Latest / Ridiculous History / Batman, or Bat-Man? A Ridiculously Comical Feud For The Ages
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
- 0:27Speaker 1: the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
- 0:31Speaker 1: much for tuning in. We're not wearing hockey pads. Big
- 0:35Speaker 1: shout out to our guest producer, Dylan the Chainsaw Fagan.
- 0:40Speaker 2: Is that your scary voice, Ben?
- 0:42Speaker 1: Oh, that's actually my regular voice. I was heading from
- 0:46Speaker 1: a helium Ballue.
- 0:47Speaker 2: I love the time. That is a real commitment to
- 0:50Speaker 2: the bit. I respect and appreciate that you are Ben
- 0:53Speaker 2: in fact, and I am Nolan.
- 0:55Speaker 1: This is history right, Yes, yes, that's us. From earlier
- 1:00Speaker 1: we had such a fantastic exploration of the triumvirate history
- 1:06Speaker 1: of the phrase bloody Mary and I think we were
- 1:09Speaker 1: both surprised by the unexpected turns that exploration took. And
- 1:15Speaker 1: now we're talking about something another story with a lot
- 1:18Speaker 1: of hidden history behind it. One of the most popular
- 1:22Speaker 1: comic characters of all time, everybody's favorite billionaire Bruce Wayne aka.
- 1:30Speaker 2: Batman, coming to us from our research associated extraordinaire Andrea.
- 1:35Speaker 2: I don't think we've bestowed a nickname. You may people
- 1:37Speaker 2: Workshop Dowent. The last one we did from Andrea was
- 1:40Speaker 2: about the origins of the word Poluka, and that had
- 1:42Speaker 2: some awesome comics lore and history associated with it, and
- 1:45Speaker 2: today is no different because it is introducing us to
- 1:48Speaker 2: a character that many folks who are not deep comics
- 1:51Speaker 2: nerds might not be familiar with. A guy named Milton
- 1:55Speaker 2: Bill Finger. Yeah, Fingers, interesting surf, It really is. You know,
- 2:06Speaker 2: if you're picking a persona or a fake name, Finger
- 2:10Speaker 2: is Actually it's a brilliant choice, because it's so weird
- 2:15Speaker 2: that you would think no one chose that on purpose, right, yeah,
- 2:19Speaker 2: it would seem to be the case. Built him, built
- 2:22Speaker 2: in Mill Finger. I'm leaving it. He passed away when
- 2:25Speaker 2: he passed away, rather, he passed away and up to
- 2:30Speaker 2: what you would consider obscurity, long believed that his body
- 2:34Speaker 2: was buried in a potter's field, which is like a
- 2:36Speaker 2: pauper's grave. You might refer to that as But it
- 2:39Speaker 2: wasn't until later that history would remember Bill and give
- 2:44Speaker 2: him his due as being truly one of the hidden
- 2:47Speaker 2: hands in the creation of Batman the Dark Knight.
- 2:51Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and we'll set a we'll set a bittersweet
- 2:55Speaker 1: cinematic tone here. Later history would learn that Bill Finger's son,
- 3:06Speaker 1: Fred Finger, had right, right, I remember that one well,
- 3:14Speaker 1: Fred claimed his father's body. It wasn't placed in a
- 3:18Speaker 1: potter's field. Instead, for his dad's wishes, Fred cremated his
- 3:23Speaker 1: father's cadaver and then brought his ashes to Manzanita Beach
- 3:27Speaker 1: in Oregon, and he spread those ashes in the shape
- 3:31Speaker 1: of a bat on the shore line. That's some dark poetry.
- 3:36Speaker 2: It is, indeed. Uh and yeah. Andrea points out that
- 3:40Speaker 2: when she first read that little detail, the song Kissed
- 3:43Speaker 2: from a Rose by Seal flashed through her mind and
- 3:46Speaker 2: she said she had a single tear. There used to
- 3:49Speaker 2: be a gray tower alone on the sea. That's a
- 3:52Speaker 2: banger of a song. By the way, it's contrary to
- 3:54Speaker 2: popular believe, not written for the movie. It was on
- 3:56Speaker 2: Seal's album, the self titled Seal Album. That's just how
- 4:00Speaker 2: he is man. Yeah. Have you seen the Sprite commercial
- 4:04Speaker 2: where he is Seal as a Seal? I loved it.
- 4:08Speaker 2: I did too, actually, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 4:10Speaker 1: And we all know that Batman is a fantastically fascinating character.
- 4:18Speaker 2: And fantastically money generating character.
- 4:23Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and even in the world of fiction, he
- 4:26Speaker 1: is phenomenally problematic.
- 4:30Speaker 2: Because he how flawed he is, which is what makes
- 4:32Speaker 2: him interesting, and how human he is, which is also
- 4:35Speaker 2: I think what has always set him apart from other
- 4:38Speaker 2: superheroes and the associated tropes is that he's like a
- 4:41Speaker 2: goffed up, tortured dude taking perma revenge on the world
- 4:47Speaker 2: in the form of batties for the death of his parents. Yeah,
- 4:50Speaker 2: Edie's a billionaire. It's also true broody billionaire gothpeing yep, right,
- 4:55Speaker 2: and he.
- 4:55Speaker 1: Could fix We'll get into it, but basically, with his
- 5:00Speaker 1: immense money from large industries, he could fix systemic problems
- 5:04Speaker 1: with Gotham City.
- 5:05Speaker 2: But no, but no hunch, right, he's someone who SIPs.
- 5:10Speaker 1: Now, just find a mashpa dude anyway. Finger Bill Finger
- 5:15Speaker 1: is a creator of Batman. We all know and love
- 5:19Speaker 1: Batman from Gotham City. He's also the Bill is also
- 5:22Speaker 1: the creator of Gotham City, by the way, as well
- 5:25Speaker 1: as Catwoman and The Joker. He died like you noted
- 5:30Speaker 1: no inobscurity in nineteen seventy four, and he was unlike
- 5:34Speaker 1: his creation Bruce Wayne, he was not well to do.
- 5:37Speaker 1: He was penniless at this point. He had a creative partner.
- 5:41Speaker 2: Okay, this is not super super far off from the
- 5:44Speaker 2: Peluka story and that there were two kind of rival
- 5:48Speaker 2: comics people, comics writers, or in one of them got
- 5:53Speaker 2: all the credit and couldn't draw a frame to save
- 5:56Speaker 2: his life. If I'm totally spacing on their names, but
- 5:58Speaker 2: do check out the pollup episode that Andrea did as well,
- 6:02Speaker 2: really really really interesting stuff. Bob Kaine is the name
- 6:05Speaker 2: that you may be much more familiar with. That's the
- 6:08Speaker 2: creative partner in question here. He had developed a red
- 6:11Speaker 2: jump suit clad, domino mask wearing character that he dubbed
- 6:17Speaker 2: the Batman, which has kinda come back if I'm not
- 6:20Speaker 2: mistaken the Robert Pattinson movies. They're using the Batman again.
