Visit to a Small Planet
You may be looking for the first media RPF: Visit to a Weird Planet.
| Title: | Visit to a Small Planet |
| Creator: | Gore Vidal |
| Date(s): | 1968 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS by way of Leonard Nimoy |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | |
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Visit to a Small Planet is a 1960 Paramount Pictures film which in turn was based on a 1955 play by Gore Vidal. [1] Leonard Nimoy starred in this play in 1968 (shortly before the end of the Star Trek series) at the Pheasant Run Playhouse in St. Charles, Illinois.
Many fans attended this play to see Leonard Nimoy (some more than once) and reported back to zines of their experience. Many of these testimonials and descriptions can be found in LNAF's many publications.
The play also was the inspiration behind the very, very early RPF story (possibly the first modern media RPF) Visit to a Weird Planet is a Star Trek: TOS story by Jean Lorrah and Willard F. Hunt. This story was originally in printed in Spockanalia #3 and reprinted in Computer Playback #5.
The Movie's Summary
The original movie starred Jerry Lewis and had a different focus than the play. It was more madcap, focused more on Kreton discovering that emotions and being a human wasn't as much fun as he'd thought. It also highlighted a love interest.
The Play's Summary
As told by the New York News, VISIT TO A SMALL PLANET" is an imaginative affair in which an alien comes from another planet to do a bit of sightseeing and to see or start a war. He thinks he has arrived in time to see the Civil War, which he expects will be jolly, but he has misjudged his landing and gets here in 1957. He tries to make the best of it. 'Isn't hydrogen fun?' he gurgles, as he hears about modern warfare. Where he comes from, civilization has gone way beyond what we have here. They don't have babies anymore, for instance, he explains to us earthlings, 'We gave it up. Sometimes I think we were a bit hasty.' This interplanetary visitor, who can read human minds, and even have an enchanting conversation with a Siamese cat, plops himself into an average community whose population includes an average general, an average boy and girl in love, and an average TV newscaster or oracle and an above-average cat." Since he has missed the Civil War, the visitor from outer space (not from Mars, he insists) decides to make his own war —he's enchanted with all the new playthings the twentieth century has invented for war-making, and he wants to toss a few of them around. Since on his planet emotions withered away to make room for intellectual development, he sees no reason why a few people shouldn't be happy to die for his amusement; and it takes the combined action of the entire cast to persuade him to call off his war. [2]
Sample Fanworks
from a fan's lengthy and detailed description of seeing the play and of meeting Nimoy, this one printed in LNNAF Yearbook 1968
from a fan's lengthy and detailed description of seeing the play and of meeting Nimoy, this one printed in LNNAF Yearbook 1968
from a fan's lengthy and detailed description of seeing the play and of meeting Nimoy, this one printed in LNNAF Yearbook 1968
One Fan's Reaction
Below is a fan's report of meeting Leonard Nimoy and seeing this play several times. She doesn't say much about the play itself (the bane of famous actors everywhere who become famous for one reason and then have to deal with fans' very focused, telescoped interest), but instead gives an account of of the hectic flavor of the activities surrounding this play and the nimble dance a celebrity has to preform with fans:
It was March 5th, and Leonard Nimoy, STAR TREK'S Mr. Spock, was opening as Kreton in VISIT TO A SMALL PLANET at the Pheasant Run Playhouse in St, Charles, Illinois, I'd had my ticket several days in advance and hadn't slept in twice as many days. The two-hour drive from Chicago to Pheasant Run was pure torture! When we had arrived, dinner was already being served as it is a dinner-playhouse, But, tell me, who could eat at such a time? I surely couldn't, nor did I want to.
Finally, the curtain rose - I watched with baited breath, waiting for LN to appear,, He came on with a thunder of applause from the audience, and from then one I remember watching no one else on stage but him. After the play, there was an announcement that there was to be a cast party for those people who were there to meet the performers. We -- Nancyann Hiera, who won the 67 Nimoy Award from the LNNAF, and two friends — went upstairs to one of the ballrooms and waited, ...and waited... and waited. While putting together a camera, I happened to notice a rather familiar-looking woman in the doorway. I approached her and found her to be Mrs. Nimoy. I mentioned the fan club I work for and introduced myself, and then she introduced the children, Adam and Julie„ We chatted briefly and then moved on as a crowd was forming at the other side of the room, meaning that LN had arrived. I decided to wait until some of the crowd dispersed so I returned to Mrs. Nimoy who was standing unnoticed at the buffet table. I talked with her and got her picture. Then I decided to approach LM. He was smiling and answering questions that were being shot at him a dozen at a time. I stepped up to meet him and told him which fan club I worked far find who I was and then I asked him if he'd pose for a photo. He did, and smiled kindly for it. He said to me and Nancy that he would speak with our party a bit later on as he had to circulate among everyone We were patiently awaiting his return and when he did come back, he brought Sandi with him to introduce her to us. He had to circulate again after chatting briefly and asking about the club, so he left Sandi with us. She's an altogether delightful, and very au natural with people, I really like her. After everyone had nearly gone, LN came back to us and questioned us (There's a switch!) as to which album cuts were being heard on the radio and which we liked best. It was running late and we did have to be on campus the next day so we prepared to leave. LN asked if and when we were going to come back. We had tickets for that coming Friday and he was delighted to know we'd be back and he said he'd be looking for us.
