The Many Faces Of Batman
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
This weekend was a celebration of Gotham City's caped crusader with four films spanning 42 years of Batman on the big screen.
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
This weekend was a celebration of Gotham City's caped crusader with four films spanning 42 years of Batman on the big screen.
The banner, poster, and t-shirt for this event were designed by Andrew Kern. I think this is my favorite shirt and poster of the season so far.
The icing on the cake was the screen accurate 1989 Batmobile that was parked on the grass under the big screen, courtesy of TV Show Cars. This is the same company that brought out the 1967 Batmobile to the Mahoning three years ago. This one was just as incredible!
There was a professional photographer on hand to take pictures of folks standing next to the Batmobile. They also printed 8x10 copies of the photos for fans who participated.
We had a book club meeting on Saturday, so we had to get a group photo next to the iconic car as well.
The subject of our book club was John Jackson Miller's 2024 novel Batman Resurrection. I'm happy to say that I was able to finish this one before our book club met to discuss it. This is pretty unusual for me, but this has been on my list of books that I've wanted to read since I first learned about it. The story is set in Tim Burton's cinematic universe. It takes place between the events of his 1989 blockbuster Batman and his 1992 sequel Batman Returns. If you're a fan of these Batman movies, I strongly recommend it.
There was a vendor event in the hours prior to showtime which was headlined by The Big Kid Store. They hosted a scavenger hunt on both nights of the event with prizes given to the winners. We had a lot of fun doing these last year when they were on the lot, but it was insanely hot, so we crashed in our chairs under some sun umbrellas.
One of my favorite things to do when The Big Kid Store comes to the Mahoning is to look through their stock of vintage Garbage Pail Kids. They didn't have any cards that I needed for my collection, so I hunted to see if I could find cards that had names that matched each of our friends that were on the lot. The only one I managed to find was this 1986 Series 4 Hy Gene card for Gene, who had his own vendor table near the concession building.
Gene also bumped into WWE veteran and former WXW heavyweight champion Gene Snitsky who was in attendance on Friday to enjoy some Batman flicks. The pro wrestler, who graduated from nearby Panther Valley High School where my dad taught, lives fairly close to the Mahoning. I hope that he comes back out for Reel Rumble.
One last vendor that I wanted to mention was the Neshaminy Creek Brewing Company who had cans of their official Mahoning brew Showtime At Sundown in addition to several others.
Under normal circumstances, I would have brough home a case of Summer Dollars which is my favorite beverage of theirs out of the ones that I've tried. However, I've been following my diet very closely over the past six weeks and I'm already starting to see positive results, so I didn't want to get too off track. I did take the opportunity to try one that they brought out to the Mahoning for the first time. It's a dark mild ale called Obsolete Vernacular. Very tasty!
The cosplays were off the charts on the lot this weekend with Hobbs End Cosplay, Muji, and my Horror Screamover buddy Nick absolutely killing it as The Joker and his gang from Batman '89 and The Dark Knight.
Virgil and his son came out to the lot in awesome Batman and Robin costumes, and for some reason, this dude showed up as Egon Spengler. There were a lot of other folks in costume that I didn't get photos of, including a guy who had a perfect 1960's tv series Penguin cosplay.
Batman: The Movie (1966) / Batman (1989)
The first movie on Friday night was the 1966 Batman movie. This is the one starring Adam West and Burt Ward that's based on the 60's television series. We saw this on the big screen three years ago, but it was a pretty rainy night and it was before we met most of our friends on the lot. I'm glad to have had the opportunity to see it again at the Mahoning on a night that was clear and warm and that we could share the experience with Mike, Kate, Carrie, Johnny, Andrew, and Nick.
The second half of Friday night's double feature was Tim Burton's Batman. There's no way that I can properly explain how massive this movie was in the summer of 1989. The only movie in my lifetime that I can think of that even comes close to the media saturation of Batman '89 is The Phantom Menace. You couldn't turn on your tv, listen to the radio, or go out in public in the summer of '89 without seeing or hearing something Batman-related.
My grandfather too me to see Batman at the Church Hill Cinema shortly after my ninth birthday and my grandparents gave me the movie on VHS later on that year as a Christmas present which I watched countless times. I was absolutely obsessed with this movie. Having the opportunity to see a 35mm print of it on the big screen again in my mid 40's was an amazing experience.
The animated film Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm kicked off the double feature on Saturday night. It's based on Batman: The Animated Series which I did watch when I was a teenager, but for some reason, this movie passed me by and this screening at the Mahoning was my first time seeing it. It's a damn good movie! I wish that I had caught it in the 90's, but at the same time, I'm kind of glad to have had the opportunity to see it for the first time on the big screen.
The final movie of Batman Weekend was the 2008 film The Dark Knight. This screening was my second time seeing it on 35mm at a drive-in theater. My wife and I saw it during its original theatrical run at the Laurel Drive-In Theater in Hazleton back when we were still dating. It's an action packed movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat, but I was kind of shocked to find that I don't dig it as much today as I did in the summer of 2008. It's not that I didn't enjoy it, but it's one of those movies that just keeps coming at you without giving the story a second to breathe. It's a movie that every fan of the caped crusader needs to see at some point in their lives, but I found the pacing to be jarring to the point where I'd have to rank this as my fourth favorite film of the event.
And that's a wrap on The Many Faces Of Batman. There are so many movies in the Batman cinematic universe that they could probably run this back for the next couple of years without repeating a film. I'm sure it will be fun if they do, but I can't imagine any combination of films topping this past weekend's event. This was a gem!
