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) V2-028AComplete V2-028A-E Fulljpg

Today’s Toon: Jim and Bones in “Corridor Commotion”

My Latest StarTreKomic:

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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…V2-027 full

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. V2-025V2-026IMG_4800IMG_4801

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!

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The Daily Scrapbook 4/22/13 (1978) Sneak Preview (Starlog) –Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Here’s today’s flashback: From an 1978 issue of Starlog, an in-depth preview of Phillip Kaufman’s remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers which starred Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy and a young Jeff Goldblum.  It’s been so long since I’ve seen this remake I had forgotten about actor Art Hindle, who’s featured prominently in this piece– (should’a been more Nimoy here!) It’s a very well done and VERY creepy remake, as good the original, but miles and miles better than the 2007 version! V2-023-A V2-023-D V2-023-C V2-023-BHighly recommended.

My Weekly Spock 4/22/13 Classic Head Shots

Here’s this week’s Spock fix:  From 1966, here are some iconic head shots of Nimoy as Spock that were taken for TV Guide- The king of cool strikes again.

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FArFri 3/19/13 “George Takei” by Mark Hammermeister

To further celebrate the joy that is Takei, here’s a great caricature of Mirror Sulu by artist Mark Hammermeister.    (You’ve seen his work here before in this post)

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Happy 76th Birthday (a day early) to George Takei!

George Takei turns 76 tomorrow! (April 20th) Oh Myyyy!   I love George’s activism, humor, and compassion for the human race. (Not to mention his voice!)  I have an audio recording of George promoting the first Star Trek movie back in 1979 when he visited our local community college here.  When I figure out how to post it here I will!

A very happy birthday, George! Thanks for being a fine actor and a  wonderful human being! -Love and Blessings, Therese Takei bday 2013

The Daily Scrapbook 4/19/13 — (1978) Movie magazine sneak preview of ST:TMP

Here’s today’s flashback:  From the movie magazine I mentioned yesterday, here’s the article that would surely soothe Michael Jackson’s concerns about the Trek movie. The opening page had a good notion for ‘Then and Now” photos of the crew, yet in typical dashed fashion, the editor failed to notice that it’s Spock, Kirk and Scotty in the ’68 and Spock, Kirk and McCoy in the ’78. and of course the newer photo is printed backward! (Backward pictures and mis- identifications were always one of my pet peeves!) Also, note the quality of the magazine itself– it could only afford one glossy full color page among the newsprint pages; very common in cheaper magazines at the time, unfortunately, I didn’t write down which movie magazine this was from, but Rona Barret and Doug Rowel wrote for it.  Also, a ‘Close Up” info page all about Bill Shatner from the same magazine. V2-021-A V2-021-B V2-021-C V2-021-D V2-022