And the band got back together! As the latest Trek movie was released the other week, I thought it would be fun to look back on the first press conference for the movie that started the series way back in March of 1978. Here’s Leonard and company looking splendid on that happy day. He looks so genuinely thrilled at this impromptu nearly-10 year reunion! Love that velvet blazer! Bless them All!
Persis Khambatta
The Daily Scrapbook 5/21/13 (Summer 1979) A Paramount Pictures Newsletter
Here’s today’s flashback: I had forgotten about this — An actual newsletter from Paramount Pictures promoting Star Trek: The Motion Picture. With an interview with Gene Roddenberry, color photos and lots of hype, it is especially excited about Persis Khambatta, “the olive-skinned beauty” from India with “a clear shot at big-time stardom”. Unfortunately it didn’t quite work out for Persis like that; she made a few forgettable films, was passed over for the (very bland) Maude Adams in Octopussy, and sadly died of a heart attack much too young at 49 in 1996. Hollywood (until recently) often snubs many fine actors associated with Star Trek and Persis was yet another casualty. A great shame too, she could have been the Angelina Jolie of the ’80’s.
Note Nimoy’s backward picture, probably to balance out the format of the page.
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The Daily Scrapbook 5/16/13 “The Sounds of Star Trek” Noise on the set, Khambatta in accident.
Here’s today’s flashback (and the first from Volume III of my Trek scrapbooks). From Starlog Magazine (boy, I bought that a lot when I was young!) the latest Star Trek Report by Susan Sackett. Happenings around the Paramount lot as things wind down on the set of ST:TMP, but there’s a lot a noise on the set, from burly workmen hammering down the walls of an upstairs production company. Meanwhile, poor Persis Khambatta endured minor injuries in a car accident in Germany, and was on the mend.
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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…
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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. 
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The Daily Scrapbook 11/27/12 Some Odds and Ends
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!!!
