American Star Trek Convention

Convention
Name:	American Star Trek Convention
Dates:
Frequency:
Location:	Dallas, Texas
Type:
Focus:	Star Trek
Organization:
Founder:
Founding Date:
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American Star Trek Convention was a series of Star Trek conventions held in Dallas, Texas.

The same people who ran these cons also ran Starcon and Star Trekkin' Austin.

1975

October 9–12, 1975

Walter Koenig was a guest.

1975: Con Report

I first met Walter Koenig in October of '75. For several weeks prior to that first meeting we had been in correspondence concerning a series of scripts that I had been working on for Baylor College of Medicine. When he said he would be in Dallas for a convention, I decided the opportunity to meet him and pick his brain

first hand was too good to pass up. So I alerted him I would be there. He said it would be a good opportunity to shed some light on some problems I was having with my project, so we agreed to meet. Naturally, the first place I saw him was in the Dealer's Room surrounded by fans. I decided to hover on the fringes and wait for a chance to introduce myself. Being fairly tall, hovering is easy; waiting isn't. Walter was aware of me; he looked at me to say, 'Never fear - I won't forget you,' while a man took up far more than his allotted share of his time. Walter, being very polite, waited until he could finally break away.

He read my nameplate before I could open my mouth to introduce myself. He yelled, "Marsha!" and scared me half to death! I screamed and threw my clipboard up like a shield. (I brought the clipboard as a prop - trying to be cool.) I don't know what kind of a greeting I was expecting, but that definitely was not it. He was still chuckling when I forced my heart out of my throat and got it started again.

He asked me to wait at the front desk for him and I was off like a shot. Once I was out the door, the directions just vanished. Was I supposed to wait in the main lobby? On the level just outside the Dealer's Room? Where? While I was working myself into a frenzy, he galloped past me and started taking the stairs three at a time. I didn't give myself time to even think about chasing a strange man across the hotel lobby - I just took the stairs three at a time after him! Until I caught him. He asked me if I had a room. I did, but not at that hotel, so we went to his. The closer we got to his room, the more nervous he appeared to be getting.

He left the door wide open by unspoken, but mutual, consent. That way if he grab-bed me I could run or if I grabbed him he could run. Then we got down to work and both forgot to be nervous.

What a fantastic intellect! He's not only an exceptionally fine actor, but a marvelous teacher, I'll never be able to thank him properly for all teh help he gave me, not only on the project, but my acting as well.

1976

October 28–31. Guests were James Doohan and Grace Lee Whitney.

The con's location was the Northpark Inn.

The focus was serial movies, comics, sci-fi, fantasy, and nostalgia.

A three part audio recording of James Doohan's presentation from 1976 can be found on YouTube here, ^{Archived version}.

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  fold-out front cover of the 1976 program guide

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  back cover of the 1976 program guide

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  inside art from the 1976 program guide

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  fuzzy 1976 schedule (no larger version available)

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  1975 convention badge

Con Report: 1976

from a 1976 con report in Horta #3

The Halloween weekend in Dallas was much more this year than the mundane task of dishing out candy to trick-or-treaters. Mr. Larry Herndon and his staff once again held the American Star Trek Convention, and brought Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex fans the joys of Grace Lee Whitney and James Doohan.

Grace and her husband Jack were the first to arrive. Grace came to the con reception desk first thing after she dropped her luggage off. She had a surprising amount of energy after the long plane flight from California, during which she answered fan mail. Grace brought a lot of info from California (see Movie News in this issue) for the latest on the movie. Other than that, she announced Gene Roddenberry's supernatural series Spectre will be produced in England this January for NBC. 20th Century Fox will be filming it on location, and will release it sometime next spring. Paul McCartney, ex-Beatle, rock star of the group Wings, and devoted ST fan, recently called Gene Roddenberry. He asked Gene Roddenberry to write the screenplay for his new movie Wings. There were some mixed reactions in the crowd, but the general consensus, to quote Grace's opinion was "Isn't that far-out!?" It would be highly unfair to say that Grace didn't care about her fans, because she does very much. Grace had high praise for [Debborah D], (who was one of the photographers in Horta #2) for her fantastic efforts promoting Grace's new single. Fans attending Saturday and Sunday had an opportunity to hear the single, composed of two songs Grace wrote and produced with the aid of her talented husband and the group Star. The single has "Disco Trekkin'" in which she expresses her return to the ST fans. Lyrics convey the meaning of the song best, some of which are: "...I'm back with you...",".. .this is a heavy feelin', just know'n you all still care...","...my head is on the ceiling, where do we go from there...","... so here we are back; to-gether again." In "Star Child," which she wrote for one of her sons, Grace is definitely a song stylist. Sounding mostly like Sara Vaughn, but with that touch of rock to the jazz singer which gives a sound that is uniquely Grace Lee Whitney. We're looking forward to your album, Grace! Jimmy Doohan came in during the scheduled time and showed-off his new son, Eric Montgomery Doohan, for the first time ever. Eric was born August 22 at l:l5PM and weighed 7 pounds, 13.5 ounces, according to his proud father. Eric was brought an by Jimmy's quiet wife, Wende. It is with deepest regret that technical difficulties beyond our control prevented us from bringing you an exclusive photo of the happy trio. [snipped: info on the movie "Flight Into Danger"]

One of the highlights with both Jimmy and Grace was a planned surprise by the con staff. A young child asked Grace if during her appearance in Dallas she had talked to Scotty. As she replied "why of course", Jimmy suddenly snuck up and put his arms around her from behind. Grace gasped and then they continued in a duel Q & A session with the crowd. To say the least, the crowd was very happy.

1982

October 29-31, 1982 at the Northpark Inn.

The mailing address was Valwood Parkway in Dallas, Texas.

Movies, comics, sci-fi, and fantasy.

A photo of the Star Trek crew was on a flyer.