted for the silver screen.
My obsession with the original Batman serial began in 1974, when I first encountered a publicity still from it mixed in with images from the 1966 film and television series. The contrast intrigued me, and I spent many years trying to track down the serial itself.
In the back pages of Famous Monsters of Filmland, silent 8mm abridged versions of the serial were offered for sale. I was never able to convince my mother to let me buy a projector, and, in truth, I’m not sure I wanted to take on the laborious work such a project would have required anyway.
Eventually I would find grey market copies in the great comic/video store FABULOUS FICTION on Park Ave in the Woo– and I worked extra shifts at a 14 year old to save up the then pricely sum of $90 per serial– and thus my obsession with movie serials would begin. I’ll post a bit more on Fabulous Fiction in another post.
Over the years I’ve commissioned artists to create a 1/6 scale figure of Lewis Wilson, including a very talented artist from Brazil who did a really nice job. I think I’ve owned three and invariably tired of what I considered flaws and sold them off (to nice profits). Well recently I found an artist right here in the states and he gladly tackled the assignment and he hit an absolute home run.
I’m extremely happy with this one– and I may order some other serial figures from him in the future. He even crafted a detailed raygun that Batman uses in some of the earlier chapters that is quite amazing.
Here’s to Lewis Wilson! IMO the Best live action Batman to date.
- Why I Stopped Hating The Grinch
I love the original 1966 animated version of THE GRINCH WHO STOLE CHRISTMAS- it’s a true classic.
I hate the Jim Carrey film. When the boys were little I had the option of taking the little one to RUGRATS THE MOVIE or the two older ones to the Carrey film and for some reason I thought I made the easy choice by going to The Grinch.
There are two problems here;
1- I hate Jim Carrey. HATE. He doesn’t know how to turn it off– and if you’ve ever known someone like that you know it gets old really fast. I was at a comic show one year and sitting in the green room with some of the other guests when ¾ of The Monkees came in the room. Mickey Dolenze walked in, saw people in the room so he decided to show his comedic charm by climbing backwards over a chair, taking a sandwich and making it talk like a puppet and then either imitating a monkey or having a stroke, I wasn’t sure which.
Monkee Peter Tork picked up his own sandwich after taking a plate, getting in line with Monkee Davey Jones when Davey looked at Mickey and said;
“It never gets old, Mickey.” And he scooped something from the catering pan onto his plate.
Mickey laughed and kept going. See, Davey was saying “enough Mickey” but Mickey wouldn’t hear it. He was convinced he was funny and everyone was laughing.
Same deal with Jim Carrey– watch him in COMEDIANS IN CARS WITH COFFEE or whatever the Jerry Seinfeld show was called and you will see the same thing.
Filming BATMAN FOREVER Carrey found out his co-star Tommy Lee Jones was eating at the same restaurant he was and asked the maitre de to bring him over– Tommy stood up as he approached and said to take his buffonary elsewhere because he’d had quite enough of it.
Way to go Tommy.
So The Grinch which is a charming 26 minute cartoon was a dreadfully dull stretched out 98 minute film. At one point I did the only thing I could think of doing to survive it– I took a nap. My #2 son who was little at the time panicked, thinking I had either died or wouldn’t wake up when the movie ended, but sadly for me I did wake up before it ended, desperately I leaned into him and asked him in a whisper;
“Did he bring the presents back yet?”
“He hasn’t even stolen them yet.” Came his reply.
I slogged my way through that wretched waste of film and spent the next 14 years groaning every time I even saw mention of it.
But then I saw ELF.
I’m not sure how it happened, but I surely was tricked the same way I saw that Bobby Patterson film with the sparkly vampires— it made Carrey’s buffoonary look like Shakespeare by comparison and it got me to hate something even more than the grinch, even more than Jim Carrey.
That’s the gift Will Ferrel gave to me. Luckily his career is at such a high point he’s making commercials for PayPal so he should be gone like Carrey soon enough. I heard James Caan couldn’t stand Ferrel during the filming, so maybe Tommy he and I will sit down to Christmas dinner sometime and toasts the buffoons.
- The USPS – Great Until it’s Not.
Believe it or not given the choice of mailing a package I choose the USPS far more often than not. FedEx (not FedEx Ground) is a better service, UPS is up and down, DHL is excellent but they sometimes open the package but nobody but nobody loses a package as well as USPS.
