TO THE BATPOLES #192: Mercy alive! It’s Madge Blake!

[bat-rss]

When talking about Batman, discussion tends to focus on Adam West, Burt Ward, and those who played villains who the Dynamic Duo brought to justice. But here we’ve done nearly 200 episodes and mostly missed someone whose name is in the opening credits for the first two seasons: Madge Blake. So this time we’ve dug in to see what we could learn about this woman who started acting late in life, charmed fellow actors but frustrated some directors, and worked with Jack Benny, Vincente Minnelli, Gene Kelly, and more.

We also take a look at her Batman character, Aunt Harriet: her origins in the comics, how the TV and comics versions differed, and what we can tell about the TV version based on her scenes; there’s more to know there than you might think!

ALSO: the Mr. Tabs guitar tutorial version of the Batman theme, Adam West and Vincent Price watch themselves in a Batman clip on the Mike Douglas Show, Holy Deja Vu asks “Who was Milton Stark?”, and we once again visit the Bat Inbox.

Listen here

[BATWINGED HORNET]

Guys, I have to thank you for doing the impossible--making an episode on Madge Blake interesting! I was aware of her work pre-Batman, but for someone who made the rounds obtaining roles, there's such a massive lack of information about her, almost as if there was a conscious effort to never expose too much of her background to the public.

Paul wondered if there was genderism and/or ageism in the treatment of Blake on the Batman set; while it could have been the case, when comparing West's story about Blake to the way other older actresses such as Agnes "Endora" Moorehead (born in 1900) or Marion "Aunt Clara" Lorne (born in 1883) were not mistreated on the sets of Bewitched could lead one to think the negative treatment was a problem on the Batman set (or Greenway productions overall?), not so much a trend of the times.

Your research revealed Blake studied at the Pasadena Playhouse, and if one considers others who studied there, you could play Six Degrees of the Dozierverse:

--Barbara Rush (Nora Clavicle).
--Meg Wylie (Grandma in "Black Widow Strikes Again").
--Mako (Low Sing in "The Preying Mantis" episode of The Green Hornet).
--Carolyn Jones (Marsha).
--Max Hodge (screenwriter of the first two Mister Freeze arcs--AKA the Sanders and Preminger arcs).
--Werner Klemperer (Col. Klink window cameo).

I suspect there's other artists from the Dozierverse who attended the Playhouse, but this is a good start.

Finally, I suppose the entire Madge Blake / Aunt Harriet situation--and its influence on Batman media was to be short-lived; Harriet vanished from the comics, and its telling that the first post-'66 Batman adaptations--Filmation's The Batman/Superman Hour (1968) and Batman with Robin, the Boy Wonder (1969) did not use the character at all, almost as if to make a final statement that her presence served no real purpose in the Batman universe.

[bat-rss]

Thanks Hornet! Yes, it does seem like Aunt Harriet came to be seen as unnecessary. I imagine most kids found her the least interesting character on the show; I don't think we paid all that much attention to her as kids, and for that matter we'd been doing this show for years before the idea of this episode ever came up. But Madge IS interesting, and Harriet herself becomes more interesting when you take all her scenes together. And her star turn in the Chandell arc is really great to see. It would be interesting to know whose idea it was. Semple, who wrote the script? Dozier? West?

[AndyFish]

We can all be thankful they never thought to dress her up as Batgirl at some point in Season Three.

[BATWINGED HORNET]

We can all be thankful they never thought to dress her up as Batgirl at some point in Season Three.

Now that you've triggered a visual, a population mind-wipe is required...ASAP!

[bat-rss]

Bat-Aunt!

[JWLJN]

I suspect there's other artists from the Dozierverse who attended the Playhouse, but this is a good start.

Maudie Prickett (best remembered as Rosie on “Hazel”) was intended to be part of the Dozierverse. She was Wonder Woman’s mother in the pilot film. Not only was she an actress at the Pasadena Playhouse but was married to its co-founder and worked hard to keep it afloat until her death.

Good to see Madge getting some respectful discussion (for the most part) on these boards for once.