- 6:25Speaker 1: And this is good, so legalistic, so quickly. Oh yeah,
- 6:28Speaker 1: Caine's creation is the bat dash Man. Yes, of course
- 6:33Speaker 1: that's also true.
- 6:34Speaker 2: That lawyer just got very excited. Yeah, with lawyers, they
- 6:37Speaker 2: love their dashes. Definitely living a bit of a Bruce
- 6:40Speaker 2: Wayne asque existence, full of opulence, wealth, international acclaim. When
- 6:45Speaker 2: Caine passed away in nineteen ninety eight, he had this
- 6:48Speaker 2: epitaph carved on his tombstone. Bob Kane, Bruce Wayne Batman,
- 6:53Speaker 2: they are one and the same. I like a rhyme.
- 6:57Speaker 2: It's not bad. I like a rhyming epiitaph.
- 7:00Speaker 1: If it's true, and Andrea has pulls all these great sources.
- 7:05Speaker 1: Andrea has shared with us a depiction of Batman without
- 7:10Speaker 1: a dash and bat dash Man and tells us that
- 7:15Speaker 1: how these two luminaries came to disagree and make such
- 7:19Speaker 1: similar characters is indeed a bit of history that gets ridiculous.
- 7:25Speaker 1: So let's let's get to it, right. It's nineteen thirty eight. Oh,
- 7:28Speaker 1: this will also do I just remember this will remind
- 7:30Speaker 1: a lot of folks about our Captain Marvel episode.
- 7:33Speaker 2: Also true and a banger from research associate Jeff the
- 7:37Speaker 2: Jeffman Bartley, Jeff, I like that? Or Factor G as
- 7:41Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I forgot about Factor G. So it's nineteen
- 7:44Speaker 2: thirty eight. Like you said, Bob Kaine's already established in
- 7:47Speaker 2: the world of comics. He is offering an aspiring writer
- 7:51Speaker 2: again very similar to the Peluka story. Yeah, a shot
- 7:55Speaker 2: to be. This guy's a part time shoe salesman, that is.
- 7:58Speaker 2: But yeah, a part time shoe that it seems like
- 8:00Speaker 2: getting insults injury. No shade on anyone that's shoes for him.
- 8:04Speaker 2: I know.
- 8:05Speaker 1: It probably means he works twenty five hours a week
- 8:08Speaker 1: or something. Like that and probably has multiple jobs. But
- 8:10Speaker 1: I'd love it if part time shoe salesman means he
- 8:14Speaker 1: only sells right shoes, left ship if you've got a
- 8:18Speaker 1: door across the street.
- 8:19Speaker 2: For the other one. But yeah, Caine gives this a
- 8:22Speaker 2: fellow a way out of the shoe grind, gives him
- 8:25Speaker 2: a job ghost writing strips, meaning of course that he's
- 8:28Speaker 2: not being credited, which is an interesting, uh sort of
- 8:31Speaker 2: what's the word foreshadowing here with adventure comics. Finger, being
- 8:36Speaker 2: a bit self taught, was very smart, well read, and
- 8:40Speaker 2: had the chops to get it done. He made an
- 8:42Speaker 2: impression on Cain from the get go.
- 8:45Speaker 1: Yeah, and so I love that you're pointing out the
- 8:48Speaker 1: similarities with the Polukaville rivalry here. So this guy Finger
- 8:53Speaker 1: has made a great impression on Daddy Caine at a
- 8:56Speaker 1: party where they met.
- 8:59Speaker 2: Daddy Kane rapper as a rapper, right, Yes, it is yes, Uh.
- 9:03Speaker 1: The success of Superman really informs the comic industry.
- 9:09Speaker 2: Oh seeding friendly. Everyone's looking for it to match that freak.
- 9:12Speaker 2: You know, let's we got to get something that's going
- 9:14Speaker 2: to rival Superman because it is an absolute feeding frenzy
- 9:17Speaker 2: for new superhero type. I don't think they're even calling
- 9:21Speaker 2: them that yet. At this point, it's.
- 9:23Speaker 1: Number one with a bullet, you know, the son of Krypton.
- 9:26Speaker 1: And add comics number one with a bull Yes, very
- 9:29Speaker 1: much so. And editors throughout the industry are already being
- 9:34Speaker 1: very j Jonah Jamison meme about this, Yeah, chopping their cigars.
- 9:38Speaker 2: They're power of the desk.
- 9:39Speaker 1: Get me my own Superman kids, exactly so. So Caine responds,
- 9:44Speaker 1: and this leads him to create the bat dash Man.
- 9:48Speaker 2: Uh.
- 9:48Speaker 1: And he took his inspiration from a film from the
- 9:52Speaker 1: nineteen thirties called The Bat's Whispers, which I haven't seen.
- 9:56Speaker 2: Not to be confused with The Bat Whisperer, which is
- 10:00Speaker 2: different film entirely and a very heartwarming. So Cain had
- 10:02Speaker 2: this idea for the character, but he knew it needed
- 10:05Speaker 2: a little bit more fleshing out. And that's where Finger
- 10:07Speaker 2: came in. He was he was the flesh man. He
- 10:10Speaker 2: was the guy that added a little meat to the bones,
- 10:13Speaker 2: and Cain was more the idea man. It would seem
- 10:15Speaker 2: right hearing it directly from Finger, Cain had an idea
- 10:18Speaker 2: for a character called Batman. He does say at this
- 10:20Speaker 2: point in quotes here Batman with no spaces or dashes,
- 10:24Speaker 2: and he'd like me to see the drawings. I went
- 10:27Speaker 2: over to Caine's and he had drawn a character which
- 10:29Speaker 2: very much looked like Superman, with kind of reddish tights
- 10:34Speaker 2: that were later squeezed out into a bucket to make
- 10:37Speaker 2: pink lemonade. Sorry, I'm really harping on that. I don't know.
- 10:39Speaker 2: It's haunting me.
- 10:43Speaker 1: Oh, we need to It's it's high time, I believe,
- 10:48Speaker 1: he says, with boots and the fur, no gloves, no gauntlets,
- 10:52Speaker 1: with a small domino mask, swinging on a rope.
- 10:55Speaker 2: He had two stiff wings. And in the image that
- 10:58Speaker 2: Andrea attached here, it is a comics panel of two
- 11:03Speaker 2: fellows looking at a like a like a conspiracy type board,
- 11:07Speaker 2: you know, like the red thread thing with Charlie Day
- 11:09Speaker 2: or whatever. And on one side we've got Batman as
- 11:11Speaker 2: we know it. The other side we've got the bat
- 11:14Speaker 2: dash Man with the red tights and the kind of
- 11:17Speaker 2: bat wing resembling rigid wings that he's describing.
- 11:21Speaker 1: Yeah, so this is still yeah, like a lighter by
- 11:24Speaker 1: the ways.
