"10 Real Life Heroes Who Helped Bill Finger Get Credit" (Screen Rant)

On Screen Rant, Tim Davis has posted an unranked list of people who helped Batman co-creator Bill Finger receive official credit in 2015 (41 years after Bill died and 76 years after Batman debuted). 

The list:

11. (honorable mention) Bob Kane (with a nod to Thomas Andrae); mention is fine, honorable doesn't track

10. the one I live with (see below)

 9. Jerry Bails

 8. Michael Uslan

 7. Jerry Robinson/Carmine Infantino

 6. Lyn Simmons

 5. Charles Sinclair

 4. Travis Langley

 3. Alethia Mariotta

 2. Fred Finger

 1. Athena Finger

Lyn Simmons (Bill Finger's second wife), 1922-2018

One of the last of Bill Finger's generation who knew him personally has left us: his second wife, Lyn (originally Edith) Simmons. On 5/2/18, she passed away at age 95.

Lyn in the 1960s

She was a mother, a grandmother, an artist, an advocate, and other things I don't know about. To me, she was first and foremost a critical living link to an important and emotional untold story.

When I started my Finger research in 2006, we knew Bill had been married…to a woman named Portia. We did not know that Bill and Portia divorced and that Bill remarried Lyn later in life. Bill's second wife was the second person I found in my research (after Charles Sinclair, Bill's longtime writing partner, who died in November 2017 at age 93). 

Surprisingly, I was the first author to reach out to Lyn about Bill.

But I was not the first writer.

While making the documentary Batman & Bill, I was asked who the heroes of the Bill Finger story are. One of the first who came to mind was Lyn. In 1989, in the run-up to Tim Burton's film Batman, Lyn almost single-handedly lobbied Warner Bros. to include Bill's name in the credits. She apparently also contacted some journalists.

As that paper trail shows, her son Steve helped and she got close…but was ultimately unsuccessful. That made it no less inspirational because Lyn did it solely for Bill. She wanted no money and offered to sign a waiver to that effect. 

What makes this even more admirable: by the time Bill died in 1974, Lyn was his ex-wife. They'd met in 1954, married in 1968 (no photos were taken, alas), and divorced in 1971. Another of Lyn's three children, Andrew, had a serious car accident in California at age 22; Lyn decided to move there to help take care of him but Bill did not want to go. (In fact, he was averse to flying and never went on a plane in his life.) Perhaps there were other factors contributing to their separation, but Lyn told me that she and Bill stayed in touch, regularly speaking on the phone. Had he lived, she felt they would've gotten back together. Lyn stayed to help her son for 12 years.

Lyn's oldest child, Steve, and her youngest, Eve, proved invaluable in my research. 

I found Lyn via Eve via her high school in Great Neck, NY. (The person I spoke with there said they are not at liberty to provide information about their graduates, but when I said this was about the secret history of Batman, he made an exception.) I left messages on the answering machines of more than one Eve or E. Simmons in New York and by chance one of them was the one I needed—and by chance she took the time to call me back. I asked what she remembered about what her mom told her about Bill, and she shared a recollection or two. Then she said "Why don't you ask her yourself?" I said "Oh, I didn't think she was still alive!"

Lyn and I first spoke almost immediately after, on 6/23/06. She was a delight from start to finish, each time we spoke. And though I did not need further motivation to pursue this story, Lyn sure infused me with a greater sense of urgency (and poignancy).

again in the '60s

She told me that Steve had a great photo of Bill that Steve had used in a birthday slide show for Lyn, so I emailed Steve to ask if he could email me a scan. He kindly said he'd first have to look for it. Seven months later, he found it. I was so excited that I emailed him several questions including "Where do you live?" Turns out Steve lived in…the exact same town as I did at the time. Meaning the photo was five minutes away from me the whole time.

That photo is of one of the clearest (and definitely the quirkiest) of the 12 "new" Bill Finger photos I uncovered: Bill fertilizing the lawn at Lyn's house in Roslyn, NY—topless (the photo is in Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman). Lyn told me "One of my neighbors objected to Bill not having a shirt on even though the temperature was about 100 degrees. We ignored [that person]."

In that first talk, Lyn expressed gratitude that I was doing this. I told her I'd like to get Bill a proper burial; she didn't know he didn't have a headstone. She later said she'd like to cover the cost for one.

A few days later, in our second talk, she said she'd found her Bill file, which included a letter she'd written him (most likely in the early '70s) in which she said she was on her third Scotch. "If you publish the book," she said, "please change it to 'second.'" (No mention of alcohol made it into the final draft of the picture book aimed at young readers.)

