Here's the video of yesterday's ceremony in which Bob Kane received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame…
I haven't watched it. If anyone does, lemme know if anyone says anything interesting or the name "Bill Finger." It would not surprise me if someone did, as Finger has started receiving his new credit (It was on an episode of Robot Chicken last week!) and everyone involved in Batman seems to be sensitive to the issue these days.
I've received several e-mails asking me if I'm horrified that Bob Kane is receiving this star and others asking me what it will take to get one for Bill Finger. Taking the first matter first: Nope, not horrified. I think Bob Kane deserves an honor like that. Even if one was only the co-creator of Batman…well, come on. It's Batman. How many people had even a little to do with the creation of something that beloved and important and iconic? I had my problems with Mr. Kane, who was not the nicest man in the world but I went to his funeral because…well, Batman. That's why I went to his funeral. And it's why I think he merits one of those stars.
I will add that I also think people often take things like those stars too seriously. They are, after all, a promotional tool for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, doled out for the promotional needs of others. They are not a definitive judgment on greatness and achievement. There are actors and disc jockeys you never heard of who have them. There are folks of tremendous accomplishment who don't. Clint Eastwood, Paul Simon and David Letterman — to name but three — aren't there.
As for how to get one for Bill Finger…or for that matter, Jack Kirby: There's a process and it's much more difficult for someone who's deceased since they give out so few posthumous ones. Here's the nomination procedure but don't bother starting the process. The folks who award the stars may deny this but really, the only way anyone like Bill Finger is going to receive a star is if sometime when a new Batman movie or TV show is coming out, someone at the studio decides to throw the studio's clout (and the $30,000 fee) behind the effort as part of the promotion of that movie or TV show. They can make that happen. You and I really can't…and besides, it's $30,000.
I hope they do it for Finger. It won't make up all the way for decades of neglect and lack of credit but it would be appropriate, given the new recognition that his name oughta appear wherever Kane's does.