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For years, the Screen Actors Guild ran a toll-free phone number called “Actors to Locate.”
Though designed for casting directors and journalists, in practice anyone could use it to request contact info for up to three film actors per call; no charge, no automated system (yes, a live person answered), no questions asked. (Of course, they would not give out personal phone numbers or addresses but rather, typically, the number of the actor’s agent or manager.)
Though the info on file was sometimes outdated, this service helped in my research for Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman and particularly as I prepared my two big interview series to date: ‘70s and ‘80s superhero entertainers and music video ingénues.
In 2012, SAG merged with AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), and perhaps as part of that reorg, the Actors to Locate number went away, despite what this December 2013 screenshot from the SAG-AFTRA site indicates:
But reborn with another change.
I was told that SAG-AFTRA would now give access to what they had renamed iActor only to casting directors or producers who are working with SAG-AFTRA projects and no longer to people seeking members for charitable organizations, personal appearances, speaking requests, interview requests, or modeling requests.
In other words, I was no longer eligible.
I called to ask if I could appeal. The person I reached kindly said she had heard from a number of people who fell outside the “casting directors and producers” category, many with what seemed to be valid reasons for wanting access to iActor. She suggested I plead my case in writing and she’d submit it—with others—to the decision makers.
This is what I submitted:I’m the author of more than 70 books including Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman. My work has been covered by The Hollywood Reporter, NPR’s All Things Considered, The Today Show, USA Today, Forbes, NBC, ABC, PBS, MTV, Yahoo; two of my books inspired a TED talk.
I often profile former actors who have long been out of the spotlight yet are still fondly remembered by fans, the kind of people who have never been interviewed before and are, in most cases, thrilled and honored that someone took the time and effort to track them down. In doing so, I have been able to help some of these inactive performers receive royalties that had been accumulating for them but which could not be sent because SAG/etc. did not have their current contact info and did not have luck finding them.
Whenever combining whatever info SAG had with my own detective work has led to success, I direct the talent back to SAG to update their record. Sometimes once they are “found,” they then are hired to appear at conventions for which they are paid. They are very grateful.
Among the people I found and directed to update their SAG record:
Examples of my work in which SAG is invaluable:
Creating such content is hard enough as it is, and even harder without access to agents/managers (though many of these people no longer have agents).
Such features benefit all involved, both emotionally and financially—it gives former performers a chance to discover they have fans (and often royalties) and gives fans original, hard-to-come-by interviews/content. It seems to me that this is one beneficial application of the iActor service.
For these reasons, I am hoping to appeal and get access to iActor just as I had to Actors to Locate. I hope it is clear that I don’t abuse the privilege; I use it to help and showcase others.
Thank you for your time. I look forward to your response.
It worked.
I was granted access.
And so the intermittent Hollywood-related research continues.
On 2/24/14, I had the honor of presenting at Gregory-Portland Intermediate School in Portland, TX (near Corpus Christi) for the second year in a row.
Another round of thanks to Cati (first syllable rhymes with “cat,” not “Kate”) Partridge for inviting me to speak with her students.
As before, the school (particularly library aide Cindy) created award-worthy displays to welcome me:Prop pay phone!
(I told Cati that there is no pressure to outdo themselves each time!)
And I had another honor this trip: I got to meet the genuine and articulate Ron Dennis, who is a friend of Cati’s and who is the grandson of Walter Dennis…who is a possible visual inspiration for Clark Kent.
I’d forgotten that I already knew of Walter; he is mentioned (and pictured!) in Superman: The Complete History.Superman: The Complete History by Les Daniels
Superman: The Complete History, page 19
Ron was kind to answer some questions:
INSERT
me with Clark Kent
me with Superman
When I was a baby, Lenore, my second cousin on my mom’s side, and also my godmother, babysat me.
In August 1973, she went to a bus station in Connecticut, bought a ticket to somewhere, and did not come back. The reason may have been mental illness; the family later learned that she had been abusive to her children.
Her husband Larry (son of my mom’s uncle) hired private detectives to find Lenore. Despite years of searching, they never did.
Her fate remains a mystery, except, perhaps, to her.
Between my own intensive (and, on many levels, successful) detective work in researching Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman and the topic of my book Vanished: True Stories of the Missing (I mention Lenore in the “About the Author”), my wife and I discussed the possibility of me trying to find out what happened to our cousin.For a fleeting moment, this intrigued me, and I do like a challenge, but it is an effort I will not undertake.
In 1994, I set out to write a screenplay about Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Joe had died in 1992, but Jerry was still alive. I asked Dennis Dooley if he knew how I could contact Jerry.
Dennis was one of the two editors of Superman at Fifty!: The Persistence of a Legend! (1987), and also wrote the first (and, to me, best) of the sixteen essays in the book, “The Man of Tomorrow and the Boys of Yesterday” (an earlier version of which appeared in the 6/73 issue of Cleveland Magazine).
A few observations about the book:- It was published by Octavia Press of Cleveland, which does not seem to be around anymore. Though Superman is a Cleveland story, I imagine the reason Octavia published the book is because no well-known publishers wanted to.
- The cover is static and amateurish. This book was unofficially in honor of Superman’s 50th anniversary. Today, any such book would have a far more dynamic cover design.
- The headline also seems dated. Today, the headline would be something mouthier and more specific like “The History, Culture, and Influence of the Man of Steel, the World’s First and Greatest Superhero.”
- Harlan Ellison contributed an essay in which he wrote that there were five characters whom everyone on the planet knew: Mickey Mouse, Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, Robin Hood, and Superman.
I don’t remember how I found Dennis, but this was pre-Internet, so it probably involved the phone book.
His response was both kind and disappointing:The me of now would not have let such a letter deter me, but the men of then decided to abandon the Jerry and Joe project. A decade later, however, I revived it—that time, as a picture book. The Boys of Yesterday were now the...
But alas, by then, Jerry, too, was no longer around to see it.
Soon after Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman came out in 2008, I posted what I called a “tour” of the book, pointing out details, tricks, and other Easter eggs that even astute readers might otherwise miss.
Here is the tour for Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman.
As is typical for contemporary picture books, the pages aren’t numbered. (Publishers fear that could turn off readers by calling attention to their relatively short length.) So I’ll reference pages by their first few words.
Get your copy of the book and follow along...
