Nichelle! Oh, Nichelle!

Sometimes you look and look for gold and sometimes you trip right over it. Today I was checking my Facebook ST Scrapbook fan page, and someone had posted this picture of Nichelle Nichols, pre-Star Trek, that they found online here. I reacted to it like a cartoon character, with my legs flying up in the air behind me and twirling like helicopter blades. My eyes bugged out and bounced on the floor, before they blew up like balloons then deflated with a rude noise. My jaw flopped down on the floor and my tongue rolled out and down the stairs, out the door and onto the street where a taxi ran over it. I heard strange old-timey car horn sounds blasting out of my ears. I had never seen this treasure before! Wowowowowowowowowowow! My Uhura/Nichelle fixation got a major reinforcement right then!

(Click on image to see high-rez version, if your heart and glands can stand it.)
Do not gaze upon the goddess too long, lest thine eyes be dazzled.

Although this find deserved a post of its own, here are a couple more images I had gathered recently that you will enjoy. The one below, sadly, is no larger than you see it; but it's a beautiful publicity shot on the bridge I had not seen before. Gorgeous!

And although I have posted a version of the classic 1967 Ebony cover below from another source, this one turned up online recently, without the address label and in a slightly larger size. I wish I had this issue!

If you are able to take your eyes off her long enough, look at the Jeffries tube surface near the top right of the photo. A tear can be seen in the cardboard material of the tube they scavanged and used to make it!

Update: Little did I realise when I posted this that it was on the same day as Nichelle's birthday, December 28th! Happy birthday to the lovliest and classiest woman to grace the bridge of any starship!