Star Trek Bi-Centennial 10

The Daily Scrapbook: 11/23/12 Star Trek Art and The rest of the program.

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Here’s today’s flashback:  I remember bringing a piece of my own Star Trek art to the convention, it was a white clay bust of Mr. Spock that I had made in my high school ceramic class.   Unfortunately, after lugging it all the way to NYC, I found I couldn’t enter it into to Art Exhibit because I hadn’t pre-registered for it. (more lack of planning on our parts).  I recall getting weepy over this, since I had worked so hard on it, and my Mom insisted on taking a picture of me with it in the art exhibit room, tears and all.  Fortunately (for me at least) the crappy camera struck again, and that picture didn’t develop. however, one of my photos from the art exhibit did survive, albeit off center (I cropped the top of this image out because it was all gold wallpaper) — You can see a portrait of Leonard Nimoy, and a painting of Spock and McCoy, (this was eons before ‘DeviantArt’)  That was the first time I was exposed to erotic Star Trek art too; I’ll never forget there was a nude pencil sketch of Spock, reclining on his right elbow, with his left arm modestly concealing his manhood.  As I recall, the picture was titled “R&R”.  Of course my Mom wasn’t too thrilled with it –‘That’s dirty!’ — But one could not deny the female fans their fantasies.  In the end I was just forever grateful to my Mom for letting me go to this convention, and putting up with all the Trek mania around her. You can see some of her notes here.   “I guess I’ll have to watch Star Trek now” she joked.  Thanks Mom! (she’ll be 93 in February).

And here’s a few more pages from the Trek Convention program — Three winning entries from the “Why Star Trek Lives for Me” writers contest, and a listing of prizes for the various contests.  Of course, once Tristar Industries, who promoted the convention got hold of my address, they had to send me updates on future events.  Here you see an ad for “Star Trek America”, which was the convention planned for 1978, and even though I filled out the form I never got to that one.  But I’m sure it was fun.

Here’s our receipt for two nights at the Statler Hilton –#73.44!!  I don’t think that would get you a cot on a sidewalk in NY today!  And my Mom’s notes on the trip;  she always was on top of these things.  It may look cheap now, but this was a bit undertaking for us. I’m eternally grateful. Just wish my camera worked.

FArFri — 11/23/12 — Convention Edition

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Today’s Fan Art Friday is two great works from the convention program.  For winning the art contest sponsored by the convention organizers, both of these artists won the honor of having their art printed in the convention program.  The first is an excellent original “blueprint’ of two small spacecraft created by artist Geoffrey Mandel in the style borrowed from the book The Star Trek Starfleet Technical Manual by Franz Joseph.  (Mandel later won a greater prize, doing production work on later Star Trek incarnations! Talk about a Trekkie’s dream come true! )

The second is a fantastic pen and ink pointillist piece by artist Monica Miller  called Pirates of the Empire.  I love this, with the proud but menacing Vulcan and that leering sneer of Kirk.   Monica did a lot of work for Star Trek ‘fanzines’ at the time.  Fanzines were home-made mimeographed magazines featuring Star  Trek-centered stories.  Many fanzines were written by women and the stories were often erotic, with lots of starship romances; e.g. Spock and Chapel, and where the Kirk/Spock ‘slash’ stories were born.  Miller created many memorable covers for publications — see here a similar design for an  issue of Off The Beaten Trek.  Unfortunately I could not find any online bios for Ms. Miller, but I’m sure her unique style was greatly appreciated.

The Daily Scrapbook – 11/22/12 A Bio of Bill and Trek Trivia!

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A bit of a late entry today since I spent all morning making Thanksgiving Dinner; a 13.5lb turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, butternut squash, green beans, carrots, creamed onions, gravy and dinner rolls.  (Whew!)  It’s a veritable carbohydrate holiday.  After all that, we were almost too full and tired to go to my sisters for dessert, but we managed!  I brought an apple pie I made yesterday to that, and now I’m back, full, tired, but fully satisfied.  I love Thanksgiving, what a blessing.   I wish every nation on earth had one.

But back to business, here’s today’s flashback: from the convention program again, A biography of Bill Shatner (with a great Kirk promo pic),  and lots of Trek Trivia to tease your brain.   I knew every answer (back then) and my other Trek program is filled with all the answers!