“Every Batman story…” (inside front cover)
backstory – I originally envisioned this text (both white and yellow) as a teaser/cold open on the page before the title page. It’s still before the title page…
“After Milton Finger graduated…”
design – This image is a (rotated) close-up of the scene on the title page. See little Bill?
never-published information – Bill’s given name was Milton; Bill graduated high school in 1933.
design – I wanted the three “secret identity” starbursts throughout the book to be consistent in color scheme (happened) and size (did not).
backstory – The “first secret identity” line was intended to be a hook. People reading a book about a superhero would not be surprised to see mention of a secret identity (singular)…but it would be unusual for someone to have more than one.
“Bill loved literature…”
design – Throughout the book, Ty depicts Bill in blue and Bob in yellow. Bill liked to wear blue Oxford shirts. And the yellow stands for…
“That weekend he sketched…”
design – I love the scene in the first panel but felt the apartment looked too grand for a young artist in New York. I was (peaceably) overruled. Similarly, I felt the sidewalk in the second panel was too wide, but creative license won that one. In early drafts of the manuscript, I described the look of Bob’s character and first gave the name “Bat-Man” in the text, but once I started to lay out the book in my mind, I saw that these reveals would have greater impact if instead we showed them in the art.
“Wings aside…”
design – We deliberately showed only parts of Batman rather than the whole for two reasons. First, delayed gratification: the later it comes, the greater the effect. Two, we had to be selective about showing characters owned by DC Comics: the fewer, the better.
attention to detail – That bat is a reproduction of how the drawing really looked in the 1937 Webster’s Dictionary, which would’ve been the most current edition when Bill and Bob were building Batman in 1939. (The fish, a bass, is also authentic.)
“In April 1939…”
attention to detail – The image is based on a period photo of a newsstand. The comic covers are ones that would have been on the newsstand at approximately the same time as Detective Comics #27 (Batman’s debut). This is the first “full” appearance of Batman in the book, though I consider it too small to count.
“Bill and Bob would sit in Poe Park…”
attention to detail – This image is based on period photographs of Poe Park.
“Though Bill had wanted Bat-Man…”
design – The sentence starting “Bat-Man became Batman…” makes sense in print, but requires elaboration/clarification when read aloud.
design – This marks the second appearance of Batman, though only his head on a comic book cover. Still no big splash.
“Almost immediately Bob hired…”
attention to detail – Those two guys standing in the background are Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who were friends with Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson (seated).
design – This is an example of taking advantage of the medium of picture books. The fact that Bill and Jerry played darts is not significant to the larger story, but it is visually interesting so it became the setting for the information conveyed in the accompanying text. Otherwise it could’ve been another scene of guys at a desk.
“But Bill stuck…”
attention to detail – The phrase “superstitious, cowardly hearts of criminals” is a nod to Detective Comics #33, which first presents the origin of Batman and in which Bruce Wayne says “Criminals are a superstitious, cowardly lot. So my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts.”
backstory – No gun is visible on purpose, though the threat is still evident.
“Steadily, silently, Bill built…”
attention to detail – In the first sketches, Batman did not appear in this scene because the text is about Batman’s sidekick and villains.
“Other comics creators…” attention to detail – When I first saw the sketch in which both the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings are visible, I said I didn’t think that there was a ground-level vantage point (even with the lower skyline of the 1940s, when this scene took place) from which such a view existed. Upon seeing images like the one below and thereby learning I was wrong, we situated the scene on East 30th Street in an attempt at authenticity. backstory – I did not want the inset showing Bill shaking an editor’s hand, for two reasons. One, we already had a handshake image (Kane and editor Vin Sullivan) and I felt including a second one would dilute the (tragic) significance of the first. Two, I doubt it happened. I would guess that an editor simply called Bill to ask for a story, and it was as unceremonious as that. I was overruled, and it was okay. attention to detail – The gimmick book examples came from published sources and the astounding memory of Charles Sinclair.
“In 1948 Bill and his wife…” never-published information – Bill nicknamed his son Fred “Little Finger.” attention to detail – The ticket window is based on several period photographs. design – Originally, the text specified the way Bill snuck Fred into the museum, but after we began discussing art, it became clear to me that it would be more fun to reveal the trick in the art.
“While his son…” backstory – The quotation “I’d like to return to the innocence of my childhood” was not essential, but I included it because it comes from the only known instance of Bill being mentioned/quoted in a mainstream publication (The New Yorker, 1965) in his lifetime.
“Bill was fond of writing…” attention to detail – The size of the plug seems disproportionately small compared to the size of the fork and plate, but we’d already gone through several sketches to get the trajectory of Batman popping out of the toaster seem plausible (ha) so the size concern was one I had to let go. attention to detail – If I had not caught that the absence of Batman on the earlier spread featuring the supporting characters/villains would seem like a goof, this would have been the first full-on appearance of Batman in the book.
“To get his stories…” attention to detail – This desk scene is, unbelievably, perhaps, based on a 1940s photograph of Bill’s workspace. Yes, I went from being told only two photos of Bill exist to having not only 11 photos but also one of his writing desk. attention to detail – That unassuming little paperweight is not just an illustrator flourish.
“During the first twenty-five years…” attention to detail – Here is the page from the 1943 story in which Bill’s name appears…sort of. Look carefully...“In 1964 that changed…” backstory – Ty Templeton made up the blue-armored figure partially visible behind Julie Schwartz. I did not know this until after the book came out. I would have pushed for a glimpse of a known character, but I understand Ty wanting to limit potential intellectual property claims.
“The next summer…” backstory – I wanted either Bill to be wearing a tie or one other panelist not to be because I felt Bill could come off as shlubby if he were the only one that casual. I was overruled.
“Jerry also did his own…” attention to detail – The print over Bill’s desk…was a print over Bill’s desk. Thanks (again) to Charles Sinclair for injecting even more accuracy.attention to detail – The image of “If the Truth Be Known…” looks that way because this scene takes place in 1965, when photocopies did not exist but mimeographs did in all their smudgy purple glory.
“Bill’s final Batman…” never-published information – Bill’s death date (previously reported as January 24).
design – The “Come Monday” construct calls back to the first historic “Batman weekend” (1939).
“Now grown…” never-published information – Bill was cremated; Fred spread his ashes on an (Oregon) beach in an apropos shape. (You have to see this.) “In Bob’s later years…” design – I did not think we needed the “Bob Kane” credit box there to identify him, and in fact worried it might be confusing, but was overruled.
“Jerry Robinson had long wanted…” attention to detail – This image is based on a photograph of Jerry’s home office. I asked for the TV to show a still from the credits of the 1960s TV Batman show, though it’s been “modified to fit the screen.”
