Hey Kids, I’m back!
Thanks for your patience, for it is truly rewarded today!
A while back I posted some wonderful black and white photos from the eBay dealer rexliv who had come across rare negative directly from the original series sets, taken by studio photographers to capture rehearsal and publicity photos for the series. Just when I thought these were the holy grail of Trek memorabilia, rexliv strikes again with COLOR NEGATIVES!
How the dealer describes his find is nothing short of miraculous, and the fact that these have not been destroyed in over 50 years and are in remarkable condition is astonishing. As the dealer states in his descriptions:
This authentic Color original Film Negative from the Original Star Trek TV Series is in excellent Condition for its age. During the Production of Star Trek, Photographers were hired to take Publicity Photo’s of the Series for magazine distribution and for advertising purposes. I recently obtained quite a few of these Publicity Negatives from a woman in new York City. She stated that she obtained them from a friend who worked in a professional Photo Lab as a Custom Photo Printer in New York City during the Mid-1980s. He stated to her that he was assigned to clean out the Dead Photo Files at the Lab when he found the Star Trek Negatives. The woman had kept them in their original envelopes along with their original Contact Sheets ever since the Mid-1980s when her friend had given them to her. Each five frame negative strip was enclosed in a clear plastic sleeve. Since the negatives were taken by an On Set Photographer, they are obviously a “One Of A Kind” Film Negative and display different angles of the actors as they posed for Publicity Photo’s and during live action scenes from the Episodes. They are quite RARE indeed.
Well Yes indeed! Welcome to Trekkie Heaven Everyone!
NOTE: Currently many of these negatives are NOT up for sale, and some of them have been sold. However, they are VERY LIKELY to go back up for auction. So for you diehards, I highly recommend you check out the dealer’s current auctions here. You can see the completed (and may unsold) auctions here. He is also currently selling positive contact sheets of the full color negatives. These auctions will end TOMORROW (Friday, October 27) So check it out before they end!
I’ve posted the photos of the positive images that the dealer posted that are not included in the actual auctions but used as examples of how the negatives would look when processed. I’ve enhanced a few of these positive images to improve their tone and contrast. And man, what a find! From De Kelley’s incredible baby blues to Shatner’s smirks and the occasional Nimoy grin, it’s like I’ve traveled in a time machine back to 1966!
Wow. Just Wow. You can see why not all of these were used (lighting off, or someone coughed) But they are totally iconic, regardless. Man, how I would have loved that job! I’ll post more in the coming weeks. Enjoy!
