I’m 52 today! 🙂 And I’d like to take this time to thank all my readers and subscribers. If I can bring a little joy and levity into your lives, that’s all I ever hope for! Thanks for your time and patronage, Therese
Month: April 2013
Toon Tuesday 4/30/13 “The Proposal”
Don’t do it, Areel! He’s the Don Draper of outer space!
The Daily Scrapbook 4/29/13 -January 1979 Nimoy article from US magazine
Here’s today’s flashback: from January 1979, a rare article from Us Magazine (the rival to People) about Nimoy somewhat literally spreading his wings,and apparently still fighting the Spock Identification. As usual, the author of this piece has little respect Spock or Trek, describing Spock as ‘green-skinned and bat-eared’
My Weekly Spock 4/29/13 — More Bizarre Leaf Trading Cards
As I pointed out the other week, the first Star Trek bubble gum cards were produced by the Leaf company in 1967 — and they were a pretty bizarre collection. Loaded with rehearsal outtake photos with odd titles and truly false plot summaries, the Leaf cards obviously didn’t take Trek too seriously. Spock becomes everything from a senator to a teeny-bopper! Here’s some more Crazy–enjoy!
FArFri 4/26/13 Star Trek TOS Old Days, by athew
This week’s art, ‘Old Days’ by artist Athew on Deviant Art — A nice rendition of Kirk and Spock in “The City on the Edge of Forever” Athew is a great comic artist, although I think he goes a little too far into the “Spirk” (Kirk/Spock) slash elements. But this is really nice.
The Daily Scrapbook: 4/26/13 (Dec 1978) NYT Review of …Body Snatchers and its Trek Connection
Hi Kids, here’s today’s flashback: From 1978, a long and insightful review of Invasion of the Body Snatchers from the New York Times, as well as my ticket stub from the local Oakdale Mall Multiplex (it had three cinemas in it, imagine that!) I believe my ticket was (for the time) an exorbitant $1.75! The review points out a connection between director Philip Kaufman and Star Trek — apparently he was the first one tapped to make the Trek movie back in the early ’70’s, but was switched when the budget kept getting bigger. (A shame too, because I think the first movie would have been SO MUCH BETTER under Kaufman’s tutelage). Kaufman puts in a good word for Nimoy here, whom he sort of used as ‘revenge’ for not being the Trek director. Also here’s a few other little tidbits, including a listing for a repeat broadcast of ‘Baffled‘ on TV (I’m sure I watched it, still lamenting that it wasn’t made into a series)
Today’s Toon: Jim and Bones in “Corridor Commotion”
The Daily Scrapbook 4/25/13 -More Boffo ‘Invasion’ reviews and double birthday on the Trek Set
Here’s today’s flashback: From December 1978, a local review of Invasion of the Body Snatchers by late, great local entertainment critic Gene Grey (Gee, I don’t think local critics even review new movies in the paper anymore; they’re all AP newsfeed). More boffo quotes for the movie are seen in the movie ad, including
“It may be the best movie of its kind ever made.” and also a sweet photo of Stephen Collins (Cmdr. Decker) and Persis Khambatta (Ilia) sharing birthday cakes with Nimoy. The two shared a birthday, and I wonder how often that happens on movie sets between co-stars? A little note here mentions that the spending for Trek is getting higher and higher…
The Daily Scrapbook “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” Review and the Movie Ad World before the Internet.
Here’s today’s flashback: From December 1978, A full color ad for Invasion of the Body Snatchers with Donald Sutherland and Leonard Nimoy as well as a boffo review from People magazine. A full page ad from The New York Times, and smaller ad from our local paper (but still pretty big when you compare it to modern local movie listings). There’s also a tidbit of info for ST:TMP with it’s ever growing budget and shaving headaches for Persis Khambatta as Ilia. The media couldn’t stop talking about her shocking baldness. If you look closely there’s also a teeny ad for a local showing of “The City on the Edge of Forever” at a Universalist Unitatrian chuch. I’ve also included a back shot of the NYT full page ad unfolded here so you can see how movies used to be advertised before the internet. (note Superman and Caravans). Now to my knowledge the NYT still advertises movies like this, at least on Sundays, but in my local paper, big movie poster ads ads, indeed even small movie ads have all but disappeared. Not too surprising in an era where newspapers themselves are vanishing faster than that chocolate sundae you ate last weekend! It was a different world, kids.
The Daily Scrapbook: Parade Magazine Cover! December 10, 1978
Christmas came early for me in 1978, and seeing my heroes on the cover of the Sunday weekly Parade magazine was not only a thrill, but a validation of my fandom. Hey, if it was important enough to make the cover of Parade, it must be really big! The article previewing the movie was surprisingly long (3 pages!) but I took issue with it’s attitude about Trek and its stars. Especially the one quote:
…Shatner and Nimoy are the only two of the cast who have been able to work continuously since Star Trek went off the air. But chances are you don’t know what they were doing because if they weren’t Kirk or Spock, it wasn’t much noticed. They are “stars” only in the world of Star Trek.
I found that quote highly offensive and untrue. Just review all I had collected up to this point and you could see that they did indeed stay busy, especially Nimoy, who had In Search Of… in syndication, numerous stage work and was about to be seen in Invasion of the Body Snatchers and while Bill ran the game show circuit (usually a last ditch effort to stay in the public eye), but also did numerous appearances on popular dramas like Columbo and Mannix. Okay, so they weren’t superstars like Robert Redford, but they were working, and working hard. Trek would give them the last laugh, of course, especially after the second movie, when their stars would rise to their greatest visibility and successes. And looking back on this, I’ve become aware of the quality of rubber cement too! (pardon the brown splotches) And I used to have that very issue of Star Trek Fan Clubs, but I think I sold it on eBay-Sorry!