“It was named…” attention to detail – That’s Jerry again, with Mark Evanier. We sought permission to include the Comic-Con imagery.
“From Milton to Bill…” backstory – I normally don’t like asking questions in my text, but could not resist the penultimate line.
copy of guestbook (last page) never-published information – Through a fluke both sad and fortunate, this remnant of Bill still exists.
“Bill was the greatest…” (inside back cover) backstory – Two of these three quotations were not my original suggestions. I had used a quotation from Lyn Simmons, Bill’s second wife, and another by another associate of Bill’s, but neither of them appear in the story proper and my editor, Alyssa Mito Pusey, felt it would be better to quote characters the reader already knew. I was hesitant at first but came to see her point…and am so glad I did. I love it this way.
I love it all this way.
Thank you, Alyssa, Ty, Martha, and the veritable flash mob of others whose knowledge and talent combined to make this a book about which I am overflowing with pride.More Bill Finger secrets abound, if you know where to look...
According to the 2004 Colin Powell biography by Reggie Finlayson (page 20), the family of the former Secretary of State moved to 952 Kelly Street in the South Bronx when Powell was four, so around 1941.
another source, Lodi News-Sentinel, 2/16/91
Just two years prior, something else notable happened on Kelly Street.
A superhero named Batman was created there.I learned that Powell and Finger were nearly neighbors thanks to the 4/8/13 New York, its third annual “yesteryear” issue. (It didn’t mention Finger but I hadn’t known that Powell also has a tie to Kelly Street.)
I googled and found an article about Powell returning to the Bronx in 2010 for a building dedication near Kelly Street. The article quoted Damian Griffin, Education Director of the Bronx River Alliance, who also lived nearby.
I emailed Damian, starting with “Here’s a question you don’t get every...well, ever.” I explained who I am and built up to this: “If you happen to live down the street from Finger’s former residence, would you be willing to go there and ask a tenant for the contact info of who owns the building? Consider it a cultural favor to New York!”
Damian responded as follows:We actually met when…you came as a visiting author [to my son’s school several years ago]! Funny world. I will check out the building on my bike ride to work this morning and let you know. If I can help, I certainly will.
The coincidences continued. He also said that he used to know the family in the basement apartment of Finger’s former home. And upon doing a property map search, he saw that his daughter’s first babysitter now owns the building. (That turned out to be another person with the same name.)
By week’s end, Damian came through and sent me the contact information for the building owner.
As for why I want it, stay tuned.
Image from Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman.Scarab from Bill the Boy Wonder, AKA Bill Finger.
As an author of nonfiction, authenticity is my co-pilot. But co-pilots make mistakes.
Half a year after Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman came out, I realized that my determination to visually include a particular detail obscured the possibility that I was including that accurate detail in an inaccurate period.
Among my most treasured possessions is my lone possession that Bill Finger used to own: a bronze-colored scarab paperweight his second wife Lyn purchased for him at the American Museum of Natural History.
I asked Ty Templeton, artist of Bill the Boy Wonder, to show the paperweight in a scene of Bill at his desk, and the illustration was based on a photo of Bill’s actual desk circa mid- to late-1940s.
So the paperweight is an authentic detail…only a decade or two too soon.
Though not a goof that will jeopardize the integrity of the book as a whole, it did make me shake my head for a moment. However, it’s such a lovely little piece of the real Bill that, even had I realized the chronological misstep before we went to print, I think I would have left it in.A flourish like that is worth its (paper)weight in gold (or bronze).
When authors need to track down specific people to interview, quite possibly the best tool these days is Facebook. I’ve been using it for this purpose for about five years. (Funnily, in 2007, I reached the most pivotal figure I would uncover in my Bill Finger research…via MySpace.)
Sometimes Facebook instantly leads to direct hits. More often it takes some detective work to wend your way to who you want, especially with common names (like Howard Murphy) or with people who aren’t on Facebook under their own names, not to mention people with some degree of celebrity.
Facebook may not always get you all the way to your target, but it sure can help shorten the route quickly. The person you seek may not be on Facebook—or may not even be alive—but people who know that person are…and they may agree to put you in touch (if the person is indeed alive).
Looking for more than one person (i.e. members of a former band) is almost easier; there is a greater chance that any potential contact will know at least one from the group. This is, for example, how I found some of the Sea World skiers.
In such a case, finding only one can be all the lead you need; the first can then point you toward others s/he knew, and the leapfrogging begins. You can also skim his/her friends list for other names on your scavenger hunt.
If I don’t hear back from certain people, I may randomly ask some of their friends if they would help. You do encounter a lot of non-responders (unfortunately, there is sometimes a perception that a person in my position is after more than he says—the telemarketer syndrome). But as mentioned, it takes only one hit.
Speaking of which…
Recently, I tried using Facebook in a different way to find people. This way is easier, but also riskier.
However, my first experiment with it was a resounding success.
Facebook helped me find two people who appeared in non-speaking roles in a 1984 music video—and whose names I didn’t know.
I’d been searching for them on and off for several weeks without luck, and within three hours of posting an unusual call to action to my 1,800 Facebook friends on the morning of 2/27/13, I had both names. Within three more hours, I had contact info for both.
Not everyone is online. And not everyone online is easily findable, even when you know his or her name. (And not everyone findable wants to be found, but that’s another story.)
Yet Facebook is a game-changer when it comes to the human connection. Call it eighteen hundred degrees of separation.
As for why I was searching for two people from a 1984 video, stayed tuned (and find a hint in the Labels)...
After a talk I gave in Washington DC in November 2011, a woman named Janice Newman came up to me to say that her father had a dental office in the Cleveland building where, in the 1940s, Joe Shuster had his art studio.
I have a few photos of that building. Naturally I asked if she had more. Who has photos of where their dad worked, especially if we’re talking decades ago?
Well, Janice didn’t, but her mom, Renee Siegel (no relation to Jerry, apparently) did. Only one (taken in 1984 because the building was going to be razed), and a rather limited view, but still…that could have been the entrance Joe used.
Also, my friend Brad Ricca dug up another pic of Joe’s apartment building. It made the front page of the newspaper in 1955, and for a reason most unlikely (not to mention tragic).
Who knows how many more are out there, waiting to be revealed?
