Here’s today’s fan art, an adorable Anime take on the Enterprise crew by Cobyfrog. I love the sloppy uniforms and devil-may-care attitude. Have a great weekend, everyone! I’ll be in NYC for a day trip tomorrow (Saturday) but I’ll be back here Monday. Ciao for now! Therese
Good Morning Scrappers! Here’s today’s flashback:
Another page of assorted bits notably, a postcard from TV Guide, thanking me for my letter to the editor (I was curious as to why Mr. Asimov did not mention Star Trek in the article “What makes good Science Fiction?”) They didn’t print my letter, of course, (I was such a dope!) but it was nice to be acknowledged. And why is there a picture of Prince Charles, looking somewhat fey here, in my Star Trek scrapbook? He’s watching the space shuttle Enterprise of course. Ironically, this was a key to my next scrapbook obsession; the Prince’s future wife, Diana Spencer, who was the same age as I. (I’ll be posting those scrapbooks here too eventually, in their own section)
And then one last look at Equus, for Nimoy’s run in it was quite successful. First, a blurb explaining Nimoy’s variety of jobs and salaries, and how the actor kept his integrity through it all. Interesting comment at the end “I can be bought, but if you bore me, we’re through!” (I’m guessing it was a LOT of money that got him to do the first Star Trek picture, which was incredibly boring!) This article was sent to me by my Aunt Eileen from Piscataway NY, clipped from my Uncle Eddie’s Money magazine. I always knew when something was from Aunt Eileen, for she loved the fancy font ball on her electric typewriter, which you can see here. (Her actual cursive handwriting was beautiful too; an art that is sadly dying out in the digital age).
On a lighter note, my mom, our neighbor Flo Watts, and Flo’s Aunt Sue took a day trip to NYC to see Equus with Leonard Nimoy!!! (and WHY was I not invited?). Mom said Nimoy was wonderful (rub it in, Ma!-just kidding!) and apparently, my sweet, devout, Catholic mom handled the full nudity in the play well (no, not Nimoy, but Mr. Ralph Seymore as the troubled youth…okay, this was why I wasn’t invited) You can at right see my pretty Mom (in blue jacket) with Ralph and Sue , and on the left, Sue with Flo (a great native New Yawker) in her rain bonnet with the big picture of Nimoy and Seymore.
I dedicate this post to Flo Watts and Eileen and Eddie Porowski, whom I all love and miss very much.
Here’s today’s flashback: A four page (!) article from a 1977 movie magazine, (Probably TV Radio Mirror) raving about the Star Trek revival, this time asking if Nimoy and Shatner would be along for the ride. At the time I thought it would never really be Trek without Mr. Spock, and millions agreed. A lot of great stills here (if some are backward, which always happened in these pieces) The commentary is definitely of the era, with commentary mentioning Hank Aaron, M*A*S*H, and Fonzie. It appears the writer of the piece had a ball writing this; he or she must have subtly influenced my own style of prose, as it is very giddy with a lot of parenthesis and exclamations, and 
silly captions! I remember liking how it described Nimoy as ‘darkly good-looking’. Must have read it a hundred times. I think that I was happy that a ‘major’ magazine was taking Trek seriously. But I just can’t take Shatner seriously in that white prom tux and super collar!
I used to watch Animaniacs all the time, but amazingly, I must have missed this one. (I do remember another episode that totally lambasted Shatner!)
Here’s today’s flashback: As I continued to gather any little tidbit I found in magazines related to Trek, there were ads for locally syndicated episodes and in fan magazines, there were often ads for Star Trek posters, like the ones you see here on the bottom of these two pages. On the first page, you see a collage of Kirk, Spock, and I actually owned this poster, in full color. It wasn’t the best Trek collage posted, but it nicely accentuated the Spock poster my brother let me use, and I had Trek all over my bedroom, just like Nurse Chapel in this StarTreKomic I created for this site. You also see Shatner and company’s names here, probably from an ad for an upcoming convention.
Also, there’s new speculation on the status of the return of Star Trek on television. Called Star Trek II, I remember being disheartened when I read this little blurb from TV Guide that mentioned that Leonard Nimoy would NOT be coming back. And he’d be replaced by some “bald lady” who was incredibly “sensuous”? Whaaaa?
