The 1966 Batman TV Site Museum
What happened to ? Where is the ? Who has the ?

Here are some interesting facts about items used in the show, what happened to them and where are they now.

Please Let Me Know If You Have Something To Share !

The Azarian Collection !

The Mr Freeze Helmet

 

 

George Sanders wore it in the First Mr Freeze Episodes in the series.
It originally came from Western Costume Co., which for the past 80 years made just about every TV and movie costume used on film.

Here is a current picture of the Helmet

 

Meow Meow

Who can forget these famous Cat Curves ?

Julie Newmar did more for an outfit than any model I know of.

While The costume is not as impressive on a hanger as it is on the shapely Julie Newmar, Here is a photo of the famous cat costume Now!

This particular costume was worn by Julie Newmar and had her name inside.

Here is some more cat costume trivia: It is rumored that Lee Meriweather's Catwoman costume was also worn by Francine York in a Lost In Space episode. As you recall, Francine was The Bookworm's assistant Lydia Lympet.

This costume is black stretch spandex with a glittery/shiny finish. The one piece costume has a zipper ( there goes my imagination again... ) on the rear, scoop neck and stirrups.

A Night At The Opera ?

This costume was worn by Caesar Romero as the Joker

 when he portrayed the

opera singer Pagliacci in the episodes

"The Joker's Wild"

and it's sequel

"Batman is Riled".

The costume is made of beautiful of

white silky smooth satin.

 It includes balloon style pants with black cuffs,

 matching top and hat,

top and hat have attached pom poms.

 Here is an item I actually was involved in,  I was contacted by Chris Repp, the son of Stafford inquiring if I knew anyone who might be interested in his Dad's Chief O'Hara costume. 

Holy Collecting Batman !!!

Who can forget the cool costumes of of Caped Crusaders, The midnight blue cape and cowl or the bright yellow and red outfit of Robin? When I put on my costume made by my mother way back in 1966, I thought I had a copy of the famous duo's costume. It still brings back vivid memories of jumping on coffee tables, Bat fights in the yard with my brother, sitting in our family's VW Bug thinking it was the Batmobile.... oh well ...to answer your questions about what happened to the costumes, here it is Thanks to John Azarian- The Bat Costumes !!!!

Here is one of the First Publicity Shots of the Famous Duo

The Holy Grail !!!!

To any collector there is the one item that " makes" the collection.

The " crown jewel" of sorts.

For John Azarian these items are the Holy Grail as far as his Batman Collection.

These are the only complete pair of Batman and Robin costumes known to exist in the world!

Every part is original and complete in every detail!

Batman costume includes cowl headpiece with

hand painted eyebrows and nose,

satin cape, blue/grey body suit with bat emblem on chest,

 utility belt, purple satin shorts, blue leather boots and satin gloves.

Robin costume includes black satin eye mask

 (which has been autographed by Burt Ward on the inside),

 beautiful yellow satin cape, red gabardine tunic

with cotton lacing down chest and "R" emblem,

 green cotton short sleeved tshirt, flesh colored tights,

green knit shorts, green suede boots (with fins),

green leather gloves, and belt with brass accents and buckle.

When John sent me the photos of all these wonderful items from his collection, I had a few questions.

"One thing I get asked about a bunch is ( in relation to the Batman - Robin costume ) - 1) what company made the bat costumes- 2) how many sets were made-

I read that Adam West when finished with the series never kept a set of costumes and had to go get a set made to do personal appearances after the series end. , I also was wondering- after the series what happened to the costumes- did the studio hold on to them etc- ? The studio keeps them for 9 years ? I have always been fascinated by stuff like this. How were you able to get such a find as the costumes ?

Thanks ! David

Johns Reply-

" Western Costume Co. based in the LA area, has been in existence for over 80 years, and has been involved with most major films and tv shows dating back many years. They made all the Batman costumes, as well as so many others. Including Lost In Space.

Back then, Western would be engaged to manufacture a costume for a show or movie-and paid a fee. They then would get the costume back at the end and place it in inventory. And if you had a production, you could go to Western and rent one of these costumes. Or for a Halloween costume.

  Laugh, but that's what they did!

  Western is still in existence but not as popular as they once were, and needless to say their practices have changed! As for how many and all that, no one knows, ask 10 people you get 10 answers.

Western auctioned off most of their old inventory in the early 90's. They had people come in and catalog what was there and identify things. Crazy things were found. Imagine all the obscure stuff no one could identify, guest costumes, etc. that were eventually thrown out!

As I said, I have the only known COMPLETE pair of Batman and Robin costumes in the world.

John

Wow ! Here is Some Info about Super Bat Collector John M Azarian who provided the photos and background on all of the above bat items 

Here is a copy of a pass to the Batman Set.

 
If you were lucky enough to get a pass
you could go see Adam, Burt and the gang film.

Heres Nellen's comments , She worked at the studio and was on the set !


Batman was a fun set to go on always. The stunts were incredible, Hubie Kerns, the stunt coordinator, did a superb job of doubling everyone and performing some terrific stunts...laughs galore around that set!!! Well, not all of the time. You had to have a "Bat" pass to get on the set...and since it was such a popular show...they only allowed visitors on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I forget the hours, but you could only stay for one hour. Stan the wonderful guard was always there checking to see if your pass were in order....I have included one here, I am a packrat..therefore, I saved it!!!

Thanks Nellen !!!!

 
Hey, does it come with air conditioning ??


The Batmobile has never changed hands since the series !
George Barris,
The Kustom Car King ,
built and has retained the original Batmobile in his Hollywood office.
Here is a photo of the car being
loaded to go on another tour.

Lots of folks wanted to know what happened to the Batcave after the series ??

Well, sadly, the set was torn down shortly after the series ended but the exterior of the cave was actually shot in Griffith Park near Los Angeles. A friend of mine, Griff Humphreys went to the location to see what it looks like now. He sent me these shots.

These photos are from the series for a quick comparison.

The prop department added a bunch of trees and a fake door over the cave then filmed the stock footage of the famous car making an exit. When it was filmed, the entrance to the cave was so narrow, they had to be really careful not to smash the car in to the sides, so the undercranked the camera - filming at a much lower speed- then sped the film back up to give the illusion of speed later.

Here is a few more photos of the cave now, it has been the background for many movies other than Batman, next time you see the movie, " Invasion of the Body Snatchers" filmed in 1955, the ending scenes were all filmed in Griffith Park and featured the cave.

I would like to thank Griff for going out of his way to provide this pictures. The scenery hasn't changed much over the years and it's really interesting to see it now. You can drop Griff an email here- mishmush@icecream-headache.com He is a super Bat Fan and is at the message board all the time.

HOME - HISTORY - HEROES - VILLAINS - GUEST STARS - BAT VEHICLES

 BAT VIDEO - TRIVIA - EPISODE GUIDE - LIBRARY - MUSEUM

 BAT LINKS -  MESSAGE BOARD - ABOUT ME

BAT LOCATIONS