Here’s today’s Flashback: From March 28, 1978, an article (from all things) The Star tabloid — a real full color article on the launch of the Trek movie (a feature less common then than it is now). You can see the estimate for the movie was 15 million dollars, I believe when it was all finished it came to something like 40 million (but I’ll have to check my facts). You’ll note that as ever the picky Trekkie, I was always on top of clerical errors in these old articles, here noting that Grace Lee Whitney was mis-identified as Christine Chapel, even as the real Chapel, Majel Barrett is standing at left in big picture, you can see my teenage scrawl identifying her in the margin, as well as the mis-caption of the lower right hand pic, and cross outs of other mistakes involving Waler Koenig and Grace. And the flashback is naturally backward too! Oh these Trek amateurs! At least Grace looks ecstatic, probably hoping that this would bring back some good work. I always liked Grace, a crime she was screwed over in the original production because Gene wanted Kirk to have more space babes!
According to Grace, that isn’t why she had to leave, that was a story invented retrospectively. Do you know her story?
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I know I don’t have all my facts straight, but I do know that she had a hard time (about her weight?) I’m just glad she was cast in the movies.
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Oh dear, I wasn’t criticising you! I was genuinely asking if you’d heard her story, which has I think been accepted as what happened. I think you’d find it interesting – her book is called The Longest Trek, where she tells what happened, says some astonishingly flattering things about Leonard and describes her journey through addiction. I’m sure it’s cheaply available on amazon and/or eBay.
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No criticism taken at all! Hey, I appreciate any info my readers contribute! I recently finished reading Star Trek FAQ: Everything left to know about the first voyages of the Starship Enterprise by Mark Clark, and he does refer to Grace:
And now you got me interested in The Longest Trek! I’ll look for it, thanks!
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