Schuster Star Trek Conventions/1981 (September) New York City Schuster Star Trek Convention

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Star Trek America 1981 was held at the New York City Kennedy Airport Hilton on September 5-7.

Guests of Honor

George Takei, Grace Lee Whitney, Walter Koenig, Bill Hickey, Isaac Asimov, and Bruce Hyde, Arnold Moss (his last appearance), possibly Roger C. Carmel, and Hersh.

Links to Photos and Videos

There are some photos by Elaine and Anne Batterby for this con in the January 1982 WKFS Journal.

Con Reports

The New York convention was fun and I want to take a little time to thank all the members [of WKFS ] who attended and helped to keep me quite busy! Many thanks to Carole Berger for lending us the use of her room (one of the bigger ones in the hotel) for the WKFS get together. We all joined together to wish Walter and Bruce Hyde happy birthday and shared a little cake and...um... orange juice! We had a great time and I was pleased to see so many of you there!

I was very impressed with the enthusiasm of the audiences at the con. The last figure rumored for attendance was 1,400. I'm not completely sure if that's correct, but if the talks of Walter's and Bruce's I attended were any indication, then it's pretty close. Both Walter and Bruce were greeted warmly in their separate talks. Walter s comments were met with enthusiastic responses and excited whispers! People were eager to hear all he had to say about the sequel and begged for more... I walked away from Bruce s talk feeling good about ST fandom. Maybe it was making a comeback...maybe we don't have to worry quite so much about its disappearance; because, it hasn't disappeared! Bruce s rendition of "Take Me Home Again, Kathleen" was cheered and applauded quite loudly! A smile broke every face, as if saying, "Hey Bruce, we think you're terrific!". And he is.

Yes, I was impressed... moved.

The 15th anniversary of Star Trek was celebrated in New York City on September 5-7, 1981. Star Trek America featured Walter, Bill Hickey, Issac Asimov, Grace Lee Whitney and surprise guest Bruce Hyde.

In an attempt to straighten out rumors, Walter spent the first half-hour of both is Saturday and Sunday talks telling us what the current situation is with the movie sequel. Even though this is all subject to change without notice, here goes: Script is presently in the 3rd draft and being worked on by Sam Peoples; Director is Nicholas Meyer (7% Solution, Time After Time); All original cast is to be in the sequel; Special effects will be handled by The Industrial Light and Magic Company (George Lucas' Company); McCoy has an interesting relationship with someone on the ship; Scotty has a couple of excellent scenes; Chekov gets more to do with the plot and gets to walk! (ed.note: something he does well!). All of this is from the revision that Walter is most familiar (#3) and may not, of course, be what finally comes out on the screen! The new tentative start date is October 20 with even more tentative release date in summer of '82. Music composer is not yet set, but will use more of the TV series music this time around. Production is being done by the TV division of Paramount. Gene Roddenberry is simply the creative consultant. Will Spock/McCoy/somebody die? The question was addressed at length with the bottom line being that Walter simply isn't allowed to say. All he could ethically tell us about the plot was that there are 2 ships and 2 planets involved. The rest?... A long wait till the movie is released for us!

The Statler was undergoing massive renovation from a fire in February and there were other conventions on that weekend, so quarters were cramped (ed.note: and elevators VERY slow!).

The Dealer's Room had a fairly good selection of items for purchase. It made it hard that the autograph table was in the Dealer's Room as traffic flow was thus easily disrupted.

The reviewer also personally deplores the lack of information given out beforehand on what would be at the convention. We weren't even sure there was going to be a con till we arrived at the hotel. However, I am assured that the hush-hush, non-communication with the fans is very typical of the people who run the New York cons. It may be normal, but remains inexcusable.

Walter Koenig also confirmed that Spock is to die [in the next movie]. He spoke at the ST America Con 9-6-81 He says that there is this big emotional scene, "Beautiful" as he sells it, with Scotty emoting... Yechhhhh! I'm not even going to see that movie ONCE!