This Day in Pop Culture for July 30

Batman tries to get rid of a bomb, flowers danced with trees and Penguin Books was born.

July 30, 2020

3–4 minutes

1966: Some Days You Just Can’t Get Rid of a Bomb

Riding high on the success of the Batman TV series, Batman, the movie, opened in theaters two months after the last episode of season one had aired. More than just an extended episode of the TV series, the movie went all out. All of the main cast reprised their roles including Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin.

Instead of just one or two villains, the movie included four. The baddies included The Penguin (Burgess Meredith), The Joker (Cesar Romero), The Riddler (Frank Gorshin) and Catwoman (this time played by Lee Meriwether because Julie Newmar was healing from a back injury). Together they formed a plot to kill the Dynamic Duo and kidnap members of the United World Headquarters

The movie also showed more “Batvehicles” that complemented the Batmobile. These included the Batcycle (with a sidecar for Robin), Batboat and Batcopter.

While a success, Batman wasn’t a runaway hit. It needed $3.2 million to break even and made $3.9 million. Many years later, West and Ward, along with Julie, reprised their roles for two animated, direct-to-video “sequels. Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders was released in 2016 and Batman vs. Two-Face (which the villain was voiced by William Shatner) was released in 2017 after West’s death. (Images: Wikipedia)

1935: Paperback Books Start a Revolution

Once upon a time, Allen Lane, Chairman of the London publisher, The Bodley Head was returning home after traveling with author Agatha Christie and her husband. At the train station, he browsed the kiosks looking for something to read on his way home. All he could find were magazines or low-quality paperback stories that he had no interest in reading. Then the thought occurred to him that people, like himself, might be more inclined to read good quality books if they were more affordable. And since he was in the position to help build up lagging sales for his company, he ventured into printing previously hard-back books into a paperback format.

The first was released on this day. Penguin Books featured no photos and were priced about a fifteenth the price of a hardcover book. His books began to show up in places like drug stores. The company produced ten books and about one million of those Penguin books were sold within the first six month of publishing.

1932: The First Full Color Cartoon

Walt Disney’s first colored cartoon, Flowers and Trees was released on this day in 1932. It is important because it was the first commercially released film to be produced using the full color, three-strip Technicolor process after several years of two-color Technicolor films. Disney already had the short in production as another black-and-white release but scrapped it and started again from the beginning.

Flowers and Trees won the first Academy Award for Animated Short Subjects. Ironically, Mickey Mouse and friends did well enough on their own to be seen in black-and-white and there they remained until 1935’s The Band Concert.