“New,” previously unpublished Bill Finger photo 3 of 6

The title of my post way back on 7/21/08, five months after I launched this blog, was “‘New’ Bill Finger photo 1 of 9.”
 
But there were no subsequent posts unveiling photos 2-9.

Until now.

(Less three I published in Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, plus one I have found since.)

Bill with his first wife Portia, son Fred, and Portia’s father James, 1949

Tune in for the next three days to see three more glimpses of Bill that have never been published.

“New,” previously unpublished Bill Finger photo 2 of 6

The title of my post way back on 7/21/08, five months after I launched this blog, was “‘New’ Bill Finger photo 1 of 9.”
 
But there were no subsequent posts unveiling photos 2-9.

Until now.

(Less three I published in Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, plus one I have found since.)

Bill and his first wife Portia, Provincetown, MA, 1940s

Tune in for the next four days to see four more glimpses of Bill that have never been published.

A third confirmation on what became of Bill Finger in death

After I was interviewed on All Things Considered on NPR, I heard from Dean Badolato, a friend of Bill’s first wife, Portia. 

So, of course, I interviewed him.

Dean was kind to attend my 5/15/13 talk at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, during which I showed the page from Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman that reveals what happened to Bill after he died. I’d learned this not from a published source but rather from two unconnected people who knew Bill’s son Fred.

Dean is now the third person (after Fred’s cousin and his good friend) to confirm this poignant incident, which we almost lost to time. I’m so fortunate that my orbit crossed the orbits of the few people who knew what Fred did with Bill’s ashes.

Here is what Dean recounted:

…at one of my many “Dinners with Portia,” Bill had probably just died and she informed me. I must have inquired where he would be buried and she said Freddie (she called him Freddie most of the time) had made the trip out to the west coast with Bill’s ashes and that he had formed the shape of the Batman logo with his ashes and then watched the waves slowly wash them into the ocean.

Portia had a sly—or snide, perhaps—chuckle when she found something humorous or perhaps in this case, ironic…or symbolic even…who knows. I remember her chuckling over this. Also she almost always had a Virginia Slims cigarette in her hand and often in hot weather a ladies’ hand fan in the other. She had a gorgeous collection of fancy fans.

If she shed even a single tear over Bill’s passing, it would have been in private because she sure did not think highly of him.
 
Again, I know she would have approved of your work, Marc, because she believed highly in justice. And if Fred and Portia and Bill could be aware of your influencing Athena to gain the royalty privileges, I know they would be extremely grateful to you.

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.

Jerry Robinson previously unpublished interview, 6/9/06; part 1 of 3

In 2006, I had the privilege of interviewing Jerry Robinson, one of the earliest ghost artists on Batman and a true class act, in my research for Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman.

I ended speaking with him multiple more times, including once at his New York City apartment, which was chockablock with priceless Golden Age art and other mementos.

Most if not all of the numerous interviews I conducted for the book contain gems that did not make it into the book, so here is my chance to share them nonetheless. Upon rereading them, I am surprised how much info they contain that I had not—and still have not—read elsewhere.

So this is the first of a series. The interview is transcribed (and slightly edited) from a recording, as with the upcoming interviews in this series (Shelly Moldoff, Lew Sayre Schwartz, Alvin Schwartz, Joe Kubert, Arnold Drake, Carmine Infantino, Irwin Hasen, plus Bill’s second wife Lyn Simmons and her son Steve).

How did you meet Bill Finger?

I met Bill Finger I think the first time at Bob’s apartment when I first joined the team. He introduced me to Bill when I joined Batman. It was only a couple of months after it started.

Did you get a different impression from him than you did from Bob?

They were definitely different personalities.

How would you describe Bill’s personality?

Bill seemed very soft, kind. Not outgoing. Reserved but very easy to get to know. He wasn’t standoffish…

Did you become friends?

We became fast friends. He actually became my I say cultural mentor. … Remember, I was a 17-year-old kid. Just graduated high school. I knew nothing of New York. I was still going to Columbia, studying journalism, and commuting from my little room in the Bronx. Bill introduced me to everything in New York. Museums, galleries, movies. I soaked everything up like a sponge. I was fortunate that we hit it off. Personally, I think we each appreciated each other’s contributions.