- 11:26Speaker 2: And under it was a big sign Batman. And that's
- 11:30Speaker 2: interesting though, because yeah, there is a little discrepancy in
- 11:34Speaker 2: these stories about the providence of the name, because we
- 11:37Speaker 2: have heard from other sources that this version that Caine
- 11:40Speaker 2: created was the bat dash Man, but then coming from
- 11:43Speaker 2: Finger himself, he's calling it Batman.
- 11:46Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is this is interesting. So Finger looks
- 11:50Speaker 1: at this, and it's common for any of us in
- 11:53Speaker 1: creative circles when your friends ask you for advice, you
- 11:57Speaker 1: always have to check and say, do you what do
- 12:00Speaker 1: you want? Do you want me to tell you how
- 12:02Speaker 1: I feel about it? Or do you want specific notes?
- 12:05Speaker 2: Right?
- 12:06Speaker 1: Do you want suggestions or do you want me to
- 12:09Speaker 1: or do you just want to show it to someone?
- 12:11Speaker 1: Finger probably puts his finger to his chin. It looks
- 12:14Speaker 1: at this because the.
- 12:15Speaker 2: Singer's your move, yes a finger finger, yeah.
- 12:18Speaker 1: Okay, okay, And then he says, I've got a couple
- 12:22Speaker 1: of notes. And just like a studio exec or no
- 12:26Speaker 1: offense to the three of us, an executive producer, his
- 12:29Speaker 1: couple of notes comment means he wants to change almost everything.
- 12:32Speaker 2: He starts with a costume, and.
- 12:34Speaker 1: He says, let's give him a cowl instead of this,
- 12:39Speaker 1: instead of this domino mask. Let's make this suit darker.
- 12:43Speaker 1: Because when you think of bats, you think of nighttime
- 12:46Speaker 1: and He looks at the creation by Lee Fulk the Phantom,
- 12:51Speaker 1: and so he says, Okay, we're going to take Cane's
- 12:54Speaker 1: the Batman and we're going to morph it into the
- 12:57Speaker 1: more modern Batman we know today. Finger also generates the
- 13:01Speaker 1: backstory because the way history tells it, it seems like
- 13:05Speaker 1: Cain was inspired to do something like but not quite Superman,
- 13:11Speaker 1: and past the idea of an association with bats. He
- 13:15Speaker 1: hadn't really thought through the lore. That's where the writer
- 13:18Speaker 1: Finger comes in. He says, Okay, what does this guy
- 13:20Speaker 1: do when he's not dressed like this? Well, let's make
- 13:24Speaker 1: him interesting. His name is Bruce Wayne, and I'm taking
- 13:27Speaker 1: that from Robert to Bruce, a Scottish king of Old Bruce.
- 13:32Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 13:33Speaker 1: Apparently I did not know this bit of history, even
- 13:36Speaker 1: as a comic nerd. Apparently Finger chose the last name
- 13:40Speaker 1: Wayne because it suggested gentry and colonialism.
- 13:46Speaker 2: Mmm. Yeah, no, I didn't know that either. And another
- 13:49Speaker 2: thing that I didn't know this word cowl. I've only
- 13:54Speaker 2: really ever heard it associated with the bat, helmet or
- 13:57Speaker 2: whatever you want to call it. And I want to
- 13:59Speaker 2: ask you and put this to you. Are all cowls? Hoods?
- 14:04Speaker 2: Are some hoods, cowls. Is there a crossover between hood
- 14:07Speaker 2: and cowl? What does a cowl make? Yeah?
- 14:11Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there's a crossover. I think technically it's
- 14:16Speaker 1: an overall garment and it comes from monastic practices.
- 14:20Speaker 2: For sure, definitely monkish.
- 14:22Speaker 1: Like a robe with a hood is technically a cowl,
- 14:25Speaker 1: but often, and perhaps incorrectly, I hear it used to
- 14:29Speaker 1: mean just.
- 14:30Speaker 2: The head piece. That's what I'm thinking, and that to
- 14:32Speaker 2: me is part is the distinction. And you can you
- 14:34Speaker 2: definitely see it's almost like a detachable hood that has
- 14:38Speaker 2: drapes that go over the shoulders as well, which is
- 14:40Speaker 2: totally what the Batman helmet hat cowl is. It's got
- 14:45Speaker 2: the hood part and then it goes down over the
- 14:47Speaker 2: shoulders and kind of down onto the chest a little
- 14:49Speaker 2: bit depending on the version.
- 14:51Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, so maybe that's it. I think we're onto something.
- 14:54Speaker 1: It's technically a cowl because it goes over the clavicle.
- 14:58Speaker 1: Yeah right, shake stends past the Okay.
- 15:00Speaker 2: Let's go, let's go with it. Yeah, sorry, I had
- 15:02Speaker 2: to take that little etymological diversion there.
- 15:12Speaker 1: So Finger says. I tried Bruce Adams, I tried Bruce Hancock.
- 15:18Speaker 1: Then I thought of Mad Anthony Wayne. Oooh, Mad Anthony
- 15:24Speaker 1: what's his deal?
- 15:25Speaker 2: Right?
- 15:26Speaker 1: I love how he's saying that it's such a casual
- 15:28Speaker 1: of course, Mad Anthony Wayne.
- 15:30Speaker 2: Tone. Yeah, everybody knows about Mad Anthony. I'm sure there are.
- 15:34Speaker 1: A lot of history buffs who are scandalized right now.
- 15:37Speaker 2: So, uh, Noel and Chainsaw.
- 15:40Speaker 1: And I learned that Mad Anthony Wayne is a street
- 15:44Speaker 1: name for an American soldier and founding father named Anthony Wayne.
- 15:49Speaker 2: Whoa who looks exactly like George Washington? Yes, yeah, I mean,
- 15:54Speaker 2: I guess a lot of cats probably looked like that
- 15:56Speaker 2: back in those days. But it is uncanny, like the
- 16:00Speaker 2: the way he wears his hat, his posture, his powdered wig.
- 16:04Speaker 2: But again, probably not the most uncommon garb. But it's
- 16:08Speaker 2: really weird now I'm looking at all these portraits a
- 16:11Speaker 2: general outfit. Yeah, President, Wait a second, sorry, I went
- 16:21Speaker 2: down a quick off, Mike rabbit Hole. I'm like, was
- 16:24Speaker 2: Matt Anthony Wayne secretly the alter ego of George Washington? Right,
- 16:29Speaker 2: it'll be appropriate for this story, But no, he was
- 16:31Speaker 2: his own person. He was the fifth senior Officer of
- 16:33Speaker 2: the United States Army, hence the military garb and he
- 16:37Speaker 2: did serve under President George Washington. You know, he set
- 16:40Speaker 2: the tone for fashion choices. But did you.
- 16:43Speaker 1: Ever see them in the same room at the same time.
- 16:47Speaker 2: Did Never? Did? We definitely didn't because we weren't there.