On 7/30/06, she emailed "How old are you, Marc? I'm just curious because you're involved now with the 80s generation [meaning people in their eighties] and you seem to be handling it all very well." It wasn't hard, Lyn. Certainly not with you.

Lyn remembered Bill's scarab paperweight that Charles had given me. She had bought it for Bill (or possibly the other way around) at a New York museum gift shop.

Thanks to Lyn, we learned Bill's birth name was Milton, which enabled me to find his high school yearbook photo, the earliest known Bill Finger photo in existence. Knowing his given name also confirmed that his family does indeed appear in the census. At first I missed them because I was looking for a Bill (not Milton) Finger but saw none. And in confirming which census listings were his, I discovered that he had not one but two sisters, Emily and Gilda. 

For all Lyn knew, there were two big things she did not know. One: Bill had siblings. It appears he never told her. Two: Bill had a granddaughter. But that makes more sense as Athena was born two years after Bill died.

In 1974, after Lyn had not heard from Bill when she expected to, she asked Charles (whom she called Charlie) to look in on him. The way Charles found Bill dead is devastatingly recreated in the documentary. Charles asked Lyn if she was psychic.

I met in Lyn in person for the first time on 6/7/07, at a Starbucks. She said she hoped she'd still be alive when my book came out. (At that point, I had not even sold it—and wouldn't for three more years.) We filmed her twice for the documentary—first in 2008 (for an attempt that would implode), next in 2016. Clips from both interviews are in the finished film and the difference in Lyn in those eight years is striking.

2008

Bill the Boy Wonder is dedicated to three people: Athena, Charles, and Lyn. I called her the "heart" of Bill Finger. She was also the heart of my book, and I am one of many who will miss her.

2014, the last time I saw Lyn in person

Thank you, Lyn. It took 25 years longer than you had hoped, but mission accomplished.

The debt owed to Charles Sinclair and Lyn Simmons

When researching Bill Finger for what became Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, the first two people I found who had not been interviewed before on the subject were the two most important: his longtime friend and sometime writing partner Charles Sinclair and his previously-unknown-to-comics-historians second wife Lyn Simmons.

I tracked down both in mid-2006, when Charles was 82 and Lyn was 84.

Ten years later, both are still with us.

And both were invaluable in fleshing out what we know about Bill.

Prior to my interviews with Charles and Lyn, and aside from an interview with Bill's only child, Fred, that was published in Comics Interview #31 (1986) and reprinted in Alter Ego: The Comic Book Artist Collection (2001), all of what we knew about Bill came from people he worked with. Talking to people who knew him outside of work was especially helpful in getting a sense of his personality, his motivation, his demons.

The most notable details we learned courtesy of Charles:

• how and where Bill died
• Bill's scarab paperweight (which I now proudly own)
• details about Bill's legendary gimmick books (including what kind of notebooks they were and examples of entries)
• how Bill got to write for Batman (1966 TV show)
• Lyn! (Charles was the one who told me about Bill's "lady friend" who, it turns out, was more precisely his second wife)

The most notable details we learned courtesy of Lyn:

• Bill's birth name Milton, which led to his yearbook photo, which is the earliest known photo in existence
• how she almost got Bill's name in the credits of Batman (1989 movie)
• one of the clearest (and quirkiest) of the 12 new Bill photos I uncovered

Now you know why the dedication of the book is "To Charles, Lyn, and Athena, the soul, heart, and hope of Bill Finger."

Me with Charles and Lyn in 2008:

Big Bill Finger weekend: play and dedications

On 6/28/14, I had the honor of seeing the premiere of Fathers of the Dark Knight, which is, I believe, the first play ever about Bill Finger (and the other guy).

Writer/direction Roberto Williams threw the passion of many men into the production, and it showed.

Adding to the special nature of the proceedings: Bill’s granddaughter Athena and great-grandson Ben were in attendance (along with Athena’s mom/Fred’s ex-wife Bonnie). Roberto invited Athena to say a few words before curtain:

What’s more, the venue would have been no stranger to Bill. The play was staged at his alma mater, DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. 

The seats in the auditorium look old enough to date back to the early 1930s. Maybe Bill had once sat in the same seat I did.

The last time I had been at DWC was in 2006; I’d gone there to soak up the atmosphere but mainly to try to find his yearbook photo—this before I knew that, in high school, his name was Milton Finger. (So I didn’t find the photo…on that expedition. But later I did.)

Congrats to Roberto, the spot-on cast, and the hard-working crew on an unprecedented show. When Bill (played by Ezekiel Jackson) says “You don’t call me Bill the Boy Wonder for nothing!” I was, I admit, a few degrees hotter than proud.

