Jeez, I had forgotten about this Batman episode until now.  Here's more
details than you probably care to know.  Randy Hayno wrote:

> I remember my favorite Batman episode co-starring Liberace and his
> evil identical twin brother (also played by Liberace).

The episodes were "The Devil's Fingers" and "The Dead Ringers", a
two-parter from October, 1966.  The evil twin brother was named Harry,
and he was blackmailing his brother, the world famous concert pianist
"Arthur Chandell."

It seems that Chandell was forced to live a second life, as the criminal
"Fingers", because Harry knew that Chandell had used a "mechanical player
piano" at a concert at the White House (the concert which made him
famous).  He used the player because he had "hurt his fingers in the
piano lid".

In his life of crime, Chandell would play a sour note to trigger a
robbery by Doe, Rae, and Mimi, the bagpipe-toting female accomplices.

 [ Okay, I understand;  Sol Fa, Sol Good, I Si Do !   ;-)   -- Robbie

The basic plot: to get rid of the blackmail and leave behind the life of
crime, Chandell cooks up a plan to get the Wayne fortune and pay off his
evil brother -- he'll kill off Bruce and Dick (aka Batman & Robin), and
then marry Aunt Harriet and use their joint bank account.

The hideout was "behind the doors of the bankrupt Parnassus Music Roll
Co.", at 20B Front St.  Zip code "99999 79".  It had a door like a giant
piano roll; when a note was struck on the piano, it would roll up & open.

> There was an Ampico grand piano and a rare Seeburg "J" orchestrion with
> the Capitol building art-glass just like the one pictured on page 236 in
> Player Piano Treasury.

Yep.  Batman & Robin get knocked out by a huge (4' diameter) music roll
dropped from the ceiling.  The crooks tie up Batman and Robin to the
perforator, and "The Dynamic Duo is about to be perforated into human
piano rolls!!" says the announcer.

> ... the Seeburg [plays] and the perforator started running, pulling
> them into it and they were going to be made into a music roll.
> Then Batman got the idea that if they sang just the right notes the
> punches would go around their bodies and not get them.  They did and
> came out the other side okay.

Unfortunately, you don't actually hear the Seeburg play.  The music that
starts up is a really cheesy version of the National Emblem March played
on a very cheap piano.  The art-glass does light up, though.  Batman
"mentally conceives the chords" that will cause the perforator's cutters
to outline them instead of puncture them.  They out-shout the Seeburg and
emerge unscathed.

During some of the Bat-fight scenes, you can also see other keyboard
devices --

- a black upright player with very ornate white scrollwork all over it,
  with over 20 rolls sitting atop it
- a more modern pump organ
- Liberace's actual own grand piano, complete with candelabras
- the player grand mentioned above (you can't see any labeling on it) --
  at the end, Aunt Harriet pulls out the drawer underneath the keyboard
  where you can see the roll moving (the talentless Harry had taken
  Chandell's place).

> "Holy lock-and-cancel, Robin!"

Alas, this wasn't one of the holy phrases used in this show.  :-)
Robin did, however, use the following related phrases:

  "Holy Pianola!  What is this?"  (as they're tied to the conveyer belt
                                   leading into the perforator)
  "Holy Metronome!"
  "Holy Caruso!"
  "Holy Perfect Pitch!"  (after they come out of the perforator
                          in one piece)

And the announcer at the intro to part 2 says:  "Holy Sour Note!".

Rick Inzero, Northern Telecom, Inc.,  Rochester, NY
rdi@cci.com

 [ That's sure great "camp" comedy!  Thanks, Rick and Randy.
 [ -- Robbie