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Here I am, working on a Monogram P-38 in San Diego in 1964.
It was on this TV two years later that I first saw STAR TREK in its Los Angeles NBC premiere... fuzzy antenna reception and all! This was George Clayton Johnson’s episode, “Man Trap.” And I was hooked.
A year after ST began, we got a color TV, and I spent much of my high school years trying to figure out what color the Enterprise actually was. For my AMT model kits I decided on sky blue. Around this same time, I wrote my first short story to be accepted for publication. It appeared in FAMOUS SCIENCE FICTION in 1967... And I was paid $10!
Even with this in my CV, when in 1967 I applied for Advanced English at Crawford High School, the judgment of San Diego City Schools was that my essay (on some book called DUNE) was borderline, and I could get in only with individual teacher approval. Fortunately, my teacher approved. Scott Shaw was in this class with me. A Crawford film club was started in 1967 as well, and it was here I met David Clark and John Pound. We planned to make a short film of Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder.” Scott would play our Time Traveler, and the San Diego Zoo would be our location. I used my model-making skills to piece together a big rifle/ray gun and a future video phone...
Turns out that another group in Carlsbad and Del Mar, headed by William Stromberg Sr. and Phil Tippett, was also planning to make the short story! We met Ray in 1967, handed him our scripts—and of course Ray confused us for one group. But we stayed friends thereafter, and Stromberg and Tippett actually finished their production.
In 1969, a bunch of us Crawford High School kids, including Scott, John Pound, David Clark, and Roger Freedman, participated in the early planning for what would become San Diego Comic-Con. And STAR TREK was canceled by NBC...
I helped illustrate Bjo Trimble’s STAR TREK CONCORDANCE. Bjo’s fan effort had saved STAR TREK for a third season. And with three seasons under its belt, the show could go into syndication.
I kept writing.
And I kept making models. And still do.