Yvonne Craig Interview

At the recent Florida Extravaganza show we had the good fortune of sitting down with Yvonne Craig and chatting for a bit. It was great. How often do you get to sit close to the stuff of your childhood fantasies?

DS: First off I have to say that I really appreciate you taking the time to speak to me this afternoon. From the looks of the show, you've been quite the busy lady.

YVONNE: The pleasure's mine and yes its been a busy morning, but you know I always like meeting and talking to fans; keeping busy I hear keeps you young..

DS: Do you still get a lot of fan mail and autographs requests?

YVONNE: Oh dear yes; more than I received while I did the show if you can believe it. I try to set aside a couple of hours a month to answer them all but it always seems I'm never done.

DS: I can't believe you're getting more mail now than during the height of "Bat-mania". Why was that you suppose?

YVONNE: Well you see, I never really received any fan mail while I was on the show it seemed that either Fox studios or ABC-TV intercepted my fan mail and was answering it for me. They were pretty controlling back then.

DS: So it would seem. Speaking of the show, I was surprised to learn that they allowed you to do all your stunts including your own "Batcycle" riding. Why do you think they did that?

YVONNE: Because I was so talented of course (laughs). All kidding aside, the producers didn't want her to be too aggressive so they thought that by having me do my own stunts I wouldn't be able to be too "butch". As far as my Batcycle riding went, back then I had my Yamaha to use to and from the studio so that was easy. You have to remember that they wanted a Batgirl that was still going to be "feminine"; both in appearences and action.

DS: And that you were. I'm sure you're aware of the effect you had on boys growing up all over the U.S.; myself included.

YVONNE: Oh yes. I was quite the enchantress wasn't I. It's still odd that some men will introduce me to their wives and girl friends as their "childhood sweetheart". Men can be very strange..

DS: Well, as far as I'm concerned you're still an attractive lady and look like you could still don the costume without any problems.

YVONNE: Oh please...Any more remarks like that and you'll have me blushing soon.

DS: Ok, back to the show. Have you tried to keep in touch with any of your fellow actors from the show?

YVONNE: You have to remember that its been over 20 years since the show stopped production. I'll keep in touch with Adam and sometimes Burt through appearences, however; we all have involved ourselves in our businesses so it leaves little time to socialize. I did recently run into Burgess Meredith at a grocery store of all places. After the quake, I was buying some supplies when here comes Burgess pushing his cart and wearing these big blue sunglasses. I say "Hello Burgess it's Yvonne. How are you? "Confused, confused; everything fell down" he said. We exchanged some small talk and then went about our business. It was good seeing him because I remember him as always being so sweet.

We'll have Pt. 2 of our sit down with Yvonne. Same Bat-time same, oh.. you know the rest...... C

Here's the second installment of my conversation with Yvonne Craig during her appearance at the 94' Florida Extravaganza show held in Orlando.

DS: Being on the TV series you had the opportunity to work with a lot of established stars of the day. Did you have a particular favorite?

YVONNE: Well I have to admit I had a wonderful time on the show and everyone was very kind. Adam and Burt were always ready to lend a helping hand and offer advice seeing I was considered the "new kid on the block". But if the truth be known, my favorite guest star had to be Vincent Price. He was always a dear and easy to pass the time with during taping. He was so sophisticated and intelligent..and quite the flirt as well.(smiles)

DS: Vincent Price? Egghead? If I didn't know better, sounds to me you had a thing for him.

YVONNE: Well I guess you can say I was quite smitten by him. His voice and his eyes; he had this way of talking to you. Anyway, as a result of the show we grew to be good friends and stayed in touch with each other up until his passing.

DS: Getting back to what you had said about Adam and Burt "lending a hand"; is there any truth to the story about Adam reaching for....

YVONNE: Oh no, not the infamous breast story again.....

DS: Well, I guess that answers my question. So it was true.

YVONNE: Yes, yes...I was felt up by the Batman!! (hand to forehead laughing). I was in front of him and he was supposed to rest his hand on my shoulder. Well, I turned around and the rest shall we say is history. The sad part about it all was that the fool (Adam) was so into the scene that he didn't even notice where his hand was resting. It took all the stage hands to start cracking up before he realized what was going on.

DS: Was he embarrassed at all?

YVONNE: Oh yes. He turned several shades of red under that cowl I can assure you.. As a matter of fact, we kept teasing him about it for the longest time afterwards..

DS: You're aware that both Burt and Adam have autobiographies coming out latter this year; any books in your future?

YVONNE: I'd be lying if I were to say that I haven't been approached to do one, but for right now I'm too busy with my real estate business and family to sit down for a book. Perhaps in the future..

DS: At least I'm glad to see you haven't ruled it out.. I'm sure there's some juicing secrets from the show we'd love to know about.

YVONNE: Well don't expect anything like Burt's book..I didn't realize he'd been so "friendly" with the ladies; he always looked so innocent.... Nonetheless I was also known to be a little wild back then myself so....

DS: A hell bent for leather Batgirl, riding around LA on her motorcycle looking for adventure. I would have loved to have seen that....

YVONNE: (smiling) Ah....You'll have to stay tuned and read the book.....

My extreme thanks once again go to Ms. Craig for taking time out to talk with us. She was great and remains every bit the star I thought her to be.

C.