In 2009, the city and the fans commemorated the former site of this apartment building (demolished in 1975) with a fence displaying a blown-up version of the first Superman story.AP
Though I was not directly involved, I did encourage the decision-makers to incorporate at least one of the two known existing photos of Joe’s apartment building into the memorial. Though I like what was done, I must admit (and told them) that I was disappointed they did not take that suggestion. When I make mecca to such a site, I’d prefer to see something rare—something that immerses you in the past—rather than something I can see online. My disappointment lingers but ultimately, I’m thrilled that Joe’s place gets the super treatment. Jerry’s does, too:
Part 1.
This is an interview with Dean Badolato, who was friends with Bill Finger’s first wife Portia and their son, Fred, for twenty years.
What was Portia’s opinion about Batman?
Portia respected all serious and legit art and artists. As [for] Batman, I know she was amused at the huge culture that it created. She probably thought it was pretty lightweight compared to the serious literature she enjoyed (she was an avid reader). Gore Vidal and Truman Capote are two authors she admired. She really loved Vidal’s Burr. She also read Mary Rennault’s series of books about ancient Greece like The Bull from the Sea.
Did Portia tell you any stories about Bill’s work on Batman?
I don’t recall anything too specific about Bill and his work on Batman.
Did you spend any time with Fred? If so, what was he like?
Fred returned from Oregon shortly after the explosion of Mount St. Helen’s. He had become quite a good upcoming nouveau chef. With wife Bonnie, he had opened and run a restaurant, I believe near Portland. He had sired a child, Athena, with Bonnie; at that time, I am not sure if Bonnie and Fred had split up yet. But their marriage did not last and Freddie was interested in opening a new restaurant in New York.
He worked at a couple of high-end restaurants as chef and we sampled his work on several occasions. He was really talented and would have competed well, I believe, with the most successful of today’s chefs. Not surprising since Portia was herself a great home cooker and we often were treated to suppers at Portia’s with fantastic, simple but excellent cuisine. She turned me on to really dark strong French roasted coffee! Also, Freddie and Portia would enjoy seeing us perform when we were lucky enough to be appearing in shows. Fred was a great guy who loved his family; a gentle kind of guy and quite hardworking.
Portia had friends in the gay community and Fred was gay himself. Which came first and do you think one affected the other?
Can’t really say which came first. Probably both evolved at the same time.
How did Portia respond to Fred’s homosexuality?
This is a really difficult one to answer. I believe Portia really wanted the very best for Fred in terms of having a loving, productive family life with the usual components of mom, dad, kids, etc. I think she felt he might have been able to have that kind of life, but at the same time she may have also realized that Freddie was living a gay life and actually seemed to be quite happy. There is a real paradox of thought here because Portia was a very liberal and progressive-thinking human. She also deeply believed in psychology and psychiatry and had a very important therapist in her own life. Despite this fact, I think she felt with a lot of hard work, Fred might have been successful in living a more conventional straight life. I know nevertheless that Portia loved and adored Fred, straight or gay, very much.
How did you find out that Bill died? If you were around Portia at that time, what was her reaction to Bill’s death?
This is a bit eerie: I hardly remember Bill’s passing because Portia barely mentioned it. In 1974 [the year Bill died], I was touring with the DC ballet, but I know she had no service. Honestly, I can say she never really felt good about the man (he had done some really crummy things to her friends) and I believe she felt that he was less than an ideal dad to Fred.
What happened with Portia and Fred after Bill died in 1974?
As far as I know, Fred and Portia’s life did not change much at all after Bill’s death.
How did Fred come to get some kind of royalty from DC Comics?
I’m pretty sure that when Fred returned from the west coast after Mount St. Helen’s blew, Portia urged him to go to DC Comics and let them know who he was and that he deserved royalties. I remember Portia saying that they had given a small token payment of about $500 but that was it. I never heard of any other payments going to the family.
What did Portia think Bill’s legacy should be?
Honestly, Portia never spoke of Bill in regards to a legacy. She always assumed that the truth would probably never be known. But she did know that he was indeed the real creator of the character. I’m telling you she was really, really angry at Bill for things he did.
Are you still in touch with anyone else who knew Bill or Portia?
I am in touch with Portia’s very, very, very favorite and dear friend, Shirley Hendrick. Shirley is well into her 90s and in an assisted living situation. My brother and I [recently performed] a dance concert for her and the other residents. Shirley was a brilliant oil painter and fast friends with Portia and family. Shirley has two sons, Vern and Gregory, who also knew Fred and the family. The two families lived close to each other in Manhattan and vacationed in the same Pocono area in the summers.
What do you do for a living?
I am a professional director/choreographer/performer, a lifelong career.
Have you seen any of the Batman movies?
As a kid, I followed Batman, like all the other kids. I’ve not seen the recent movies. At the ripe old age of 60, that stuff is quite honestly old hat for my taste. The stuff I saw Heath Ledger into when he played the Joker made me really, really sad. They went way too far into darkness for my tastes. I have a feeling Batman was a lot better in its earlier incarnations than today’s. I’m so sick of the massive violence in almost all the current cinema ventures today. We have enough violence in our real neighborhoods.
If you have seen my book, what was your reaction to it?
I haven’t read the book yet; looking forward to. Your trailer looks really good.
Anything else you’d like to share about the Fingers?
It was an honor and a gift to be a part of the Fingers’ lives. Portia was an incredible teller of tales and an educator of life’s lessons like no one else. She was full of love of life and art and joy and beauty. It was heartbreaking to see her and Fred struggle throughout their lives to make ends meet when they legitimately were deserving of so much credit and financial reward for the contributions to America’s (and the world’s, for that matter) popular culture that Batman made and continues to make to this day.
Thank you, Marc Tyler Nobleman, for caring enough to share with the world this most interesting and unusual story.
In August 2012, after I’d appeared on NPR for Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, I received the following (excerpted) message on Google+ from a man named Dean Badolato:
I was a very close personal friend of Bill's wife Portia Finger and their son Freddie. I knew them from 1970 until they both passed around 1990. I knew through Portia her husband's involvement with Batman but many others neither understood nor believed her story. I am actually quite moved that the truth is out and although the Finger family is no longer with us to share this event, it is still wonderful that justice will lie with the written word. I am so proud to know that someone cared enough to write the truth!
It had been a while since I had “found” anyone “new” connected to Bill Finger—though technically this was him finding me. Either way, I was excited anew. And even though the book is out, I (of course) asked Dean if I could interview him.
In agreeing, Dean wrote “My only regret is that you did not come along 25 years ago when the Fingers could really have used you!”
