STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

To Batman’s daughter, home life was perfectly normal. Adam West cooked fried chicken and pot roast for his kids, made breakfast for everybody on Christmas morning, and mowed the lawn.

Having grown up on a wheat ranch in Walla Walla, Wash., where both sides of his family had ranched since the mid-1800, he thrived on big ranch meals. And his taco nights were legendary—big party meals that felt like a celebration every time.

But, then, the family would go out to dinner, and police officers would take her father's hand and start crying.

Nina Tooley hung these portraits Adam West did of “The Madhatter” and other villainous characters he played alongside.

"They were inspired to go into crime fighting and law enforcement because of Batman," said Nina Tooley, West's daughter. "So, he was their inspiration, and they would get very emotional."

That duality—the ordinary dad and the cultural icon—is at the heart of "Bright Knight: The Life & Legacy of Adam West," a pop-up exhibition opening Tuesday, June 30, in one of the  museum buildings at Ketchum's Forest Service Park.

The show was organized by Tooley, her sister Jill Lear and their mother Marcelle in conjunction with the Sun Valley Museum of Art and the City of Ketchum. And it marks the 60th anniversary of the original Batman television series while revealing the full arc of West’s life lived with imagination, grit and an unshakable connection to his fans.

The campy 1960s “Batman” TV series with its upbeat music starred West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin—two crime-fighting heroes who defended Gotham City from a plethora of fantastical villains such as Catwoman and Egghead. The formulaic show boasted a simplistic morality that even championed eating vegetables and drinking milk.

Take a selfie of yourself sliding down the Bat Pole at the Bright Knight exhibit.

It racked up 120 episodes over three seasons and was ranked by TV critic Alan Sepinwall as the 82nd greatest American TV show of all time.

But the Bright Knight exhibition goes far deeper than the Batcave.

The exhibition traces West's journey from a boy who dreamed of being John Wayne to an with six decades in entertainment through more than 60 photographs from West's early life, another 40 behind-the-scenes photos and stills from the Batman set, 16 of his original paintings and personal memorabilia.

Paul Bates even recreated Batman’s library for attendees to take selfies in.

Here’s how the Bat Pole looked for Robin and Batman—the Bright Knight reference being a playful counter to Batman’s later moniker, the Dark Knight,

"For our family, it's been a little bit like an archaeological dig, going through the photos and the old posters and finding treasures that we want to share with everybody," Tooley said. "It's an emotional rollercoaster, but I'm just so excited to share his whole life with the community."

Some of those treasures tell the story of turning points that shaped West's path long before he ever pulled on the cowl. Drafted into the Army during college, West was recognized for his talent in PR and communication.

An officer wrote a letter recommending he be reassigned—the original letter is part of the exhibition. The Army put him in charge of a radio station and had him working with television, planting the seeds of a broadcasting career.

After the service, West moved to Hawaii, where he co-hosted a local TV show, acted in community theater productions and gave airplane tours of the island while learning to fly. It was on one of those flights that he met a talent agent. That night, the agent came to see him perform in a local theater production.

A Batman surfboard tops some of the photos in the Bright Knight exhibition.

"He said, ‘You've got what it takes,’ " Tooley recounted.

When the agent asked West to put together audition photos, West borrowed a friend's horse, somehow managed to find a cowboy hat in Hawaii and posed as if he were in a Western film—with a palm tree line visible in the background. He sent the photos to the agent, who flew him to Los Angeles where he signed a contract with Warner Bros. to appear in Western films.

"He didn't just become Batman overnight," Tooley said. "These are the building blocks of his life."

West was doing well in Westerns when he was cast as Batman in 1966. After the series ended, he struggled to find work—typecast forever as the Caped Crusader. But he never stopped working. He performed in theater, appeared at car shows and autograph signings, and kept connecting with his fans, sometimes shaking hands with thousands of people in a single day.

"He had bags of Sharpies in his hotel room," Tooley said. "He'd run through literally 100 Sharpie pens signing autographs."

That persistence paid off when Seth MacFarlane discovered West and cast him as the voice of Mayor Adam West on "Family Guy," introducing him to an entirely new generation of fans. West also did voice work on "The Simpsons,” voicing a self-deprecating version of himself."

"He wasn't the kind of celebrity that wanted to retreat back to his home and never talk," Tooley said. "He never wanted to disappoint anyone."

When he did feel the need to retreat, Ketchum was always his oasis. West and his family moved to the Wood River Valley in 1985 when Nina was 10. The family had toured ski resorts across the country. And West, an avid skier, fell in love with Sun Valley.

"It was much smaller than it is now. Very low-key," Tooley said. "It wasn't pretentious. And they just felt like this was the right place."

When West came home from shaking hands all day, he would go fishing or walk his dogs. The family had a 120-pound Malamute named Bear when Nina was growing up and, later, standard poodles—thanks to her mother.

West was also a painter. In December 2016, the year before he died, he showcased his original paintings in a pop-up show titled "Criminals on Canvas" at Ketchum’s Gilman Contemporary, featuring his humorous, absurd portraits of such Batman villains as The Joker, The Penguin and Catwoman. Some of those paintings are part of the Bright Knight exhibition.

"'Batman' was a colorful and wild ride," West said of the 2016 show. "My paintings capture the humor, zaniness and depth of the 'Batman' villains, as well as the Freudian motivations of Batman as an all-too-human, vulnerable and funny vigilante super hero."

Visitors to Bright Knight can watch “Batman” episodes on a TV monitor, pose for photos pretending to slide down the Bat Pole, and explore a replica of Bruce Wayne's library built by Paul Bates. There also are some never-before-exhibited photographs from his personal collection.

Courtney Gilbert, artistic director at the Sun Valley Museum of Art, said the exhibition has been a joy to help bring together.

"It's so fun," she said. "I grew up in the '70s and it was in syndication. Every day at 4 o'clock, my sister and I would come home from school and we were mesmerized. It’s such a funny show. So fun to revisit."

Atkinson's Market provided a grant for the exhibition and Danica Robrahn and at Hemingway Elementary, and Julie Swenke, both teachers at Hemingway STEAM School, painted sets for the exhibition.

On Wednesday, July 1, the documentary "Starring Adam West" will screen at 5 p.m. at Merlin's Magic Lantern in Ketchum. Directed by Tooley’s husband James E. Tooley, the film follows the five-year campaign to get West a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

"We went to Comic-Con with my dad and asked his fans, ‘Did you know that Adam West does not have a star?’ " Tooley said. "Everybody was shocked."

Tooley said she didn't fully grasp the magnitude of Batman until her early 20s, when she accompanied her father on a book tour for his autobiography. Tagging along to the Howard Stern show and watching late night hosts tell her father how much they loved him and grew up with him, she finally understood.

"That's when I realized it was a big thing," she said.

She herself never watched the show growing up as her father didn't turn it on at home.

"He was in my house," she said simply. "He was a dad."

IF YOU GO:

The exhibition runs June 30 through Aug. 14 at Forest Service Park in Ketchum. Admission is free.

An opening celebration with the family present will start at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 30. The exhibition will be open Tuesdays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. and Wednesdays through Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m. thereafter.

Free exhibition tours will be offered at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 7, and 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 4.

Joseph Keatinge, editor in chief of “Comics! The Magazine,” will discuss "The Comics Roots of Batman" at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 12. He will present a teen workshop, "Making Comics: From Concept to Career," at noon Thursday, Aug. 13.

Save a spot for tours and workshop at https://svmoa.org/pop-up-exhibition/2026/bright-knight-the-life-legacy-of-adam-west.