In our modern day woke times, when you hear that there is a Batman bad guy from the 1960s Batman TV show called The Minstrel, the name rings a few alarm bells. But thankfully, it's not what you think. This is absolutely the other definition of the term.
Definition: A medieval singer or musician, especially one who sang or recited lyric or heroic poetry to a musical accompaniment for the nobility.
So, what we have here is a bad guy getting around Gotham City dressed like a Robin Hood wannabe while performing with a lute. Thankfully, The Minstrel is more than that. An electronics genius, he used the sound frequency of music to help his fiendish criminal ways.
Played by former movie matinee dreamboat Van Johnson, the series came at the same time as Johnson was trying to reinvent himself as a pop music icon.
Source: SBS VICELAND
On the BATMANLAND podcast this week, film and culture writer joins and to discuss The Minstrel joining the Batman rogues gallery in this episode.
Batman airs every Friday evening on SBS VICELAND from 7:25pm, with the BATMANLAND companion podcast available to listen to every week as soon as you finish watching the episodes.