The cast with Athena.

 The cast doing the now-ubiquitous “Oscar selfie.” 

 Finger family portrait (Ben, Athena, Ezekiel). 

 Bill and me.

The next day, Athena, Ben, professor/Bill advocate Travis Langley, and I had Brooklyn brunch with Charles Sinclair and his wife Gayle.

After, Charles gave Athena one of only three possessions of Bill’s that he had: a sculpture Bill made of his first wife Portia in an art class in the early 1950s. 

The other two items Charles inherited from Bill: a paperweight (which he gave to me in 2006) and a desk (the one slightly visible behind them in the photo above and more visible here).

Put another way: seven years after I found both Charles and Bill’s second wife Lyn and six years after I found Athena—the Dynamic Trio to whom I dedicated Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman—the three finally met...in twos. 

By chance, the week before the play, I saw Lyn for the first time in six years. The day before the play, Athena met Lyn. The day after the play, Athena met Charles. Lyn and Charles have met but have not seen each other in around 50 years. Given that Lyn and Charles are both over 90 and live in the New York area while Athena lives in Florida, the prospect of getting all three in the same room is slim.

Oh, zooming in on the banner outside DeWitt Clinton:

Change the world indeed.

Visiting Bill Finger’s second wife (age 91)

On 6/18/14, I visited Lyn Simmons, Bill Finger’s second wife, for the first time since 2008.

In 2008, she was herself visiting. She lived in California and was in Connecticut to see her son Steve and her grandchildren. (Ironically, it turned out that Steve and I lived in the same town.)

She has since relocated to the East Coast.

I was happy to spot Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman on her shelf. Can you?

Second chance:

And I was similarly happy to add the world’s second Bill Finger book to her collection, courtesy of its kind author, David Hernando.

Lyn is one of the last surviving people who knew Bill well. For me, part of her legacy is that of a fighter. She remains vitally important—and her mind remains vital, too. But because she is not comfortable sitting up for long, the visit had to be short. I am just glad I had chance to see her at all.

Lyn and me in 2008: 

 

Lyn and me in 2014:

Bill Finger's second wife in 1960

Bill married his second wife, Lyn Simmons, in 1968. Since I was the first ever to interview Lyn about Bill, she was a wonderfully untapped resource in my research for Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman...though she had only one picture of Bill, and not a good one. (She said they were not photo people.)

It was only recently when I realized that in my mad dash to dig up more photos of Bill, I had not seen any photos of Lyn from that time.

So I asked her son Steve, who had provided me with one of the best previously unpublished photos of Bill (which you can see in the book’s author’s note); he kindly sent me these photos of his mom:

They are circa 1960. 

Here is Lyn in 2008.

Happy birthday, Lyn.

Bill Finger’s family tree

Here is a family tree for Bill Finger, uncredited co-creator of Batman and star of Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman. Now in convenient list format! (Translation: I don't know how to make a family tree graphic.)

Names in blue were deceased before I started my research.

Names in red are people I spoke with.

Names in black are people I have not found...yet.

• Louis Finger (Bill’s father; born 10/20/1890 in Austria, though one source says Russia and another says Poland; died 2/7/1961 in the Bronx)
• Rosa Rosenblatt (Bill’s biological mother; birth/death currently unknown)
• Tessie Stromberg (Bill’s stepmother; born 12/28/1892 in New York; died 3/28/1961 in the Bronx)
• Milton Finger (changed to “Bill” after high school; born 2/8/1914 in Denver, CO; died 1/18/1974 in Manhattan)
• Emily (Bill’s half-sister or possibly cousin; born 10/3/1918 in New York, died 9/27/2018 in Florida)
• Gilda (Bill’s half-sister or possibly cousin; born circa 1920 in New York)
• Portia Finger (Bill’s first wife; born Ethel Epstein 4/21/1920 in Jersey City, NJ; died 1/2/1990 in Manhattan)
• Irene Flam (Portia’s twin sister; Bill’s sister-in-law; died 1993)
• Judy Flam (Bill’s niece)
• Eric Flam (Bill’s nephew)
• Frederic Finger (commonly called Freddie or Fred; Bill’s only known child; born 12/26/1948 in Manhattan; died 2/15/1992 in Brooklyn)
• Edith (later Lyn) Simmons (Bill’s second wife, 1960s; born 10/30/1922, died 5/2/2018 in New York)
• Bonnie Burrell (Fred’s wife, 1970s; died 2/2/2019 in Massachusetts)
• Charles Shaheen (Fred’s roommate and inheritor of Batman royalties after Fred’s death; died 2002 in Manteo, NC)
• Jesse Maloney (acquaintance of Charles Shaheen’s; after Charles’s death, Jesse claimed to be Fred’s brother and received Batman royalties from 2002-2007)
• Athena Finger (Fred’s only child and Bill’s only known grandchild; born 1976)
• Benjamin Cruz (Athena’s only child; born 2002)

The three coincidences of Steve

Before I began researching Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, it was not known among comics people that Bill Finger had married a second time (after divorcing Portia).