I learned of your book about Bill Finger listening to your NPR interview; I heard you speaking about Bill Finger about whom I thought no one knew anything!
What was your reaction upon learning that someone wrote a book on Bill?
Having been a close personal friend of his wife and son for almost 20 years, I was completely blown away (actually, I almost fell out of my loft bed!) by the news of a book about the real creator of Batman, Bill Finger.
Why did you reach out to me?
I knew through Portia the story of Bill being the original “ghost” writer of Batman and I wanted you to know that I could corroborate all the data I heard on the radio interview and to say what a great thing it was [for you] to have written this book. Being a lifelong theatre/dance artist, I know what it is like not to get credit for work one has created or even helped create in the early stages of a project. And because it [has been] more than 20 years since Portia and Freddie [have] graced our world, I thought it was fantastic that Bill the Boy Wonder had come along.
Did you ever meet Bill? When and how did you meet Portia?
I never met Bill; he and Portia had divorced by [the time] I met her in the summer of 1971 at the old Roosevelt Hospital in New York. I and a large group of professional-level dance students had just arrived from Chicago to make our fortunes in New York. One of our group, Bill Gatewood, happened to be recovering from a diabetic incident and Portia happened to be in the same hospital awaiting surgery for a stomach hernia. While visiting Bill [Gatewood], I met Portia, who had befriended Bill as he recovered. Soon Portia and many of our crowd were friends.
What was Portia like?
Portia was highly intelligent, literate, and liberally minded. She loved the fine arts: painting, sculpture, literature, and especially dance—and especially classical dance. [My group] were serious ballet performers (I performed for the American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, and National Ballet of Washington DC; my brother a choreographer and featured dancer for the Metropolitan Opera of New York). 
Dean in 1977 (and in the air)
Being a lifelong resident of lower Manhattan, Portia was always concerned with state and city events and had a large circle of varied and interesting characters in her life.
She also was the first person of Jewish heritage to educate young naïfs as myself of the realities of the European Holocaust of WWII in a personal and firsthand account from someone who lost untold family members and was hip to all the political realities of those times. She was an avowed atheist who couldn’t possibly accept the notion of a caring God who could allow such profound atrocities to be carried out on so many innocent people. As we used to say in the old days, Portia was a really “heavy” person (and I don’t mean weight-wise); [she was] profoundly concerned with righteousness and justice in society with equal rights for all.
What did Portia tell you about Bill?
I think Portia felt it necessary to share Bill’s story with us. She told us how he had been the original ghostwriter (using her words here) of the series and that he, she, and Freddie had never up to that time received a penny of royalty or residuals from DC Comics. She described [Bill as] a brilliant and creative thinker but [one who] never stood up for himself and never demanded proper compensation for his work. She also told me personal information about Bill and her marriage which I will only say was difficult. Bill was not good with money, alcohol, or, quite honestly, fidelity.
Did Portia see a difference between Bill as a man/husband and Bill as a writer/creator?
I can only guess. My gut feeling is that she wouldn’t differentiate the two because I think she would have felt that what you are as a person is only going to reflect who and what you are as an artist.Part 2.
Creating a Local Historical Book: Fiction and Non-Fiction Genres
Due to the overwhelming popularity of the podcast Creating A Local Historical Book, which has become our most popular download in 2012, we were compelled to release an eBook and printed book transcript of this show.
The book that this episode created, Creating a Local Historical Book: Fiction and Non-Fiction Genres can be found on Amazon Kindle, BN Nook, Kobo NOOK, and everywhere else quality eBooks are found. Special thanks to Tyler R. Tichelaar for helping us create such an amazing episode for the ages.
While researching Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, I went to nutty lengths to find people who knew Bill Finger or his family. Given that Bill had died in 1974 and left less trace than you would believe, I had little choice.
His first wife Portia died in 1990, so I felt I had a shot of finding friends of hers, many of whom were gay. There is a gay and lesbian center near where she was living when she died, so I made this flyer and posted it there:
Since that didn’t work, I’m posting it here.
(By the way, the phone number is old and inactive.)
In June 2008, I posted a cry for help.
I asked if anyone could source eight Bill Finger quotations (none of which were attributed) in Batman: The Complete History by the late Les Daniels.
Les couldn’t.
And no one else responded, either.
Meanwhile, a never-published interview with Bill was allegedly lost among the immense comics-related clutter of the Vermont house of longtime Batman fan Tom Fagan. At the time, I was already on the hunt for it. In fact I’d mentioned it here in March 2008.
A confidante of Tom’s told me that a team of five people searching Tom’s house eight hours a day for a month would put barely a dent in his “archives.”
(You may see where I’m going with all this.)
In December 2006, the first and only time I spoke on the phone with Tom, he’d kindly given me clearance to come up and search whenever I wanted; I could even crash on his couch (presuming it wasn’t buried in boxes and papers like much of the rest of the house). But on 10/21/08, before I had acted on this offer, Tom died.
(Yes, almost two years had elapsed since Tom invited me. I hadn’t been able to get to Vermont due to family and work, and I was not pushing myself to find a way because, given the mass of material there, it seemed unlikely that I would find what I was looking for. I’m an optimist but also a pragmatist.)
Tom’s death ended up saving me a lot of time. I was in contact with Tom’s close friend, and he was a good soul. In cleaning out Tom’s house, the Bill interview was uncovered, except it wasn’t exactly an interview; it was an article Tom wrote in 1965 and did not publish anywhere. Amid the grief and chaos that follows the death of a loved one, Tom’s friend took the time to send me a copy of it, making him my friend now, too.
I received the typed, eight-page article on 2/8/09, which just so happened to be Bill’s 95th birthday. Weirdly, on page 3, the article mentions Bill’s birthday.
Also weirdly: though I read and took notes from Tom’s article immediately, it wasn’t until March 2010—yes, more than a year later—when I made the connection.
In March 2010, that June 2008 post popped into my head. (I combine all research notes for any given project into one Word document so I can easily search a single time when looking for information. For Bill the Boy Wonder, that document is currently 712 pages—and yes, still growing even though the book is out.)
Thinking I’d pasted the June 2008 blog post in that research document, I searched it for one of the unsourced quotations. I got a hit—not because I’d pasted the blog post there but rather because I’d pasted the notes I took from Tom’s piece there! So I checked the other unsourced Bill quotations from Daniels’s book.
Every one of them had come from Tom’s “lost” article. Apparently it was not as lost as I was led to believe.