See how many you can answer, and I’ll post the answers here next  Thursday (11/29).

The Daily Scrapbook -11/20/12 Convention program – Trek Portraits and ‘Star Pals’

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Here’s today’s flashback: More from the Star Trek Bi-Centennial-10 Convention Program.  Some nicely drawn portraits of the Star Trek Cast by beloved fanzine artist Gee Moaven.  These are some nice pen-and-inks,  but unfortunately, there’s no  Nurse Chapel.  (Well, Majel couldn’t make it to the convention anyway).   Oddly, Mr. Spock, (actually all of them) vaguely remind me of Alec Baldwin!  You can check out more of Gee’s work here,  and here’s a rendering of Nurse Chapel from another publication of the time.  And Gee, if you’re out there, a belated Congrats on getting your work published in the program, and thanks for all of your fantastical work!

From the back of the program, a couple hundred names and addresses of  “Star Pals”; Trekkies who entered their names, addresses and birth dates –in Stardate code* to be Pen Pals with other Trekkies across the nation!  Are people still Pen Pals anymore, or is it all Twitter and Facebook? The fans range from early teens to the mid twenties, and I’ve blurred out all but their first names for their privacy, but my how times have changed!  Also note the ads for that new publication Starlog Magazine and ads for April Publications and New Eye Studio, jumping on the Trek bandwagon with UFP flags and Saurian Brandy Bottles. Note on the last page, along with the convention  layout of the Statler-Hilton Hotel there’s an ad for  a Mr. Spock Computer Image.  I actually had one of these!  I’ll have to dig it out for a future post.  Of course, we’re talking a computer rendered drawing made by a machine with little markers that draw out an image — pretty impressive for 1976.

*My Stardate Birthday is 6104.30

The Daily Scrapbook 11/15/12

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Here’s some flyers from the 1976 Bi-Centennial 10 Star Trek Convention I’ve mentioned here before, and you can see I checked off (or is that ‘Chekov’ed) all the stars I got to see there and which episodes I was allowed to go down from our hotel room at the Statler Hilton to watch!   I remember watching The Day the Earth Stood Still for the first time at that convention; one of my all time favorites!   For today and the next few installments, I’ll be recalling my two days at that convention, with memories I’ll never forget!   I still have a little journal of it that I wrote in a small memo pad, and I’ll be posting that here; with all it’s teenage awkwardness intact! So stay tuned!

Trekker Scrapbook-What’s in the Box? – Part 2 The Star Trek Bicentennial -10 Convention in NYC 1976 and Nimoy in 1978

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Today I’ll be sharing the rest of the contents of The Box, including one very special souvenir.  As I  scratched through the pieces within, I came across several writings I had forgotten about — breathless explanations of events Trek related -the convention of ’76, of course, which  I’ll transcribe here later, as my original writing was pretty horrific in both style and execution. There are bus ticket stubs and jotted lists my mother made of what we spent there at the NYC con.,  and some letters from people I met at various Trek events, and letters from an aunt or two when then found an article related to Trek in their newspapers.  It’s fun to see how cheap so many things were then, although they were a big expense to us at the time.   I recall it cost us $35 a night to stay a the Statler-Hilton.  There were 3 of us, my Mom, sister and me, and it was my first trip ever to NYC.  I just wish we took more pictures, as my only equipment at the time was my state-of-the-art pocket old flashcube Instamatic which took the incredibly poor pictures you’ll see here.  ( I apologize for the quality; this was the best I could do)  I  remember that we were on the 33rd floor, and that we had a grand view of the Chrysler Building from our room; oddly at the time I found it somewhat ugly and creepy, but within a couple of years I appreciated it for the glory of deco art it is, and it remains my favorite skyscraper to this day.

Winner of the Spock look-alike contest

Here’s the few pictures of the con that did develop from my crappy camera.  First, a Mr. Spock look-alike contest, the winner of which was a guy dressed up as a transporter malfunction! The sign pinned to the guy here says “Is the Transporter fixed yet?” as he also carries his ‘head’.  Clever stuff!

