Mood:
caffeinatedTopic: Comic Cons
TODAY'S FEATURE - Blog #3154: For those of you that are finding this Blog for the first time...Back in April I blogged about who was going to be at the Wizard World Anaheim Comic Con in Orange County, California; both media guests and comics creators. I mentioned several actors and actresses and was able to stop by to see most of them in the two days I was there. So far I've blogged about the following stars that had roles in the Batman TV Series that started in 1966: Yvonne Craig, Deanna Lund, and Malachi Throne. Today, I'm blogging about seeing Lee Meriwether, who played 'Catwoman' in the theatrical film based on the TV show! The film was released in 1966. For more on the film itself, please see this Wikipedia entry by clicking this link! Lee was chosen for this role, as Julie Newmar, who first played 'Catwoman' on the TV Series was not available for the film. The film itself is also known as Batman: The Movie (1966). The theatrical movie was actually not filmed until the end of the first season of Batman the TV series. That was the short period of time between April 25 and May 31, 1966. Probably thinking that more was better, the movie actually featured four villains from the show, including the Joker (Cesar Romero), the Riddler (Frank Gorshin), the Penguin (Burgess Meredith), and of course, Catwoman (Lee Meriwether). Lee actually had a second role, that of Miss Kitka Karenska. Also Van Williams, (who played the Green Hornet on TV), was the (uncredited) voice of the President. Betcha didn't know that! The film was written by the TV show's writer Lorenzo Semple, Jr. and was directed by series director Leslie H. Martinson. I wasn't there...But the 105-minute Batman Film opened at The Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas on Saturday, July 30, 1966. According to records of the time, the movie was considered only moderately successful at the box office. Back then, Films didn't always make it to TV right away. Would you believe it didn't have its' nationwide television debut as an ABC Sunday Night Movie, until July 4, 1971?! By then the Batman 'craze' was over... Lee Meriwether did not play 'Catwoman' on the TV Series during its' run. However, Lee went on to play the role of Dr. Ann McGregor on the TV Series, Time Tunnel, that I enjoyed although it ran for only one season with 30 episodes... For more on the Batman TV series itself, please see this Wikipedia entry by clicking this link. As a side note...The original series ran on the ABC Network from January 12, 1966 – March 14, 1968. There were 120 episodes aired during the three seasons that the show was broadcast. Of course most 'mainstream' people are aware that there are comic books, graphic novels, TV Shows both live action and animated, plus Feature Films that have featured Batman. The Grand Comics Database lists 846 different titles alone for Batman! Of course many of these are 'one-shot' publications! Okay...enough about Lee Meriwether as 'Catwoman' on the Batman Film... What about Lee herself in person? I found Lee to be very gracious and charming at her booth at the Wizard World Anaheim. When telling her of my chapter in the upcoming Batman book, (more on that below), she agreed to be photographed for mention in my blog because of her association with the Batman Universe. Lee's own Wikipedia entry can be found right here. Lee's acting credits can also be found at this IDMb page. She has played several roles on several TV shows, including one guest appearance on 'The Immortal', a short-lived (15 episodes) series starring Christopher George back in 1970-71. I loved that show! For those of You that couldn't attend this convention, I'll be blogging about more media guests and comics creators in the days to come... If You can't wait for my posts, you can check out more of who was there at Wizard World Anaheim by joining their Facebook Fan Page right here for one, AND / OR You can go direct to their web site to see who else appeared there at: Wizard World Anaheim. My special thanks to Lee Meriwether for taking the time to pose for photos for this blog post and talking about her appearance on the 1966 Batman Theatrical Movie with me! I do not see an official Lee Meriwether web site, nor a Facebook member page, nor a Facebook Fan Page. I do see a Facebook 'community page' that aggregates links concerning Lee. Should I see or hear of any other pages, I may be back here to update this blog post... So now I am down to the point where I want to write a little bit of why I posted this blog today.
"Michael D Hamersky is happy to announce tonight, (after hinting for a while), that the book he has contributed to will be released in October of this year! “Gotham City 14 Miles” is an anthology of critical essays about the 1960s “Batman” TV show! The book is being published by Sequart and is edited by Jim Beard! I'll keep you posted ...as it gets closer to release!" Here's a link to the New Fan Page: http://bit.ly/GOTHAMCity14Miles, which YOU are invited to 'like' (join)! As of yesterday, Jim Beard has posted Mile Marker #7 (out of 14 to be posted), which tells what each of the 14 chapters in the book are about. My own chapter's 'Mile Marker' should be posted in the next few weeks...! So if you are new to this Blog today...the above BIG Announcement was what I have been hinting at for several months previously in this blog, and at my own Facebook Group Page (a.k.a. http://www.Hamersky.com! As you can tell... I'm pretty excited about seeing this book being scheduled for print. And I told several more media guests at the Wizard World about it also. They will be blogged about in upcoming weeks. I'll be sharing my visits with them similar to the way that my Editor is doing on his Book's Fan Page. BTW...My thanks again to Jim Beard for asking me to be one of the essayists in his book! AND My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now over the 3,150 total posts in number!~ Michael D Hamersky @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com
http://www.comicbookscircus.com/
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That's because back in April, right after attending the Wizard World Anaheim Comic Con, I posted the BIG Announcement that there was a new Facebook Fan Page created by the Editor of the book shown to the left as follows:
Note: Our own online comic book store definitely has Batman comics and other Batman related items as seen at:
Yeah, that's me in the photo shown to the left, taken at the 1973 San Diego Comic Con!
Also, if you are a Facebook member and would like to join my Facebook Network, feel free to send a 
Talking about comics: if YOU are a comics creator, (writer, penciler, inker, colorist, letterer, etc.), OR even a Comics / Magazine Publisher, feel free to contact me regarding YOUR works for a possible mention / review!
WEB PAGE NOTE: This blog post is written for the IE Browser standards. Chrome, Safarai, Netscape, Firefox and the others serve the page up differently. The screen display resolution is best seen at the setting of 1024 x 768.
