National Batman Day was held Saturday and it’s become a time when Batman fans from around the world celebrate their love of the Caped Crusader, who first appeared in the pages of DC Comics in 1939. And it was in those pages that spawned the imaginary world of Gotham in TV shows, cartoons, movies, and oh so much more.
Samuel Garza Bernstein is the author of the brand-new book, “Cesar Romero: The Joker is Wild”, a biography of the man that brought to life Batman’s greatest villain ever. He joined GBH’s Henry Santoro to reflect back on Romero’s life and career.
Henry Santoro: Samuel, welcome to GBH, welcome to Henry in the Hub, and happy Batman Day. From a Batman perspective, you had the choice of many villains to choose from the TV series including Frank Gorshin, Vincent Price, Burgess Meredith, Julie Newmar, Eartha Kitt, John Austin, to name a few. All great actors. What made you choose Cesar Romero?
Samuel Garza Bernstein: The idea of writing about Cesar came to me from my agent, when he told me that there had never been one written. And I was kind of shocked by that. I started doing some preliminary research, and I discovered such a rich tapestry of roles that he had played and experiences that he has. And for me, it was kind of like looking for the origin story of the Joker himself.
Santoro: In the book, you point out that acting was not necessarily in the cards for Romero.
Bernstein: Absolutely. He was the son of a very wealthy sugar manufacturer, a Cuban American, and would have taken over the business. But the great sugar panic of 1925 intervened, and his family went bust. Cesar, at the age of 18, became one of the supporters of his family.
Santoro: How in the world did he end up as the Joker?
Bernstein: I look at the Joker’s origin story, part of that is because I see all of the roles he played in the many, many films he did before he became the Joker. He had dancing skills that always were part of his life. He started out as a ballroom dancer.
Santoro: I mean, Cesar had the laugh.
Bernstein: That laugh was organically Cesar’s. He didn’t really know the comic book stuff very well, so he was happily shocked when he first saw the costume renderings for what he was going to look like as the Joker. He just thought, “Oh, my God. I mean, I knew it was going to be kind of over the top.” But he had no idea he’d be wearing this purple suit with green hair and everything. And he started to laugh. And the executive producer of the show heard that laugh and said, “That’s it. That is the Joker. That’s who the man is.”
Santoro: Never married, Romero was described as a confirmed bachelor. Did he have male lovers?
Bernstein: It would seem so. I mean, I cannot say for certain. There are no sort of diaries that exist or love letters, but it seems highly likely that he had a very, very close physical and personal relationship with Tyrone Power, who was a great star of the 30s and 40s, and 50s. I can’t name other relationships he had. He kept them very, very private.
Santoro: It seems like it’s a very well-kept secret, as it was for Rock Hudson and Robert Crane and so many others that were in Hollywood at that time.
Bernstein: Well, I mean, it was illegal to be gay, you know. It wasn’t just frowned upon.
Santoro: And you would lose work if they found out.
Bernstein: Absolutely. He was a sexy leading man from the time he started his career to the time right before he died when he was working in 1993. He always had a kind of sex appeal. Women were infatuated with him. And it it worked to his advantage that he was so likable to men, and so irresistible to women. He certainly never got married the way Rock Hudson did.
Santoro: And the picture of Cesar that is on the cover of your book, “Cesar Romero: The Joker is Wild”, will pull in the Batman audience for this.
Bernstein: I hope so. I say the superhero world and the super villain world is all about origin stories.
Santoro: Samuel Garza-Bernstein is the author of “Cesar Romero: The Joker is Wild”. Samuel, thank you so much for this conversation and happy Batman Day! Ka-Boom!