Do you remember what you talked about besides the work?

Everything. Bill was widely read. He also was interested in everything, as I was, in learning everything. And he had very good taste. I don’t know how he was introduced to all these things himself, but he certainly knew them. [unintelligible] …the Metropolitan, MOMA, and foreign films, and other talks and things around town. The galleries.

Did you ever meet his friends who were not in the industry?

That’s a good question. I don’t remember. I knew his wife very well.

Is that Portia?

[unintelligible but affirmative] When he was first courting Portia, I think she came from Rochester was it? Or Albany? You probably know… [unintelligible] Before I met her, he was going with her … I remember several occasions where we’d be going out for lunch or dinner and he’d stop and say “I’ve gotta call Portia.” He’d get in the phone booth. At that time, they had the Superman-type phone booths. I’d stand and wait for him. He had endless conversations with Portia on the phone.

Was she interested in his work?

Yes. She knew what he was doing intimately. They were very close. She was a very intelligent gal. Once she came to New York they were married. They were both friends. I would go out to dinner with them, just the three of us.

Was she more dominant or more outgoing than he was?

I guess maybe in those terms, somewhat. She wasn’t [unintelligible]. She was very articulate and expressive.

What did she think of his work schedule? He was working late into the night.

We all did. (laughs)

So she just accepted it.

Yeah, I’d say so. [goes on in mumble about how some writers were night owls, some morning people]

Was Bill allowed to tell people that he was writing Batman?

They couldn’t stop him from talking to anybody. I think any of us knew…well, of course I knew. His name wasn’t on the feature, obviously.

If his name wasn’t on the feature and he said he wrote it, would people be suspicious?

I don’t think so. I don’t think anybody would just make that up. [unintelligible] They knew every strip wasn’t done just by the author, or the artist signed his name in many cases.

What was Bill proud of?

I think he was proud of his work. He was a very careful craftsman. He was proud of his creation. All of us were. I think that was part of the tragedy of Bill, as it was Siegel and Shuster, that they weren’t credited with their genius.

Do you think that shows a lack of business savvy on Bill’s part or did he just accept that that’s how things were?

Well, he was naïve, as most of us were. If we knew then what we know now, it’d be a different story. I might be head of Warner Bros. We were dealing with very wise publishers who had dealt with artists and contracts before. Some of these cases [were] the first thing they ever sold. It was the beginning of the industry.

Did Bill ever originate a character without an artist?

He wrote many television scripts, and I think even a couple of movie scripts.

That was later in his career, right?

Yes. He worked for a lot of publishers so I’m sure he had a hand in creating a lot of the characters.

[I mention Green Lantern, Wildcat, and he says he doesn’t know others besides those I mentioned]

Do you know if Bill read any fan mail?

I don’t think we were privy to it. I don’t they generally showed us the fan mail. We knew it was popular in sales and so forth, but that wasn’t gotten into until later. [mentions Stan Lee developing rapport with readers]

Would you describe Bill as one of the guys? If you ever went out with a group, was he chummy and social and making jokes?

The apartment I shared with Mort Meskin and, before he left to the army, Bernie Klein, it was kind of the hangout for [contributors who were near?] DC. Bill would be a frequent visitor. I think I have a, one of the books you have, you know, where people who visit draw a cartoon or…

Like a guest book?

Yeah. And there were usually crazy drawings or serious or whatever. And the old girlfriends would write in it.

You have it still?

I have [something, yeah?].

So Bill’s writing is in it?

I’m pretty sure he’s there saying, uh…we [sounds like “found” but might be “had”] a dart board on the wall. I remember that was a pastime for everybody. We challenged…in darts. I think Bill wrote something that was like “Damn it, Jerry, beat me again.”

[NOTE: Bill’s page is reproduced in Bill the Boy Wonder…and the original suffered a sad fate.]

Would you shoot around Batman ideas while you were playing darts?

We would always be…you know, if [we weren’t on another topic?], we would do it in social [situations with?] other artists around, unless we were talking about comics. But Bill and I, and sometimes we were with Bob, we would always be kicking around ideas. We used to live, breathe, eat, and sleep Batman. [Wild age to be in?]

