Love of Trek

Star Trek Convention
Name:	Love of Trek
Dates:	February 11-13, 1983
Frequency:	one time
Location:	Omaha, Nebraska
Type:	fan con
Focus:	Star Trek: TOS
Organization:
Founder:	unknown
Founding Date:
URL:
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Love of Trek was a one-time Star Trek: TOS fan-run convention held Omaha, Nebraska in 1983.

It was sponsored by Star Base Andromeda.

Guests of Honor

• DeForest Kelley and Carolyn Kelley
• Dr. Jesco von Puttkamer
• Richard Pini
• Walter Koenig
• James Doohan
• Judson Scott
• Bjo Trimble
• Ann Crouch
• Steve Gray
• Dan Huckins
• Linda Romano
• Fred Von Tobel

Program Book

• 

  front cover of the program book, Mike Brown

• 

  back cover of the program book, Mike Brown

• 

  inside page

Two Talks

The Star Trek actors and showrunners had a busy, busy schedule of paid appearances as lecturers at various college/university campuses.

Two of these were scheduled very closely to "Love of Trek."

• Gene Roddenberry gave a talk at The University of Missouri (February 10). The activities were the blooper reel, viewing the episode "The Cage," and Gene's talk which was mostly about "the computer age we live in and what we are facing in the near future, in terms of computer advancement." He also talked about writing and character development.

• James Doohan gave a lecture the day after the con (February 14) at The University of Omaha. There were 300-350 attendees in the Student Center. He talked about the space program, he showed space shuttle film which he'd narrated, talked about Trek, had a Q&A, he sang, gave a Gaelic toast, presented the blooper reel, and signed autographs while the episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" was shown.

Con Reports

DeForest Kelley was guest of honor. The fans running it seemed to have had little or no experience with fan-run conventions; they modeled it on a professional convention. For instance, fan-run conventions normally give attendees a badge with their name on it. This name tag has two purposes. The first is to admit attendees to convention events. The second is to allow fans who know each other's names through fanzines but who have never met to identify each other on sight. Love of Trek gave attendees only a plain plastic band to admit them to convention events. Love of Trek also had no hospitality suite, which is common to fan-run conventions but almost always absent at professional conventions.

HOORAY FOR LOVE OF TREK:

Omaha was the sight of Love Of Trek, Feb 11-13th. It was a first time Trek con that was enjoyed by everyone I talked to. Like all cons, there were highlights to be remembered for years to come. For me, It was seeing and visiting with DeForest and Carolyn Kelley once again, and having Valter spend some time in our room on Sat. evening.

The Kelley's are such lovely people. What fun it was to see them again. While visiting in their room, Linda and I arranged a pretty bouquet of flowers in an ice bucket because they had no vase. Since Linda has had experience working in a florist shop, it turned out very well. I thought, I only cut my finger once trimming the long stems of the flowers. We sat around a beautiful round coffee table admiring the wooden carved turtle that had been given to the Kelley's by Collette Blum of Idaho. Carolyn remarked It was almost the size of Myrtle who is now in hibernation in L.A. I wonder what Myrtle will think when she sees it! We especially like the way the left back foot was carved. It almost looked as if that turtle was frozen in motion and the back foot would begin to move at any time.

When it was time to leave we had no coats, and Omaha in February is rather chilly at night. De and Carolyn gave us their coats to wear and we promised to return them to the con committee chairman to be returned the next day. You can imagine the uproar we caused when the other nine people in our St. Louis group saw us coming down the hall to the room. What fun it was, and we thank De and Carolyn for trusting us with the coats.

[...]

Walter then called down and we hastily cleaned up the room. He spotted a candy bar as soon as he came in and we fixed him up with a soda. We showed him the backdrops of Chekov and Scotty that Jean Ann and Carol had brought up from Memphis to be taken back to St. Louis. Annette Taylor has done such a wonderful job! He seemed to think they were every bit as good as we all did and you'll get the chance to see them in June at Space-Trek.

On Sunday, Walter remarked about our limericks and filksongs and his introduction to K/S from the St. Louis contingent the night before. Good Remarks, Folks! I think he enjoyed himself and was maybe a little amazed at our broad spectrum of Trek activities. His visit with us was lots of fun and we really appreciated his coming down to meet us all.

The autograph session on Saturday was 2.5 hours long - can you believe it? I managed to get autographs for Kay on Saturday and "C" on Sunday. After the autograph session, I went directly to the dealers room to pick up a check for table at Space Trek II. Somewhere along the line I left my program book with autographed pictures and extra pictures of Jimmy and Judson Scott and have yet to find them. It was disappointing to me and the girls were sorry I didn't get home with autographs for them.

I didn't attend the SCA goings-on, but did drop in long enough to see knights in armor having a battle. Got a few pictures of that and then hit the dealers room again.

Walter was a delight on stage as were Bjo, and of course, Deforest. On Sunday it was fun to see Walter and De together on stage. There were some very funny remarks between the two, just like they do in character when acting in Star Trek.