Then the celebrities! Almost the entire cast was there, from Shatner to Koenig, only Nimoy and Majel Barrett couldn’t make it.  We saw all the stars that came, but my camera was so crappy that only a few pictures developed.  Here’s James Doohan and George Takei.

Jimmy Doohan ‘touches hands’ at the convention

Doohan was newly a father and talked at length about the Lamaze method that he and his wife used to deliver the baby; interesting, but probably not what the fans wanted to hear.  He also sang and jigged a little to “Roamin’ in the Gloamin”, a song my mother (embarrassingly) insisted that I ask him to sing!  But he was a a good sport about it, and I remember him walking up and down the aisles of the auditorium to ‘touch hands’ with the enamored thrall.

George salutes us!

Takei was happy and bright, in a powder blue leisure suit, although at the moment I can’t recall anything he said.   I think he was asked about an audition he made for a silly sitcom called “Mr. T. and Tina”, glad he didn’t get that one, for it’s hardly the stuff of TV legend.

Leisure suits were the uniform of the day- that hideous melt-able double knit polyester garb that almost every male wore.  I recall Shatner wore a dark blue one, De Kelly wore a black with a wild orange and white floral print shirt under it, and Doohan wisely opted out of a jacket, just   wearing beige trousers and a white shirt instead. But every male celeb had huge lapels and wide bell bottoms.(God the 70’s were atrocious)  The convention had a lot of fun events, from art shows (I was heart broken I couldn’t enter my  home made bust of Mr. Spock), the endless dealer room with oodles of Trek merchandise, to the wildly popular episode and blooper showings, and, of course, autograph sessions, which were FREE — something you never get anymore.

But speaking of autographs, the box contains the ultimate prize of my youthful fandom, and I only had to wait a couple of years after the con to get it;  Nimoy’s autograph.  I got to meet Mr. Nimoy on February 18, 1978 after a splendid lecture he gave in nearby Elmira NY.  But  since we FORGOT THE CAMERA that fateful night, I hung on to the pen he signed my copy of I Am Not Spock with;  a purple Flair fine point! (made in the USA!)  Good ol’ Flair, and no one has used it since Mr. Nimoy.

Then the  piece de résistance.  There inside the front cover my well- thumbed paper-backed edition  of I Am Not Spock are 7 little words that made me so happy:

“To Therese, thank you! Leonard Nimoy, ’78.

And why was Mr. Nimoy so grateful to a giddy 16 year old girl that night?  Well, get your mind out of the gutter and I’ll explain this, along with a couple of photos, in a future post!

Trekker Scrapbook-What’s in the Box? – Part 1

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Hi Again!

Yesterday I started exhibiting my Trek collection with an old cigar box from around 1973.  Today we open the little Pandora to see what’s inside. (My eyes, my eyes…)

First, the interior.  I didn’t want the floor of the box to be bare, so every week I went through the TV Guide and cut out the daily descriptions for Star Trek, which aired weeknights on WPIX (we had “eleven clear channels to choose from“* with this new thing called ‘cable’!) at 9:00 and Mom and Dad let me stay up with my sibs to watch it.  We got cable mostly so we could watch Star Trek. Of course, we had all watched it when it originally aired (although I didn’t always get to see it) and by age 12, in ’73, I was totally into it. By ’76 it was on our local channel 40 every night at 6:00, and Mom wasn’t too thrilled that it was on at dinnertime, but she would let me watch it on Fridays.   Anyway, here’s what old Trek listings looked like back then; something that’s never used now.

You can also see more images from the article I used for the box lid and if you read closely, there’s a little letter to the editors of TV Guide about who the best chess player is. 😉  -Can you name all the episodes described here?
*This expression is from a cable commercial that aired endlessly on our local channels; there was a lady who would go on and on about how cable had
“Eleven clear channels to choose from and absolutely perfect picture!”

Now, as to what I kept in the box?   It was good for spare change and rubber bands, but eventually I had little things related to Star Trek that I kept in it. First of all, a ‘Spock Rock’; that is, a stone I found one day along the river that reminded me of Vulcan pointed ears, so naturally, I painted a cartoony little portrait of Mr. Spock on it.

Cute, huh?  I’m surprised it hasn’t worn off much in the 39 years since I painted it! I like that I gave him a little smile.

