Hubie Kerns - Tribute Page

Hubie Kerns, you may not know who he was but hopefully I can give you some information on this man who was so important to the Batman Show. You don't see his name in the credits and very little is written about him in the books about the series, but if you watch one episode, any episode, you will see Hubie. He had a double role in the series, He was the stunt coordinator, working with the actors, directors, crew, cameramen, special effects techs, on bringing the action to life. He also was the stunt double for Adam West. Because of the tight schedule of shooting the series, the stuntmen, Hubie as Batman and Victor Paul as Robin not only did all the dangerous scenes, they did many of the " long shots". This left Adam and Burt free to film the close ups somewhere else. Many of the scenes that were " stock footage" were shots of Hubie and Victor such as the opening scene of the screech to a halt in front of City Hall and running into Commissioner Gordon's office was done by these two. The "exit from the Batcave" was Burt Ward ( because he was so much more noticeable due to his costume) and you guessed it - Hubie Kerns as Batman. I have found that back in the 60's stuntmen and women were very rarely credited with the work they did. Now I assume due to unions and other changes in the industry, they usually get an on screen credit for their important contributions.

Hubie With Adam rehearsing a bat swing on a rope

Here is Hubie's Biography

Hubie Kerns was an amazing individual. He was born in Los Angeles- August 10, 1920. He attended Manual Arts High School where he took up running track, and boy could he run, he was offered a scholarship to USC where he really shined and became an All American. He won the NCAA in the 440 in 1941 and 1942 and had broken many world records in the process. An article at the time wrote about him as being USC's "secret weapon"

Here is an excerpt from a recent article about his passing-

Bringing You Up to Speed on a '40s Flash;

By: MAL FLORENCE

An obituary notice in Wednesday's Times identified a Hubert J. Kerns, who died Feb. 7.
He was better known as Hubie Kerns, an outstanding USC quarter-miler in the early 1940s. Kerns teamed with Cliff Bourland to give the Trojans an outstanding duo in the 440-yard dash.
In the 1941 NCAA championships at Stanford, Kerns upset California's Grover Klemmer in the 440 in a meet-record 46.6 seconds. A few weeks later, Klemmer equaled the world 400-meter record in the National AAU meet in Philadelphia, timing 46.0 seconds. Kerns was a close second.

In the same year, at the Pacific Coast Conference-Big Ten meet at the Coliseum, Klemmer anchored Cal to a victory in the mile relay in the world-record time of 3:09.4. Kerns ran the anchor leg for USC, barely losing to Klemmer in the same time.

Hubie had the fastest time in the world for his part in the mile relay but because of the war, he was unable to compete in the Olympics.

He enlisted in the Army Reserve and was told that he wouldn't be called up until graduation but in 1943 the Army broke their word and enlisted him anyway. He was married to his wife, Dorismae and before getting to even spend any time with her, he went off to Germany. After returning home from the War and graduating in 1946, he was drafted by The Chicago Bears but decided not to play football because of the small amount they paid a player so he went into the TV and movie industry. He has a role in the 1949 movie " Take Me Out To The Ballgame" but he had a new son, Hubie Jr, and had dreams of being a farmer. He moved to Florida in 1950 but due to a national railroad strike, all his crops were left on the vine and had depleted his savings. The family moved back to Los Angeles and Hubie began working in the film industry again. He had parts in a few movies, but due to his athletic abilities he probably was best suited for stunt work. He had an unbelievable list of credits as far as a stuntman. He worked on more than 35 different TV shows as a stuntman such as Maverick, Perry Mason, Rockford Files, Gunsmoke, Bewitched, Star Trek, F Troop, Ironside, and a campy super hero show, Batman.

Here is Hubie in " Jim Thorpe All American" in 1951. He played the role of Tom Ashburner- quarterback on the team against Jim Thorpe played by Burt Lancaster.

Here are some quotes and photos of Hubie at work.

 
Hubie in the movie " Batman" on this dive as Bruce Wayne-

Leslie Martinson had asked Hubie his advise on how to film this diving stunt - leaping into the water off Santa Barbara pier

" He came up to me and asked : " Where should I place the camera ? " I felt real good. Les, if you put the camera way up top and I jump away from the camera, it'll look higher. But of course, if you put the platform up there, it'll cost you too darn much money, so what you want to do is put the camera down below, by the boat, and have me dive into the lens of the camera." " I told him two good places to place the camera, I see the shot, and he puts the camera in the middle, and follows me down into the water. What this does is cut the dive in half. Either of the other places would have been ten times better. It took away from the stunt itself."