- 16:50Speaker 1: But okay, so our buddy Finger clearly a well read guy,
- 16:55Speaker 1: knows a lot about history. He's taking inspiration for the
- 16:58Speaker 1: name Bruce Wayne from history, and he says, look, I'm
- 17:02Speaker 1: combining this freedom fighter, Robert the Bruce, with this crazy
- 17:07Speaker 1: revolutionary war hero, and that's perfect for Batman. This is
- 17:12Speaker 1: a wealthy taunt a playboy by day, but at night
- 17:17Speaker 1: he's super serious. He's superhumanly serious. He's a vigilante battles crime.
- 17:23Speaker 1: And he also doesn't have People will tell you he
- 17:26Speaker 1: doesn't have superpowers. I've winged about this on stuff they
- 17:30Speaker 1: don't want you to know at length. Being a billionaire
- 17:34Speaker 1: is a superpower.
- 17:36Speaker 2: So he was born on third Yeah, for sure. So
- 17:42Speaker 2: it is cool. Though it is, I still would argue
- 17:44Speaker 2: that it is an interesting foible. Let's just say that
- 17:48Speaker 2: the guy is a bit of a human man with
- 17:52Speaker 2: with you know, flaws, and he can't just vaporize you
- 17:55Speaker 2: with a look like Superman can do. So it did
- 17:59Speaker 2: make him a little bit more of an everyman relatively speaking,
- 18:03Speaker 2: despite the billionaire of it all. Finger conceived of Wayne
- 18:07Speaker 2: being like the detective, you know, with powers of deduction
- 18:12Speaker 2: and all of that, like a Sherlock Holmes type figure,
- 18:14Speaker 2: and perkine in a documentary many decades later. Finger was
- 18:19Speaker 2: a contributing force on Batman right from the beginning. This
- 18:23Speaker 2: is a lot of revisionist history from Cain that we're
- 18:25Speaker 2: going to get into. When you kind of had a
- 18:27Speaker 2: bit of a change of heart or a pang of conscience.
- 18:30Speaker 2: I made Batman a superhero vigilante when I first created him.
- 18:34Speaker 2: Bill turned him into a scientific detective. I mean, obviously
- 18:38Speaker 2: DC Comics stands for detective comics, So just putting that
- 18:41Speaker 2: out there.
- 18:42Speaker 1: It's also cool to see that this bears echoes of
- 18:46Speaker 1: other earlier comic strip heroes who were things like superpowered
- 18:52Speaker 1: doctors or super scientists. So there is a lineage there
- 18:57Speaker 1: that's fascinating. Maybe we can recommend some books to learn
- 19:01Speaker 1: more about this. Check out the STORENKO History of Comics.
- 19:05Speaker 1: This is where Finger talks at length about some of
- 19:08Speaker 1: his creations, including Gotham City. Okay, I'll say this DC
- 19:14Speaker 1: has a mixed bag hit or miss record with naming
- 19:18Speaker 1: fictional cities. I think Metropolis and Gotham are probably the best.
- 19:22Speaker 2: Yeah, the but what are some bad examples? I don't
- 19:24Speaker 2: think I'm deep enough to know.
- 19:25Speaker 1: Things like Central City, Key City.
- 19:29Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, got it. Not Yeah, Gotham is awesome because
- 19:34Speaker 2: it is very much New York, but it's not called
- 19:36Speaker 2: New York. It's New York but not New York. It's
- 19:38Speaker 2: almost this like I mean, let's just say a gothed
- 19:42Speaker 2: up version of New York and my favorite depiction of it.
- 19:46Speaker 2: I'm not deep into the comics, but I love the
- 19:49Speaker 2: Tim Burton Batman version of Gotham City. I think, oh,
- 19:52Speaker 2: I think your rules.
- 19:53Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd like I'd like more Danny DeVito as the Penguin.
- 19:58Speaker 2: I think it's great.
- 19:59Speaker 1: The New Anguin series was really good.
- 20:01Speaker 2: I was very good. And I love the Robert Pattinson
- 20:04Speaker 2: the Batman quite a lot.
- 20:05Speaker 1: Oh yeah, did you see that deleted scene with the Joker?
- 20:08Speaker 2: So yeah, that's good. Yeah, it's great. Good.
- 20:11Speaker 1: Well okay, Well we want you to know how excellent
- 20:15Speaker 1: the end result was and how close Gotham City came
- 20:18Speaker 1: to being called Civic City or coast city or capital city.
- 20:25Speaker 1: So the guy Finger literally goes to a phone book
- 20:30Speaker 1: for New York City and flips through the pages. He
- 20:34Speaker 1: sees a listing for Gotham Jewelers, and he says, that's it,
- 20:38Speaker 1: Gotham City. We can't straight up call it New York,
- 20:41Speaker 1: even though it is New York Noir. We can't call
- 20:44Speaker 1: it New York because we wanted anybody in any city
- 20:48Speaker 1: to identify with this. So people do refer to New
- 20:51Speaker 1: York as Gotham sometimes. Is that a direct reference to Batman?
- 20:55Speaker 1: Because this Gotham Jewelers that wasn't already a term used
- 20:59Speaker 1: to New York. Gotham in this respect, I imagined was
- 21:02Speaker 1: maybe a family name, or are some other kind of descriptive.
- 21:06Speaker 1: I think the use of Gotham to describe New York
- 21:08Speaker 1: came later and is maybe a direct reference to its.
- 21:11Speaker 2: Use in Batman.
- 21:12Speaker 1: You know, I think the vast majority of us associate
- 21:17Speaker 1: Gotham with New York because of Batman and the Batman universe.
- 21:21Speaker 1: But if you go to Untapped Cities dot Com and
- 21:24Speaker 1: look at Untapped New York, we see that the emergence
- 21:28Speaker 1: of the nickname Gotham for New York dates back to
- 21:32Speaker 1: a November eleventh, eighteen oh seven issue of a I
- 21:36Speaker 1: guess it just for laughs kind of satirical mad magazine
- 21:40Speaker 1: thing called Love.
- 21:42Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, from our boy Washington Irving, who I believe
- 21:45Speaker 2: wrote The Headless Horseman, came up with all of that
- 21:49Speaker 2: yidy hollow all that stuff. Very cool. I saw that too,
- 21:52Speaker 2: and that's really glad we looked at that at the
- 21:54Speaker 2: same time.
- 21:55Speaker 1: And the narrator of Irving's history of New York is
- 22:00Speaker 1: d Drik Knickerbocker.
- 22:01Speaker 2: No, it's not, is that true? Yes, amazing full circle,
- 22:06Speaker 2: that is where the magic happens. Man, I love it.
- 22:08Speaker 2: So Gotham City is born, and that was because of
- 22:12Speaker 2: a direct input from our boy Finger. He's also quite
- 22:16Speaker 2: adept at coming up with villain ideas and helping to
- 22:19Speaker 2: shape maybe some of Cain's broader ideas. Yeah.
