Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Seventeen's ST:TMP article

(Click on images to enlarge.)

Clipped from an early 1979 issue of Seventeen, a teen girl's fan magazine. I tell ya, this one was embarassing to buy, but it had an article on the new Trek in it, so I gritted my teeth, mumbling something to the clerk that "it was for my little sister," and when I got home I quickly slit the relevant pages out and trashed the rest. Whew, that was close!




Sadly, the remaining text which is continued on another page was not with the others in my scrapbook. Where it went, I don't know, but chances are it was only a little bit with no pictures or it would have been all together. Update: thanks to Ruth Herr Sippel Pace, who follows my Facebook ST Scrapbook page, I have included the last page below. She had it, scanned it and posted it for me, so that I could complete this article online. That was really nice, Ruth! Thanks so much!


Below is a photo I clipped from... somewhere. I don't remember where this came from, a tabloid most likely, but it's nice candid shot behind the scenes, published sometime in the spring of 1979. But, Stephen Collins as "a relief pilot"? Where did they get that from?


Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Star Trek: The Motion Picture color movie ad

It was two weeks away from the movie premiere in December of 1979, and this full-color, full-page ad in the Parade Magazine was like an early Christmas!

I debated whether to put this on this blog, or on my movie ad blog, "Held Over!" but in the end I decided it fit better here. I'll be posting more articles and items that capture some of the excitement of the looming premiere that we fans experienced on the special holiday season.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

First Run Candid Pics

Posting is at a Denebian Slime Devil's pace during the busy month of December, but here are a few scans of some candid photos snapped during the show's first run. They are from the TV/Movie fan mags out at the time, but in clipping them I neglected to keep the magazine name anywhere. It just wasn't important to me then.




Monday, December 1, 2008

Star Trek postcards from Lincoln Enterprises

My Star Trek Scrapbook pages open this time to reveal:
Postcards sold by Roddenberry's Lincoln Enterprises
(Click on images to view galaxy-sized scans!)

Even Captain Kirk's bowling balls are bigger. But, what was up with the eyeball?

Back in the mid 70's, the Lincoln Enterprises newspaper-format catalogs inspired dreams in my teen-age brain of the things I could get from it. The wonders it offered! I ordered a number of things from it, and had them mailed to my Grandma's house, where I would claim them when I went to visit on the weekends. She was my accomplice in "crime," the felony being that of aiding and abetting me in acquiring the unlawful Star Trek items that my stepdad forbade.


Mr. Spock caught playing with his models again.

These photo postcards were beautifully reproduced on glossy card stock, and were the pride of my scrapbook. The promotional photos of Kirk and Spock, taken before the second pilot was filmed, were glorious to behold.


Red is such a lovely color, isn't it?

But the photo of Uhura above was my absolute favorite, and the best -posed picture of her I've ever seen, and I've seen plenty, believe me. Be still, my beating heart!


Pay no attention to those barely visible wires!

This was the only color version of this picture I ever saw. It was always printed in black and white in the magazines I had seen it in. When I opened up my package and viewed this, my mind almost ruptured. Remember, at this time I hadn't even seen that many episodes in color yet.

I ordered some other items from Roddenberry's company later, which I'll share with you in future posts!

Flash! I've just discovered that you can still get the full set of these from the Roddenberry site!

Friday, November 28, 2008

1976 Mad Star Trek Musical


Shatner and Nimoy have a laugh at their expense during filming.



In October of 1976 I found this issue of Mad which featured an awesome Trek spoof, "Keep On Trekin': The mad Star Trek Musical," one of many Trek parodies they did. I have just about all of them, from the first onward, and I'll feature them all sooner or later. But this one had an awesome cover painting, one of my favorites. As always, click on the images to view the Angry-God-Apollo-Sized scans. Enjoy!















Tuesday, November 25, 2008

1977 Starlog article: Animating Star Trek

(Click on any image to enlarge.)
I collected Starlog for many years beginning with their first issue, and for a long time it was my main source of sci-fi and Star Trek news. Below is scanned in the article from the June 1977 issue #6, about the making of the animated series. For a couple of years the cartoon was the only source of new Trek and it was exciting to have, and this article written 4 years later came out while it was still very fresh in our memories. Enjoy!














Note the ad for the functioning prop replicas even back then. Master Replicas wasn't the first to offer them!














The extended adaptations by Alan Dean Foster were awesome to read. Whereas James Blish condensed the tv show hour-long scripts to feature 8 or more stories per book, Foster added to the half-hour scripts and enhanced the stories greatly. I have fond memories of these books, and especially this first one. How excited I was to find it and soak it in!



Recently, the L.A. Times published the photo below that shows the Big Three taping their lines for the animated show. It was a rarity when any of them could actually get together to tape at the same time.



Besides being together again, they're just happy to be working!