 
This shot from the movie was filmed in downtown Los Angeles where Victor and Hubie were trying to get a reaction from the crowds.

according to Victor Paul-

" They had a hidden camera in a panel truck, We were supposed to be Batman and Robin running through Downtown Gotham City. We ran through May Company Department Store, yelling and trying to attract attention. We ran in the middle of the street, yelling like a couple of idiots trying to get people to say " There goes Batman and Robin" They looked at us like we belonged there. We didn't believe it. We couldn't get anyone to say anything. Hubie used to be a track star and has legs twice as long as mine. I'm five foot nine and he's six foot two. We ran about six blocks, and the camera is shooting us as were dodging past people, through cars, trying everything to steal the shot, and nobody paid any attention to us. Hubie ran my legs off and he laughed about it."

In this scene, there was a problem with the prop and when the cable broke it rolled out of control. Do you think that is Adam West getting out of the sand mess ?? Didn't think so.

About The Famous Batcycle

Hubie Kerns and Victor Paul on the subject of the Batcycle-

"They brought it out at four o'clock at night and we gotta use it at eight o'clock the next morning. I said Jesus ! give me a break . This is ridiculous. The guy who built this nightmare ( as I call it) takes it around the parking lot and almost kills himself. He hits a parked car with it ,gets up. and says that's the way it works. I Said That's the way it works? You almost killed yourself ! Sam Strangis ( the production manager) just put his eyebrows up and walked away and left us standing in the parking lot, so Hubie and I stayed until six o' clock at night trying to work this out.

Hubie was not happy either with the cycle-

" They'd been working three weeks on the cycle, then when they show it to us, the expert gets caught and spun around and almost had an accident. And we as greenhorns, would have to drive that thing first thing in the morning. But we had absolutely no trouble with it, Probably because Victor Paul was so scared after seeing them screw up."

Paul explained his apprehension with the thing-

" I had to be on my hands and knees and they built this platform on a regular motorcycle. Hubie wasn't that much of a bike man at that time. He drove a motorcycle but this weirdo thing was different. If Hubie was doing 35 miles an hour, I really had to rev it up and really gun it to shoot off this platform going the same direction , and that was hard to do. That was the nightmare of it, I used to yell, Would you slow down for crying out loud, before you kill me?? He used to laugh."

Burgess Meredith, Victor Paul, Hubie Kerns, Adam West, Lee Meriweather and other stuntmen.

Credit for this photo goes to " A Fan" Thanks ! David

According to Nancy Ellen who worked on the Batman staff-

"He was a sweetie, I spent so much time on the "Bat" set at Desilu Culver Studios (we called it Fox Culver since Fox had sooo many shows going at that time...13 I think) as I worked for ABC and our offices were there... Hubie was just super.....use to have coffee on the set with him and the others ...he was always a pleasure to be around and a terrific stunt coordinator....You had to have a "Bat pass" to get on the set and they only allowed visitors two days a week for visitors and only one hour for each pass....but I was an exception......I loved going down to the "Bat" set to see the stunts....the "Bat" office would call to let me know when something special was going to happen and I would get on my little bicycle and ride down there to watch Hubie, Victor Paul and the guest stuntnicks in action....Always soooo well coordinated." Batman" was quite a show and it was the first show that MAJOR stars wanted to do and they got a mere pittance for doing it...but it was a 'camp' show and no one thought it would be the hit that it was! Hubie will be missed....a really wonderful and talented man. Thanks for doing the tribute page for him:)

After the series ended, Hubie stayed active in the industry as a stuntman and also got involved in producing TV and Movie productions, which he did until he was too ill to continue. At the 1996 Olympic Games, He was starting to feel tired all the time and when he returned home, he was diagnosed with cancer. He fought the battle with cancer and lived two years longer than the doctors expected.

Sadly, he passed away at home in Van Nuys Ca on Feb 7. 1999.

Hubie was a super person and will be sadly missed.

I would like to thank Hubie Kerns Jr for providing me his fathers biography. He also is an exceptional stuntman who has been really nice in answering my questions. Hubie also had two daughters, Sheree and Desiree that worked in the stunt field at one time.

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