Lee Meriwether poses in costume as Catwoman in this shot made during the filming of the 1966 movie Batman: The Movie, one of the goofiest products of the era. It also produced one of the funniest extended gags in cinematic history, involving Batman trying to dispose of a bomb. We go into more detail on that classic comedy moment here. Meriwether also appeared on the Batman television show, and though known mainly for playing Catwoman, amassed more than one hundred film and television credits during her career, which was still going strong up until 2019. With that kind of résumé it's certainly possible she'll show up here again. 

Here’s an event you don’t want to miss—the sure-to-be entertaining grudge match between wrestlers Petit Prince Batman and Le Colosse Siki at the Parc de Sports in Paris. The bout was sponsored by Duval Anisette Liqueur sometime during the 1930s, according to the poster's vendor. The years during that decade where Thursday fell on March 30 were 1933 and 1939. The DC Comics character Batman premiered in 1939. But that wasn’t until May, so if this wrestling poster is indeed from the 1930s then Petit Prince Batman beat Batman by a few months, if not a few years. To us it seems unlikely, but must be true. Anyone have better info? E-mail us. 

This issue of The National Tattler hit newsstands today in 1974, and as you can see, it lacks a certain something compared to issues of the 1960s. The earlier Tattler featured fantastically exploitative stories conjured from the darkest reaches of the editors' imaginations, while the 1974 version has content that is—amazingly—mostly true. Mostly. We're not sure about Richard Burton turning to a faith healer to help with his drinking problem, and if he did, it didn't work. Alcohol problems plagued him until his death.

Gotta love this. It looks like a Japanese Batman comic, but it’s really a school notebook made in the 1960s by the Seika Corporation. The inside is totally blank—perfect for designing all sorts of new bat devices, drawing x-rated caricatures of your arch-enemies, or perhaps even composing sonnets to your one true love: Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion, Catgirl’s gentle heart..? Or something like that. Back cover below.

Above is the front cover of a Japanese sonosheet, which is basically a thin, flexible record, housed in a booklet of colorful art, and usually dealing with popular shows of the 1960s and 1970s. This one is for Batman, obviously, and like most sonosheets it features theme music. At least, we assume so. We're digital people, so we aren't sure what's on this, exactly, since our last turntable went to the Goodwill in 1998 along with some Teva sandals and a stinky old money belt. We don't miss latter two items, but we wouldn't mind having the turntable back. Anyway, the art on this is kind of interesting, so we thought we'd post it even if we can't listen to it. It was painted by I. Hiroyazu, whose name is new to us.

And speaking of vintage technology, our internet junta has just told us they never recieved our fax for a new line (can you believe they still do shit by fax here?). We've called every other day for two weeks to make sure they got it, and been told they wouldn't know for fifteen working days because it's not their department. Time was up yesterday, and quelle fucking surprise, they say they never got the fax, even though we have a fax reciept. So they lost or tossed the fax, reciepts are basically just scrap paper, and we're back to square one—we have to send a fax and wait fifteen working days.

Not to go on a rant, but streamlined telecommunications is a big help in stabilizing a struggling country's GDP. After all, even if people who actually live here have no choice about these matters, people who do business internationally cartainly have the option not to choose certain countries. We're not going to say outright where we are, or what company we're dealing with, because, well, you know how those things go. But for those who know where we're located, we'll just say that, yes, there is so much about this country that is wonderful and which we'd never give up (the people, the wine, the festivals, the food), but when it comes to efficiency and service in telecommunications—no contest. The Yanks beat this place like a maid beats a dusty rug. Sonosheet scans below.

Above is a vintage Japanese poster for Batman the movie, which we discussed in detail here. If you haven’t seen this insane campfest, just stop everything you’re doing and rent, borrow or steal it. It gives new meaning to the term “jumping the shark.” Batman premiered in Japan today in 1967. 

Cover of the National Enquirer published today in 1966, with a feature on Adam West, who was banking serious dollars on television’s campy superhero series Batman. By the way, we often see West referred to as the original Batman, but that isn’t true. This guy is the original Batman.