Batgirl - Yvonne Craig
How did you know ?
Through the one thing you couldn't possibly have in your utility belt Batman ... a woman's intuition.
Batgirl, the
daughter of Commissioner Gordon, Barbara Gordon . A librarian by day
and Batgirl when needed to help the dynamic duo.
She had a cool
apartment and also rode a motorcycle!
Lets all go back to
1967, Batman had been on the air for two years, everyone in the world
had seen Batman and Robin, the cool gadgets, the exciting villians,
well maybe I'm exaggerating a bit . I think almost everyone. The
ratings were starting to drop a bit so the producers wanted to add
something to attract a larger group of viewers. Enter Batgirl, a
young dynamic sexy crime fighter that would capture the older men and
young girl market of the population. Who to cast in the role ?? Mary
Ann Mobley was first considered but she was committed to do Custer
a TV program at the time. Enter a young actress named 
Yvonne
Craig. She was part of a small percentage of the population that had
never seen an episode ! Yvonne on her casting as Batgirl "
When they called me and asked if I would like to do Batgirl in the
Batman series, I was very interested. I had been looking around for a
series. When I went into Mr Doziers office, he said ' And of course
you've seen our show' and I said that I hadn't but that I would watch
it all summer long in re-runs if I get this job because I need to
know how it looks and how I fit in. He didn't seem offended by that
at all. "
And
fit in she did, she became one of the most popular stars of the series.
Yvonne Craig was
born in Illinois in 1937. She moved to California in 1957 after being
a ballet dancer at the young age of 16. She was discovered at a local
restaurant and landed
a small part in the
movie Gidget in 1959. 
She went on to be
in other movies until 1963 when she dated The King ( thas right
Elvis, thank you very much, pass the jelly doughnuts) and starred in
two movies with him.
She was in In like
Flint in 1967 as a Russian Ballet dancer.
In 1968 ........... Batman
!
Yvonne
was cast as Batgirl and squeezed
herself into a costume. She did her own stunts, including riding the
Batgirl cycle ! She
had a motorcycle of her own which she rode daily. There was problems
with the heroines new ride, Yvonne on the Batgirl cycle: "
I used to go out and practice on this bike and it was a Yamaha 190
or at least one with more power than I needed. Plus they had taken
the shocks off in order to customize it and put on those batwings.
I
guess they decided that since I was an inveterate motorcycle rider I
would want something that had a lot of zip . But they gave me one
that actually had more zip than you need, because you can always
undercrank when you shoot and they always undercranked when we were
suppossed to fly out of scenes. I didn't need anything that big and
it weighed too much. If I got it more than just a few degrees off
center, I'd have to drop it and pick it up because I just couldnt
wrestle it back. But they did do a good thing. They gave me an
automatic starter. My own personal bike had a kick starter and I told
them that often I'd try to kick it and it'd kick me, and did they
really want to see all this on film? so they said that I'd have an
automatic starter and I just just punched a little button and it was wonderful."
Yvonne
cruised Gotham City for one season before the show was canceled. The
part of Batgirl was never really able grow to much more than to be a
helper to the Dynamic Duo or giving them someone to rescue due to the
show being cut back to half an hour. This limited the plots greatly.
Too bad, Yvonne was a great actress. This was changing world in 1968.
Women were just starting to come into their own in the workplace and
women were just starting to break the stereotypes of suzie homemaker.
Think back a few years earlier to Mrs Cleaver in an apron in the
kitchen or Mary Tyler Moore cleaning up after Dick Van Dyke. Had
there been more time ect, I think the show would have reflected this
more with Yvonne as the star.
But
this isn't exactly women's work....
But
I'm no ordinary woman Batman !
Yvonne was a great
performer and she added a great deal to the show
I am near the end
of this page but before I finish, I wanted to give yall a few more
photos !!
The Siamese Human
Knot !! ...........................She could ride more than a motor
cycle !!!
She appeared in 26 episodes of Batman, she then went on to a ton of other appearances including:
Mod Squad, Love, American Style, Star Trek, Emergency, Kojak, Six Million Dollar Man, Courtship of Eddie's Father, It Takes a Thief, Starsky and Hutch and The Wild, Wild West.
Yvonne has made
personal appearances for Batman reunions ect and has done well in the
real estate field.
Recent Photo
of Yvonne with Julie Newmar
at a convention.
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