The Little Enterprise
| Fan Club | |
|---|---|
| Name: | The Little Enterprise (or "Little Enterprise") |
| Dates: | July 2, 1967-? |
| Founder(s): | Rita Ractliffe |
| Leadership: | Rita Ractliffe |
| Country based in: | out of El Paso, Texas, USA |
| Focus: | Star Trek: TOS and William Shatner |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Little Enterprise was a very early Star Trek: TOS fan club.
"This club is a LNNAF chapter and has also been approved as a local club for Shatner and Kelley who do not plan to have national clubs." [1]
Descriptions
From a February 1968 description:
Present membership at 60-70, but changes daily! For dues you receive four Journals, Photos of the ST cast, bulletins as needed, and a photo—membership card. The bulletin, "Memo to the Log" is issued frequently & when needed, it includes brief accounts of upcoming events, longer accounts on items of interest. Rita organized a Star Trek "Write In", in which they (herself some local Members) wore ST uniforms and passed out materials to persons at a shopping center, to write letters to NBC, one day they got out 400!!! Besides all of the above, they sell pix & tapes from the show and plan to sell uniforms like on the show!!! The LE is now an official William Shatner - DeForrest Kelley fan club, with their official consent & approval! [2]
From the [[Sand Treks (Winter 1968):
The idea for the Little Enterprise was originally conceived when the three founding members decided to go national. Having met L,N. a few months before, they wanted to do something to promote him and explore more of his career in an organized way. Mrs. Peggye Vickers, President of the LNNAF, was most instrumental in the decision of forming an actual chapter. The girls got together and laid down a basic groundwork for the club-to-be to operate on. It was named the Little Enterprise; the members at that time were all diminutive people, and they didn't think that they would be a large group. Mr. Spock's nicknames also had something to do with this. After letting it out to a few people that a club of sorts had been started, they were deluged with requests to join. So, the Little Enterprise has finally gotten "under weigh", and is glad to welcome you to its ranks. We hope that it will provide an interesting, informative outlet of Star Trek information and be a suitable area for you to express yourself.
Publications
- Sand Treks (the club's journal)
- The William Shatner Fanatic Bulletin
Some Ephemera
certificate about the club's founding, printed in Sand Treks #2
sent to Gene Roddenberry: club membership card with Gene Roddenberry as an honorary member
a January 1968 letter by Rita to Gene Roddenberry: "I have enclosed a copy of our club journal for you. We would be most honored if you would consent to be an honorary member of our group. We have Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner & DeForest Kelley as Honorary Members at present -- which brings up an interesting point. One of my members has a commission certificate from the U.S.S. Ent. Would it be possible, do you suppose, that the Little Enterprise could be so commissioned? After all, we travel around in the United Sand Ship Enterprise-2, an English Land Rover. It would be awful if the word got around that we were uncommisioned. And could I be commissioned as the Captain of this craft? I would be most grateful on both counts." Note: the writing and comments in red are by Roddenberry's office in response.
photo of Rita's car, dubbed "Little Enterprise" (June 1967)
References
- ^ from Plak-Tow #8 (June 1968)
- ^ from The Monthly Trek #3