Part 2.

After NPR, Portia Finger’s friend emerges, part 2

Part 1.

This is an interview with Dean Badolato, who was friends with Bill Finger’s first wife Portia and their son, Fred, for twenty years.

What was Portia’s opinion about Batman?

Portia respected all serious and legit art and artists. As [for] Batman, I know she was amused at the huge culture that it created. She probably thought it was pretty lightweight compared to the serious literature she enjoyed (she was an avid reader). Gore Vidal and Truman Capote are two authors she admired. She really loved Vidal’s Burr. She also read Mary Rennault’s series of books about ancient Greece like The Bull from the Sea.  

Did Portia tell you any stories about Bill’s work on Batman?

I don’t recall anything too specific about Bill and his work on Batman.

Did you spend any time with Fred? If so, what was he like?

Fred returned from Oregon shortly after the explosion of Mount St. Helen’s. He had become quite a good upcoming nouveau chef. With wife Bonnie, he had opened and run a restaurant, I believe near Portland. He had sired a child, Athena, with Bonnie; at that time, I am not sure if Bonnie and Fred had split up yet. But their marriage did not last and Freddie was interested in opening a new restaurant in New York.

He worked at a couple of high-end restaurants as chef and we sampled his work on several occasions. He was really talented and would have competed well, I believe, with the most successful of today’s chefs. Not surprising since Portia was herself a great home cooker and we often were treated to suppers at Portia’s with fantastic, simple but excellent cuisine. She turned me on to really dark strong French roasted coffee! Also, Freddie and Portia would enjoy seeing us perform when we were lucky enough to be appearing in shows. Fred was a great guy who loved his family; a gentle kind of guy and quite hardworking.

Portia had friends in the gay community and Fred was gay himself. Which came first and do you think one affected the other?

Can’t really say which came first. Probably both evolved at the same time.  

How did Portia respond to Fred’s homosexuality?

This is a really difficult one to answer. I believe Portia really wanted the very best for Fred in terms of having a loving, productive family life with the usual components of mom, dad, kids, etc. I think she felt he might have been able to have that kind of life, but at the same time she may have also realized that Freddie was living a gay life and actually seemed to be quite happy. There is a real paradox of thought here because Portia was a very liberal and progressive-thinking human. She also deeply believed in psychology and psychiatry and had a very important therapist in her own life. Despite this fact, I think she felt with a lot of hard work, Fred might have been successful in living a more conventional straight life. I know nevertheless that Portia loved and adored Fred, straight or gay, very much.

How did you find out that Bill died? If you were around Portia at that time, what was her reaction to Bill’s death?

This is a bit eerie: I hardly remember Bill’s passing because Portia barely mentioned it. In 1974 [the year Bill died], I was touring with the DC ballet, but I know she had no service. Honestly, I can say she never really felt good about the man (he had done some really crummy things to her friends) and I believe she felt that he was less than an ideal dad to Fred.

What happened with Portia and Fred after Bill died in 1974?

As far as I know, Fred and Portia’s life did not change much at all after Bill’s death.

How did Fred come to get some kind of royalty from DC Comics?

I’m pretty sure that when Fred returned from the west coast after Mount St. Helen’s blew, Portia urged him to go to DC Comics and let them know who he was and that he deserved royalties. I remember Portia saying that they had given a small token payment of about $500 but that was it. I never heard of any other payments going to the family.

What did Portia think Bill’s legacy should be?

Honestly, Portia never spoke of Bill in regards to a legacy. She always assumed that the truth would probably never be known. But she did know that he was indeed the real creator of the character. I’m telling you she was really, really angry at Bill for things he did.

Are you still in touch with anyone else who knew Bill or Portia?

I am in touch with Portia’s very, very, very favorite and dear friend, Shirley Hendrick. Shirley is well into her 90s and in an assisted living situation. My brother and I [recently performed] a dance concert for her and the other residents. Shirley was a brilliant oil painter and fast friends with Portia and family. Shirley has two sons, Vern and Gregory, who also knew Fred and the family. The two families lived close to each other in Manhattan and vacationed in the same Pocono area in the summers.

