Posted By Dan Greenfield on Apr 22, 2024 | 12 comments

Bill’s fabulous riff on Martin and Lewis’ Artists and Models, in time for Shirley MacLaine’s 90th birthday…

By BILL MORRISON

Like my 13th Dimension cohort, Paul Kupperberg, I am an unabashed Jerry Lewis fan! I especially love to collect Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis film posters and comic books, and one day several years ago I did one of my regular eBay searches for “Martin and Lewis Comic Book” and got a huge surprise. Someone was selling an original, painted Bat Lady prop-art cover from the 1955 Frank Tashlin film Artists and Models, starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis!

It seemed that no other fans had yet discovered this rare piece of movie memorabilia, and I snapped it up immediately! Then, some years later, I saw three Bat Lady prop-art pages from the film come up in a Hollywood memorabilia auction. I cast my bid and miraculously I was the high bidder!

A bit about Artists and Models for those who haven’t seen it: In the film, Jerry Lewis’ character, Eugene Fullstack, is an aspiring writer of children’s books who is obsessed with The Bat Lady comic book. Dean Martin’s character, Rick Todd, is a fine artist who is equally obsessed with attractive comic book artist Abigail Parker (Dorothy Malone) who draws The Bat Lady comic. Shirley MacLaine (in her second film role) plays Parker’s roommate, Bessie Sparrowbush, who models for her friend in costume as the Bat Lady.

For comic fans and historians, the film is a must-see, if only for the fact that it deals with the famous 1954 US Senate Subcommittee hearings on the relationship between comic books and juvenile delinquency in key scenes. These are the hearings that panicked certain comic book publishers and led to the self-governing Comics Code Authority. (Coincidentally, those hearings were 70 years ago this week, and MacLaine turns 90 on Wednesday, April 24.)

Also, it’s arguable that DC Comics’ Batwoman or even Batgirl may not exist without this film. Batwoman premiered in Detective Comics #233 in May of 1956, a mere seven months after the release of Artists and Models in November 1955. It’s quite possible that DC executives were spooked by the screen appearance of a female version of Batman and moved quickly to establish their own feminine bat-character.

Animation fans will recognize the name of the film’s director, Frank Tashlin, who directed several shorts for Warner Brothers before moving into live-action films. Tashlin was a perfect director of Jerry Lewis’ cartoony comedy, and Artists and Models is full of sight gags that would be right at home in a Looney Tunes short.

Every time I watch the movie I get a big kick out of spotting the art in my collection. The painted cover art appears printed on comic book covers in several scenes, and the actual cover painting is displayed on the wall behind the desk of comic book publisher Mr. Murdock (played by Eddie Mayehoff). The panel pages can be seen in a few scenes as well, either strewn about Abigail Parker’s studio, or in Murdoch’s office as he complains to the artist about the lack of blood and gore in her work. The art has been attributed to Paramount studio illustrators Arthur Camp or Neil Wheeler.

I also love to watch Shirley MacLaine as Bessie Sparrowbush and the Bat Lady! Her many talents are on full display as she sings, dances, quips, and mugs her way through the film, providing a perfect comedic love interest for Jerry’s standard 10-year-old-adult character. She’s so captivating that it’s hard to understand why Eugene has no interest in Bessie but is bonkers for the Bat Lady. Then again, maybe this is another inside comic book reference, a nod to the classic Lois Lane/Clark Kent/Superman love triangle.

In honor of Shirley MacLaine’s 90th birthday, I created this tribute cover that introduces the Bat Lady:

It obviously pays homage to Detective Comics #359, which in 1966 introduced Barbara Gordon’s Batgirl to the world, but does so on the cover of an imaginary issue of DC’s The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. It also has a “what if?” factor for fans of Martin and Lewis, asking “What if Dean and Jerry had not split up their act in 1956 and their comic book series continued with the comedy duo intact into the go-go checks era of the mid-1960s?”

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