1972: The first Star Trek Convention

There have been science fiction conventions. Why not a Star Trek convention? Elyse Pines and Joan Winston thought. They organized it, and the convention was set for January 1972 at the Statler-Hilton Hotel in New York City. By November 1971 they have 300 registered, and they were happy.

Then they started receiving letters from all over the country, and when the _Variety_ interviewed them for a FRONT PAGE article, all the local news agencies as well as national ones like United Press International (UPI), _TV Guide_, _Daily News_, and local TV stations (WABC, WCBS, etc.) called for appointments and interviews, and the word was REALLY getting out. Issac Asimov will be there, as will be a lot of people. Paramount promised several episodes, and NASA delivered their exhibit. Gene by this time have divorced his original wife and married Majel Barrett (a.k.a. Nurse Chapel), and they will be attending as well. They brought with them a copy of the ORIGINAL The Cage, as well as the blooper reel.

By the night before the con they have over 800 registered attendees, and they had ran out of membership cards. Hundreds of fans arrived early to help out, including some of the better known ones like Sondra Murshak, Myrna Culbreath, Richard Arnold (current Star Trek archivist), and Bjo Trimble, organizer of the second Save Star Trek campaign (she later wrote Star Trek Concordance).

On the day of the convention, the registration was to start at noon, but the hotel told every who called that registration starts at 8:30. By 9:30 at least 400 fans are waiting. At about 1100, the Roddenberrys arrived, but the registration desk personnel didn't recognize them. They were stopped by a volunteer. "You can't come in without a badge unless you are a member of the committee or connected with Star Trek". Gene's response was truly timeless, as he said, "I am Star Trek."

By 3PM that afternoon, the TV crews arrived, and the room was jam packed that the TV crews ended up getting pictures of each other, as they have absolutely no room to move around. Also there are reporters from almost every college and school newspaper from all over the east coast as well as across the nation. Oscar Katz, then VP of Desilu and by now a VP at CBS, was there too. Every one was shocked at the amount of support the fans are showing for Star Trek.

The three day event, originally planned for a few hundred people, has registered AT LEAST 3000 people by the time it finished on Sunday, from six week old babies to eighty-two year old grandmothers. Most estimates placed the total attendees to be 3200.

The most popular question was toward Gene, Is there any chance for Star Trek to return to television? Gene replied that originally no, maybe as a TV movie, but after this convention, he really don't know, anything is possible.

Star Trek is alive and well, two years after its supposed cancellation, and both CBS and NBC evaluated the convention results. Star Trek will return to television, but in an unexpected format.

 

To learn more

Want to see a Star Trek convention first hand? While not quite as wild and crowded as the first one, the current ones are just as much fun. Expect to see guest stars, records of other conventions, LOTS of merchants hawking everything from t-shirts and baseball caps to technical manuals and communicator pins, from autographed artwork to local club recruitments. See Clubs and Cons section as well as the Upcoming Events section for a convention near you.

Note: records of First Trek Con are extracted from _Star Trek Lives!_ published by Bantam Books. There's a lot of fun stuff I have to leave out.

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