1925-2010: RIP Tony Curtis: Our last surprise Trekkie?

I recently tried to follow-up with Tony Curtis to update my TREKLAND post about the remarkable statement he made a few months back that he had "always wanted to do Star Trek."

Got a polite no just a few weeks ago ... and now I know why...

Actor Tony Curtis dies at Las Vegas-area home
 
By KEN RITTER (AP)

 LAS VEGAS — Tony Curtis, the Bronx tailor's son who became a 1950s movie heartthrob and then a respected actor with such films as "Sweet Smell of Success," "The Defiant Ones" and "Some Like It Hot," has died. He was 85.

The actor died about 9:25 p.m. PDT Wednesday at his Las Vegas area home of a cardiac arrest, Clark County Coroner Mike Murphy said Thursday.  ...

Happy Birthday, Gene's Sandbox*!

Yes, can it be 44 years now since NBC's Thursday night TV preview viewers took a chance on some sci-fi show with the guy with the pointed ears ... on Sept. 8, 1966.

Never mind that "The Cage" pilot with Jeffrey  "Captain Pike" Hunter had been filmed in December 1964, almost two years earlier: Sept. 8th is now officially Star Trek's birthday date for all needs and occasions, foreign and domestic.

So, to celebrate, here's a treat and a blooper—a scene from either "Obsession" or "Immunity Syndrome," an actual frame cut from one of the original clips from film-can trims that Gene and Majel's Lincoln Enterprises used to sell to the kids, just to make ends meet.

You're welcome!


* From statement of various Trek writers: "It's Gene's sandbox; he just lets us play in it."

My designers are gettin' good Inc.! (Magazine, that is)

I've had some really nice comments and inquiries about my homepage and blog site designs, so indulge me a little while I brag about what my "hired help" have gone and done:

Lee Wochner, Amy Kramer and the gang at Counterintuity right here in Burbank were just spotlighted in the new issue of Inc. magazine: check it out (p. 118)!

Success Signals: Lee Wochner and Amy Kramer turn the volume up on social media marketing

Wochner feels that his and Kramer's theater backgrounds make them well-suited for this kind of work, and that the collaborative and intuitive creative process Counterintuity employs is a natural fit with social media.

The article focus is on social marketing as well as all the other aspects they cover—for entities connected with business, government, non-profits, and private creatives alike. Lee, is addition, is my Comic-Con guru (and Marvel cheat-sheet) that I can only hope to emulate. Nuff said.

 It's a pleasure and a privilege.

Vegas late wrap: Here's to the winners—with thanks!

Still catching up... but I did finally want to thank everyone who came by the ever-busy table at ever-crazed Vegas Khaaan!, Creation-style. For the last year at the Hilton, the show went out in style—as you can see below: my prize winners!

Once again, I offered folks who signed up to larrynemecek.com the chance at a big prize drawing, which we held twice at close of day:

Alice Znelka was our winner for the Sunday prize pile ...

And Christy LaGuardia won the re-draw for Saturday's goodies:

(Attention 2009 winners: hate to say it, but your names got misplaced soon after the con. Write to me with what you won, and I'll get those pics up, too....)

STV: BLTN*: Open 'The Gates' TONIGHT for Robert Hewitt Wolfe

Thanks to my "lost August," I'm only now getting to blog this video I grabbed with Robert Hewitt Wolfe at Comic-Con. Aside from Majel's memorial service in early '09, I had not really seen much of "Wolfie" since his days in the Hart Building as a young writer on DS9—starting with the Bareil/Winn debut, "In The Hands of the Prophets."

Though slow to post it, this "Switching to Visual" is a good reminder TODAY that his second ep of the season for The Gates airs tonight on ABC (10 PM PT/ET). In this, we cover that AND the funner stuff of Comic-Con San Diego, too... all from the sparse decore of my signing table.

Just goes to show how the serendipity of any con for anybody at any time can be a fun thing... So thank you, Mrs. Fields, for being the magnet that drew us together!



*Better Late Than Never!