Holy personal appearance! The Caped Crusader comes to the Coulee Region, 51 years ago

The “Batman” TV show starring Adam West was a hit in the summer of 1966, and a movie version was about to open at La Crosse’s Rivoli Theater that August.  As a publicity stunt, somebody dressed as Batman was scheduled to appear somewhere in La Crosse…maybe at the State Bank, the Montgomery Ward store, or at some of the movie theaters in town.  Guesses about the identity of the local Batman were to be sent on postcards to radio station WLCX.  First prize was the actual Batman costume.  Other prizes included radios, pizzas, and Pepsi. 
 
A similar guessing game involved the grand marshal for the 1966 Oktoberfest Maple Leaf Parade.  People were invited to predict who the marshal would be, and whoever was right would win two tickets to travel with Fest royalty to the St. Paul Winter Carnival.  The ’66 marshal turned out to be WLCX newsman Jim Conway. 
 
Oh, back to that Batman contest.  The person in the Batman costume was to be unmasked on August 11th at Cameron Park.  And Batman was…well, if we ever find out, we’ll let you know here, same Bat-time, same Bat-Channel.  Yesterday in La Crosse.