- 22:25Speaker 1: The Finger writes the first issue of the Batman comic
- 22:29Speaker 1: book series, in which we are introduced to the Joker
- 22:32Speaker 1: and the Catwoman, and then Finger goes on to create
- 22:36Speaker 1: the concept of the bat Cave and the Batmobile.
- 22:39Speaker 2: And then if you have you seen and in the
- 22:41Speaker 2: first issue of Sandman, which was much more trying to
- 22:45Speaker 2: tie it in with the DC universe. There's a brief
- 22:47Speaker 2: Batman moment where it shows the bat Cave with these
- 22:51Speaker 2: oversized pennies and like there's a t Rex or something,
- 22:55Speaker 2: and I guess that's a reference to this old timey
- 22:58Speaker 2: version of the Batcave. And I'm only just now putting
- 23:01Speaker 2: that together because I was very confused when I first
- 23:03Speaker 2: saw that, because I was not familiar with the early
- 23:06Speaker 2: Batman comics and that lore.
- 23:08Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and it's sort of a I think it's
- 23:11Speaker 1: a nod to trophies he's collected from. Weird supervillains. DC
- 23:16Speaker 1: also went crazy on super villains that maybe don't necessarily
- 23:22Speaker 1: have an extraordinary ability, but they have gadgets or they're
- 23:26Speaker 1: just really hung up on something, like a mad Hatter
- 23:29Speaker 1: or calendar Man.
- 23:30Speaker 2: Calendar Man. Calendar Man that sounds like the dullest supervillain ever.
- 23:36Speaker 2: He is like really in the leap year, Like what's
- 23:38Speaker 2: his beef? He is?
- 23:41Speaker 1: He commits crimes that are like holiday themed. Okay, are
- 23:47Speaker 1: making this up? I swear, dude, this and this is thing.
- 23:52Speaker 1: There was a reboot of calendar Man that turned him
- 23:55Speaker 1: into a serial killer, which was darker, made a lot
- 23:58Speaker 1: more sense.
- 23:59Speaker 2: Apparently, the new James Gunn bat Superman. That's being really
- 24:04Speaker 2: divisive already. Some of the early reviews some people were
- 24:07Speaker 2: not a fan. But it does apparently lean more into
- 24:11Speaker 2: some of these absurd kind of early kind of schlocky
- 24:14Speaker 2: comicsy stuff. It's got like Mister Terrific and a lot
- 24:17Speaker 2: of these like sort of lesser you know, characters that
- 24:20Speaker 2: maybe you're not familiar with. I want you to see it.
- 24:22Speaker 2: There's a dog, apparently a super dog. I did just
- 24:24Speaker 2: want to say, Ben, I thought I heard a really
- 24:26Speaker 2: interesting quote from the singer whose her name is Aurora,
- 24:30Speaker 2: and she's a very quirky, little Icelandic lady and very
- 24:34Speaker 2: byork asked. But in her own right, she's got, she's talented.
- 24:37Speaker 2: She had this to say, how come super villains are
- 24:41Speaker 2: always trying to change things and superheroes are always trying
- 24:45Speaker 2: to keep things the same? Oh that's great. I love that.
- 24:48Speaker 2: I thought that was pretty good.
- 24:51Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think Bill Finger would like that.
- 24:55Speaker 2: I think he would do.
- 24:57Speaker 1: So Bill goes on to create Scarecrow, the Penguin Commissioner Gordon,
- 25:02Speaker 1: and of course Batman's sidekick Robin the Boy won he
- 25:07Speaker 1: needed a bit of a Watson figure, didn't he Yeah, yeah,
- 25:11Speaker 1: I think you're right. And this is where we start
- 25:13Speaker 1: to see these creators come to not blows, but it
- 25:18Speaker 1: come to a divergence point our buddy Caine. He says, look, Robin,
- 25:23Speaker 1: his origin should parallel the origin of Batman, and then
- 25:27Speaker 1: Finger says, I hear you, but let's make his parents
- 25:32Speaker 1: circus performers. They can still get murdered. I know that's
- 25:36Speaker 1: important for you, but they're murdered during a trapeze act. Okay, cool,
- 25:41Speaker 1: a bit of a sart distill at mishap.
- 25:43Speaker 2: It's true. And if there is one version of that
- 25:47Speaker 2: that I will always remember, it is from a very
- 25:50Speaker 2: bad Batman movie Batman and Robin. But I do remember
- 25:53Speaker 2: the way it's depicted his parents, you know, eating in
- 25:57Speaker 2: on the trapeze.
- 25:58Speaker 1: Is that the one where they gave the Is that
- 26:01Speaker 1: the one where they put nipples on the suits?
- 26:03Speaker 2: They put nipples on the suits, nipples on a breastplate.
- 26:05Speaker 2: It's true, all of those, Yon Debunt. I think that's
- 26:09Speaker 2: the guy that directed it. I'm not mistaken.
- 26:12Speaker 1: Well, it's it's tough to work in entertainment, so making
- 26:15Speaker 1: movies is hard. Yeah, yeah, we're being diplomatic.
- 26:20Speaker 2: No, sorry, it is Joel Schumacher. He's the one who
- 26:25Speaker 2: did the nipples on the batsuit Batman movies.
- 26:29Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's tough to work in entertainment. It's making
- 26:32Speaker 1: and making a movie is hard. H So back to
- 26:36Speaker 1: Kane and Finger. Finger says, look, Robin is the outgrowth
- 26:40Speaker 1: of a conversation I have with Bob Bob Kine uh
- 26:43Speaker 1: and he describes the excellent comparison you made earlier. He says,
- 26:48Speaker 1: Batman is a combination of Douglas Fairbanks and Sherlock Holmes.
- 26:51Speaker 1: Holmes has a Watson, and this is what sticks out.
- 26:56Speaker 1: Finger is not necessarily chasing the best story here, He's
- 27:00Speaker 1: chasing a practical problem. He says, look, Batman doesn't have
- 27:05Speaker 1: anyone to talk to.
- 27:06Speaker 2: Do we not have an Alfred yet? At this point,
- 27:08Speaker 2: we don't have an Alfred? Y interesting?
- 27:10Speaker 1: Okay, you know that's a great question. I'm not sure
- 27:13Speaker 1: where we have an Alfred just yet. But we know
- 27:16Speaker 1: that Alfred is usually in weighing manor right, or in
- 27:21Speaker 1: the batcave. So when Batman's out busting heads and doing investigations,
- 27:26Speaker 1: he's always having an interior monologue. And Fingers like, we
- 27:30Speaker 1: got to get this guy someone to talk to, because.
- 27:33Speaker 2: It would appear that Robin came before Alfred, so he
- 27:35Speaker 2: literally had nobody. Yeah, he was all alone in his
- 27:38Speaker 2: giant mansion.
- 27:39Speaker 1: And also Robin is great marketing for the demographic right
- 27:44Speaker 1: of circus performers. Speaking of circuses, let's go to the
- 27:57Speaker 1: clown Prints of Crime, one of the most well known
- 28:01Speaker 1: comic book villains of all time and arguably a dark
- 28:07Speaker 1: mirror of Batman because he is brilliant. He also loves gadgets,
- 28:11Speaker 1: and he also has no superhuman powers.
