Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 26, 1994 TAG: 9409010012
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MARION DAVIS NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Get that impostor with the black rubber suit outta here!
The real Batman - the 1960s one with the gray tights, blue-black cowl and funny blue satin shorts - is here to reclaim his name.
Not that Adam West, the guy who played the Caped Crusader 25 years ago, is about to fly the Bat-plane through Gotham's sky again, or smack the Joker with his mighty fists.
But he does have a little present for his fans, who still stop him on the streets and send him dozens of letters every week. It's called ``Back to the Batcave'' (Berkley, $12) - a bright, red-and-black paperback with everything you ever wanted to know about Batman, and a bit more. Co-authored by West and writer Jeff Rovin, it's due in bookstores Sept. 1.
For fans of the TV series and the 1966 movie, the 257 pages are a celebration of the old Batman spirit: honesty, bravery and a shameless campiness that still makes audiences roar with laughter.
West said ``Back to the Batcave'' is a long-overdue treat to his fans for keeping the faith for all these years - and after the 1989 Michael Keaton movie that revamped the Bat-image.
``I put it off for a long time,'' West said in a telephone interview last week from his ranch in Ketchum, Idaho. ``I've had so many requests, because people seem to take a profound interest in this show. The mail never stops. I felt the best thing I could do was to get a book out.''
Now 55 and still struggling to gain respect as a serious actor in Hollywood, West has spent half his life in the shadow of Batman's cape.
``It took me about 20 to 25 years to break out of that typecasting,'' West said, recalling the dozens of bad roles he's had to take on TV shows, shabby plays and low-budget movies to shake off his image as the Caped Crusader.
But he's still happy he took the job back in 1965.
``I've always been proud of the work I did because I really gave it everything,'' he said. ``I had to create that world we were after. In retrospect, I feel good because it became a classic.''
Far friendlier and more accessible than your average TV star, West also appreciates the personal rapport that Batman allowed him to build with his fans.
``I get guys who come up to me and tell me, `Your show is responsible for what I am today' - a lawyer, an FBI agent,'' West said. ``I'm amazed at the lives it influenced - the supposedly whimsical, swashbuckling, giddy piece of work.''
West is proud that Batman was so clean-cut, ``always on his best behavior.'' That's why most Caped Crusader children's products are still based on his Batman, he said. ``It doesn't look like a dark, leather-and-rubber voodoo doll you can stick things into.''
Not that the real Adam West was anything like the uptight Batman: ``The only time I became Batman was when I pulled on the cowl,'' West said. The rest of the time, he was a young actor enjoying his fame, partying with girls (the book mentions ``a particularly eventful night in my suite with some gorgeous new friends''), and giving women fans autographs wherever they wanted them - even on their breasts.
These days, West is keeping busy with a few new TV shows and a movie. But he's not done with Batman. He's writing a sequel to ``Back to the Batcave,'' and he has all sorts of ideas to revive and update the classic Bat-image.
Holy persistence! We'll just read the book for now.
by CNB