"Shatner: Then And Now" 1977 Article

From issue #3 of the "All About Star Trek Fan Clubs" magazine, published in June 1977, comes this loose filmography that features some photos of Bill from his various appearances. The feature runs out of steam quickly, as the last two pages switch to a nonsensical "biorhythms" article that takes up space (we'd learn more from a chart on his bathroom habits), but has some good photos from his "Barbary Coast" stint.

The cover art (scanned, as is everything on this site, from my own copy) is about the best the magazine ever featured, in my opinion.

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Nimoy On Tour-1976

From August 1976, issue #4 of the "All About Star Trek Fan Clubs Magazine," a fun fan publication that found national distribution, comes this interview with Leonard Nimoy with some candid photos taken as he spoke at a college in New Jersey in February of that year. Note the wild scarf he is wearing! First, the cover...

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Also from the same issue comes this two-page spread of photos snapped during the fondly-remembered New York Star Trek '76 Con, taken January 1976.

Bonus: Seldom-seen series of photos of Nimoy in Spock makeup.

Now, if you were one of the creators of this magazine, or a contributor, please don't be offended by my labeling of it as "amateurish." This simply means as opposed to professional, but it is obviously a labor of love by fans, and for that it is enjoyable. If anyone feels I have wronged someone by this impartial observation, feel free to comment. If I didn't think the content was worth reproducing here, I wouldn't do it. On the contrary, it offers a view of the show and its cast and creators that the more professional magazines may not have had... and an excitement. So more power to them for getting the opportunity to connect with fans like us across the country! It might not have been as slick as Starlog and other contemporary publications, but what it lacked in style it made up for in enthusiasm for the subject matter.

1989 Newspaper Article On Star Trek Fans

When you have such dedicated fans like Star Trek has inspired, sometimes the media focus goes from the show to the followers; after all, they are fun to write about. This time I'm bringing out an old article from the Friday, June 23, 1989 edition of the Charleston Gazette about the members of the local fan club in nearby Huntington, West Virginia, which I lived near at the time. This one had to be scanned in three sections then photoshopped back together. I hope you appreciate the work. :)

These fans had a lot more guts than I would have, to appear in a newspaper photo in costume. I was more of a closet Trekker, having been forced there of necessity by my step-dad while I was living at home. Even after getting married and out on my own in 1981, very few co-workers or casual acqaintances knew of my interests. But that's not to say I was any less interested than these fans; I simply kept my enjoyment to myself. I did, however, attend a couple of meetings of their club, and a convention in Charleston where Walter Koenig and Marina Sirtis were the guest stars. Star Trek: The Next Generation had premiered in 1987 and public interest was high.

There are actually two articles on the front page, and they are continued on separate pages which are posted under it; one focused on the franchise, and the other on the fans.

It would be so easy to poke fun at these un-self-conscious fans, but we're all in the same boat. If they were Star Wars fans, now, that would be different. We could laugh then.

I bet getting the lady in the wheelchair in place for the photo at the local strip mining site was difficult. If you are one of the fans in the photo, or were a part of the Huntington or Charleston fan club, and merely even lived in the area and remember the activity, leave a comment, I'd like to hear from you!

I can certainly relate to the quoted fan Jonathan Jones, who, according to the article, moved to WV from Florida, which was also my case exactly. I strongly echoed his sentiment that "West Virginia is Star Trek hell." Which meant that finding material there was a real challenge. Fans had to stick together, because collectable items were almost impossible to find.

Below, one of the movie ads that ran in the same edition of the newspaper; from them we can see that the article above was probably ran to coincide with the release of the fifth movie. Also out that week were "Batman," and "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids." The ads for those can be seen along with many others from my collection at the blog "Held Over!" at http://www.heldovermovies.blogspot.com/.

Bonus: Below, cover art by one of my favorite genre artists, Bob Larkin. This was the cover for the 1982 Marvel comics paperback collection of issues from their monthly comic series. His covers were not only faithful to the characters, costumes and settings, but were always dynamic and colorful.

An alien, having determined the human's weaknesses, used the music of historical villain Britney Spears to incapacitate the crew.

"Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" review

From the scrapbook pages this time we read a review of the well-received "The Voyage Home." The inset clipping is from TV Guide. Of course these came out in 1986.

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Bonus: below, a page from the scrapbook that focuses on some clippings of mini-cons in the Miami area, with two of them from different papers on the same con, presented by the Star Trek Federation Of Fans. That was held on Labor Day weekend of 1975, which was August 30-Sept 1.(You can find out more about this fan club that was very active in the 70's by visiting their Facebook group here.) The inset photo clipping is from "The Star" tabloid, which often ran Trek-oriented bits now and then.