What do you do for a living?

I am a professional director/choreographer/performer, a lifelong career.

Have you seen any of the Batman movies?

As a kid, I followed Batman, like all the other kids. I’ve not seen the recent movies. At the ripe old age of 60, that stuff is quite honestly old hat for my taste. The stuff I saw Heath Ledger into when he played the Joker made me really, really sad. They went way too far into darkness for my tastes. I have a feeling Batman was a lot better in its earlier incarnations than today’s. I’m so sick of the massive violence in almost all the current cinema ventures today. We have enough violence in our real neighborhoods.

If you have seen my book, what was your reaction to it?

I haven’t read the book yet; looking forward to. Your trailer looks really good.

Anything else you’d like to share about the Fingers?

It was an honor and a gift to be a part of the Fingers’ lives. Portia was an incredible teller of tales and an educator of life’s lessons like no one else. She was full of love of life and art and joy and beauty. It was heartbreaking to see her and Fred struggle throughout their lives to make ends meet when they legitimately were deserving of so much credit and financial reward for the contributions to America’s (and the world’s, for that matter) popular culture that Batman made and continues to make to this day.

Thank you, Marc Tyler Nobleman, for caring enough to share with the world this most interesting and unusual story.

After NPR, Portia Finger’s friend emerges, part 1

In August 2012, after I’d appeared on NPR for Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, I received the following (excerpted) message on Google+ from a man named Dean Badolato:

I was a very close personal friend of Bill's wife Portia Finger and their son Freddie. I knew them from 1970 until they both passed around 1990. I knew through Portia her husband's involvement with Batman but many others neither understood nor believed her story. I am actually quite moved that the truth is out and although the Finger family is no longer with us to share this event, it is still wonderful that justice will lie with the written word. I am so proud to know that someone cared enough to write the truth!

It had been a while since I had “found” anyone “new” connected to Bill Finger—though technically this was him finding me. Either way, I was excited anew. And even though the book is out, I (of course) asked Dean if I could interview him.

In agreeing, Dean wrote “My only regret is that you did not come along 25 years ago when the Fingers could really have used you!”

How did you learn of my book on Bill Finger?

I learned of your book about Bill Finger listening to your NPR interview; I heard you speaking about Bill Finger about whom I thought no one knew anything!

What was your reaction upon learning that someone wrote a book on Bill?

Having been a close personal friend of his wife and son for almost 20 years, I was completely blown away (actually, I almost fell out of my loft bed!) by the news of a book about the real creator of Batman, Bill Finger.

Why did you reach out to me?

I knew through Portia the story of Bill being the original “ghost” writer of Batman and I wanted you to know that I could corroborate all the data I heard on the radio interview and to say what a great thing it was [for you] to have written this book. Being a lifelong theatre/dance artist, I know what it is like not to get credit for work one has created or even helped create in the early stages of a project. And because it [has been] more than 20 years since Portia and Freddie [have] graced our world, I thought it was fantastic that Bill the Boy Wonder had come along.

Did you ever meet Bill? When and how did you meet Portia?

I never met Bill; he and Portia had divorced by [the time] I met her in the summer of 1971 at the old Roosevelt Hospital in New York. I and a large group of professional-level dance students had just arrived from Chicago to make our fortunes in New York. One of our group, Bill Gatewood, happened to be recovering from a diabetic incident and Portia happened to be in the same hospital awaiting surgery for a stomach hernia. While visiting Bill [Gatewood], I met Portia, who had befriended Bill as he recovered. Soon Portia and many of our crowd were friends.  

What was Portia like?

Portia was highly intelligent, literate, and liberally minded. She loved the fine arts: painting, sculpture, literature, and especially dance—and especially classical dance. [My group] were serious ballet performers (I performed for the American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, and National Ballet of Washington DC; my brother a choreographer and featured dancer for the Metropolitan Opera of New York). 

Dean in 1977 (and in the air)

Being a lifelong resident of lower Manhattan, Portia was always concerned with state and city events and had a large circle of varied and interesting characters in her life.

