"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.

Enterprise in the Smithsonian 1977 article

From Issue #2 of "All About Star Trek Fan Clubs," published in April of 1977, comes this article on the display of the original 6 foot filming model of the Enterprise in the respected Smithsonian Institution. Although the few photos of the model are limited to the last two pages (the rest of the 6-page feature basically a tour of the museum leading up to the ship), it is still a nice look at how it was displayed at the time. Note that this was before the controversial (among fans) repainting.

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Bonus: below, yet another of the 1967 Leaf bubblegum cards. Spock looks uncharacteristically alamed while McCoy seems pretty calm about being in such a cold environment with no protection.

"Great Surak! This poor soul has been frozen solid, Doc!"

1977 article: "I Am Still Not Spock"

From issue #5 of "All About Star Trek Fan Clubs" magazine, published in October of 1977, comes a number of articles. First, the cover; a nice painting of the Russion whiz kid, Chenko... Chirpoff... er, Chekov, Pavel Andreievich.

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"Dees is my head, da; but painted on Keptin Kirrk's body."

The first article featured this time is one about Nimoy's continuing promotion of his autobiography, "I Am Not Spock." As we all know, he would give in to inevitability about 20 years later and write a followup called "I Am Spock;" which might as well have been titled "Alright Already, 'I AM Spock!' Happy Now? Sheesh!"

Next, from the same issue, comes this writeup on one fan's close encounter with Bill Shatner who is wearing a really loud shirt. Fortunately, his charisma and force of personality dominate it into submission, but it was a real fight for supremacy. If this girl Janet Haan is on Facebook or something she is probably going to want to kill me for posting this! But, I hope not. If you're out there, Janet, comment and let us know!

Somewhere in New Jersey a family discovers that their couch cover has gone missing.

And lastly, a photo album of Walter Koenig that includes one of him naked, which I know many of you have been wishing to see. Walter is the Woody Allen of the TOS cast, and with that photo it's easy to see he's always been that way... worried and a bit insecure; am I right? When your main characteristics as an actor on the show are a bad accent and the tendency to scream often, it's no wonder one might develop a bit of a inferiority complex.

Stop that or you'll go blind, Walter.

"I'm worried that people will confuse me wth Davy Jones of the Monkees."

If you want to see more articles from other issues of this magazine, use the "ST Fan Clubs Mag" tag on the sidebar! If Starlog was steak and potatoes, this publication was a greasy cheeseburger and fries... but still good when you're hungry like we were back then!

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.