This discovery implied that DC, which authorized Daniels’s book, had a copy of Fagan’s piece; given the fact that Daniels had not saved his notes, he didn’t strike me as the kind of researcher who would have dug this up on his own.
Once it came into focus that Tom’s piece didn’t reveal much new that suited my needs (most of the best bits were in Daniels’s book), it made me reassess what its value was. Just the fact that it was a document on Bill written by someone who knew him personally made it worthwhile to me.
So at long last, below is “Bill Finger—The Man Behind the Legend,” the fabled “lost” article by Tom Fagan, written in 1965 when Bill was 51 years old. The most important word in it is “the”—the “the” in the last line.
In 2011, I made pilgrimage to the Bronx apartment building in which Bill Finger lived in 1939—in other words, the building in which Batman was likely created. Surprise—the owners did not know the Batman connection. But that made the experience more fun for me.
I had not wanted to show up unannounced, but I didn’t know who was living there. So I had to resort to a tactic I’d used when trying to get inside the house in which Jerry Siegel lived when he dreamed up Superman: sending a letter not addressed to anyone by name.
Here’s the Finger letter:
Guess why I did not specify the "famous person"?
I hoped the tease would increase my chances of a response, if for no other reason than to satisfy curiosity.
But with Finger as with Siegel, I did not hear back from anyone. They left me no choice but to show up unannounced.
Research is time-consuming with no guarantee of yielding anything useful. So it is actually not completely impractical to suggest speaking as a research tool.
I’ve been speaking about Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman (AKA Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster) for almost four years at venues ranging from synagogues to business luncheons; I’m now including Bill Finger in my presentations.
A number of people from audiences I’ve spoken to have come up to me afterward to share a connection they had to Jerry (1914-1996), Joe (1914-1992), or Bill (1914-1974). It’s not a massive tally but given the number of generations back we’re talking, it astounds me.
Examples:
- Washington DC, November 2011—a woman whose grandfather worked in the same building as Joe Shuster’s art studio in the 1940s
- Miami, February 2012—a man whose sister dated Joe Shuster in the 1970s
- New York, June 2012—a woman who was best friends with the daughter of Bill Finger’s second wife in middle school in the 1960s (have to come up for air on that one)
I did not note at least one or two others who overlapped with Siegel and Shuster at Glenville High School in the early 1930s.People like this are so peripherally linked to the superhero creators that even the most tenacious writers/researchers may never turn them up on their own. The more I speak, the more I will likely continue to overlap with people who hobnobbed with comics royalty. And the more people I reach, the more likely I can uncover something no one else would have. We never know where or when the next previously unpublished story or photo will come from…except that it is almost never where you expect it to be. I did ask all three above if they had relevant photos or other mementos; some believe they do, and if they end up sharing any of it with me as they said they would, I will be posting that material here. Both of my superhero books are already out there, but as you can see, I’m still adding to the story.
In my research for Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, I dug deep and discovered quite a bit that had not been published before. One of the most rewarding finds was personal correspondence—the only known examples of surviving letters written by Bill Finger.
There are two, both from 1965. They were discovered in the Vermont home of longtime fan Tom Fagan, who passed away in 2008; a friend of Tom’s kindly mailed me copies. When I first saw the letters, everything quickened. It is understated to describe them as highlights of my research odyssey.
Besides the simple fact that they exist, they are significant because they reveal sides of Bill’s personality that none of his (few) comics-related interviews did.
The first letter (whose postmark, not shown here, is 8/19/65) starts with a doozy: in rattling off his interests, Bill cheekily repeats “dating women.” The last line of the letter is endearing and humanizing, and also shows that the phrase “give me a buzz,” which I would’ve assumed dated from the 1970s if not later, actually existed in the 1960s. Who knows—maybe Bill came up with that piece of pop culture, too?
The second letter, dated 10/19/65, strikes a more solemn tone because it came in the aftermath of Bob Kane’s scathing letter for Batmania in which he refutes Bill’s recent admission that he (Bill) was involved with the creation of Batman.
Bill wrote that he had to keep it short so he could make it to the post office before it closed, but 10/19/65 was a Sunday. It was so hastily written that Bill did not sign it.
But the letter’s greatest significance is in the line “I quite angrily spoke my mind and jogged Bob’s fading memory.” As I mention in the Author’s Note, this is the most spine we have seen from Bill and, in fact, is the only known textual evidence in which Bill stood up for himself.
The poignant last line also made it into my book…as the last line there, too. It’s heartbreaking in its graciousness. Imagine the bitterness it could have been masking.
Here are both letters:
…has been here all along.
When people ask me how long it took to write Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman, I say several months’ of research and several months of writing on and off (18 drafts before Random House acquired it, and several more after). What catches people off guard is when I conclude by saying “And I’m still writing it.”
I explain that when I come across interesting information that, obviously, is too late for the book, I post it here. Here’s an example.
That is one of the biggest benefits of blogging and the Internet in general; it allows our stories to continue to unfold with no printers, warehouses, stores, or even paper needed.
Here are key Bill Finger posts that expand on the story I tell in Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman (and I will be adding to this):
Bill’s family:
my first Bill post, outlining my big discoveries, the biggest being Bill’s granddaughter; plus one of my 11 “new” photos of Bill (but the grainiest)
Bill’s parents
photo of Bill’s mom and one of my 11 “new” photos of Bill (with first wife Portia)
looking for Bill’s first sister
how I found Bill’s first sister, born in 1918 (and still alive as of this post)
how I found Bill’s second wife
finding some of Bill’s relatives
a Finger in Florida with something to hide
Bill’s friends:
how I found Bill’s longtime friend and writing partner Charles Sinclair
how I found the woman who hosted the Texas seder Bill attended
Bill in the words of those who knew him well
Bill’s peers describing him in superlatives
Bill’s fans excited for a book about him
Bill’s residences:
photo of Bill’s apartment building at 731 Kelly Street, Bronx, where he lived in 1939, the year he co-created Batman (in fact, it may have been in that building!)