I found his second wife, Lyn Simmons, in June 2006. She had three children. One is named Steve.

Oddly, Lyn had only one photo of Bill—and not a good one.

Steve, however, had a great one. Only he didn’t know where it was. That was July 2006. He found it…in March 2007.

But it was worth the wait.

The photo is included in the author’s note of Bill the Boy Wonder. It was probably the clearest (and certainly the quirkiest) of the eleven “new” photos I found.

Adding to this excitement, three coincidences surrounded Steve:

• Lyn (who was living in California at the time) had been visiting on the East Coast (where I live) and had flown home the day I found her.
• I lived in Connecticut at the time…specifically, as it turned out, in the same town as Steve. In other words, the best photo of Bill Finger I uncovered during a many-month search was five minutes from me the entire time.
• Steve was a businessman, but he had published several children’s books…with Charlesbridge, the publisher who would go on to acquire Bill the Boy Wonder in 2010.

Bill Finger’s sole official credit in his lifetime...on Superman?

Only once in his lifetime, Bill Finger received a “written by” credit on a first-run Batman story, and it wasn’t a comic book.

And though he wrote Superman stories, too (he created Lana Lang!), same deal—one credit, in TV:

“Lava Men” is an episode of The New Adventures of Superman, a Filmation series of animated shorts that debuted in 1966.

Though there is currently almost no trace online that Bill wrote for this series, in 2006, I did follow a path to determine that this was the case. But I didn’t look for the visual proof until now.

Thank you to Bill Davis of Toronto for prompting me to revisit this.

Adios, Señor Superhombre.

Bonus:

Excerpts from emails with Bill’s second wife Lyn Simmons, and one other, in figuring this out:

From: Marc Tyler Nobleman
To: Lyn Simmons
Sent: Saturday, October 14, 2006 9:02 AM
Subject: Hi Lyn - Superman movie

You said they called Bill to ask him to come to California to write a script for the Superman movie. I've talked with a few people who were involved with the film and they don't remember that. Are you sure?

There was another writer named Alfred Bester who was friends with Bill who was definitely asked—there are written accounts online. Did you know Alfred? Is it possible you're confusing the two? Can you remember any more details?

From: Lyn Simmons
Sent: Saturday, October 14, 2006 4:25 PM

good to hear from you marc. bester's name rings a bell but don't think i ever met him. i'm pretty sure that bill received invitation to ca to write superman films. it's so long ago and i could be mistaken but I don't think so. in any event he never went. he had anxiety about flying and about leaving nyc.

bill may never have told his fellow writers about ca because he didn't want to explain why he wasn't going.

From: Pierre Spengler
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2006 1:05 PM

We purchased the rights in november 1974 and therefore started hunting for writer in the beginning of 1975. Very soon thereafter we engaged Mario Puzo. Therefore we never approached Bill Finger.

From: Lyn Simmons
Date: Tuesday, December 19, 2006 10:18 AM

i believe he was asked to come out to ca in the late 60s. i'm pretty sure it was superman. maybe they wanted him out there for ideas or stories a year or so before he died which i think was in '74. but perhaps it was for cartoons.

Steve Simmons previously unpublished interview, 7/7/06

Steve Simmons is the son of Lyn Simmons, who was Bill Finger’s companion in the 1960s and his second wife from 1968 to 1971.

Steve Simmons

What was your relationship with Bill Finger?

I knew him when I was in high school, growing up. He married my mother, I was probably in 12th grade, maybe a freshman in college. I knew him around the house. He would talk about how he was very proud of his work on the various comic books he worked on. I think he not only did work on the storyline, which he did an impressive amount with, [but] also I think I remember him saying was responsible for how Batman looked, like maybe his cape, and how the mask covered Batman’s face? I think he also talked about doing something with the Batmobile, maybe he came up with that idea, too. … He was very proud of his work.

I remember him bringing Batman and other comics home. We had a whole stack of comic books at the house which would probably be very valuable today but have since been lost. He would have us read them and react to them. As kids, we were, of course, thrilled.

