(Not So) Solid Rock.

Far below stately Wayne manor, the Batmobile reposes in the Batcave, awaiting the next call from Commissioner Gordon.

Note the realistic rocks, courtesy of the set-builders at 20th Century-Fox. The Batman sets supposedly cost $800,000 to build. I would've thought papier mache was cheaper than that.

Quack, Quack, Quack...

Penguins don't quack. If you've ever been to Penguin Island off of the coast of Chile, you know this.

But Burgess Meredith did. Quack.

And it worked.

And for that, we should forget that he was Rocky's trainer in three of the four really bad Rocky films.

And just say to ourselves, in Burgess's memory:

Quack, Quack, Quack.

Pick A Card, Any Card.

Topps issued four sets of trading cards back in 1966. There were three with painted art — this is the first card from the first set ("the black bat" set; red and blue followed). Norman Saunders was one of the artists — he also did lots of cool paperback and detective magazine covers. Here's a great site dedicated to him and his work.

The fourth Topps set used shots from the Batman feature. One of the painted sets was re-issued when the Tim Burton movie came out in 1989, when everyone tried really hard (and fairly successfully) to crank up another 1966-ish Bat-craze.

$1.00

The Anti-Crime Roadster.

From wikipedia:

"At the beginning of the decade, Barris, who loved extravagant design whether his or someone else's, had purchased the Lincoln Futura, a concept car of 1955 which had been built by Ghia of Italy. The car was sold to George Barris for $1.00 and it remained in his collection for several years, until he was asked by ABC Television to create a signature vehicle for their new Batman television series. ABC and Executive Producer William Dozier had earlier approached car customizer Dean Jeffries to build the Batmobile (which he had planned to do using a 1959 Cadillac), but the time needed to make the necessary alterations proved too great an obstacle. Desperate, they turned to Barris (despite the fact that Barris was known to be expensive and would not sell the car but, instead, only "lease" it on a weekly basis to the production). Remembering the Futura, which had been designed by the original Lincoln stylists to resemble a shark -- with a menacing, aggressive front and high tailfins -- Barris decided it was a perfect base on which to create the Batmobile. In three weeks the car was ready and the show was immediately a hit, the car becoming one of the most recognizable icons of the 1960s and possibly Barris' most famous work."

Meet The Cowl Guy.

This, my friends, is a job. Making the scene in sunny southern California, smoking Kools and making sure nobody puts their grubby fingers on Batman's cowls.

Obviously, they're not shooting The Mad Hatter episode.

Shhhh!

Don't tell anyone how the Bat-Climb was done.

It's a Hollywood secret!!!

It's supposed to be MAGIC!

Like when Sqammy Davis Jr. sticks his head out of the window and says something about "cats..." to The Dynamic Duo.



...although, I'm not exactly sure what's going on here...

Bat-vertising 101: The Feature Film.

Various ways the '66 Batman theatrical feature was promoted. Click on them and they get bigger — thanks to The Atomic Bat-Enlarger.


A one-sheet poster (from the US?).


The French poster. (Wonder if they liked Batman as much as Jerry Lewis?)


One of the eight US lobby cards.