photo of Bill’s apartment building at 50 E. 196th Street, Bronx, where he lived 1941-42, during which time he wrote the first stories with Scarecrow, Penguin, and Two-Face
photo of Bill’s apartment building at 125 W. 16th Street, Manhattan, where he lived in the early 1950s, soon before his divorce from first wife Portia
photos of four more of Bill’s apartment buildings:
- 2754 Grand Concourse, Bronx, where he lived 1940-41, during which time he wrote the first stories with Robin, Joker, Catwoman, Batmobile, and Gotham City
- 45 Grove Street, Manhattan, where he lived for much of the 1940s, during which time he created the Riddler
- 31 W. 9th Street, Manhattan, circa 1965, and probably the apartment in which he was living when he first publicly admitted (to Jerry Bails) his role in the creation of Batman
- 340 E. 51st Street, Manhattan, the building in which Bill died in 1974
places Bill visited beyond New York City
other historical figures who had a connection to Bill’s 1940s Greenwich Village apartment
Bill and Batman:
first print appearance of Batman (and I don’t mean Detective Comics #27); timeline of my journey to research, write, and publish a book on Bill Finger
a dictionary is the reason I believe Batman was created in Bill’s, not Bob’s, apartment
why Bill most likely led the charge in creating Robin
Bill’s penchant for writing scripts featuring oversized props
Bob crediting Bill for some of the big villains, and Bill’s influence on the Joker’s look
which came first in 1965, Bill’s historic interview with Jerry Bails or his appearance on the first-ever creators panel at a comic convention?
the only two letters Bill wrote known to still exist
Bill on whether or not Batman and Robin were gay
DC Comics (slyly) giving Bill Finger and Bob Kane equal claim to Batman
Bill almost received screen credit in Batman (1989)
Bill and comics:
Bill’s notable contributions to Superman
comparing Bill to Superman co-creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and likening them all to thieves
from the Mutual Admiration Society: Bill Finger and Alfred Hitchcock
Bill photos:
my first Bill post, outlining my big discoveries, the biggest being Bill’s granddaughter; plus one of my 11 “new” photos of Bill (but the grainiest)
photo of Bill’s mom and one of my 11 “new” photos of Bill (with first wife Portia)
Bill’s yearbook photo
four of the five known photos of Bill published before I began research
the first published photo of Bill’s first wife Portia, plus inheriting Bill’s scarab paperweight
happening upon a photo of Bill’s desk, circa 1940s
a previously unpublished photo of—and an injustice to—Bill in 75 Years of DC Comics
Bill mysteries:
looking for Bill’s first sister
how I found Bill’s first sister, born in 1918 (and still alive as of this post)
Bill’s yearbook photo
Bill was 4-F in World War II—here are the records to prove (though not explain) it
Bill and alcohol
Bill’s death
Bill mementos:
the first published photo of Bill’s first wife Portia, plus inheriting Bill’s scarab paperweight
finding out the true colors (literally) of the document revealing Bill’s involvement in the creation of Batman
Bill’s famous gimmick books were discarded
the only known note in Bill’s handwriting
the only two letters Bill wrote known to still exist
the only three comic book scripts Bill wrote known to still exist
the last two known comic book scripts Bill wrote
Bill insults:
Bill did not drive, plus the earliest hijacking in print of Bill’s Batman legacy
the laughable travesty of Real Fact Comics #5 (1946)
Bill’s worst enemy—Bob or himself?
a previously unpublished photo of—and an injustice to—Bill in 75 Years of DC Comics
Bill outside of comics:
Bill’s yearbook photo
Bill’s writing outside of comics
Bill’s radio
Bill’s favorite composer
Bill was 4-F in World War II—here are the records to prove (though not explain) it
Bill did not drive, plus the earliest hijacking in print of Bill’s Batman legacy
how Bill almost won a car (even though he didn’t have a driver’s license)
Bill worked out
Bill’s death
birth anniversary posts:
2009 (the known Bill interviews, including two I helped rediscover)
2010 (Bill was born in Denver)
2012 (Bill identified as Batman co-creator in DC Comics publications)
death anniversary posts:
2009 (no obituary, no funeral)
2010 (tribute from Amazing World of DC Comics #1)
2011 (Bob’s good choice)
2012
plus:
all known print tributes to Bill
In 1996, my first book came out. It was an activity book based on a character I did not create, a rabbit named Felix. This little guy originated in Germany and is still very popular there. The activities were themed around two subjects, geography and history.
In 1999, the sequel came out, and despite the usual pattern, it was better than the first—much longer, too. In fact, it contained the first book and added four new sections: holidays, telling time, the environment, and space. It also contained several features I felt made it stand out: a star code to indicate complexity of each activity, a subject index (yes, in an activity book! about a rabbit!), a skills index, and a contest to create an activity for the next activity book (which still has not come).
Recently I came across a list I made at the time that indicates what influenced me while writing this. (Yes, an activity book can have influences, apparently.) Reading this list will either A) make you curious enough to seek out the long-out-of-print book or B) cause you to consider me legally (or at least textually) insane. What's more, I have now expanded the list. (So I guess you're going with choice B.) Here it is:
- No Jacket Required by Phil Collins (page 12) *
- "All I Need Is a Miracle" by Mike + the Mechanics (page 27)
- "The Time Warp" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show (page 41)
- The Twilight Zone episode "Time Enough at Last" (page 46)
- "Talk of the Town" section of The New Yorker (page 53)
- Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965 movie I still haven't seen; page 55)
- License to Drive (never saw that one either; page 57)
- "One Thing Leads to Another" by the Fixx (page 60)
- "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" (page 64)
- Coins in the Fountain by John Hermes Secondari (page 73)
- * "Take Me Home" by Phil Collins (page 103)
- Foster's beer slogan "Australian for beer" (which I renamed "Australian for Fun"; page 112)
- Slippery When Wet by Bon Jovi (here called "Slippery When Wetland"; page 117)
- Tool Time from Home Improvement (page 128)
- Olympics tagline "thrill of victory" (page 132)
- card game Set (finding various kinds of patterns; page 132)
- "Love Among the Ruins" by Robert Browning (page 133)
- "A Hard Day's Night" by the Beatles (pages 148-9)
- Rashomon (four Native Americans tell the same story from their respective points of view; pages 166-7)
- "Sunshine on My Shoulders" by John Denver (page 183)
- Name That Tune (page 194)
- "Live, from New York, it's..." from Saturday Night Live (page 203)
- Rabbit Redux by John Updike (page 224)
- The World According to Garp by John Irving (page 232)
- "Chain of Fools" by Aretha Franklin (page 247)
- "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!" from The Wizard of Oz (page 249)
- "As Time Goes By" from Casablanca (page 252)
- The Anti-Coloring Book (in general)
Some influenced the title while others influenced the concept of an activity. Which do you think is the most outlandish?
