Batman Vs. Superman!

      FRIDAY. MARCH 25TH.
   BATMAN Vs. SUPERMAN!

   That big Blockbuster movie
pitting two of our greatest
Superheroes is scheduled to
open today.
    But, in reality, Clark Kent
and Bruce Wayne were already
fighting it out... at the box office
back in the 1940's!
    Turner Classic movies took
me back to those days on Wednesday
night when the channel featured
several chapters of the Batman and
Superman serials that ran at my
neighborhood movie house every
Saturday afternoon.
    They even threw in samples
of the Green Hornet and Buck
Rodgers as well.
     It was often "rough at the
Diamond" when I stopped in to
see the weekly cliff hangers. The
Diamond Theater was the smallest
movie "palace" in my hometown.
It featured the usual run of weekend
westerns, week old pop corn, and a
rest room you did everything you
could to avoid.
     But it always had the serials so
that's where I went to watch Clark
run into the bushes to return as
Superman or Bruce and his young
pal to come out of the Bat Cave as
Batman and Robin.
     I was too young to realize that
anybody in his right mind could
tell that thin mask did little to hide
Robin's true identity. And without
the benefits of today's special effects
Superman had to be turned into a
cartoon every time you saw him take
to the air and fly. But it looked real
enough to me!
      I believe Superman won that
original confrontation...grossing
more in ticket sales than Batman.
      The new epic may set it's own
record for ticket sales. But, in my
mind, it can never replace those
Saturday afternoons in that dark
neighborhood theater where black
and white was the norm and every
6-gun fired 30 or more shots.(By
the way, all of them bounced off
Superman's chest!)
       Hope the movie is great, the
popcorn fresh....and that all your
NEWS is good.