Batman & Bill Page #7

---

virtually unrecognized.

And Bob was remembered

as the creator of Batman.

His gravestone

says, "God bestowed

a dream upon Bob Kane.

Blessed with divine inspiration

and a rich imagination,

Bob created a legacy

known as BATMAN.

Bob Kane, Bruce Wayne, Batman,

they are one and the same.

Bob infused his dual

identity character

with his own attributes:

goodness, kindness,

compassion, sensitivity,

generosity..."

I didn't know him,

and I'm very careful

to emphasize that.

I don't know what

he was like as a son

or a husband or a father,

and I want to think the best.

And, you know, he

had a right to be proud

of his role in Batman,

but professionally,

he was not Bruce Wayne.

He was not what it

says on his gravestone.

(birds chirping)

Every child grows

up with parents

whose jobs become

part of their...

the texture of their lives,

and unfortunately for my kids,

that was Bill Finger,

so my kids knew more

about Bill Finger

at a very young age

than some hardcore

Batman fans have known

at the peak of their knowledge.

What about your daddy?

You're my daddy!

- What's my name?

- Marc Tyler.

And what do I do all day?

- Work!

- What's my job?

Bill Finger.

What do I do?

- Bill Finger.

- But what does that mean?

Bill Finger.

- Who's Bill Finger?

- Bill Finger.

Is that my friend?

Yes!

My daughter, for

all intents, grew up

with Bill Finger as a part

of the extended family.

My wife was very patient.

We were young and struggling,

and I was putting in a lot

of time for this project

because I did get

consumed by this,

and not to the point

that I was not showing up

for family events or forgetting

to put my shoes on,

but I was really

very focused on this.

Excuse me, Batman!

Can I ask you a

couple questions?

- Where's Batman from?

- Gotham City.

And what's his real name?

Bruce Wayne.

- And who created him?

- Bob Kane.

Just Bob Kane?

When I see people

wearing Batman shirts

or Batman clothes,

which I do all the time,

yeah, I do smile

to myself and think,

"Should I stop

that guy and ask him

if he knows who

Bill Finger is?"

- Who's Dick Grayson?

- Dick Grayson...

He's the first Robin,

also Nightwing.

Who's Bill Finger?

Bill Finger?

Him I don't know.

The story is so good,

anyone wearing a Batman shirt

would want to know it.

I have a few

Batman T-shirts left

that I would like to give out.

- Does anybody want one?

- Sure!

All right.

They probably

looked at those shirts

and said, "Wait,

this isn't Batman.

This is Bill Finger...

Who's that?"

It just got me thinking, well,

the only way this

would be possible

is if by some miracle

this book can be a part

of the larger

groundswell of support

that might be able

to overturn the idea

that you need to be an

heir to fight for credit.

Maybe there could be

enough public support

to say there's enough proof

that this person was involved

that we don't need an

heir to make this right,

to make this whole again.

I mean, maybe that can happen,

I mean, laws get

overturned, right?

When I started this research,

we knew just about

zip about Bill's family

with the exception of the fact

that he had a son named Fred.

So I learned that

Fred was a chef,

and I know that he

had spent some time

on the west coast,

and it also turned out

that Fred had developed AIDS

and died in 1992.

He was the last surviving

heir of Bill Finger.

So my next approach was

to try to find people

on his first wife's side.

So her name was Portia,

and I decided to try

to look through the

New York Times obituaries.

Prior to 1981 if you get a hit,

you don't bring

up the actual obit,

you bring up the whole page

where that obit appears.

So I did this for hours,

and I eventually found

the obituary for

Portia's mother,

which means Bill's

mother-in-law,

and in that obituary

there were three names.

Fred, Bill's son, which

I already knew, of course,

and two of Fred's cousins,

Judy and Eric Flam.

So I searched them,

and it was at probably

about 11 o'clock at

night on the east coast.

Judy was in Massachusetts,

too late to call her,

as excited as I was,

but Eric was in Arizona,

so I called him right then.

And when I called Eric,

I said, "I'm a writer,

and I'm working on a project

about a writer

named Bill Finger."

And he said,

"What did you say?"

And I said, "Bill Finger,"

and he put the

phone to the side,

and he called to

his wife and said,

"This guy's calling

about Bill Finger!

Uncle Bill, no one's ever called

about Uncle Bill before!"

And then he came back

on the phone and said,

"Well, I don't know much.

My sister Judy would know more,

you can call her tomorrow,

but I think what

you really should do

is talk to Bill's

granddaughter."

And I said, "But Bill

doesn't have a granddaughter!

He said, "No, but he does,"

and I said, "Well,

he had only one child,

Fred, who was gay,

and that was it,"

as if I would know

better than the family.

And Eric said, "That is true,

he did have a son

Fred who was gay,

but Fred had a daughter."

When I first heard those words,

"You should look for

Bill's granddaughter,"

I feel like I saw

a movie marquee,

and it said,

"The Heir to Batman."

And it made me feel

like this might be

a bigger story than

anybody realized.

The next day, I spoke with Judy.

Judy was the one who told me

that her name was Athena.

The best she

could do was give me

her last known state, Florida,

so I was back to square one,

looking for an heir that

we did not know existed.

I did not find an Athena Finger

in the Florida directory,

so I wasn't even sure

that that was accurate,

so I ended up looking online

for any mention of her,

and I found record

of her wedding.

She married a man

named Zaido Cruz.

So I found mention

of a Zaido Cruz

on the website of a drummer

whose name was Lance,

if I'm not mistaken.

And I emailed Lance and said,

"Is this the Zaido Cruz

who's married

to Athena Finger?"

And he said...

he wrote back,

and I never spoke with him,

but this is the voice

that I heard, he's like,

"Yeah, man, hey,

dude, I know Zaido!

Yeah, he's in my band!"

or "I've played with

him, we've jammed,

and you should

totally look him up,

and you should find

them and, you know,

Athena should

be easy to find!"

And I said, "How's that?"

And he said, "Well,

just look her up

on her Myspace page."

In 2007, I was not

thinking Myspace

or Facebook or

social media at all.

So that was a revelation,

so thanks, Lance!

So I looked Athena

up on Myspace,

and when I found the

only Athena Finger there,

the first thing I saw

was a photo of a dog,

and the caption was,

"My Dog, Bruce Wayne."

That was a fist pump moment.

I don't think I

literally stood up

and did a fist pump,

that's maybe not my character,

but in my mind I

was doing somersaults

and throwing the football down

and doing a dance

in the end zone.

That was my moment.

So I had that moment before,

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes