July 16, 1943: The 1st Live-Action Batman Film

July 16, 1943: The Columbia Pictures film serial Batman premieres, directed by Lambert Hillyer. It is the 1st of 15 installments.

Lewis Wilson, then only 23 years old, played wealthy playboy Bruce Wayne and his costumed alter ego, Batman. Robin was played by 17-year-old Douglas Croft. He played the child version of Lou Gehrig in The Pride of the Yankees. The same year Croft played the Iron Horse (Iron Colt? Iron Foal?), he played young George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Oddly, this serial doesn't feature any of the traditional Batman villains. Rather, this being the middle of World War II, the Caped Crusaders take on Japanese saboteurs. Some now-familiar Bat-villains were available: The Joker and Catwoman first appeared in the comics in 1940, the Penguin in 1941, Two-Face in 1942. The Riddler, however, didn't debut in the comics until 1948, and the Mad Hatter came right thereafter; Mr. Freeze didn't appear until 1959; Poison Ivy, not until 1966; Ra's al Ghul, not until 1971.

At the time Batman was released in theaters, the butler Alfred Pennyworth (whose surname was never mentioned until 1969, in the comics), was drawn as a portly gentleman in the comics. Subsequent issues suddenly depicted Alfred as slim and sporting a thin moustache, following actor William Austin's appearance.

Commissioner James Gordon does not appear: In this film, Batman's liaison to government is Captain Arnold of the Gotham City police (Charles C. Wilson, no relation to Lewis, but he had already been typecast playing cops).

It was this serial, rather than the comic books, that introduced the idea of the Batcave, Batman's lair underneath Wayne Manor. But, retroactively flying in the face of the 1986 epic The Dark Knight Returns, this version of Batman and Robin are active U.S. government agents.

In the serial, Bruce's girlfriend Linda Page (Shirley Patterson) asks for his help in finding her uncle, Martin Warren (Gus Glassmire), who was abducted by the Japanese spy ring after he was released from prison. J. Carrol Naish, a native New Yorker in "yellowface," plays the ring's leader, Dr. Tito Daka. He plans to steal the city's radium supply to power his invention, a hand-held ray gun that can dissolve anything hit by its powerful beam. Batman discovers the plot, and eventually routs the gang after a terrific battle.

Traps and counter-traps follow in the succeeding chapters, as the Dynamic Duo continue to thwart the plans of the Japanese agent and his henchmen. When Dr. Daka attempts to steal America's Victory Plans, the Batman and Robin finally prevail. They oversee the capture of Daka's men, and finally the death of the Japanese agent, as he tries to escape and falls through his own hidden trapdoor into a pit full of hungry alligators. (Shades of later James Bond villains.)

Croft died in 1963, only 37 years old, from the effects of alcoholism. Glassmire died in 1946, Charles C. Wilson in 1948, Hillyer in 1969, Naish in 1973, Austin in 1975, Patterson in 1995. Lewis Wilson, the 1st man to play Batman, lived all the way until 2000, so he could have seen the ABC Batman TV show, the later Super Friends cartoons, both Tim Burton movies, and both Joel Schumacher movies. Sadly, both he and Robert Lowery, who starred in the 1949 serial Batman and Robin, were largely forgotten by the time the TV show came along.

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July 16, 1943 was a Friday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 6-3 at  Yankee Stadium. Nick Etten hit a home run. Marius Russo was the winning pitcher, in relief of Charles Wensloff.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the Boston Braves, 3-2 at Braves Field in Boston.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Washington Senators, 4-1 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-5 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. In spite of the Cards' defeat, Stan Musial went 3-for-5 with an RBI.

* The St. Louis Browns beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-3 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.

* And the New York Giants, the Chicago Cubs, the Cincinnati Reds, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers were not scheduled.