1975 Convention Flyer

From the scrapbook comes another of the mini-con flyers that I enjoyed receiving in the mail when I lived in Ft. Lauderdale, FL during the mid-70's. That was as close as I ever got to the cons; of course I didn't get to go, even though I was the perfect age to enjoy them, 16 to 17. (Regular readers know why. For those new to the blog, here's a clue.) I saved every one of these and put them in the old scrapbook pages for perservation. The con organizer was none other than James Van Hise, editor and publisher of the awesome fanzine Enterprise Incidents.

(Click on images to enlarge.)

Star Trek's direct ancestor and one of my all-time favorite sci-fi movies! Read another of my blog entries on this influential film here.

To find more of these convention brochures now or in the future after more are posted, use the "con brochures" tag on the sidebar.

Bonus: Below, some publicity pics of Fred Phillips and Nimoy during one of the makeup sessions preparing him for a day's filming.

1977 Nichelle Nichols interview

In May of 1977, I was 16 years old, going on 14. While other kids that age were concerned with dating, school activities or sports, I was more concerned with getting to the magazine stand and getting the latest Trek and monster magazines that were out. Of course, that information has no bearing on the material I'm presenting today, except to fill in my own background and show how important these items were to me then, and because of those memories, they are still great to take out and read.

This time we are looking at Issue #4 of Media Spotlight, a publication put out by the same people, or at least the same company, that did "The Monster Times," except in magazine format, not newspaper, and not as much fun; but still well worth buying. Of the various Trek-oriented articles in that issue, I'm featuring the interview with Nichelle Nichols, who always attracted my gaze in every shot she was in.

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That is a great photo on the cover!

Our first bonus item today from the scrapbook is a flyer for one of the mini-cons that were a big part of the grassroots Florida fan scene back in the mid-to-late 70's. Since I could never go to them, I settled for collecting the exciting, well-designed flyers for the events. I only wish I had made some kind of date notation on them; since the year is not on the flyer, I'm not quite sure. But remembering where I was living and what I was doing when I got them narrows it down to probably 1976. They usually consisted of four pages, all of which are scanned in for you below. I'll be posting more of these flyers for other mini-cons in the future!

This mini-con, as well as most of the others that I'll be posting ads for, were organized (at least in part) by James Van Hise, the man responsible for the great "Enterprise Incidents" fanzine, which later went professional and got nationwide distribution.

I like Uhura's sassy pose back there.

And below is a final bonus item, the cover of the MECO disco album of the ST:TMP music, which came out in 1980. I put it on cassette and played that thing to death! Nice painting on the cover of an alternate ship design; I suppose that big window on the front opens up onto the shipboard discotheque.

"I feel like trekkin', trekkin', trek the night away!"

1976 Miami Star Trek con flyer

Click on any images to view full-size scans.

When I lived in Ft. Lauderdale, FL back in 1975-76, I was right in the middle of a hotbed of Trek fan activity. It was an exciting time, but for me only by proxy. Thanks to a controlling step-father, I never got to go to any of the conventions or mini-cons that I read about. (Sorry to bring that up so often, but really, those days were dominated by that kind of life and my Star Trek memories are affected by it.) The best I could do was collect the flyers and mailers they sent out, which was exciting to me anyway. I have all of them in plastic pages now, in my Star Trek scrapbook, and they bring back good memories of the time. I'll post more as time goes by!

One of the organizers of this and many other conventions, as well as an avid writer about such things, was G. B Love. I never had the opportunity to meet the man, to my regret and loss. Here is a link about this remarkable guy and how he impacted fandom and the lives of those around him. http://www.inter-fan.org/history/gblove.htm

Below is a scan of an ad from the back cover of The Monster Times for the 1974 3rd annual NY Star Trek convention.