He was a man with a great sense of humor. He was very smart. He was very worldly to a young kid. He liked opera and classical music and reading the New York Times and travel. He was a sharp dresser, I’d say, very nattily dressed. [Irwin Hasen also described Bill with the ten-dollar word “nattily.”]

You were how old when you met him?

I was probably thirteen maybe. [this would’ve been 1959]

Do you remember Freddie?

Yes.

How old was he in relation to you?

I think he was a little older than me. I could be wrong about that. I met Freddie maybe once or twice. I really never knew him very well. … [Bill] was everything from showing me how to tie a tie to talking about college. He also wrote for television. When I went to California with my real father (Bill, of course, was stepfather), [he said] I should just drop by one of the Hollywood studios on his behalf just to say hi.

Did you consider him your stepfather?

It wasn’t the type of thing where he was a stepfather from when I was very young. It was more a late-blooming thing. I think they married when I was probably a freshman in college.

Your mom said ‘68.

Then it was even later. Then it was when I was a junior or senior in college. [Steve graduated Cornell in ‘68]

Did you and your siblings have a sense of his significance in the comic industry at the time?

I would say we didn’t. And I think also the comic industry as a whole and the people who created it are now looked upon very very differently than they were at that day. I also can remember calling Warner Bros. when the first Batman—my mom wanted me to do this—first Batman movie came out to try and see if we could get Bill credit. I talked to the people there. They acknowledged Bill was instrumental but they weren’t willing to put—for legal reasons—didn’t want to give him credit on the film. I told them I’m not looking for money, I’ll sign a release, but they didn’t want to do it.

You wouldn’t happen to have anything left of Bill’s? Photos, mementos, letters?

I may have a photo. Let me take a look. … [He] talked about how he worked on other characters. I think on Superman, he was pretty instrumental in some of the stuff there. He told me that some of the things Superman is known for he helped create. Was there something called the Green Hornet?
 
Green Lantern. He co-created him.

Yes, he did that, too. He probably did a lot that Bob Kane took credit for, quite frankly. I don’t think he was paid as much as he should have.

Did he ever talk to you about that? That he was cheated?

I think he once said something to the effect that Bob Kane took more credit than he should have. Put it this way, Bob Kane was getting credit, he wasn’t. Something to that effect. I never heard him talking about not making enough money. Maybe once I did, that Kane got most of the money.

Do you remember him getting asked to write the Superman movie script?

Vaguely. I remember we’d all sit in front of the TV set and watch the television stuff he would write. We’d all be very proud when his name came on at the end. My mom was a friend of Reggie Rose, too, so Bill got to know Reggie. [Rose wrote 12 Angry Men]

You remember nothing more specific about the Superman script?

I do not but I believe that did happen. He worked very hard on this stuff and probably bounced stuff off my mother. My mother was very creative, still is. She’s a great artist. Always has been an artist. My guess is that during all those years Bill would—not all the time—would bounce ideas for comics off of my mother. So in some small way, I can’t give you chapter and verse, I’m sure she contributed a little bit to all of this.

She did say that he would run things by her.

I’m absolutely positive that happened. Another thing I remember is Bill showing me his muscles. He worked out. He was a short, not short short, but relatively short guy. But his muscles, I’d always brag to my friends about how strong his muscles are. He’d make a muscle and me and my young friends would all go—this was when we were 13 or 12—we’d all go feel his muscle.

Do you know why he didn’t serve in the war? Because of his heart?

There was something but I just don’t know. Sorry.

He was not overweight toward the end of his life?

Not that, no. Well, he certainly wasn’t when I saw him in 1970. He was never overweight that I saw. Always very muscular. 

Do you remember hearing about his death?

I do. I remember once he had a heart attack. I visited him in the hospital and he told me he was very touched by that.

When was that?

Probably 1970ish, something like that. I probably knew him from the late ‘50s through [his death in] ‘74.

Was that the last time you saw him?

Probably whenever that heart attack was when I visited him in the hospital.

Was he working [on scripts] in the hospital?

When I saw him he wasn’t.

Lyn Simmons previously unpublished interview, 2006; part 3 of 3

Lyn was Bill Finger’s companion in the 1960s and his second wife from 1968 to 1971. She was unknown to the comics world before I discovered her.

I interviewed her for Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman and am now posting many of those previously unpublished interviews.

Part 1. 

Part 2.

Did you happen to know his parents’ names?

No. I know he didn’t talk to them at all.

Were they still alive when you guys met?

Yes. And I used to urge him to. I said for god’s sake, you’re a grown man now. Talk to them. But he just couldn’t. Whatever went wrong there, it couldn’t be made right.

Do you remember him telling you that one or both of them had passed away?