Fortunately, Nimoy did come back for the eventual first movie, and Ilea (the late Persis Khambatta) was a very beautiful lady. Too bad the movie itself was such a snore!!!
I always appreciated how costume designer William Ware Theiss kept to his budget, even if it involved shower curtains!
Good Morning, Scrappers! Here’s today’s flashback: At the convention I came across this flyer advertising original animated Cell art from the Star Trek Animated Series (From Filmation Studios) I was tempted to buy one, but since I had neither a job nor a terrible high allowance at the time, it was out of the question. Here they’re for sale for a mere $ 20.00 each. I just checked their current value and these go anywhere from $80.00 to $275.00! Alas, another opportunity missed!
It’s getting cold, time to bundle up!
Airport coat, 1970’s
Same coat (with Sandy) 1970’s
Directing “The Good Mother” 1988
I thought Spock Prime’s coat was amazing.
With Chuck Schumer, at the Shuttle Enterprise premiere earlier this year.
Here’s today’s flashback: I remember bringing a piece of my own Star Trek art to the convention, it was a white clay bust of Mr. Spock that I had made in my high school ceramic class. Unfortunately, after lugging it all the way to NYC, I found I couldn’t enter it into to Art Exhibit because I hadn’t pre-registered for it. (more lack of planning on our parts). I recall getting weepy over this, since I had worked so hard on it, and my Mom insisted on taking a picture of me with it in the art exhibit room, tears and all. Fortunately (for me at least) the crappy camera struck again, and that picture didn’t develop. however, one of my photos from the art exhibit did survive, albeit off center (I cropped the top of this image out because it was all gold wallpaper) — You can see a portrait of Leonard Nimoy, and a painting of Spock and McCoy, (this was eons before ‘DeviantArt’) That was the first time I was exposed to erotic Star Trek art too; I’ll never forget there was a nude pencil sketch of Spock, reclining on his right elbow, with his left arm modestly concealing his manhood. As I recall, the picture was titled “R&R”. Of course my Mom wasn’t too thrilled with it –‘That’s dirty!’ — But one could not deny the female fans their fantasies. In the end I was just forever grateful to my Mom for letting me go to this convention, and putting up with all the Trek mania around her. You can see some of her notes here. “I guess I’ll have to watch Star Trek now” she joked. Thanks Mom! (she’ll be 93 in February).
And here’s a few more pages from the Trek Convention program — Three winning entries from the “Why Star Trek Lives for Me” writers contest, and a listing of prizes for the various contests. Of course, once Tristar Industries, who promoted the convention got hold of my address, they had to send me updates on future events. Here you see an ad for “Star Trek America”, which was the convention planned for 1978, and even though I filled out the form I never got to that one. But I’m sure it was fun.
Here’s our receipt for two nights at the Statler Hilton –#73.44!! I don’t think that would get you a cot on a sidewalk in NY today! And my Mom’s notes on the trip; she always was on top of these things. It may look cheap now, but this was a bit undertaking for us. I’m eternally grateful. Just wish my camera worked.
Today’s Fan Art Friday is two great works from the convention program. For winning the art contest sponsored by the convention organizers, both of these artists won the honor of having their art printed in the convention program. The first is an excellent original “blueprint’ of two small spacecraft created by artist Geoffrey Mandel in the style borrowed from the book The Star Trek Starfleet Technical Manual by Franz Joseph. (Mandel later won a greater prize, doing production work on later Star Trek incarnations! Talk about a Trekkie’s dream come true! )
The second is a fantastic pen and ink pointillist piece by artist Monica Miller called Pirates of the Empire. I love this, with the proud but menacing Vulcan and that leering sneer of Kirk. Monica did a lot of work for Star Trek ‘fanzines’ at the time. Fanzines were home-made mimeographed magazines featuring Star Trek-centered stories. Many fanzines were written by women and the stories were often erotic, with lots of starship romances; e.g. Spock and Chapel, and where the Kirk/Spock ‘slash’ stories were born. Miller created many memorable covers for publications — see here a similar design for an issue of Off The Beaten Trek. Unfortunately I could not find any online bios for Ms. Miller, but I’m sure her unique style was greatly appreciated.