That Friday was a very hectic day for me. Having gotten out of classes early that morning, I decided to go down to WGN-TV (a local station) where LN was to tape LYON'S LINE, a celebrity discussion program, that afternoon. The participating audience for this is limited to about 35 people so tickets had to be reserved. After having picked up my ticket and waiting in line for nearly an hour, they finally lad us into the auditorium I was surprised to see who LN was starring with: actor Ray Milland, actress Susan Oliver (she appeared on STAR TREK once) and entertainers Chris and Peter Allen. The show lasted a little over an hour, and afterwards I went to talk with LN. He was somewhat rushed as he was "guesting" at a local radio station, but he double checked and was very glad to know we were coming out that evening.
That night, after the play, we went upstairs to talk to him. He said he was glad to see us and appreciated our coming. Someone had mentioned to him that there was no means of public transportation out there and he really was upset about it. He said that had he known, he would've arranged for buses or something. He mentioned to us that there was a Coke party the next afternoon for the fans and that perhaps we'd like to come, though he wasn't at all sure what it would be like.
I think that next to closing night, the Coke party had to be the saddest ordeal of the entire escapade. I don't want to blame the management at the playhouse because it's easy to understand how they could underestimate teenybopper fans, but it was a sorry display of intelligence on their part, and at the same time, a sad thing to do to LN who was keeping a very tight schedule and seemed to be very tired. They had him onstage for all the kids to cheer at and there was an emcee there that constantly referred to him as "Mr. Spock". They had some sort of haircut contest for the boy who had a haircut most like LN's and the winner would have his photo taken with him. I guess the playhouse people just weren't on the ball because they took LN off the stage without so much as one guard to keep the kids back and they mobbed him! He gave us a look like "How nice to see friendly faces!" and was then pushed to safety. It was sad to see how little consideration to playhouse people seemed to have for their box-office attraction.
The time until closing night was bittersweet. I so wanted to see LN again, but I'd certainly didn't want him to leave. We seemed to know every line of dialogue from the play by heart by that time, and we could barely remain dry-eyed through the last scene where Kreton prepares to return, unwillingly but forced, to his own planet and tells the others that he'll be back. It really seemed very true to life to us. After the play, everyone was invited to go up for autographs„ When we got upstairs, the entire hall was packed from wall to wall with people. LN was at the end of the hall, atop a stool to keep from getting mobbed, trying to maintain some sort of orderliness. When our turn came in the line, he told us to stand to one side rather than to move on with the rest of the mob. It was rather interesting to observe the reactions of the teenyboppers who were curious to know why he singled the Regional Reporter of THE ENTERPRISE and her friends out of the mob for his favor. The management had limited it to one autograph per person and even that couldn't help LN who was suffering from writers' cramp. I had several photos to be signed for THE ENTERPRISE but decided to just have one done. When LN saw the others, he asked what they were, but I told him he didn't have to sign them because I knew his hand was already gone to the point of no return from pain. But he smiled and said something to the effect of "anything for THE ENTERPRISE!" (I should mention here that he had a savory smile each time I mentioned THE ENTERPRISE.) and signed the rest. He came over and and said something to each of us about thanking us for coming.
He said that he felt especially good about all the times we managed to get out there, and he was calling us his friends now rather than his fans to people who asked who and what we were. He repeatedly apologized for not being able to spent a great deal of time with us and he thanked as several times for understanding the circumstances that presented him from talking at length with us. He took each us by the hand and thanked us for coming And then he had to sneak out the back so as to avoid the crowd that lingered downstairs.
I formed a great many opinions by those few brief meetings with Leonard Nimoy. He's truly a great person, especially to have been so patient about many of the things that occurred while he was among fans. I have found that he isn't at all "Hollywood" —- he was actually touched when I asked him to autograph for a particular person. When I told him that this person would be thrilled to receive it, he looked up at me, surprised, and said„ "Will she? Really7" He's a very kind person, too.
The play was superb! I couldn't picture anyone else as Kreton. One of the supporting characters, a very charming young actress named Rebecca Phillips, has attested to the fact that LN's a wonderful person to work with and had a way of putting the whole cast at ease. There's something warm and gentle about LN as well. I was terrified to utter a syllable until I got up to him. He has a way about him that makes you feel very comfortable -- so nothing you could say or do would embarrass you. I knows several times the camera wouldn't work properly and he made the whole thing seem funny when he came over and began to take the thing apart, professing to know nothing at all about cameras. He's the greatest ever.
There's only one really good word to describe him: MAGNETIC! [3]
References
- ^ See "Visit to a Small Planet" at Wikipedia.
- ^ Dramatists Play Service
- ^ by Mandy Tamborello, a reporter for The Hailing Signal (June 1968)