Next we see a prized Spock button I bought at the 1979 ‘Star Trek Bi-Centennial 10 Convention in 1976.  It was special because it presents a scene from the Trek episode “Elaan of Troyus” that was never used. Spock is seen playing his Vulcan harp in the grand recreation room, a set that was only seen in “And the Children Shall Lead”.  A shame this scene was cut, but you can see a pastiche of it here.

Another thing I kept in the box was a lot of correspondence, there’s a note from NBC in ’73 thanking me for liking the Star Trek cartoon and  where I can write to the stars, but the  most exciting pieces were the little notes I’d get annually from the LNAF — which was ‘The Leonard Nimoy Association of Fans” run by a Ms. Louise Stange. (Odd, her last name was pronounced ‘Stang-Gee’– but to me it sounded better if it rhymed with ‘flange’, but I digress).  Louise had  thrust the monumental task upon herself of managing this fan club that was growing by leaps every day, mimeographing newsletters every few months, and once a year  the big annual yearbook loaded with candid and professional pictures of Mr. Nimoy and his fans. Yet she still took time to send each fan a personal note at least once a year, and I was always happy to see that familiar green ink return stamp on my letters and manilla envelopes on those special occasions.   Here you see my 5 membership cards for the half-decade I belonged from 1975-80; the first three years had the smiling black and white picture, the last two the more pensive picture.  How Louise kept track of everything I’ll never know – this was eons before the internet, but she did a great job, met Leonard frequently, and was rewarded by being an extra in the first Star Trek movie.  Wonder what she does these days?  Wherever you are, Louise, thanks for all your hard work in those exciting years.  I felt less like an outcast when I knew there were other kooks out there like me! You’ll see more stuff from the LNAF in future posts. Somewhere I have the full color postcard of Nimoy that came with the intro pack,  and a lot of other stuff and nonsense.  See you tomorrow, with one of my most prized possession,  and as Louise would sign” “Nimoyingly,” -Therese

The Joy of McCoy Part 1

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Back in 1976, I had the pleasure of attending the ‘Star Trek BiCentennial-10 Convention in New York City.  It was my first trip to NYC, and at the tender age of 15, it was an eye-opening, exciting time.  The Convention was considered the premiere Trek event of that time, and all of the original cast were to show up (except Nimoy and Barret, who had other commitments-dang!).  I was so excited to be going to an event where I’d find other fans like myself.

One highlight was when dear Deforest Kelley came out for an hour to talk with the fans and take questions.  “Dee entered to the thunderous applause of at least 3-400 screaming Trekkies in the auditorium of the Statler Hilton.  “Dee” was wonderful and homey, like the sweet, fun uncle you wanted to spent all day with.  As I recall, he was dressed in black flared polyester slacks and a black polyester double-knit shirt with a loud orange and white design (Oh the Seventies!).

De told several stories about acting and Trek, and when asked his favorite episodes of the series, he mentioned two or three (I honestly can’t remember which ones) but then said “And, of course, The World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky…(more thunderous applause) because I finally got the girl!”

But the memory I mostly take away from this was  De’s story about how he and his wife lost their pet bird out of a window in NYC once. It was a heart-warming story and I wish to heck I could remember all the details, but it boiled down to the city dwellers down below managing to eventually get the bird back to De and his wife Carolyn.  I’m trying to find a mention of it somewhere on the ‘net, but so far the only site that had it no longer exists 🙁 .  If anyone finds a link to it, please let me know!

Later we went to a scheduled autograph session with De and Grace Lee Whitney.  Unfortunately, I got there too soon, and De hadn’t come in yet.  Well, Grace was sweet and I still have her wonderful autograph, but I wish the convention management let me stay to meet De too!

De’s warmth and humor are greatly missed.  A lot of people claim that De had ‘lost his movie star looks’ by the time he got into TV, but that’s just wrong.  Sure, he wasn’t’ a Bill or a Leonard in magnetism, but he had a subtle romantic air that anyone could see if they just took the time to look! ( Oh, those baby blue eyes!) And the fact that he stayed  married to his beloved Carolyn for over  40+ years is the most romantic thing of all!    De, we’ll never forget you!

Next Time: De as the iconic Dr. McCoy