Video of Adam West 1989 Appearance in Costume

[Steve Rosinski]

[BBvideo 425,350]http://youtu.be/k1483-6a380[/BBvideo]

I realize this video is probably already somewhere on this comprehensive site. But I'm posting it in the event it is not.

[Ben Bentley]

Footage from various appearances often resurfaces at varying degrees of quality. This is a great length clip though!

[marmaly]

I think this is earlier than 1989. More like 1984.

[rickrickrick]

Well, in the clip he says every day is Halloween for him, and has been for the last 22 years or so - so, if you use 1966 as the starting date for that comment, that takes it to 1988 at the earliest.

RRR

[BatmiteReturns]

It had to be before 1989 because that's when WB/DC forbid Adam from dressing up in costume anymore since the Keaton/Burton movie was coming out that year.

[Steve Rosinski]

A Forbes 2011 article captions this photo as' "World of Wheels” custom car show in Chicago, on January 27, 1989.' I've seen other fan photos of Adam and Burt still in costume as late as early 1989. I think perhaps they stopped some time before the Burton film began its promotion.

Also, from my understanding, rather than repeat the mistakes made with Clayton Moore and the public backlash over his wearing his mask, studio executives sat down with Adam and offered him money to not wear the costume. Adam took the money and later said he didn't mind since he made the same amount at appearances with or without his costume. I think I got this story right. If I missed something or got something wrong, feel free to jump in, Scott and Ben. Thanks.-Steve

[Steve Rosinski]

I found a few articles on this 1989 World of Wheels Chicago appearance in costume:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidewalt/ ... ow-batman/

http://www.timesdispatch.com/adam-west- ... b2370.html

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1N1-108532CE600C7624.html

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1989 ... ed-mertz/2

And here's a photo taken by Bat Fan Greg Fisher at that 1989 event:

[Steve Rosinski]

Nine years earlier, Adam appeared at Duluth World of Wheels on March 29, 1980. Here he is pictured with fan Jeff Bard.

Here is the Duluth News-Tribune's article on the appearance:

[BatmiteReturns]

Wow, what is up with that cowl? That can't be the original he wore on the series can it?

It looks worse than the one he wore on Memphis TV against Jerry The King Lawler.

[Steve Rosinski]

The fabrIc dye on the original cowl had the tendency to discolor over time, turning the original blue to a pinkish purple. After the series ended, Adam took an old cowl shell to be reupholstered by someone who did not have the original cowl blueprints. As a result, the bib was cut too short to stay tucked in the cape and the eyebrows were drawn wrong. You'll recognize this cowl if you watch Adam in "Legend of the Superheroes." The nickname for this type of cowl in the Bat community is the "Gila Cowl, " because of its resemblance to a Gila monster.

[Gleeps, it's Batman]

Thanks for posting that article, Steve. Even when they sometimes have wrong information in them, I still like to read the articles.

[Steve Rosinski]

My pleasure, Gleeps. I know what you mean by the inaccuracies. The writer easily could have looked up the year Batman started as 1966 and not 1967 and could have researched the episode count. I can't believe Adam got the number of episodes wrong. As for getting Adam's age wrong, I think that may just have been Adam shaving 10 years off his age, as many stars do. In the article, he admits to 41, when in reality he was 51. Despite that, the writer says Adam could easily pass for 10 years younger than his stated age.

[Gleeps, it's Batman]

IIRC, Adam shaved 10 years off of his age in the Emmy TV Legends interview also. He said he was born in 1938.

[Steve Rosinski]

It's funny. Today Adam almost boasts of being 86!

[BatmiteReturns]

Yes, I've read about the "gila" cowl but didn't realize it looked like this one until you mentioned it.

Thanks for the info.

BTW, aside from the belt (which is hard to see) is anything else original on that costume? When I was 5 my kids took me to see Burt at a car show. He looked exactly like he did on the show (hair was a little longer) and this was in 1976. His costume looked exactly the same. Adam's from the photo looks really thrown together.

The following week Adam was there (in costume) but I couldn't go because my parents had to go out of town. He never came back and I ended up driving 8 hours to the super show in Novi to meet him.

Sorry, I rattled on a bit just wanted to share my Bat-memories.