Monday, November 24, 2008

ST:TMP Teaser Poster


And there it is, the first glimpse, however inaccurate, of the new Enterprise that we ever got!

This I scanned in from the back of a comic book from the summer of 1979. It was an exciting time for a Trek fan like me! I was looking forward to the movie more than Christmas itself, and it was the best present I could or would get.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Castle of Frankenstein #11: Star Trek cover story

(Click on images to view larger.)

I know, I've been posting material about the production of the first Star Trek movie for awhile, but that doesn't mean I've abandoned the original series material, no sir. I'll keep posting it as long as I have something to post in that area, and add in the movie stuff also.

"Castle of Frankenstein" was a monster magazine that respected it's readers and didn't talk down to them, or load every single article with horrible puns and one-sentence paragraphs like Famous Monsters. The writeups were intelligent, and the magazine dense with material that made reading it like mining a vein of horror gold. (I also dug out a nugget to feature over on my movie ad blog "Held Over!") It was monsters for more mature fans that even showed the occasional bit of partial nudity that might be in a movie. Of course, the kids like me ate that up too.

So this issue from 1967 that covered both my love for monsters and Star Trek was a double-whammy that knocked me for a loop! I was late coming to the show, and found this in a second-hand bookstore in the early 70's, but it was new to me and exciting as all get out. Enjoy this scan of my issue, and try to imagine, if you can, what it was like to read an article about the show when it was still in production. The excitement I felt at seeing anything related to the show back then was unmatched by anything else in my life at the time. It was truly special, and hard to explain to someone that has never felt it.

Since the mag is about monsters, the photos pretty much focus on that aspect of the show. But the article revealed at lot about the show that I didn't know at the time, and I eagerly devoured it!


Tuesday, November 18, 2008

1979 Saturday Evening Post article: "The New Voyage of Starship Enterprise"



When it came to articles in various kinds of magazines concerning Star Trek, I had an eagle eye and could spot them a mile away. This was probably the first time I had ever picked up a copy or even looked at the Saturday Evening Post, but I didn't miss when they ran this pre-release article on Trek's rebirth.

Of course, much of the optimism over the new movie faded after it's release... but we won't talk about that now... these posts are to recapture the building excitement that fans felt during that heady time!

Friday, November 14, 2008

Parade Magazine ST:TMP cover article

From Ye Olde Collection Cabinets this time, is the ST:TMP cover story from the December 10, 1978 Parade magazine. This probably did more to make people aware of the coming movie than anything else did or could have because it went into so many households. You probably saw it and saved it, or at least remember it, if you lived during that time.
(Click on images to enlarge.)


Although "The Star" got the scoop on the first color pics in the article posted last time, this was the first major mainstream publication to do a cover feature with color photos on the new movie. I had seen a preview in Friday's edition of the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, that tipped me off to what was coming in the Sunday edition. So, prepared with that foreknowledge, I made a trip down to the drugstore on Sunday morning, December 10, 1978 to get several copies.

This was the most exciting thing that had come out about the movie so far, and I was thrilled beyond words. The fact that this was an event is demonstrated by the press coverage on the filming a full year away from the release. Below is the article that was inside. If you saw this years ago, I hope it brings back some memories. Some of that excitement is coming back now as the characters from the show are finding new life in the JJ Abrams movie, the trailer for which is now out and making waves, the like of which hasn't been seen since the days leading up to the unveiling of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.


If you are a regular reader of this blog you know that I had a constant conflict with my stepfather over my Star Trek obsession. As a grade-school dropout who worked in road construction, he resented my more cerebral interests and love of books, and science fiction. But Star Trek was the focus of his scorn since it was my one true overarching hobby. I had to keep my collection items out of sight lest they become targets for destruction, as he knew that was the one area I was most vulnerable to harm in. A belting I could take, but threaten my books or magazines and you had me by the short hairs.

Once I made the trip to the drugstore that morning, I tossed the rest of the papers and smuggled the two copies of Parade magazine in under cover. He was reading the same paper that had been delivered to the house, and I could see the Parade cover plainly sitting in the "read" pile. I knew he was expecting me to salivate over it, and eagerly hope to secretly claim it when he was through with it. But having my copies already, that particular bit of tension was non-existent and I coolly walked on by. A little later I found that Parade magazine in the trash (although the rest of the paper was still on the living room sofa) with a pile of wet coffee grounds on top of it for good measure; an act that no doubt brought him satisfaction at my imagined disappointment.

Although saddened by the fact that someone who should have been on my side as a father acted like an enemy even in such small matters, I was inwardly chuckling because I had outfoxed him again. Instead of taking the opportunity to make me happy by bringing the article to my attention, he took the opportunity to try to make me unhappy. But I got it in spite of him, and he added yet another brick to the wall between us that would remain till he passed away years later.

Star Trek truly was the bright spot in an otherwise dark home life as I went through my teen years, and many of my good memories revolve around it.