As groundbreaking as THE EROTIC ADVENTURES OF BAT PUSSY must have been back in 1971 (it has been suggested as one of the first true parody porns) the usage of the Bat Woman and other female comic book characters in adult entertainment was not a new thing. In this series we’ll be looking at several precursors, older cousins if you will, of our beloved Bat Pussy. In the previous post we looked at a Cat Woman of sorts, but today we move right on to “other” Bats, beginning with a potential competitor for some of BAT PUSSY’s known screenings…maybe…
As detailed in a post from earlier this year BAT PUSSY may have played under several different names throughout the early 1970s (the word “pussy” not being of the printable type), and one of the obvious variations was in fact BAT WOMAN. But because there are no known posters of either BAT PUSSY or these BAT WOMAN screenings, nor any first-hand, or any-hand accounts for that matter, of what BAT WOMAN actually was, there remains some doubt as to whether these were in fact BAT PUSSY, or some other film of a similar ilk.
Bat Woman FOUND! (maybe)
And it was with this air of doubt in mind that I was knocked out of my seat when I came across the page to the right from the September 1973 issue of Close-Up (an adult newspaper rag from the NY area). Right there in bold black and white print was evidence of an actual film named BAT WOMAN, and the article even included a detailed plot, which tempts us with such amazing things as the Bat Dildo[!] and the moniker Dynamic Dildoer[!!]. And it even provided the production company, Ball Brothers’ Productions[!!!] So there we have it, there actually was another BAT WOMAN film after all…or was there?
The Search Was On
I put Uncle Spicy’s herd of Research Marmosets® into overdrive scouring all available sources, and even a few unavailable sources, for any info on a BAT WOMAN film from Ball Brothers’ Productions, only to find absolutely nothing on either. That is except for one thread, which when said thread was pulled the entire contrivance was laid bare (among other things). After being knocked out of my chair yet again (perhaps I need a new chair), right there in the pages of the February 1967 Carnival magazine, in (mostly) full color this time, we find not only the same actress/model from the supposed 1972 film, but even one of the same goddamn pictures! From 1967!! Five years BEFORE the so-called BAT WOMAN “film” was supposedly made. This time the heroine in question is refereed to as BATGIRL, and we find that she’s not from some Ball Brothers‘ film (because there never was a Ball Brothers of course), but a dancer from the Los Angeles Bat Cave Lounge. So same model, same pictures, from five years before the now faux 1972 film, which means the the pictures in the 1973 Close-Up magazine were nothing more than a repurposing of earlier pictures (a common practice well into the late 1970s). That being said, I still would have liked to have seen the (fake) film that was described in that rag.
But now, what of this so-called Bat Cave? Keep reading after the pretty pictures…
INTO THE CAVE…and Beyond
Batman Fever had spread across the country in the mid-to-late 1960s fueled by the very popular and very camp television show and theatrical films starring Adam West as the Caped Crusader. Among the many Bat-themed things that came out of this were several adult establishments, including The Bat Cave at 5521 Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles. It opened sometime in 1966 and did the Batusi at least into 1969, possibly into the early 1970s, although by 1971 it appears to have closed. And whoever was doing PR for the Sunset Strip Bat Cave certainly earned their money, because as we’ve seen they got a multi-page spread in Carnival magazine, and another layout in the December 1967 Adam magazine, provided here for your assessment, although this time around there’s unfortunately no Bat Suit…in fact there’s very little clothing of any kind! And the dancer in question is identified as Diana Denning, who may be the same actress that showed up in episodes of McHALE’S NAVY and MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE, as well as a part in Stephen C. Apostolof film MOTEL CONFIDENTIAL.
But the Sunset Strip Bat Cave wasn’t the only one. There was another Bat Cave in San Mateo, and a Bat Man Lounge in North Hollywood; I’ve found no evidence any of these were linked, other than the Bat-theme and the Batusi dancing (one can only imagine!). Even a place called The Swinger over in Fresno got in on the Bat Act with their own “Thrilling Dancing of Batgirl” (again, one can only imagine!). And even up in San Francisco Bat Fever was running rampant. Opening also in 1966 (which evidently was the Year of the Bat) there was a nightclub called Wayne Manor, which was “an exact replica” of Bruce’s pad, complete with it’s very own Bat Cave! And the illicit Batgirl trend was not limited to California, in late 1966 at the Crystal Room on 54th Street in New York a dancer going by the name Anita Batgirl was bringing in capacity crowds of 150 people a show, as well as getting busted for wearing “a Batman mask and nothing much else above her waste”. She’ll get her own post probably at some point. But not yet…
In the next installment we’ll meet THE Bat Lady herself, the person who, in a way, I’ve come to think of as Bat Pussy’s Spiritual Godmother, and in fact as we’ll see she was the very first adult Bat Lady/Bat Woman/Bat Girl to make an appearance, in the nude no less, on film. In fact there’s a case t be made that she was the very First Bat Woman overall. But more on that next time.