She also was the first person of Jewish heritage to educate young naïfs as myself of the realities of the European Holocaust of WWII in a personal and firsthand account from someone who lost untold family members and was hip to all the political realities of those times. She was an avowed atheist who couldn’t possibly accept the notion of a caring God who could allow such profound atrocities to be carried out on so many innocent people. As we used to say in the old days, Portia was a really “heavy” person (and I don’t mean weight-wise); [she was] profoundly concerned with righteousness and justice in society with equal rights for all. 

What did Portia tell you about Bill?

I think Portia felt it necessary to share Bill’s story with us. She told us how he had been the original ghostwriter (using her words here) of the series and that he, she, and Freddie had never up to that time received a penny of royalty or residuals from DC Comics. She described [Bill as] a brilliant and creative thinker but [one who] never stood up for himself and never demanded proper compensation for his work. She also told me personal information about Bill and her marriage which I will only say was difficult. Bill was not good with money, alcohol, or, quite honestly, fidelity.

Did Portia see a difference between Bill as a man/husband and Bill as a writer/creator?

I can only guess. My gut feeling is that she wouldn’t differentiate the two because I think she would have felt that what you are as a person is only going to reflect who and what you are as an artist.

Part 2.

Calling all gays and lesbians of 1980s New York

While researching Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, I went to nutty lengths to find people who knew Bill Finger or his family. Given that Bill had died in 1974 and left less trace than you would believe, I had little choice.

His first wife Portia died in 1990, so I felt I had a shot of finding friends of hers, many of whom were gay. There is a gay and lesbian center near where she was living when she died, so I made this flyer and posted it there:

Since that didn’t work, I’m posting it here. (By the way, the phone number is old and inactive.)

Audience folk who knew the Boys of Steel and the Boy Wonder

After many talks I’ve given on Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman and, as of recently, Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, someone comes up to me to share a connection s/he or someone s/he knows had to the Superman or Batman creators. Here are a few that come to mind:

• the man whose relative lived across the street from Jerry Siegel (talk: Bethesda, 4/12)
• the man whose sister dated Joe Shuster in the 1970s (and still has some letters he wrote) (Miami, 2/12)
• the woman whose grandfather worked in the same building that housed Joe’s studio (Washington DC, 11/11)
• the woman whose father was a paperboy for Jerry Siegel and/or Joe Shuster (New York, 6/13)
• the woman who, in 7th grade, was best friends with the daughter of Bill Finger’s second wife (New York, 6/12)
• the woman whose mom modeled for Bob Kane (Whidbey Island/Seattle, 3/12)
• the woman (Sidra Rausch) who co-created superheroine manga musical Astra with Jerry Robinson (Washington DC, 10/12)

...not to mention...

• the boy who claimed he found a copy of the most valuable comic book in history (Providence, 4/10)
• the woman whose father-in-law was once married to Joe Shuster’s sister Jean (and who inherited letters Jean wrote, some of which mention Joe) (e-mail)
• the man whose father was a photographer for Stars and Stripes and who e-mailed me WWII photos featuring Jerry Siegel

And at least one woman who knew someone who was allegedly an inspiration for Lois Lane.

Interest in seeing Bill Finger in film credits

The day The Dark Knight Rises premiered, I revealed how Bill Finger’s second wife (and, almost 20 years later, I) tried to get Bill’s name into the movie credits.

I was thrilled that so many sites picked up on what I feel is a particularly curious and timely story, among them:

• Comic Book Resources
• Blastr (SyFy)
• Bleeding Cool
• Captain Comics

With this kind of coverage, the time may come when someone at DC Entertainment finds it is within legal bounds to name-drop Bill in some capacity in the credits of a forthcoming film.

I know...things have to happen first. But in the meantime, I am humbled to share a line from an email I received from a member of Bill’s extended family: “It looks like you have made a difference; Bill’s legacy is becoming more mainstream with each passing day.”

Later post with similar bent.

The Dark Knight Creator Rises

Bill Finger main-created Batman and nicknamed him the Dark Knight. Today (perhaps you heard) The Dark Knight Rises opens, but Bill’s name will not be in the credits.