- 28:13Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm really into the imagery. I haven't read
- 28:17Speaker 2: a ton of them. I've read a few of the stories.
- 28:19Speaker 2: But there is a alternate universe version of the Joker
- 28:24Speaker 2: that I believe is called the One Who Laughs or
- 28:27Speaker 2: something along those lines. Maybe that's the name of the series.
- 28:30Speaker 2: But he's got like he's all sm m'ed out and
- 28:33Speaker 2: has like spikes on around his eyes. He looks like
- 28:36Speaker 2: a freakin hell Raiser character.
- 28:38Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the dark version of Bruce Wayne who got
- 28:44Speaker 1: poisoned by Jokers. Joker gas his evil laughing gas, and
- 28:50Speaker 1: it drove that Bruce Wayne crazy.
- 28:52Speaker 2: Right, And it's the Batman who Laughs, is what it's
- 28:54Speaker 2: called so obviously a reference to this whole situation where
- 28:59Speaker 2: inspiration was taken from a film version of Alexandra Duma
- 29:05Speaker 2: and Victor Hugo. It was like believe a silent film.
- 29:12Speaker 2: And Sir, I think I'm getting a little confused here
- 29:14Speaker 2: because there are some overlapping versions of this. The what
- 29:17Speaker 2: they're talking about is a series of English translations of
- 29:21Speaker 2: Alexander Duma and Victor Hugo, and the volume that they
- 29:27Speaker 2: had they were referring to was called The Man Who Laughs,
- 29:30Speaker 2: which is originally published under the title By the Order
- 29:33Speaker 2: of the King.
- 29:34Speaker 1: Yeah, and by this point there have been some adaptations
- 29:38Speaker 1: of the show. We know Fingers looking at the book,
- 29:40Speaker 1: but he's also probably aware of him and Kane both
- 29:44Speaker 1: of the film adaptation, which I think we're both more
- 29:47Speaker 1: familiar with, the nineteen twenty eight The Man Who.
- 29:50Speaker 2: Laughs and he looks like the joker, I mean the
- 29:52Speaker 2: actor portraying him here. It's a German expressionist film and
- 29:56Speaker 2: looks at it. I mean, it's very Cabinet of Doctor
- 29:59Speaker 2: Kaligari type vibes by Carl Lemley and the actor portraying
- 30:06Speaker 2: this character is named Conrad Vitz and he has this
- 30:11Speaker 2: rictus grin, and even the same hairline and kind of
- 30:15Speaker 2: puffy hairdoo that the joker ultimately had, not green though,
- 30:20Speaker 2: or wearing makeup joker.
- 30:22Speaker 1: Makeup right, No, he's just he's had an operation that
- 30:27Speaker 1: fixes that rictus smile. Creepy, it's super creepy. I'm into it. Also,
- 30:33Speaker 1: Bill Finger is only looking at these comparisons or inspirations because,
- 30:39Speaker 1: according to him, he talked about the idea of a
- 30:43Speaker 1: clown prince of crime with Bob Kine. Bob made a
- 30:47Speaker 1: sketch that did not look like a joker. It looked
- 30:51Speaker 1: more like a clown, and so he and Bob worked together.
- 30:55Speaker 1: He gave Bob this picture the man who laughs, and
- 30:59Speaker 1: then Bob takes as a as an inspiration or starting
- 31:03Speaker 1: point of reference is the word we'd use in art,
- 31:06Speaker 1: and he starts working over the face. He says, okay,
- 31:10Speaker 1: he'll be a little bit clown like so, white face,
- 31:13Speaker 1: red lips, green hair, but not all the way clown.
- 31:16Speaker 1: You know, he has a regular.
- 31:18Speaker 2: Nose exactly, no, exactly, not the Hong Kong knows of
- 31:23Speaker 2: classic circus clowns. Finger has this kind of scrap book idea,
- 31:29Speaker 2: you know, little black book situation full of random facts,
- 31:32Speaker 2: newspaper clippings, and notes that he could use in future
- 31:35Speaker 2: Batman stories. He would ride the bus every day to
- 31:38Speaker 2: get where he was gone and take in the New
- 31:40Speaker 2: York city scapes, which further fueled the inspiration for Gotham.
- 31:45Speaker 2: The Wayne's family's tragic demise and the clashes between Batman
- 31:50Speaker 2: and the underbelly of Gotham were absolutely a product of
- 31:55Speaker 2: this solitary existence that that Finger led.
- 31:59Speaker 1: Exactly, and this state of isolation is Fingers inspiration.
- 32:06Speaker 2: In some ways.
- 32:07Speaker 1: This gives Cain the opportunity to fully put himself in
- 32:12Speaker 1: the limelight. So you know, there are some creative duos
- 32:16Speaker 1: where one maybe Empire of the Sun is a good comparison.
- 32:21Speaker 1: Remember that band from Perth. Two guys, Yeah, dancing kind
- 32:27Speaker 1: of stuff. Yeah, but one guy is very much in
- 32:30Speaker 1: the forefront, right, and he's the he's the big theatrical
- 32:34Speaker 1: draw and they're friends, they're great musicians. They just have
- 32:38Speaker 1: a different, different approach to the public. And that's what
- 32:41Speaker 1: we see with Cain and Finger. Finger is kind of
- 32:45Speaker 1: hiding away and Cain is walking into the limelight and
- 32:49Speaker 1: talking about Batman, right, And it seems that over time
- 32:53Speaker 1: Cain starts to purposely push Finger further into the background, which.
- 33:01Speaker 2: Is kind of the borderline beginning to push him out.
- 33:05Speaker 1: Yeah, it's also ungrateful because Batman wouldn't exist without Finger, right.
- 33:11Speaker 1: He figured out a lot of things that were key
- 33:14Speaker 1: to Batman's success. But Kane was effective with his fans.
- 33:18Speaker 1: He would show up in an expensive suit or get this, folks,
- 33:21Speaker 1: a cowl.
- 33:23Speaker 2: And he uh.
- 33:24Speaker 1: He wrote a self aggrandizing autobiography that kind of reminds
- 33:30Speaker 1: me of the way Edgar Allan Poe would write very
- 33:34Speaker 1: high faluting explanations of his poems like never More and
- 33:39Speaker 1: so on.
- 33:40Speaker 2: It's worth a read if you would know for sure,
- 33:42Speaker 2: I'll check it out.
- 33:44Speaker 1: Apparently, though, he does cross over to the dark side
- 33:47Speaker 1: because Cain's king becomes accused of passing off other people's
- 33:52Speaker 1: oil paintings of Batman as his own birth.