Bonus #2: The cover of one of the souvenir convention booklets put out by the STFF, with a great cover sketch of the androids Ruk and Andrea by co-founder Joyce Huser.

NASA Names Space Shuttle "Enterprise"

From the collection cabinets comes this article from issue #2 of "All About Star Trek Fan Clubs," published April 1977. This was a magazine that seemed to be an amateur publication that somehow got national distribution. Not that it was a bad job; it just came off a little more like a home-made effort of love by some fans than anything put together by experienced publishers (with apologies to any of the editors that might be reading this). But, that was part of the charm of this short-lived magazine, and I bought every issue, especially since this was during the latter days of the drought of Trek material we old-timers lived through.

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This time we are looking at an article on the infamous re-naming of the shuttle prototype after the Star Trek spaceship. Too bad the Captain didn't make it, though...

Dig those cool 70's bell-bottoms and leisure suits!

No bell bottoms here, though... they look a little stuffy.

Below, another page from the same issue, covering a book-signing by Nimoy of his ill-titled book "I Am Not Spock," which was ironic since the people lining up to see him and get his autograph on it were there because of that role.

Oh, yes you are, Leonard.

Below is the back cover of this issue.

1976 Federation Trading Post Article

The fun stuff this time comes from the first issue of the short-lived, but memorable (and cumbersomely titled) "All About Star Trek Fan Clubs" magazine, published in December of 1976.

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I've posted an entry about this magazine before here, along with a cover gallery, so check that out too. The article I'm featuring this time is about the legendary (among Trek fans) specialty shop "Federation Trading Post," co-founded and operated in California by Charles Weiss and Ron Barlow, who was known to fans such as me from his work on the great newspaper "The Monster Times." The New York branch was manned by the also-legendary fan-turned-pro Doug Drexler. Although both were far from me (I had the "Starship Enterprises" stores in south Florida for my fan fixes), I was aware of them, and enjoyed reading about them in this in-depth article. Please contribute any memories or facts you may have in the comments section!

Poor "Fake Balok" only wishes the article writer had spelled his name right.

All I'm doing here is posting a magazine article from the past about it, but Doug Drexler himself is the one with the real treasures. To hear all about it from the source, read his blog entry with loads of info and awesome photos from the FTP East!

Update: Doug commented this on my Facebook post about the article: "Frederick! I'm astonished whenever I visit your site. It's like my ultimate 1976 magazine stand exploded! This article is amazing. That's back when Paramount couldn't care less about Trek. Creative and industrious fans kept it growing. Thanks for posting this!" -Doug Drexler

One of the things highlighted in the article is the hunger fans had for accurate replicas of the show's props, at a price affordable by most. We have a good number of that kind of thing today, with very nice prop replicas that have lights and sound, for a reasonable price, off the store shelves. But back then it was a dream, and only those fans with a good job or generous parents could get their hands on these kinds of things. For myself, I had the kid-sized "Exploration Set" model kit, and the water-gun phaser, and that was it until only a few years back when I bought the Playmates version of the "big three." Fans with more money than I can get the Diamond Select replicas, lucky people! But the fact is, having accurate and life-sized replicas are within the reach of the average fan now, and we are fortunate for that.

1994 article: The Death Of Captain Kirk

Before the internet became what it has in recent years, one of the main sources of info about upcoming movies for us Trekkers was the tabloids. Although couched in gossipy terms, one could get facts early that weren't available anywhere else, if one didn't mind wading through the other junk. Kind of like eating lunch in the middle of a cow pasture; you might enjoy the meal but feel a bit dirty from the surroundings (come to think of it, it's not much different from the internet in that respect). From the "Star" tabloid, published Sept. 6, 1994, comes this article on "Star Trek: Generations," as the secret of Captain Kirk's death is spilled... and without the warning that there were "spoilers" in the article, as the term came to be known. Thanks, Star!

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It's funny reading some of the errors in the article, such as the bit about them teaming up to fight a scientist "bent on destroying the universe." That seems a bit overly ambitious, not to mention impractical. If you destroy the universe, who would be left to gloat over it to?

Below is a later article, printed September 20th, 1994, reporting the fandom's furor over the spoiled secret, thanks mostly to the paper for publishing it. Unlike the last-minute script change in "The Wrath Of Khan" which responded to fan reaction by providing an "out," there never was one added to this movie to allow for a chance at Kirk's resurrection. The NG movie producers weren't interested in bringing him back, they only wanted him gone so they could move on with their versions, which is understandable. But Shatner would have reason to regret it when he was locked out of the new '09 movie by the fact. At least Kirk lives again in the enjoyable novels from Shatner "co-written" by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens.

