50 years ago, "The Cage" first flew—in Culver City

NOW we're talking history: 50 years ago, Nov. 27 was a Friday—and the crazy giant-killers at Desilu led by creator-producer Gene Roddenberry, line producer-in-deed Bob Justman, director Robert Butler and even studio guy Herb Solow started filming on a little thing called "The Cage," the Pike-led first pilot of Star Trek.

I'm been both gratified and amused to see the online-o-sphere finally start talking about this as the "actual" 50th anniversary ahead of the storied 9/8/66—anniversaries have a funny way of causing page-clicks  .... after I've been mentioning it here in passing, as a caveat,  time and again for years.  And years. (Of course, Gene's pitch memo was actually dated from March...)

One of my recently discovered fans, Dwayne A. Day, just did an excellent reflection on Star Trek's power to move us then —and not so much now—based on what "The Cage" and classic Star Trek meant in its time, to its times.

And *I* just did a new cover story piece to connect some recently pondered new dots about making 'The Cage" in the Titan official Star Trek Magazine (at left) —you can get it on newsstands or subscribing online or postally now.

So. I'll let the big time celebrating commence elsewhere, across the interwebs. For here, I'll just trot out a little reminder that not only was "The Cage" (and the second ppilot too) filmed not at Desilu-Gower (later Paramount)... but at Desilu-CULVER, in the studio that was home under various banners to Gone With the Wind, Citizen Kane, Mayberry and Hogan's Heroes: today known as The Culver City Studios—going strong with a new owner, but not open to the public.

So I'll just mark "The Cage" today with my quick mini-tour of what you can acutally see of Trek's true filmage roots today: the fence along Ince Avenue, the studio's northeast perimeter where a small memorial has been created to honor all the lot's owners... including Lucy and Desi, and her little space show that went so far: