TO THE BATPOLES #197: Adam and Frank’s… semi-big show

General goings on in the 1966 Batman World

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TO THE BATPOLES #197: Adam and Frank’s… semi-big show

Post by bat-rss »

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TO THE BATPOLES Podcast: What was up with that Adam West/Frank Gorshin show at Shea Stadium? We dig in on what the show was meant to be, what it ended up being, and whether anyone who attended would have been particularly pleased with the result.

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Ben Bentley
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES #197: Adam and Frank’s… semi-big show

Post by Ben Bentley »

This was definitely an interesting topic for you guys to delve into, thanks for spending some time with it. Beyond a handful of photos and the poster of course, Shea Stadium doesn't really seem to loom all that large in the lore of the show for most fans. There's part of me that naively hopes that footage from this show may one day surface like it did for the recently released "Marineland Carnival ft. The Munsters" DVD.

Following up on a few points from your discussion:

Poster Photo:
The photo used for the poster is indeed a promotional portrait that was shot during Season One. Here's a frame from that same session, seconds before or after the shot used for the poster.

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Orange Colored Sky:
Although Burt's 7" single of "Orange Colored Sky" and "Boy Wonder I Love You" wasn't released until November 14th 1966, the only two recording sessions according to one of Zappa's biographer's took place on 9th and 10th June 1966, a mere two weeks prior to Adam singing the song live at Shea Stadium. As a sidebar, these recording dates completely dispelled Burt's anecdotal account of the recording of his single, whereby he states that after the first day in the studio with Frank Zappa and Tom Wilson, he claims that MGM forced him into two weeks of vocal lessons at a personal cost to Burt of $1k per week. Anyhoo, I won't derail my own post into further detours of debunking Burt's book, otherwise we'll all die of old age in the process.

New Orleans/Other tour dates?:

With the exception of the one New Orleans show poster that was auctioned a few years ago, (the actual image used in the Medium article you referenced) there is very little evidence or reference anywhere else online to the show actually happening. I haven't had the time but I would be intrigued as to what references there were to the gig in the local newspapers that week.

There's a couple of things that I will throw into the mix to potentially provide some context. 26th Nov, 1966 was the Saturday of Thanksgiving week that year. That was the week that the company were finishing up shooting "The Sandman Cometh/The Catwoman Goeth", interestingly, neither Adam nor Burt were on the shooting schedule that day.

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You briefly touched on what I think is a very interesting and incredibly valid point; the fact that by the time of the Shea Stadium show in June, 1966, Frank was no longer The Riddler... Frank's duties as The Riddler on screen had ended by the time the movie wrapped shooting on 31st May, 1966. Interestingly (as far the timeline of events goes), the ill-fated discussions of higher salaries between Frank's representation and Dozier/Greenway actually came to a head whilst the movie was still in principal photography. The nail-in-the-coffin memo from Bill Dozier to Frank is dated May 9th.
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I can understand that an appearance (like Shea Stadium, which was slated to happen within just a few weeks of all the back and forth about Frank's salary) was a contractual obligation and as such went ahead. But that being said, it is hard to imagine that the New Orleans show still went ahead with Frank in the live role, given that it was nearly a full five months later. But to be fair and again for context, John Astin didn't begin to shoot his arc until 3rd January, 1967. At that point, we hadn't seen the Riddler on screen since the movie, given that the only Riddler outing for the first half of the second season (“A Penny for your Riddles/They're Worth a Lot More") was reworked into "The Puzzles Are Coming/The Duo Is Slumming", which was filmed between October 20th-27th, 1966.

I would certainly love to learn more about the New Orleans and/or any other live performances that Adam and/or Frank did in this fashion, so please if anyone else does have any insights, I know a lot of us here would be all (Bat-) ears!
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES #197: Adam and Frank’s… semi-big show

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Very interesting, Ben! Yes, anyone have a Newspapers.com account, to look up "Adam West Frank Gorshin New Orelans"?
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES #197: Adam and Frank’s… semi-big show

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I do - will check this evening (can't access at work).
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES #197: Adam and Frank’s… semi-big show

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"An original 1966 Long Island Rail Road train schedule for the Batman concert at Shea Stadium on June 25th, 1966. Concert featured Adam West as Batman, Frank Gorshin as The Riddler, The Batusi Girls, The Detroit Sound, Jr. Walker and the All-Stars, The Temptations, Chiffons, Shades of Blue, and Skitch Henderson & His Orchestra. Schedule measures 7.5" wide x 15" high and is in excellent condition. Schedule has some light creases near top and bottom. Would look great framed and matted."

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/ ... -404257291
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES #197: Adam and Frank’s… semi-big show

Post by Mr. Glee »

This photo ran in the December 17 '66 edition of The Louisiana Weekly - no mention of Gorshin or City Park Stadium, though:
1966-Dec-17.jpg
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES #197: Adam and Frank’s… semi-big show

Post by chrisbcritter »

The_Jefferson_News_Thu__Oct_20__1966_.jpg
The Jefferson News, 10-20-66.
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES #197: Adam and Frank’s… semi-big show

Post by bat-rss »

Mr Glee and Chrisbcritter,
Interesting! Sounds like Frank may have bailed from the appearance, but Adam went through with it in some form. The venue, City Park Stadium, is consistent with the poster we mentioned at the end of the episode:

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Re: TO THE BATPOLES #197: Adam and Frank’s… semi-big show

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My partner and I moved to New Orleans this year, and we currently live just down the street from City Park Stadium, now known as the Tad Gormley Stadium. Nowadays it's mainly used to host high school football games on Friday nights, and you can hear the bands, cheers and announcements from our house, but in its heyday it hosted a variety of concert acts such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Alice Cooper, The Ramones, ZZ Top, Pearl Jam and Rage Against The Machine.

I recently did a photo shoot in City Park in my Batman '66 cosplay. Little did I know that it wasn't the first time that the '66 Batman paid a visit to City Park.
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES #197: Adam and Frank’s… semi-big show

Post by BATWINGED HORNET »

Another deep dive into all things '66 Batman--good work, guys.

You know the Shea stadium show was a cheap deal if the organizers would not even rent one of the Batmobiles created for personal appearances / car shows (or the drag race version) to drive Batman out on the field. Some might say the expense to rent one of the Batmobiles (whatever that was in 1966) was not worth stretching the budget, but the car had as many fans as the stars of the show, and if advertised as appearing WITH Batman and the Riddler, it might have attracted more ticket-buyers.

“Orange-colored Sky.” Sheesh. Humans were not provided with ears to endure that. West was SOOOO tone deaf, and you know he was not hamming it up on every verse, so its just awful. I'm not sure f he never ended up on Rhino Records’ Golden Throats collections, that would have been a major oversight.

Guys, Adam West had a noticeable paunch while on the ’66 series, which started to show toward the end of season one. I know there’s a faction of the ’66 fanbase who do not like to admit that, but his belly being noticed dates back to the series’ first-run era, even in the “Bats-Man” satire from MAD magazine (#105 from September of 1966), and typical of Mort Drucker’s legendary ability to zero in on and play up very specific details of an actor’s physical appearance, he illustrated West with a paunch, similar to the way he would make a body-builder even more bloated with vein-covered muscles, or someone with a pronounced nose now having one the size of a shoe.

Tim, you imagined if you had been a kid in attendance at the show, you would have been disappointed by the snarky answers to the attendees given by West and Gorshin, and I have to guess that routine probably resulted from two issues: the writers being used to scripting that kind of comedian-to-audience interplay one would see in a comedy club, and the need to allow West and Gorshin to appear as themselves (ego stroking?), instead of characters in “silly” costumes.

In the final analysis, the Shea Stadium show’s failure should have tipped off everyone that Batmania had already run its course; of note is the fact the live show made its debut on June 25, 1966 a little over a month before the July 30, 1966 premiere of the movie, and considering how both did not perform as expected, everyone involved in the selling of Dozier's Batman should have realized that high mark of interest seen in early 1966 was not going to be re-captured.

To be quite honest, by the time the Shea Stadium show debuted, I would have bought a ticket for The Temptations and The Young Rascals....Batman & Riddler? Not so much.
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