Monday, February 24, 2014

“New,” previously unpublished Bill Finger photo 1 of 6

Since Bill Finger’s death in 1974, only two photos of him had been commonly published and republished, so people began to say that those were the only two photos of Bill that existed.

Rather they were the only two photos that were known to exist.

No one had looked hard enough yet.

So I set out to remedy that. 

And from seven sources over nine months, I found a bunch more.

The title of my post back on 7/21/08, five months after I launched this blog, was “‘New’ Bill Finger photo 1 of 9.”

But there were no subsequent posts unveiling photos 2-9.

Part of this was oversight.

Part of this was forethought, since I eventually published three of those original nine in Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman.

For some time now, I have been intending to reveal the remaining five. What is finally motivating me to do so is that I recently

found

yet 


another.

It has been years since I last uncovered a Finger photo that had been buried in a private collection, but no amount of time will make me forget the high.


I did not uncover this one personally—Bill’s only grandchild Athena did.

Of the six “new” photos I will share here over the next six days, this latest discovery dates back the earliest:



A great photo (and not just because Bill Finger is in it, second from left).

Based on his hair, it’s almost certainly in the 1930s—pre-Batman. It’s almost certainly at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, where Bill would golf. (The giveaway—the golf clubs.) 

I don’t know who the other three people are. Do you?

Tune in for the next five days to see five more glimpses of Bill that have never been published.


7/19/14 addendum: Athena just turned up a second new photo this year.

1 comment:

John Rosado said...

He would have lived a better life if bob Kahn would have been a true friend!