"Holy Taxation, Batman!"
Yes, even Batman was aware of his civic duty. Robin uttered those words in Batman (Season 2, episode 4, The Cat and the Fiddle) in response to Batman's request for money for the parking meter.
But that wasn't Batman's most famous brush with taxation. Believe it or not, one of Gotham City's villainest villains was the taxman, of sorts: Egghead. Egghead tackled Gotham City's tax coffers not once, but twice.
Egghead, played by the delightfully campy Vincent Price, made his debut as a Batman villain in the 1960s television show. The show, of course, didn't mark the advent of Batman. Batman had literally swooped onto the pages of National Publications (now DC Comics) years before in The Case of the Chemical Syndicate, published in Detective Comics #27 (May 1939).
In 1966, ABC developed the characters from the comics into a live action television show. The show, starring Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin, ran for just three seasons - but left a mark on American pop culture. A number of popular actors shared the screen with the dynamic duo, including Burgess Meredith, Cesar Romero, Julie Newmar, Eartha Kitt and Milton Berle. Even Joan Collins, Dick Clark and Ethel Merman stopped by. Also notably hamming it up with West and Ward? The iconic Vincent Price.
Vincent Price (known best to my generation as the voice from Michael Jackson's Thriller) made his mark in the horror and science fiction world beginning with the Tower of London in 1939. He went on to build a reputation in the horror genre with such flicks as House of Wax, House of Wax and The Fly. With the popularity of television on the rise, Price secured guest appearances on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and F Troop before landing the roll as Egghead on Batman.
Egghead was a villain created for the Batman television series. Egghead looked exactly as you'd imagine: he had a shiny, bald head and wore a white and yellow suit. Egghead considered himself "the world's smartest criminal" and Batman seemed to agree, telling Robin, "He's assuredly the smartest villain we've ever faced." Egghead used eggs in his crimes and egg-shaped weapons, including the laughing gas egg (worth the watch, I promise). Near and dear to my heart, Egghead loved puns and would pepper his speech with such witticisms as egg-sactly, egg-squisite and egg-stinct. He cracked me up.
Don't let the camp fool you: Egghead really was one of the most clever villains on the show. He was only one of two of the villains on the show to make the connection that Batman was also Bruce Wayne (Victor Buono's King Tut was the other). In Gotham, he was referred to by authorities as "the rottenest egg of them all."
Egghead made his entrance in the second season of the series in "An Egg Grows in Gotham." In the plot, Egghead schemed with Chief Screaming Chicken (yes) to return Gotham City to the Mohican Indians. As part of the deal, Egghead would be placed in charge of Gotham City. What Egghead really wanted, however, was the $29 million dollars ($205,457,820.85 in today's money - apparently Gotham City was quite fiscally sound) in collected taxes in the Gotham Treasury. Batman and Robin, of course, saved the day.
That didn't stop Egghead from returning in the third season in "The Ogg and I." This time, he had a new love interest, Olga, Queen of the Cossacks, played by Anne Baxter. As part of the story arc, Egghead kidnapped Gotham City's Commissioner Gordon and held him for ransom: a ten cent tax on every egg eaten in Gotham City - an eggs-ise tax if you will (sorry, couldn't resist). Of course, such a tax isn't effective unless there's enforcement. Egghead thought of that: Gotham City police officers were charged with counting the eggs and collecting the tax. Again, Batman and Robin saved the day.
It was, of course, not surprising that one of the most popular of the Batman television series villains was fixated on taxation. Income tax rates were on the minds of many Americans. Tax rates remained remarkably high, with federal income tax rates reaching a whopping 70% for those at the top (remarkably, that was a decline from rates as high as 92% just ten years earlier). Worse, it didn't appear that the tax burden would drop any time soon since the country was in the middle of the Cold War and was heavily involved in Vietnam. It turned out that taxpayers were right: tax rates wouldn't dip significantly until the first set of Reagan tax reforms in 1982.
Against the backdrop of war and high taxes, it was clear that America wanted some levity. And they got it from Batman: it was, for a short while, one of the most popular series on television. Price enjoyed the show, too. At the end of a take one day, he began hurling eggs at West and Ward. When the crew asked him to stop, he remarked, "With a full artillery? Not a chance!" A full on egg fight ensued. (article downloads as a pdf).
While the show has been off the air since 1968 (you can still catch it in repeats), the comics live on. They've been around since 1939, making this year the 75th anniversary. In celebration of Batman’s 75th anniversary, DC Entertainment has deemed today, Wednesday, July 23, "Batman Day." So, take a moment to engage in a little Bat-mania today... And don't forget your free stuff: in honor of Batman Day, fans who visit participating retailers (including all Barnes &