On 12/10/07, a bit more than six months before The Dark Knight opened, I e-mailed DC Comics; after introducing myself as the author of books including Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman (which also wasn’t out yet), I asked the following:

Could Bill’s name be included in the credits for The Dark Knight? Please don’t automatically delete! I know contractually DC can’t call him “co-creator” so I rather mean something along the lines of “Batman was first called ‘the Dark Knight’ in Batman #1, in 1940, in a story written by Bill Finger.” DC publications already regularly credit Bill for that story, so I see this as completely compatible, legally safe, and of course morally fair. After all, the movie’s title doesn’t even include the word “Batman”—it is wholly a phrase coined by Bill Finger. I look forward to your response.

DC, to their credit, wrote me back:

Thanks for your passion for our creators and characters, but there are no plans to credit Bill on The Dark Knight.

MTN:

To be clear, I am asking if Bill can be credited only for the coining of a phrase, in unambiguous language. … Isn’t that just as permissible (it seems even more so) as your regular practice of crediting him in reprints for entire stories he wrote?

DC:

With all due respect, I’m not having this discussion.

However, I was not the first to attempt this. That distinction goes to Lyn Simmons, Bill’s second wife; they married in the late 1960s.

Her determination to get credit for Bill were bold, selfless—and, it seems, nearly successful. I will let her words—and press about her efforts—speak for themselves (some are undated so I have put them in chronological order as best I can):

This is the jaw-dropper:
“Warner Bros….appear willing to give Bill credit on the film.”
How I wish I knew more about the conversations that led to this.

Her proposed language: “In memoriam to William Finger, who helped create Batman.”

Alas, as you likely know if you’ve read this far, Bill was not credited in that (or any other Batman) film. What torpedoed this possibility?

Lyn said that Warner backed out when they learned that she was not his widow but rather his ex-wife.

In any case, this is an astonishing glimpse at what could have been.

Had it been, perhaps there would be no need for Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman today…

Filming resumes

First two interviews shot: December 2008.

Third: April 2011 (much later than I expected in December 2008!).

Plus much more, including Bill Finger’s granddaughter reading aloud Bill’s last known comic book script...

Untold tale of Bill Finger #9: Creator has muscles, too

The second (and final) wife of Bill Finger, uncredited co-creator and original writer (plus visual architect) of Batman, kindly put me in touch with one of her three children, who knew Finger when he (the son) was a boy. Here is one of the sweetest of his recollections, dating to the late 1950s, and a side of Finger that has appeared nowhere else:

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.

(The full version of this image will appear in my book, due out July 1, 2012.)

Untold tale of Bill Finger #8: Bill’s last two scripts

Bill Finger is best known as the unknown co-creator of Batman, who debuted at the start of Finger’s career. The end of his career also involved darkness, but not Batman.

His last two first-run stories to be published came out after his 1974 death. With respect to the short, sad life of Bill Finger, the titles of both the stories themselves and the comic book series in which they appeared are apt:

• House of Mystery #241 (May 1976)—“Death Pulls the Strings”
• House of Secrets #141 (August-September 1976)—“You Can’t Beat the Devil” (see a page here)

In January 2011, I learned the whereabouts of one of the two, whichever was turned in later: Paul Levitz gave it to Finger’s lone heir, the granddaughter whom I uncovered in 2007.

In other words, it’s right where it should be.

Bill Finger: 37 years ago today

Following most any creative crucible, there's bound to be some room for interpretation as to who did what. For all of the mystery that Batman embodies, the stroke-by-stroke of his genesis has been fairly well delineated by both Bob Kane and Bill Finger, the only two who were there.

They didn't do it at the time, however. For all we know, neither of them took notes that fateful day in the cold beginning of 1939. More than two decades would pass before the story would begin to unfold publicly on paper. (The real story, anyway.)

And when it did emerge, so did friction. But by the 1980s, some of the alleged discrepancies seemed to evaporate. The truthful center of the story began to solidify. The creations of certain supporting characters and villains were and still are disputed, but the who-did-what on Batman himself very nearly lined up, from the iconic cowl to the chilling origin. Bill never claimed he chose the name Batman. To our knowledge, Bob never claimed he chose the name Bruce Wayne.

There was one thing Bob did choose, a choice that has also never been disputed, which seems to me to be the most important thing for which he should be remembered. To quote a 1989 letter written by Bill's second wife:

"If Bob Kane called Bill in to write Batman, he certainly made a good choice, didn’t he?"

Thirty-seven years ago today, on January 18, 1974, Bill passed away. It would be some years before he passed into legend. Yet his legacy remains in limbo.

Lest ye forget, there is a way out of limbo. Tip your head even farther back, focus on balance, and keep moving forward.

Bill Finger as told by those who knew him well

Early Batman artist/ambassador of comics Jerry Robinson on Bill: “Very soft, kind. Naïve, as most of us were. Not outgoing. Reserved but very easy to get to know. We became fast friends. He actually became my cultural mentor.”

“Father of Fandom” Jerry Bails on Bill: “Bill was an avid reader and fan of good fiction, popular fiction, and action movies. He surrounded himself with artifacts and books he loved. He was not a braggart, but was clearly pleased to talk about his creations. He appeared to be more like most comics fans in terms of personality. He lived more in his imagination than in the world of hard knocks. He was not a joke-maker, but he enjoyed telling stories about how he worked. He was very dedicated to his craft. He was not shy, but he would defer to others in conversations. I’d call him considerate and the opposite of overbearing. I had no trouble believing everything he told me.”

Bill’s second wife on Bill: “Very, very warm, very sincere, very hard-working, even though he had problems meeting deadlines. He had a good sense of humor. He was very interested in the theater, and ballet, and classical music. He wouldn’t write any violent comic books. He gave an awful lot of thought to writing.”

Longtime writing partner Charles Sinclair on Bill: “He was the opposite of a sourpuss. Without being wildly jovial, he was a funny guy. Great sense of humor. Liked to joke. He was extremely well read. He deserved a lot better than he got. I enjoyed knowing him, and I miss him.”

Me on Bill: “I miss him, too, even though I never met him.” 

Most of these recollections are culled from personal interviews I conducted. The last two lines of Charles’s comments are paraphrased from Alter Ego #84, 3/09.

A prayer for “Owen Meany”

Starting with Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman and expanding exponentially for my upcoming book on Bill Finger, my research often involves extensive people-hunting.

Sometimes I know the name of a person I’m hunting for. Other times I’m looking for a person fitting a description (Finger’s second wife/nephew/nutty aunt/etc.). And simultaneously, at all times, I am looking for any relevant others whom I don’t even yet know about.

There is a shivery moment between learning of a person I should look for (specifically someone in the “description” category above) and learning that person’s name. It is a mix of exhilaration and panic.

The exhilaration part is obvious—you may have just learned of a Missing Link. The panic part: how easy or hard it will be to find him may come down to the name itself.

That’s why I virtually pray for a name that is unusual.

John Smith? Here come the waterworks. You’re in for a mental workout. With such an everyday name, even knowing the middle name is probably not enough to narrow it down.

John Smithbergstein? Common first name but that last name is an oddsend—and one I just made up. (Incidentally, it was not the first last name I made up for this post. But I abandoned that name—Smithbergson—because a Google revealed that it already exists.)

The reverse is equally true: Threepio Smith ought not take long to track down.

Best case scenario, of course, are atypical first and last names. Threepio Smithbergstein is a researcher’s dream.

But no matter how distinct the name, people-hunting remains unpredictable. To wit:

The title of this post is a takeoff on the title A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving’s 1989 bestseller.

Because the novel became so well-known, I would presume that most people who had the surname “Meany” and had a son after the novel came out would not name him Owen. (Yes, even people who loved the book. It’d just be begging for a comment. Every. Single. Time.)

Further, I presumed “Meany” was rare to begin with.

So my guess was that there’d be, at most, only a couple of living people in the U.S. named “Owen Meany,” all born before 1989.

However, according to the public records accessed at Intelius, there are currently as many as sixteen (though some are probably duplicates and all probably were born pre-1989).

So, as I wrote, unpredictable.

Another case in point: In early 2007, after months of researching Bill Finger’s side of the family (all the while surprised that the name “Finger” was much more common than I anticipated), I changed focus to his first wife’s family. To access them, I needed her maiden name. It took some maneuvering, but eventually I did close in on it, hoping for a Smithbergstein…

…but instead getting an Epstein.