Bill Finger main-created Batman and nicknamed him the Dark Knight. Today (perhaps you heard) The Dark Knight Rises opens, but Bill’s name will not be in the credits.
On 12/10/07, a bit more than six months before The Dark Knight opened, I e-mailed DC Comics; after introducing myself as the author of books including Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman (which also wasn’t out yet), I asked the following:
Could Bill’s name be included in the credits for The Dark Knight? Please don’t automatically delete! I know contractually DC can’t call him “co-creator” so I rather mean something along the lines of “Batman was first called ‘the Dark Knight’ in Batman #1, in 1940, in a story written by Bill Finger.” DC publications already regularly credit Bill for that story, so I see this as completely compatible, legally safe, and of course morally fair. After all, the movie’s title doesn’t even include the word “Batman”—it is wholly a phrase coined by Bill Finger. I look forward to your response.
DC, to their credit, wrote me back:Thanks for your passion for our creators and characters, but there are no plans to credit Bill on The Dark Knight.
MTN:To be clear, I am asking if Bill can be credited only for the coining of a phrase, in unambiguous language. … Isn’t that just as permissible (it seems even more so) as your regular practice of crediting him in reprints for entire stories he wrote?
DC:
With all due respect, I’m not having this discussion.
However, I was not the first to attempt this. That distinction goes to Lyn Simmons, Bill’s second wife; they married in the late 1960s.Her determination to get credit for Bill were bold, selfless—and, it seems, nearly successful. I will let her words—and press about her efforts—speak for themselves (some are undated so I have put them in chronological order as best I can):
It’s so simple yet so easy to overlook:
1. Pay attention to the obvious.
On 1/26/11, I spent more than thirty minutes searching for certain family members of Barbara Joyce named “Krowitz.” Failing, I dropped my gaze in defeat, which caused me to glance at a scrap of paper that had been in front of me all along. That scrap held the notes that prompted this search; the name I’d clearly jotted down was, in fact, “Kowitz.”
Once I searched that, I found the right people quickly.
So again: when researching, pay attention. It’s a great way to save yourself more than thirty minutes.
Bill Finger, uncredited co-creator of Batman, had only one sibling, a sister born in 1918 (four years after him).
She and Bill had been estranged since the late 1930s for reasons no one alive but her seem to know—and she’s not talking. Bill never mentioned her publicly and apparently, never privately either; even his second wife did not know he had a sister. As of this writing, she is still alive.
At one point, the story of how I found her was going to be in Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman. However, with so many good stories to include, some good ones had to be cut, and hers was one.
So here it is—and expanded far beyond what I would’ve had space for in print:
No comics historians I talked to during my research knew that toward the end of Bill’s life, he had married a second time. As these things so often go, I stumbled upon ES (to protect privacy) without knowing that I should be looking for her. The moment was jubilant and became one of the first “behind-the-scenes” research stories I posted on this blog. But what made it pivotal was a casual comment ES made about Bill, something else no comics historians knew: his actual first name. (Hint: It was not Bill.)
A short biographical sketch of Bill ran in Green Lantern #1, in 1941. (Bill co-created him, too.) In the bio, Bill is referred to as an “only son.” This clouded my thinking for a while, but then it hit me like a gloved sock to the jaw: “only son” does not automatically mean “only child.”
Bill’s given name and the “only son” recalibration collided in my mind, catapulting me several months back to when I had struck out trying to find his family in census records.
Armed with my new knowledge, I revisited a particular census record and confirmed that I only thought I had struck out. That record indeed listed the right Fingers: Bill (but under his given name, which I’d learned only after first seeing the record), his parents (whose names I hadn’t known previously)…and his younger sister/lone sibling, Emily.
I figured Emily would be either deceased or close to impossible to find because she’d almost certainly have a married name. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t look for her. There would be things about Bill that only she would know.
Emily was born in 1918, most likely in New York. In 2006, attempting to find her middle name with the hope that it would narrow the search, I went through the New York City Birth Indexes of 1918-1920. A reference librarian told me that it was rare for someone not to appear in the index. Yet I found no Emily there.
I also spent hours combing through the New York Death Index (from 1930 to 1982) and obituaries of girls with her first name born in 1918, hoping to come across one whose maiden name was Finger, or one whose parents’ names matched the names of Bill’s parents, or even just one born in the Bronx. I found none of the above.
So I made two lists.
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Much has been made (by me, anyway) about how few photos of himself Bill Finger (uncredited co-creator of Batman) left behind upon his death in 1974.
Early on, I realized something that was even scarcer: Bill’s handwriting. We have plenty of Bill’s writing, of course, but almost all of it is fictional (and typed).
But what would a personal note that he wrote reveal?
The only sample of his handwriting I’d seen was his signature on a 1963 note that Mike Catron had posted:
I’m no handwriting analyst so I can’t say what the curvature of his penmanship suggests about his character. Still, it was exciting to see it…until I learned of something better. Far better.
In 2006, early Batman ghost artist and Joker co-creator Jerry Robinson told me that he still has a guest book from an apartment he shared with other comic book artists in the 1940s. He said it’s filled with comments (and sketches!) by an A-list who’s who of the Golden Age (my phrasing, not his). And he said that includes Bill Finger.
On 8/12/06, when I went to Jerry’s to talk more about Bill, I asked to see the guest book. It is a peerless trove of off-the-grid comics history that would give whiplash to any fanboys with a sense of posterity. Some of the pages were loose and I urged Jerry (not that he needed a reminder) to continue to keep it safe so one day a copy of it might be shared with fandom.
Jerry generously allowed me to copy Bill’s page. I won’t yet say more about what Bill wrote because the page appears in its entirety on the last page of my book.
What I can say is how glad I am that I copied it when I did.
In 2010, I asked Jerry if I could re-copy the page because we needed a more high-res scan for reproduction (when I first copied it in 2006, I had not yet written the book and was so excited to get permission to copy the guest book page that I didn’t think of print quality).
I was aghast to learn that the guest book had since gone missing.
Later that year, the book resurfaced…but Bill’s page was still missing.
I suspected the book had been sent out to be scanned for Jerry’s autobiography (which came out in 2010) but couldn’t believe anyone involved could have been careless enough to let this happen.
In any case, this unfortunate fluke made me the only known person in the world with a copy of this note. And as far as I know, I still am.
Incidentally, I have also dug up some personal (but typed) correspondence of Bill’
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Agreed, the timeline can easily be forgiven, to have this wonderful tidbit included. Thanks for expanding on that, Marc!
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