No.

So he wouldn’t have gone to the funerals?

Well, they were alive up until I moved to California. [actually, they died in 1961, within two months of each other]

But you never met them or he never talked to them in your presence?

No.

Why was he not in touch with them?

I don't know. Something was wrong with the relationship. Very wrong. And he just would have nothing to do with them.

Do you have any ideas where I can find out what their names were?

I have no idea where you could find that out. I’m bad at this sort of thing. I think his parents lived in Brooklyn. When we met, Bill was my second husband and I was his second wife. We were both grown up. And we just had a wonderful time together. We had arguments and fights but we always got together. I think about him still. It was for the most part a wonderful relationship.

What was Bill’s work schedule like? His writing schedule?

He worked a lot at night. Sometimes all night. When he worked, he worked very hard and steadily at it. But he didn’t always work very hard. He did miss deadlines. But they knew he was a very good writer for them and they gave the work.

Would he tell you, “Tomorrow’s a deadline and I’m not going to make it”?

Yeah, he would.

What was his attitude?

He would say I have a deadline and I have to meet it. He would be serious about it. He was very serious about his work, but he just had certain weaknesses.

When he was not making deadlines, was he working on the story but just finishing in time, or was he completely procrastinating or distracted?

Both.

So when he was not working, what was he doing instead?

I don't know because if I knew about it, I would be yelling at him.

Did he still golf when you knew him?

No, he didn’t play golf when I knew him.

He used to play earlier. He used to play when he was still in the Bronx.

Maybe that’s where his parents lived, in the Bronx?

They did originally. Have you ever been interviewed about Bill before?

No, I haven’t, although I was in touch with Hollywood at one point because Bob Kane, something had happened with Bob Kane and Batman and I wanted to get Bill in on it. Bill was not alive.

Was this the first movie [1989]?

Maybe so. And they got very interested and then I said I was his wife, then they found I was divorced and that ended it.

So you wanted to try to get him some—

I wanted to get him the notice that he should’ve gotten as part of this. [how close she got]

Did you start that or did somebody contact you to help do that?

I don’t recall. Somebody may have contacted me.

Did you know Bob Kane?

I met him once, I think, at some function.

What was Bill’s opinion of him?

He never talked much about him.

Who were his friends in the comic book industry that you also knew?

Jerry somebody.

Robinson.

Maybe. He knew a lot of science fiction writers. We were both into science fiction. When 2001 came out, we went crazy. We went and got tickets. I don’t remember the names, I’m sorry.

Did he have any working quirks? Certain lucky charm on his desk?

No, he didn’t. When he wrote, he wrote well. I think he went over things a lot. He consulted with the artist.

Do you remember that he appeared at a comic convention in 1965 in New York?

No I don’t. He wouldn’t be good on panels.

Why not?

He wasn’t a good spontaneous speaker. He wasn’t real sure of himself. He could be wonderful personally and in familiar—with friends. But how was he on the panel?

I only have the transcript. [said he was jovial, had sense of humor, not most talkative of the four; I have since gotten the audio recording of the panel]

No. [she asked who other three were, she didn’t know them]

[I said Bill came late and they started without him, she laughed, “That would be Bill.”]

What did he look like?

Very attractive to women. He just had a good face. Sort of bald, was losing his hair. He had thick eyebrows. He had a very broad mouth, very nice mouth. He had lines down his cheeks that were very attractive.

Around his mouth, right?

Yes. He always wore Brooks Brothers shirts. He dressed well.

Anecdotes in relation to his work?

No. He was working, I was working. I was an advertising manager for a company for a lot of years. And Bill worked. We got together when we weren’t working. I slept over in the Village, he slept over—my children would stay with their father on weekends so that’s when Bill would stay over.

[asked about talking to her children, said she’s sure they’ll be happy to talk to me]

Do you think that they realize how important Bill was to comics?

No. They know that he did a lot with Batman. They knew that he had a good reputation. But they were too young.

[told her that since the ‘80s he’s become a legend, one of the most revered but tragic figures in comics, Lyn said that’s wonderful, she’s going to cry, she goes into comic book store every so often to see if there’s anything about Bill Finger, employees thrilled when she says she was married to Bill Finger

says she married about four years after Bill died and that was mistake, knew first husband since 13, his sister was her best friend, married and had three children, grew apart, Bill was my main love, this is very good what you’re doing]

You sound very, very nice. It would be nice to meet you sometime. [we eventually did]

[she asked me to think up more questions]

7/5/06

When did Bill and Portia divorce?