- 33:55Speaker 2: This is again another parallel from the Peluca story. That
- 33:58Speaker 2: guy was taking a lot of credit where credit was
- 34:01Speaker 2: most certainly not due. But you know, his actions ultimately
- 34:06Speaker 2: led to him being in the catbird seat. As far
- 34:08Speaker 2: as you know, the financial successes of Batman as a
- 34:14Speaker 2: piece of intellectual property that would prove to be incredibly valuable.
- 34:20Speaker 2: Andrea puts it that Kane villainously executed deals and negotiations
- 34:25Speaker 2: with the explicit purpose of keeping Finger out of said deals.
- 34:31Speaker 2: Per comic book historian Arlen Schumer. Unfortunately, the deal happened
- 34:36Speaker 2: because Bob Kane had the lawyer father, and Bill Finger
- 34:39Speaker 2: was shy. Bob Kane went in and his father made
- 34:43Speaker 2: sure that his name was on it. That's how Bill
- 34:45Speaker 2: Finger ended up getting shunted away from his co creation. Terrible.
- 34:49Speaker 1: You hate to see it, you know, because so much
- 34:51Speaker 1: of creativity is collaboration. Dassie Comics said, Okay, we'd love this.
- 34:58Speaker 2: We need our own super.
- 35:02Speaker 1: Yeah, we need some more of this, and so they say,
- 35:05Speaker 1: we're going to publish the Batman comics for you, and
- 35:08Speaker 1: Cain make sure that he is the only one who
- 35:12Speaker 1: gets to showcase Batman to DC. He's the guy who
- 35:16Speaker 1: gets to talk with the big execs about this character,
- 35:20Speaker 1: and under the advice of again his father, who is
- 35:22Speaker 1: an attorney, he negotiates sole credit as the creator of
- 35:27Speaker 1: Batman and a percentage of everything DC Comics may license
- 35:33Speaker 1: the character on in the future. This is a gold mine.
- 35:37Speaker 1: Batman works out. Cain amasses ten million dollars throughout his life,
- 35:43Speaker 1: and in the same time, in doing so, he has
- 35:46Speaker 1: sacrificed the guy who made him successful. His former pal
- 35:51Speaker 1: Bill Finger is relegated to obscurity. Cain draws the comics.
- 35:56Speaker 1: He also credits himself as the writer, and Finger is
- 35:59Speaker 1: nothing more than a ghostwriter. Nobody really knew about this,
- 36:04Speaker 1: you know, when they're reading comics at the time, they're
- 36:07Speaker 1: just thinking, this Bill Kane guy. He's a real tour
- 36:10Speaker 1: right in the comic world. And it's not till nineteen
- 36:13Speaker 1: sixty five that Bill Finger gets named as co creator
- 36:18Speaker 1: in something I didn't know existed, a fanzine dedicated to Batman.
- 36:24Speaker 1: So not part of DC, just a guy named Jerry
- 36:27Speaker 1: Bales who loves Batman so much that he makes a
- 36:30Speaker 1: magazine about how he loves Batman. It's a little meta.
- 36:33Speaker 2: It is Matta And just a quick mention, I'm a
- 36:36Speaker 2: big fan of the podcast of the Ringer Network, like
- 36:39Speaker 2: you know, The Big Picture and the Watch And if
- 36:42Speaker 2: you want to get into some Batman deep dives, there's
- 36:46Speaker 2: a podcast called The House of r that has an
- 36:49Speaker 2: episode called literally the Batman Deep Dive, where Joanna Robinson,
- 36:54Speaker 2: who's one of my favorite hosts on the network and
- 36:56Speaker 2: her co host Mal dig deep into the history of
- 37:00Speaker 2: DC comics and Gotham's underbelly.
- 37:04Speaker 1: This is so weird because now you mentioned it, you
- 37:06Speaker 1: inspired me just to check on the fly here on air,
- 37:10Speaker 1: I found a list of multiple Batman podcasts twenty best
- 37:15Speaker 1: Batman podcast. Wow, Holy RSS feed. I didn't know there
- 37:24Speaker 1: were so many out there. Well, that's cool, man, Yeah,
- 37:26Speaker 1: check it out. Let us know what you think. We
- 37:29Speaker 1: know that by the mid nineteen sixties, as more audience
- 37:34Speaker 1: members are learning about the existence of Bill Finger, we
- 37:39Speaker 1: see that he makes a rare appearance in New York City.
- 37:43Speaker 1: Actually people know about him because this notoriously shy guy
- 37:48Speaker 1: does actually show up in public, and that's what inspires
- 37:53Speaker 1: the digging into the story. He's at the New York
- 37:56Speaker 1: City Comic Con and afterwards there's an article in this
- 38:00Speaker 1: Batman fancy called if the Truth Be Known or a
- 38:03Speaker 1: Finger in every plot, and it talks about how we
- 38:07Speaker 1: were misled, how Cain was not the one man army
- 38:11Speaker 1: of Batman, but did indeed have a lot of help
- 38:14Speaker 1: from a guy you've never heard of named Bill Finger.
- 38:17Speaker 2: And Cain responded with his own angry letter condemning Fingers
- 38:22Speaker 2: claim to Batman, stating Bill Finger has given out the
- 38:26Speaker 2: impression that he and not myself created the Batman, as
- 38:30Speaker 2: well as Robin and all the other leading villains and characters.
- 38:33Speaker 2: This statement is fraudulent and entirely untrue. This is myth.
- 38:37Speaker 2: The truth is that Bill Finger is taking credit for
- 38:40Speaker 2: much more than he deserves, and I refute much of
- 38:43Speaker 2: his statements here in print.
- 38:46Speaker 1: Yeah, he says, this is so Poluka. The only proof
- 38:51Speaker 1: I need to back my statement is that if Bill
- 38:54Speaker 1: co authored and conceive the idea, either with me or
- 38:57Speaker 1: before me, then he would most certainly have a byeline
- 39:01Speaker 1: on the strip along with my name. It's been twenty
- 39:05Speaker 1: five years now, and truthfully, times sometimes blurs the memory,
- 39:08Speaker 1: and it's difficult to separate at times, So that I
- 39:12Speaker 1: cannot blame Bill too much. If at times his memory clouds,
- 39:17Speaker 1: I'll say it, I don't you know what I know
- 39:19Speaker 1: A letter writer thirteen or PG. Thirteen But what a dick.
- 39:24Speaker 2: It is a move, for sure, But I just I
- 39:27Speaker 2: do stand by. I do love old school letter feuds.
- 39:31Speaker 2: Oh I love that you don't write like this anymore.
- 39:35Speaker 1: If your insolence is borish and shall not stand and
- 39:39Speaker 1: it shall not. Yes, Okay, there is a big problem
- 39:45Speaker 1: here because that one article shouting out Finger is pretty
- 39:49Speaker 1: much the only voice in the ocean. Yeah, misinformation, and
- 39:53Speaker 1: Finger passes away in obscurity, very much isolated. In nineteen
- 39:58Speaker 1: seventy four, as we mentioned, his heart gives out, Cain
- 40:02Speaker 1: lives long enough to see the box office film adaptations
- 40:08Speaker 1: of Batman.
