alizarin1 wrote:
While you're on the subject of Batman in 1963, here's a rarely seen piece that I don't believe has been posted on this site before.  It's a four page article from Screen Thrills Illustrated #4 cover dated April 1963, by Warren Publishing Company which traced the history of the character on the silver screen up to that time. Too young to have known about the earlier 1940s serials (and this was even before they were shown in select movie theaters as "camp" entertainment around 1965), I was stunned to see these images back in 1963.


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The only Batman titles I regularly bought were the Giant Annuals. I never really cared for the monthly issues, probably because of the editorial direction and weird/space opera slant of the late 1950s and early 1960s. However, our neighborhood theater featured a "Summertime Fun Show" series for kids one year (I think it was in 1963, but it may have been 1964). Admission was 10c and for that you received a box of popcorn, and got to see a couple of cartoons, a short subject, a feature film and one chapter a week of the 1943 Batman serial. I loved every minute of it. J. Carroll Naish was brilliant as Dr. Daka. There was one scene where he makes a short declaration of his loyalty to Emperor Hirohito which scared the bejeebees out of me. I eagerly looked forward to each episode, but missed Chapter 13, as I came down with a very bad summer cold. I never saw that chapter until Sony Home Entertainment released it (uncut and with all the anti-Japanese sentiments and dialog intact) a few years ago on DVD.

I still think it is a great serial, and one of my very favorite interpretations of the Batman.