Probably the year before [Bill and I got married]. He didn’t get divorced from her for quite a while, which was okay with me because I was getting alimony and child support from my first husband and Bill didn’t have much money. But finally he got his divorce a year or two before we got married.

What do you remember about the Army Pictorial Center?

He wrote training films for them. And he hated it.

Was he still working in comics at the time?

Yes he was.

That was a desk job—he’d go every day?

I’m not sure he went every day. He was living with me on the island. I forget. I don’t think he went every day. Maybe he did. I’m not sure.

Let’s get back to the Superman script story you mentioned.

They asked him to come out to California to write the scripts [sic]. I don’t know if he would have had a writing partner. But he didn’t go.

They called him to do that?

Yeah, he was on the phone with them and they wrote him.

The money wasn’t enough of a motivation?

Oh no. I’m sure it would’ve been a lot of money. But money didn’t motivate Bill that way.

When was that?

It was in the ‘60s. The late ‘60s, I would say. While we were living together. [mentions how he had to take two trains to work] …big change for him to move out to Long Island. When we got married he moved out to Long Island.

Do you remember why he was not drafted? 4F?

Was he 4F?

That’s what I read.

He may have had heart trouble. I know he did have it early on. Something physical, I’m sure. [I later acquired his military record]

Do you remember Freddie being the same age as any of your kids?

When he came over he was very young. Like five or six. Maybe seven. Below ten.

When he came over where?

Great Neck, with Bill. Bill would bring him over to visit and be with my kids. He was overweight and he was very unfriendly, but he was young.

In Great Neck or Roslyn?

This was in my house in Roslyn. I lived there from 1952…no, 1950 to 1964, when I sold it and moved to Great Neck.

[tape cuts out (though we were nearly done anyway); she said she’d like to pay for Bill’s tombstone, and knows her son Steve would want to pay for all of it, she also wants involvement with what’s written on it]

Lyn Simmons previously unpublished interview, 2006; part 2 of 3

Lyn was Bill Finger’s companion in the 1960s and his second wife from 1968 to 1971. She was unknown to the comics world before I discovered her.

I interviewed her for Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman and am now posting many of those previously unpublished interviews. 

Part 1.

6/25/06

[first few words cut off but she was saying that she told her son Andrew] that you were going to give Bill the credit that he never got and deserved and Andy said that was great, ‘cause Bill was wonderful to my children.

When did you and Bill marry?

We married quite late, actually. We were together for, I don’t know, 13 years and then we married in 1968.

In Great Neck?

Yes. Then I came out here because of my son and Bill and I got divorced. But we were on the phone all the time and I feel that had he lived, we would’ve gotten together again.

When did you move out there and get divorced?

I moved out in ‘71 and that’s when I got divorced. He had a lot of problem about my moving out. I don’t think you need to know about that.

After you divorced, did he move back into Manhattan?

Yes.

[asked about the article Lyn’s daughter Eve mentioned, she’ll send]

Did you know [Bill’s son] Freddie?

Yes I did. Freddie when he was little used to come out and visit in Roslyn. I had a house in Roslyn, Long Island. That’s where Bill moved when we were married. He was a sort of disturbed young boy.

His wife, I never met her, but I understand she was obese. Bill was rather short and slim and she had a lot of gay friends. I think they may have influenced Fred quite a bit. Bill was pretty upset about that. Bill had faults. He was not too good on the alimony. He was not too good with his deadlines. But he was the kindest man in the world, really. It just beset (?) by his own certain weaknesses. When I first met him and he came out to the house with a whole bunch of comic books, my kids went crazy. He had the early, not the Batman, the ones before that that he was writing. I forget the publisher but the Green Lantern. Bill had first editions that he was selling very happily for five or ten dollars and feeling he was making quite a profit. They probably sell for a couple thousand now.

Some of them would sell for five figures, if they’re in good condition.

Oh my god.

They’re very valuable. You know what else would go for a lot of money? Any memento from the Golden Age. So if Bill had any notes, I know that a lot of that stuff was thrown away, but all that stuff is highly collectible now.

Oh my god. I don’t have any of that.

Do you happen to remember Fred’s middle name?

His real name, his first name was Milton, and he hated that. He changed it to William. And everybody knew him by Bill.

Oh, you’re talking about Bill?

Whose middle name?

Freddie’s.

No, I don’t know.

And Bill’s real first name was Milton?

Yes, but don’t put that in. He didn’t like it. [she later gave permission]

So he was born as Milton William Finger?

No, he just changed it to William. I don’t know whether William was his middle name or he just changed it to William.

As long as anyone knew him, he was Bill.

Yes.

Did he have a middle name?

I don’t know.