Bonus: Below is a scan of one of the items members of the "Official Star Trek Fan Club" received when joining; I got this sometime in the mid-80's as far as I can recall.

Bonus: Below is one of the multitude of small newspaper clippings in my scrapbook regarding the many conventions that were held in south Florida during the mid-70's. This one from 1976 is significant because although I didn't get to go to it (three guesses why), a friend brought me back autographed pictures of Nichelle and Doohan, which I still treasure and have framed on my wall.

And finally, below is a short interview with Gene about the planned movie from "The Monster Times," issue #42, published in July of 1975. This took the place of the regular feature "Trek Talk" in that issue, so I'm tagging it with that anyway for easy location. It's always interesting to look back at these movie announcements and remember how long it took to see it made, and how many false starts there were. But if nothing else, it kept Star Trek alive in the public's mind, and for that reason, Gene's efforts were worth it.

It's interesting to read in the above interview that Gene was considering making the new movie a prequel, which is what the recent '09 movie was (in a way). But one has to wonder how they would have handled the fact that the stars were ten years older by that time. Would they have hired younger actors and actresses to portray the characters in the flashbacks? Also, the idea of shoehorning in the "cameos by ten international celebrities" would hang on almost up until the making of "ST:TMP," but thankfully it was forgotten. Can you imagine how cheesy it would appear now? Between that and "Magicam" it's a good thing the movie didn't get made at that time.

1974 article: They Just Keep On Trekkin'

The Scrapbook opens this time to:"They Just Keep On Trekkin'" 1974 article
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I clipped this fun article from the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel on Feb. 20, 1974. I was always interested in how Star Trek's fandom generated almost as many write-ups as the show itself. During the period from 1972 to about 1975, after the first convention and before there were any rumblings about the show's revival, the press focused mainly on those "spacy, way-out trekkies" as the newsworthy subject.

This was the first time a single TV show had generated such a devoted and active fan following, and the press couldn't resist their gatherings as a rich source of human-interest stories. The weirder, the better for them, and they often magnified the unusual to such an extreme that the general public began to perceive the fans as truly strange people. It's almost no wonder that my parents were worried about me, although I showed no outward signs of being a fan. Only if you opened my closet or dug into my dresser drawers would you find my Trek-oriented books, magazines, comics, View-master reels, bubblegum cards, drawings, cassette tapes, etc., etc. Most 15 year-olds had a Penthouse hidden under their mattress; I had my Star Trek magazines hidden. My parents were the founders of P.A.S.T.; "Parents Against Star Trek." It wasn't that they had anything against the show, they never watched it... they just had something against me.

Thankfully, this article doesn't stray too far into the usual rhetoric of "raygun-waving, pointy-ear-wearing freaks" as most did (the tabloids were especially guilty), and for that reason I enjoyed it more than usual. The humorous artwork set it apart also. One would almost think that the writer Jim Davis was a bit of a fan himself!

Look for more fandom-oriented articles in the future. They'll make you thankful that the Star Wars fans came along and took the heat off of us as being the weirdest ones out there! :)

Stardate 0809.22 Supplemental Entry: Mystery fan John Ellis located!

Not that he was lost; he knew all along where he was. But in posting the article featured in the entry, one I clipped out of the paper 33 years ago, my curiosity about the fan holding the tribble, John Ellis, was stirred. What had become of him? Did he fondly remember this article? What had he gone on to do in his life? So, I used the tool that detectives of old would have loved to have had; Google. Right away I found someone with that name who was active in the film special effects industry. Sounded about right!

So, I chanced looking like a fool and emailed him, inquiring if he was the fellow in the photo. Here's his reply, beside a current photo:

Dear Fred,
Busted! Yep, that's me...and I don't know that I ever saw that particular article (I have a scrapbook that someone put together for me years ago, and that isn't in it). I'll try and drop by your blog and comment...though I'm pretty busy at the moment. If you feel like plugging our Steve Canyon Tv blog I won't complain...

Thanks again, talk to you soon.
Sincerely,
John R. Ellis

Representing The Estate of Milton Caniffhttp://stevecanyondvd.blogspot.com//
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Cool, huh? Another fan that made a name for himself, and in the industry he enjoyed. Check out his IMDB entry to see all he's done! http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0254918/ You've seen some of his work, I guarantee! I look forward to reading his comment here in the future.