Not a dead end but rather the opposite—a road with too many forks. Therefore, to wend my way to this particular branch of the Epstein clan, I had to try methods other than cold-contacting random Epsteins. Because if I had started doing that then, I could very well still be doing it now.

First day of filming

Today, to my own great surprise, we filmed the first interview. For what, I can't say yet. Here's a photo taken after:

Who she is, I can't say yet. By name, anyway. But she was Bill Finger's second wife.

(NOTE: I added her name as a label for this post not when it originally posted but later, after I had revealed it in another post.)

"New" Bill Finger photo 1 of 9

In honor of...

a) the imminent release of Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman (7/22/08—tomorrow!)
b) the imminent start of Comic-Con 2008
c) the success of The Dark Knight (a term Bill Finger first used for Batman)

...I am making good on a commitment I made soon after I started this blog in February 2008. I posted a "new" but murky image of Bill Finger (uncredited co-creator of Batman), saying that around now I would begin to post the nine better "new" photos of him I found while researching a book. Only three photos of Finger have previously been published, one only once, in 1941.

Here's the deal: linking to these images is more than appreciated but please do not re-post or use any of them in any way without permission. If anyone breaks the deal, no more photos! Given the subject is Bill Finger, I'm sure the unspoken parallel is clear.

First, to wade in slow, a photo of one of Finger's aunts and his mother on a beach in the 1940s:

photo courtesy of Bill Finger's first cousin

Now "new" Bill Finger photo 1 of 9 (I don't officially count the one from that previous post since it's virtually unrecognizable), also on a beach and also probably from the 1940s:

photo courtesy of Bill Finger's granddaughter

That's Portia, his first wife, with him. The scene gives a wee look at a side of Finger's personality that hasn't been seen; they are hamming for the camera.

And yes, the second Finger photo I've shown is also the second in which he's topless. (I actually have a third topless Finger shot, which happens to be the best of all the "new" photos, topless or otherwise.)

Bill Finger's paperweight...and first wife

You've seen the first known photograph of the desk of uncredited Batman co-creator Bill Finger.

Let's zoom in a bit.

In the summer of 2006, I visited Charles Sinclair, Bill's longtime writing partner. After we chatted a bit, Charles got up, took a plastic baggie off a shelf, and handed it to me. It contained something bronze-colored and heavy for its size.

Charles said it was a paperweight, it used to belong to Bill Finger, and it was for me.

He believed the Egyptian glyphs underneath had inspired at least one Bill Finger story. I believed—without a certificate of authenticity—that this metal scarab had, in fact, been Bill Finger's once.

I profusely thanked Charles for it but politely declined it at the same time. Charles insisted I keep it, saying he knew I would appreciate it much more than he would. Besides, he was keeping something else of Bill's—a sculpture Bill made in an adult art class of his then-wife Portia:

Do you see the resemblance? At the time, I couldn't, because I hadn't seen what Portia looked like.

But I have since:

This is the first-ever published or posted photo of Portia Finger. It's just one of a half-dozen or so photos of her I now have, most of which came from Portia's niece. I've got Portia as a child, I've got her from what was probably the last year of her life, and I've got her from various years in between. This was taken in Provincetown, Massachusetts, probably in the 1940s.

That man with Portia? I'm 99.98% sure it is not Bill Finger. The hair is too poofy and dark, the build is too scrawny, and the face just doesn't match the other photos I have from that period which I know show Bill. My guess is that Bill was taking the picture.

Later, when I told Bill's second wife about the paperweight, she remembered it instantly and wrote this:

"I gave it to Bill as a birthday or Christmas present. Or did he give it to me? I was studying ancient Egyptian history for a couple of years and I do think I gave it to Bill."

4/28/08 addendum: Portia's niece wrote this: "My somewhat educated guess is it might have come from the Museum of Natural History, one of Bill's very regular haunts."

So the paperweight that once sat on Bill Finger's desk inspiring Bill Finger stories now sits on my desk inspiring an ongoing Bill Finger story of a different kind.

5/8/22 addendum: I didn't realize there was a mystery behind the paperweight, but that mystery has been solved.