''Don't let this guy off the lot'': Adam West was a hot commodity after doing a character read
Most actors in film and TV work steadily but never become famous. We usually only notice the few who make it big. Adam West was one of those rare actors who had the total package: talent and looks.
In his book Back to the Batcave, which he wrote with Jeff Rovin, West explains how Bill Orr and Hugh Benson, top Warner Bros. TV executives, rushed to sign him after his audition.
"Lock the gates! Call security! Don't let this guy off the lot!" Chapter four starts with these words, which West says Orr and Benson actually said. "I was in the office suite of Bill Orr and Hugh Benson...Benson was yelling into the phone, his blonde mustache twitching and his blue eyes examining me. I had just finished reading a scene I had already done several times that day for producers under Orr's command..."
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"The character I'd just read was a sniveling cavalry deserter and would-be rapist. I must have been pretty convincing because Benson became very excited." They called in casting director Eddie Foy and told him to get a contract ready, saying, "The kid doesn't leave the lot. He's ours!"
Foy told Adam West he was the luckiest guy in the world if those two wanted him that much.
"They'll offer you a seven-year contract, and if you've got what it takes, they'll make a star out of you. Take it, you'll love it." At the same time, West was also in talks with MGM and had promised to return for an audition, but he wasn't sure if he should skip that and sign with Warner Bros.