The Batmobile

Artwork: #29 of 121 by Nina Prommer

Tags: batmobile photographs, actor photographs, actress photographs, arts photographs, celebrity photographs, batmobile canvas prints, actor canvas prints, actress canvas prints, arts canvas prints, celebrity canvas prints

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Title:

The Batmobile

Artist:

Nina Prommer

Medium:

Photograph - Photo

Description:

The Batmobile on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, California. The Batmobile is the automobile of comics superhero Batman. The car has evolved along with the character from comic books to television and films. Kept in the Batcave, which it accesses through a hidden entrance, the Batmobile is a gadget-laden vehicle used by Batman in his crime-fighting activities. It is, in most incarnations, the primary vehicle of the Dark Knight.
Batman first drove the Batmobile in Detective Comics #27 (May, 1939). A sedan, the vehicle was simply referred to as "his car". It soon began featuring an increasingly prominent bat motif, typically including distinctive wing-shaped tailfins. In the early stages of Batman's career, he modified it with armor and technologically advanced automotive customization and turned the Batmobile into a sleek street machine. The Batmobile has gone through numerous incarnations, and as state-of-the-art technology has continued to advance, the vehicle has had to change to stay a step ahead of real-life cutting edge advances. George Barris was trying to get Hollywood's attention with the Futura, but aside from "It Started With a Kiss" in 1959, the Futura had been languishing in his Hollywood shop for several years. With only three weeks to finish the Batmobile (although in recent years Jeffries says that his car was dropped because he was told it was needed in "a week and a half", he was quoted in 1988 as saying "three weeks" as well), Barris decided that, rather than building a car from scratch, it would be relatively easy to transform the distinctive Futura into the famous crime-fighting vehicle. Design work was conducted by Herb Grasse, working as an associate designer for Barris.
Barris hired Bill Cushenbery to do the metal modifications to the car and its conversion into the Batmobile was completed in just three weeks, at a reported cost of US $30,000. They used the primer-painted, white-striped car in October, 1965, for a network presentation reel. Shortly afterward, the car was painted gloss black with "fluorescent cerise" stripes. Barris retained ownership of the car and leased it back to 20th Century Fox and Greenway Productions for use in the series. The estimated 1966 value of the Barris Batmobile was about $125,000, but today it is estimated to be worth at least US$2 million.
In December 1965 Ford sold the Futura to Barris; despite its huge original production cost—the equivalent of approximately US $2 million in 2009—Barris was able to buy the vehicle for the nominal sum of $1.00 and "other valuable consideration"

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