I purchased the poster in 1989, just as the Michael Keaton “Batman” movie was coming out. It was purchased at a comic book store in Greenwich Village that was owned by Joel Eisner, author of “the Official Batman Batbook”. I was working as a P.A. for CBS News Advertising and Promotion at the time, and I knew that Adam West and Julie Newmar were going to appear on CBS This Morning from the New York studios, with Cesar Romero and Burgess Meredith on the satellite from LA (the appearance exists on YouTube).
After the show, I went to the green room to meet them. Adam signed, and then I approached Julie. She took one look at the poster and said “I’m not in that movie”, to which I responded “but you were the best Catwoman”. She agreed with my statement with a nod and then quickly obliged. The poster sat in a tube for a few years in my office/cubes at CBS, and it followed me to my next two jobs, where I just happened to keep it stashed under my desk. One day, my boss at CBS Ad Sales Research, who knew I was a Batman fan, happened to mention that she noticed a guy who looked like Frank Gorshin sitting down the hall. I grabbed the poster, and ventured down to see if she was correct. In fact, she was, and Mr. Gorshin was there in the Casting Department to audition for a role on one of our daytime shows. I got to chat with him a bit, and that’s where I got signature #3. Sometime later, I saw that Burt Ward was appearing at a Con somewhere in New Jersey. He was appearing with both Newmar and Gorshin (I think), who were each at separate tables. I was far back in the line. Then someone from the staff came down the line and happened to ask if anyone was there for JUST Burt. I raised my hand, and the guy took me from the far back of the line up to the very front of the “Burt only” line. I took the poster up to the table and unrolled it. As he was signing, Burt remarked to his manager/friend that (I’m paraphrasing) he couldn’t believe that Adam was too lazy to sign his full name (on the poster, it just reads “A. West”). It was evident to me that either Adam and Burt did not get along or at least they were very competitive. The Yvonne Craig signature was retrieved for me by a friend of mine who took the poster with him to the Chiller convention in NJ, so it is the only signature that I did not get myself. This brings me to May 1997 for the final signature, which was from Burgess Meredith. Mr. Meredith was the last of the “big four” villains who were still living. I found a Malibu address, and in early May I wrote to it blindly with my request, just to feel things out (I hadn’t sent the poster yet). I described the poster, the signatures, and what it meant to me. On May 16, I received a typewritten response from Mr. Meredith’s assistant, Eileen Porch. I still have the correspondence.
It said, “Mr. Meredith appreciated your letter. However, he receives such a heavy volume of requests for autographs, photos, and support for very worthy causes, that his time and energies are too limited (at 89) to oblige them all. But obviously your poster is unique, and if you are willing to risk sending it we will do our best to have it signed and returned to you safely. Thank you for understanding.” Well, that’s all I needed to hear. I packed up the poster, including all the return postage, and shipped it out to the same address in Malibu. On May 30, I received a follow up letter from Ms. Porch, prior to the poster’s return. It said, “Mr. Meredith did sign your poster, and FedEx picked it up this afternoon to return it to you as you instructed. Hopefully, by the time you receive this letter, the poster will already have reached you safely. All is well!” Poster was received shortly thereafter. Burgess Meredith died on September 9, 1997, roughly three months later.