[said I’m hoping to find some of his Freddie’s friends]

You haven’t found out where he is?

Well, he’s deceased. He passed away in the late ‘90s.

He died?

Yeah, he died.

Oh my lord. I knew nothing about him after I came out to California. … Was he married?

No, I believe he was gay and I heard he died of AIDS.

[asked if she might have any documents that would show Bill’s middle name]

No. If he had one. I didn’t have a middle name. I don’t think Bill did. We didn’t give middle names in those days. Maybe Freddie had one, I don’t know.

Bill was not in WWII?

No, he wasn’t.

Did he not get drafted?

I guess he didn’t. He didn’t get drafted. He had some problems, maybe some problems, I don’t know what it was. He never talked about it. One thing I wanted to tell you about. Bill and I were on the phone a lot in the years before he died and I was out here. One day I called him and he didn’t answer. I just had a feeling to call him late at night and there was no answer. I thought that’s very strange because he’s always in late at night. So next morning I phoned his friend Charlie who lived in the same building as Bill in New York. And I said take a look in at Bill, see if he’s okay, ‘cause I called last night, he wasn’t there. So Charlie looked in and a little while later he called me back. He said oh my god, you must be psychic, Bill is dead. He had died in his sleep on the couch sometime that night. That was quite amazing and I cried quite a bit.

So Charlie was the one who found him?

Yes. They brought up the manager of the building. My son was having operations and this was his third one that was coming up and I couldn’t go in for anything. He was very very sick, he almost died, so I had to stay with him. I don’t know what happened. His wife called me before this happened.

You mean his ex-wife Portia?

His ex-wife called me and she said that…wait, I may be getting mixed up here. I am getting mixed up. This was before I moved out to California. She was very mean. She called me about how sick Bill—she went to see him, he was sick, he had had something with his heart. I said I didn’t want to hear this, and so she said goodbye, and of course I visited him and he stayed with me when he recuperated, in Roslyn. He was alright but he had had a heart problem before.

You mean you came back from California to visit him?

No, this was before I left for California.

So you divorced and then you moved? You didn’t move first?

No, I moved first. We were in the process of getting the divorce and then I got the papers out here.

Then after ‘71—

We were in touch all the time.

Did you see him after that?

No.

He never came out to visit?

No. Well, he had a kind of reluctance to travel. He had a kind of anxiety about traveling.

I’ve been told that he didn’t drive.

Yeah, he didn’t drive.

Why?

I don't know. He just never got a license and he never drove. He never had a car.

How did he get around in the suburbs, like when he lived in Great Neck?

Well, he took the train into work, which was walking distance from where I lived. Then I drove him around, everywhere.

And it never came up why he didn’t want to drive?

Well, no. (laughs) I think I did tell him to get driving lessons a couple times. And he said I will, I will, I will. And he didn’t.

His reluctance to travel, what did you think—

Some anxiety about it.

You mean like getting on a plane?

Yeah. Leaving his familiar spaces.

Did you ever talk to him about his Batman work and what he thought of his fans? Did he know that he had fans?

No, he never thought of that at all. Not at all. He was very humble, very unassuming. He was just doing comics. He said “I’m a hack writer.”

So he wasn’t proud of his work?

Well, yes he was. He thought he did good work. But he said “I’m a hack writer.”
 
Did he have aspirations that he was working toward?

No. Well, he may have. I don’t remember that.

He was just content to continue writing comics and not try something else?

Yeah. Well, he and Charlie wrote a movie and they did some television scripts, so he did something more.

Did you read his work before he sent it to the publisher?

Sometimes.

And you gave him suggestions?

Sometimes.

What did he like to do for fun?

He loved theater, which we went to. Ballet we both loved. He loved classical movie and he had a very complicated [stereo] setup that I wasn’t allowed to touch.

Was that in his workspace?

Yeah, and then it was up in my house. Actually, when he moved up, he didn’t move to Roslyn. He stayed there quite a bit. But he moved up to my Great Neck apartment. I had sold the house in Roslyn in 1964. And I was in an apartment in Great Neck.

So he never lived in Roslyn? He just visited.

Yes.

And then he moved to Great Neck—

When he moved from New York he moved to Great Neck.

Did you have wedding photos?

No, we got married by a justice of the peace in Great Neck. We had no photos at all. We weren’t camera people. What he did for fun is we traveled, locally. We didn’t go abroad. We went to the Hamptons, we went to Cape Cod, we went to Maine.

Always by car?

Yes.

He never left the Northeast his whole life?

No, he never did. [I later found out that at least once he made it at least as far as Texas]

Part 3.