I’ve seen it take two weeks to deliver a Priority Mail package (allegedly 2-3 day delivery) from Worcester MA to Hartford CT — an hour drive and it takes two weeks.
My absolute favorite delivery mishap was an expensive top coat that arrived to Worcester’s main post office branch where it was slated to be sent to the proper delivery truck to Anchorage Alaska — and I’m not making that up. Worse still, it headed back east to Cinncinatti before heading back to Anchorage for one last look before it finally made it to me.
The record holder this year is this one shown in the image above.
On December 10th it left Wisconsin a bright eyed and bushy tailed young package with all the hopes in the world of arriving to the East Coast within 3-5 days– well it only took four days for it to arrive in Springfield MA which is about 40 miles west of Worcester – there it spent two days lounging around with other packages before heading to Shrewsbury MA which is about 8 miles east of Worcester and it decided to spend a weekend there before arriving at the main Worcester Hub where it remained for two more days.
Then it was “Out for delivery” which means it got loaded on the truck and my faithful postman who actually is excellent would be dropping it off, only he didn’t. When I checked its status again it went back to Springfield for some reason– no doubt a holiday romance had played out.
Springfield recognized it wasn’t supposed to come back so after two days it was sent to…
Sterling, MA. A very small town about 8 miles North of the Woo. I assume the Sterling Post Office is probably also a Pizza Place (don’t laugh we have a few of those) so it was understandable it would hang out there for a bit before heading out to Springfield again.
As of this writing it’s been hanging in Springfield for a few days– I’m sure it will arrive back in Sterling or Shrewsbury soon enough– it’s only been 11 days so we’ve still got 12 pipers piping or whatever 12 is in that song so we’ll see if it ever shows up.
- My Conversion from Sausages to Pears
Years ago, and I’m talking about 20 years ago, my brother would send me a gift basket of sausages and cheese and I really loved it. 20 years later and I still love both things but my stomach is not as adventerous as it once was.
#1 son and his wife have been sending us Harry & David Pears. I’d heard of them, of course, I don’t live under a rock, but they are something that is truly amazing, especially if you happen to love pears as much as I do.
I don’t know how they do it, but they pick pears for their gift boxes that are absolutely ripe and perfect. Like Mango’s which I also love but they are hard to peel and eat when a pear is ripe it’s head and shoulders above most other fruits.
And vegetables? Yeah.
I don’t mind fresh green beans, I like Tomatoes (allegedly not a fruit) corn and sweet potatoes which are an absolute favorite. For the most part vegetables are what my food eats.
- Podcasts – Yup still don’t get them.
I’ve been told I should do a podcast which certainly means it’s no longer in style. I’ll be honest with you– and I’ve asked literally dozens of people who I either 1- know very well 2- know they listen to podcasts or 3- have their own podcasts — what exactly is a podcast and how is it ANY different from Talk Radio which was a thing in the mid 80s when I first started working the exciting but lonely life as a freelancer. I had two things in my first studio besides art supplies- a radio and a police scanner and I would tune in to each throughout the day to have some background noise.
No one, not ONE person, can really tell me what the point of or even how a podcast is any different than Talk Radio– even though EVERY response starts with “Oh it’s completely different–“
So back in the day I listened to David Brudnoy on WBZ Radio. I found him very interesting. I liked IMUS IN THE MORNING for a while but his show devolved more and more into a Howard Stern kind of nonsense.
And that’s what I find most podcasts to be. I have several very good friends who put on very professional podcasts but I’ve tried to listen and I might make it through one episode, but seldom more than that. I just can’t bring myself to care about listening in on someone’s conversation. Probably the same reason I despise Facebook ™ and even YOUTUBE ™ gets on my nerves.
I still fall back on streaming movies and TV in my current studio, seldom music, but i find myself fooling around with playlists more than enjoying them making them defeat the purpose of having it in the first place.
And that is good enough for me.
Welcome to the new Blog– this whole thing is a work in progress, but you’ll get the latest updates here (just click the links above). It was a longtime coming but a short-time putting it together.
More soon and regularly like the old blog.
Thanks for stopping by.
Andy
It's Andy Fish! 