I heard the Planetary Society banquet didn't go over as well as hoped and that Jesco's early appearance on Friday only drew a few early attendees. I enjoyed his presentation on Saturday, which was well attended. Also the slide presentation by Richard Pini was most interesting.

There was some nice art in the art room, including some clay figurines of sci-fi creatures. I saw one of them go for $50.00 in the auction on Sunday. I believe the con sold $1000 worth of art for the artists. Bjo did a fine job acting as the auctioneer.

You might guess from the subtitle of this report that this was not an “ordinary" weekend, when Carol Marsh and I left Memphis shortly after midnite on Feb. 11th, we were full of eager anticipation for the Omaha convention, but we had no idea just how wild and wacky the weekend would turn out to be. Of course, we should have had an indication of it from the beginning, when we somehow managed to fit two 4' x 8' canvasses (the "Scotty" and “Chekov" panels of the backdrop for Space-Trek II by Annette Taylor) into Carol's Honda Civic with luggage and 2 people...on admirable accomplishment, exceeded only by the accomplishment of adding more luggage, soft drinks, a large box of fanzines, and... Talk about sardines in a can!

Sharon, having taken over as the helmsman, guided us thru the "desolate wasteland" known as Missouri until we sought refuge at the Denny's In Columbia. There we ate breakfast and met up with part of the "St. Louis Syndicate", which joined us as co-conspirators for the trip to Omaha. They had come to Columbia the night before to hear Gene Roddenberry at the University of Missouri. This motley crew consisted of several ALLIES: Phyllis, Linda, Terry, and Marcia} as well as some ether good Trek friends: Candy, Sandy, Harriet, and Janet. After unrolling the canvasses in the parking lot (so everyone could "ooh" end "ahh"), we transferred them to the custody of Phyllis Sutter. Carol and I heaved a sigh of relief that our mission had been accomplished, we had delivered them safely to Phyl!

[...]

We arrived at the Holiday Inn Holidome about 4 PM. After checking into our room (yep, that's right! 11 people in 1 room?) we headed downstairs to registration and to hit the dealers room. The crowd was at this time, minimal (the crowds were much larger on Sat/Sun) so we had a good selection to choose from. Especially glossy, beautiful photos... and photos... and photos... We were all nearly broke within a matter of minutes! Having deposited our "treasures" in the room, we headed back downstairs to eat. When the elevator opened, we met Walter face-to-face, and spent a few minutes talking and making introductions all around*. We got introduced to Candi Chase and Susan McCutchen, Walter's fan club presidents.

[...]

And Walter... well, more about Walter later!

There wasn't too much going on Friday nite, other than skits, which we decided to forego, and instead took the time to relax, chat with old and new friends, and get ready for the next day. Our good intentions of getting a full nite's sleep weren't exactly realized, since 11 girls in one room can keep you laughing, at least until one's watch says 2 AM, which is my last recollection of Friday nite.

Thank goodness programming did not start until later on Saturday morning, because it gave us a chance to get up, eat a good breakfast, and try to transform Carol into Saavik. We didn't have Annette's touch with ears, which ended up in the wastecan.

But other than that, Carol and I did okay with the makeup, at least good enough for De Kelley to remark how much Carol looked like "the one" (Kirstie). You can tell imagine how that remark was taken by Carol!

Richard Pini gave a delightful slide presentation on the origin of Elfquest and its future direction, including a full-length motion picture. If you weren't a fan before the ta1k (which I already was), you were after it was over!

Next was Bjo Trimble. She is everything I had imagined her to be: witty, funny, and livelier than a Vulcan in Pon Farr! This lady is a delight in every sense of the word, and truly the "ultimate ST fan." Now I know why everyone loves her!

Walter Koenig spoke at 1 PM. Having never heard him speak before, I sat with open ears, a loyal heart, and (thank God!) a working camera! I clung to his every word, lever realizing that we would have the pleasure of his company for almost three hours later that evening. Yep, that's right folks. Can you imagine Walter Koenig with 11 girls in one room for almost 3 hours? (His reputation is shot for sure!) During the course of those 3 hours we discussed so many topics that it would be impossible to mention them all; but let me tell you my impressions of Walter. He's charming, gentle, sensitive, sincere, concerned, considerate, intelligent, articulate, talented, and devoid of ego. In other words, he is the epitome of a fine, human being. (You could say, "I liked him!!!)

The portrait of Chekov by Annette Taylor, first shown at Space Trek II, also seen at "Love of Trek." This photo was taken by Jean Ann Hodge, and it appeared in WKFS Journal (April 1983).

We laughed and talked over 7-Up and Twix Bars, filk-songs and R-Rated (X-Rated?) limericks. I'll never forget his "Ladies, I'm surprised!" as the tears of laughter rolled down his cheeks. But perhaps the biggest thrill of the evening was Walter's surprised delight as we unrolled the "Chekov" canvas to reveal his image. His face broke into that adorable, little boy's smile, his first words were "Oh, Wow!" and then "Is the artist here?" Of course, Annette wasn't there, and she's been threatening suicide since she heard that Walter loved it But she won't do it, because the knows she'll meet him at Space-Trek II.