- 40:10Speaker 2: And it's banging depiction of Gotham City, which, as we know,
- 40:15Speaker 2: you know, very much a product of the imagination of
- 40:20Speaker 2: Finger and his solitary you know, journeys throughout New York
- 40:26Speaker 2: City on the bus.
- 40:27Speaker 1: Oh gosh, what a beautiful image, you know. And I
- 40:30Speaker 1: think we're both fans of being strangers in a strange land.
- 40:34Speaker 1: I just love being out in an unfamiliar place and
- 40:37Speaker 1: soaking it in anyway, for one reason or another, perhaps
- 40:40Speaker 1: he's mellowing with age. Perhaps he sees the massive cinematic
- 40:47Speaker 1: success of Batman. We don't know why, but Cain develops
- 40:52Speaker 1: a guilty conscious of sorts, and he later says, Bill,
- 40:56Speaker 1: Finger and I created the Joker. Bill was the writer.
- 40:59Speaker 1: Jerry Robinson came to me with a playing card of
- 41:01Speaker 1: the Joker. That's the way I sum it up, and
- 41:04Speaker 1: then he shouts out the man who laughs just like
- 41:06Speaker 1: we did. And he's saying this because he wants people
- 41:10Speaker 1: to realize that he and Bill created the Joker, not
- 41:14Speaker 1: this guy Jerry Robinson.
- 41:16Speaker 2: So only now does he give credit where credit to
- 41:18Speaker 2: dude to like get rid of the secret third thing
- 41:22Speaker 2: right exactly.
- 41:24Speaker 1: And he he says that if he could do this
- 41:28Speaker 1: all over again, he would give Bill Finger his due
- 41:32Speaker 1: credit on Batman. And he says, now that my longtime
- 41:36Speaker 1: friend and collaborator is gone, I must admit that Bill
- 41:39Speaker 1: never received the fame and recognition he deserved. He was
- 41:43Speaker 1: an unsung hero. I often tell my wife, if I
- 41:45Speaker 1: could go back fifteen years before he died, I would
- 41:48Speaker 1: like to say, I'll put your name on it now.
- 41:51Speaker 1: You deserve it.
- 41:52Speaker 2: I'm big of you. Yeah, I will.
- 41:54Speaker 1: Not million dollars, Yeah, not a pauper's great, but certainly
- 42:00Speaker 1: I mean, come on, yeah, not terrible.
- 42:03Speaker 2: But you know, DC did eventually follow suit. They refused
- 42:07Speaker 2: for a long time to credit Finger, but in twenty twelve,
- 42:10Speaker 2: after the release of a biographical graphic novel Bill the
- 42:14Speaker 2: Boy Wonder about Fingers life by a French author Mark
- 42:19Speaker 2: Tyler and Nobleman. Also a Hulu documentary that was released
- 42:23Speaker 2: based on Nobleman's book. DC finally gave in and decided
- 42:27Speaker 2: to give credit to Finger as co creator to Batman.
- 42:30Speaker 2: After seventy six years, Fingers name does finally appear on
- 42:34Speaker 2: the cover of every Batman comics issue in future TV
- 42:37Speaker 2: and film adaptations that would be released from that point on.
- 42:40Speaker 2: So a bit of a happy ending there, if not
- 42:43Speaker 2: in dude's lifetime.
- 42:44Speaker 1: Yeah, which happens so often in the creative arts. You know,
- 42:49Speaker 1: we have a joke in the world of writers, how
- 42:53Speaker 1: do you become a successful writer?
- 42:56Speaker 2: Diem h. Yeah. Unfortunately it is the same with a
- 42:59Speaker 2: lot times with painters, and you know, many brilliant people
- 43:04Speaker 2: who have not who are not appreciated in their lifetime.
- 43:06Speaker 2: But you know, so it goes. In twenty seventeen, Finger
- 43:10Speaker 2: is honored with a street being named after him in
- 43:13Speaker 2: New York City at easton one hundred and ninety second
- 43:15Speaker 2: Street Way uptown between Grand Concourse and Valentine Avenue was
- 43:20Speaker 2: renamed Bill Finger Way.
- 43:23Speaker 1: Which here's what I like about this, that is such
- 43:26Speaker 1: an interesting name for the Bronx. Is the Bronx that
- 43:30Speaker 1: you will you would see that street name and then
- 43:33Speaker 1: if you look it up you will learn the hidden
- 43:36Speaker 1: history of Batman.
- 43:37Speaker 2: That's true.
- 43:38Speaker 1: That's kind of cool. I'm down with that. No, that's cool.
- 43:40Speaker 2: I like it when they named streets after creative people,
- 43:42Speaker 2: Like there's the Beastie Boys. I want to say, got
- 43:45Speaker 2: a street in New York named after them recently, So
- 43:48Speaker 2: there you go. Fingers name, first reported by the South
- 43:52Speaker 2: Bronx blog Welcome to the Bronx, appears blocks from Poe Park,
- 43:58Speaker 2: where Canaan Finger would sometimes hang out to talk about
- 44:01Speaker 2: Dark Knight business and mythos.
- 44:04Speaker 1: Oh and this gives us some breaking news. This happened
- 44:08Speaker 1: just yesterday week recording on Thursday, July tenth. But Jack Kirby,
- 44:14Speaker 1: the legendary creator for Marvel, he just had two streets
- 44:18Speaker 1: named after him.
- 44:19Speaker 2: Oh, like this week.
- 44:22Speaker 1: Maybe that's because the Fantastic four film is coming out soon.
- 44:25Speaker 2: I think that must be true. Man, there is an
- 44:27Speaker 2: origin story Fantastic form would be coming out that looks
- 44:30Speaker 2: like a lot of fun. Agreed, And we hope you've.
- 44:33Speaker 1: Had a lot of fun traveling down this road with
- 44:37Speaker 1: us through the hidden history of Gotham and Batman and
- 44:40Speaker 1: the Man.
- 44:41Speaker 2: Who laughs big.
- 44:42Speaker 1: Thanks to our super producer Max Williams, who will be
- 44:46Speaker 1: returning tat It Up Big. Thanks to our guest superproducer
- 44:49Speaker 1: Dylan the Chainsaw Fagan, who Else, who Else?
- 44:52Speaker 2: Oh Boy, Chris Frasciotas Eve, Jeff cots Here in Spirit,
- 44:55Speaker 2: Jonathan Strick on the Quistar, aj Mohammas, Jacob's The Puzzler.
- 45:00Speaker 1: And of course our dear rude Dudes of Ridiculous Crime.
- 45:03Speaker 1: If you dig us, you'll dig them. Join us for
- 45:07Speaker 1: our classic coming out this weekend, as well as our
- 45:11Speaker 1: further adventures in the weeks and days to come.
- 45:16Speaker 2: We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
- 45:26Speaker 2: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
- 45:29Speaker 2: to your favorite shows.