But I've gotten ahead of myself. Let me regress to what happened after Walter's talk, Jesco von Puttkamer, director of long range planning studies for NASA, gave an informative slide presentation of our future in space. Thin it was time for De Kelley. De was looking much healthier than when I last saw him, plus he's gained a little weight. He was his usual, handsome, charming self. His entire talk was a question and answer session, with fans asking about everything from death to life (Spock's that is!) He promised that McCoy would do everything in his power to help the Vulcan.

[...]

At the con, the costume contest was held. Unfortunately there were few entries. The winner, however, was exceptional. He came as a mystic from the the movie, "The Dark Crystal". His costume took over 100 man hours to complete.

[...]

Sunday activities consisted of an SCA demonstration. a champagne brunch for the Planetary Society (which we didn't attend because of the $25 price tag}, a joint session with De and Walter. The two interact very well together. You can sense the mutual admiration that they share.

This past February, I did finally meet Walter Koenig at Love of Trek in Omaha, Nebraska.

There were eleven in our group and we had just opened the elevators getting ready to burst out for something to eat when we all froze in amazement. There with his back to us was Walter, in the flesh! We filed out of the elevator quietly and waited for him to notice us as he was talking to two girls. He turned our way with a quizzical look and we introduced ourselves. He then introduced the two girls—none other than Susan and Candi, his fan club representatives. It was a pleasure to meet them as I had been writing to them about Walter attending our convention in June of 1983 in St. Louis.

Walter was all I had heard he was, polite, friendly and just like any person who loves Star Trek that you might meet at a con.

During the weekend, I net him in the dealers room, art room, and hallway. He is very relaxed at cons and more than happy to meet people as he mingles around.

I enjoyed seeing him on stage Saturday, and with DeForest Kelley Sunday. The two of them seemed very comfortable working together. It was fun to see the way they would "play off" of each other with jokes here and there.

Perhaps the most fun of all, though, was having Whiter visit our "St. Louis contingent" for a couple of hours Saturday night. We cleaned house in an unbelievable amount of time. With eleven people in one roan that was, as Mr. Spock would say, "fascinating!"

Our visit with Walter lasted about two hours and we talked of many things.

[...]

I would still be embarrassed [for a coughing fit I had], except for the few remarks Walter made the next day on stage about the filksinging, limericks, andK/S discussion he'd experienced in our room the night before.

It was our pleasure to show him his 8x4 ft. portrait. It's of Chekov in his new ST uniform and was done by Annette Taylor for Space Trek II. I hope every one will like it as much as we do.

As always with cons, I hated to come home, but then anxiously awaited the photographs to get developed. Now that they're in, I can relive it all over again, and look forward to seeing Walter, Jimmy and Leonard in June. I hope to meet many of you, too.

Omaha Insures Mutual Love of Trek.

Omaha, Omaha, what can one say about . Omaha in February? What can one say about it at any time? But, seriously... Love of Trek '83, held February 11-13, was generally a good convention. It was gloomy and cold outside — the date was perhaps the problem.

Inside the Holiday Inn, however, it was cozy and comfortable. The recreation area presented basketball, ping-pong, an arcade, a swimming pool, a whirlpool, and quiet comers in which to converse. Two bars of different character were available: one populated by a more rowdy crowd and music, and the other secluded, dark and perfect for small, intimate gatherings.

Once again, several lively groups and individuals roamed the halls, seeking entertaining sustenance from Walter Koenig, DeForest Kelley, Jesco von Puttkamer and Bjo Trimble, as wall as others. Autograph lines ware long both Saturday and Sunday, especially Saturday. After a while, no longer content to sit at the autograph table, Walter ended up wending his way down the queue, wielding his wicked wit, as well as his pen, pausing for but a moment to render his infamous impersonation of Carmen Miranda (you had to be there!). Jesco provided valuable and interesting information straight from NASA, although the size of audiences was disappointing, given the professed support of science fact and fiction by Trek fans. Those who attended, none the less, found Jesco to be delightfully charming and witty. We look forward to seeing him again. De read his poem, "The Big Bird's Dream," and fielded typical Trek questions. Bjo related Trek anecdotes and advertised her newest book, entitled ON THE GOOD SHIP ENTERPRISE.

The dealers room was small and uninteresting, fine for the pocketbooks of fans who had traveled far, but a disappointment nevertheless.

Omaha would be fine for another convention, if it took place at a warmer time of the year; one could sight see more.

I saw a familiar figure in the lobby. It was Walter! He warmly greeted all WKFS members near him. Soon numerous fans surrounded him, requesting to take his picture. As usual, he handled the situation with great patience.

On Saturday morning, I met the designers of Star Trek, The Role Playing Game, and chatted with them for a while. At 1 p.m., Walter spoke and told us the latest news on the third Star Trek movie. As usual, Walter was very entertaining as he recounted his experiences while filming Star Trek. At 3 p.m. DeForest spoke. He arrived late due to parking problems.

After De signed two autographs for me on Sunday, although the rules allowed only one, I made one last tour of the dealers room and went to the airport to catch my flight back home. I felt extremely lucky. I had finally seen DeForest Kelley. Walter Koenig still remembered my name.