DeForest Kelley On...
Autographs
Fans
Fan Mail
His Fan Clubs
Conventions
TrekCruise
Fanzines
My experience has been very unique with Star Trek fans. I have found them to very loving, peace-loving people, very courteous, and extremely intelligent. (applause) I have nothing but fondness for all of you and great respect for all of you.
In fact, a gal came over here some time ago and interviewed me from Germany and she had me do a message for
her in German for a telephone tape. And the kids in Germany would call in and talk to Dr. McCoy. Well, there they call me Pill. (laughter) Because Bones doesn't mean anything to them. The connotation means nothing to them, so they call me Pill there. So a lot of them have written to me and said, "Gee, I heard you on the telephone, you know, and you speak beautiful German." (laughter)
Anyhow, the fan club thing is that it always requires a contribution on the actor's part and I find myself failing to do that. There's a club in Australia there that doesn't seem to care whether I write to them or not. Yes?
Autographs
I want to be real honest with you, and tell you why I don’t have an autograph session. I did a couple of conventions where I did autograph sessions, and at the end of, like two or three hours, I would look and see this line that had been cut off, of people that had been standing there for two hours. So eventually, I found... In both cases, people were alienated and I decided that if I couldn’t do it for all, I just wouldn’t do it for one. I don’t want to alienate anyone. That’s the reason for that. I’m sorry.
Fans
(At what state did the cast of Star Trek realize that the fans of the show were a little bit different from the average television show fans and when did you realize that we were all right?)
When did I realize that Star Trek fans were rather strange? The first time that I knew that Star Trek was different and that it had a different audience... why, before the first shows were ever shown, by people coming on the set that were invited on the set and people from all walks of life who were completely fascinated with what we were doing. When they were released in the second year, we began... Star Trek was released in the United States during the hippie generation. There is a newspaper in Los Angeles called the Free Press and ads would appear in the Free Press in blocks where they would take an ad saying, "Star Trek shows tonight. Come on, let's light up and watch." (laughter) And I thought, boy, we're picking up something. I knew we were a success when I saw that. But it picked up the hippie generation and they were all along the freeways at that time with the very long hair and the robes and the dog, and they would see you driving. And many times, driving home from the studio, they would see me and up would go the hand, you know, in the peace sign, the whole bit. But that's when I realized we were picking up a new kind of an audience, an interesting audience.
Fan Mail
It is impossible for me to answer all the mail that I get, I want you to know that. But I tell you one thing, I read everything that comes through, that comes my way. The mail that is sent to Paramount, I do get it. It comes to me... But it’s impossible for me to become a pen pal. I have to be thankful for that, but it’s a mixed blessing. I get a lot of wonderful mail and I enjoy reading the majority of it a great deal. But since Star Trek IV was released – you know they did well with all of the Star Trek films, but Four seems to have caught a crossover audience. We’ve picked up a lot more fans from number Four, and it has done particularly well in Europe and we’re getting an enormous amount of mail there, and the requests for photographs and that sort of thing is really quite a big deal, but I will... Anything sent to me with a self-addressed stamped envelope for a photograph or that sort of thing, I personally will sign. Also, I want you to know that every poem or picture that’s out there in this building, I personally signed. They’re not stamped. I wouldn’t do that to you. I want you to know that. You know, there are those that will have their secretary or someone sign a picture. That doesn’t happen with me, I sign everything personally. I just wanted you to know that..
His Fan Clubs
Oh, yes. She wants to know have they ever gotten me another fan club. I must tell you that that is really my fault about fan clubs. As I've told you before, I'm probably the laziest actor in Hollywood and I am very neglectful as far as my correspondence is concerned. "Hear hear," I hear somebody say. (laughter) Mainly because I know I'm gonna have a secretary for that usually. And it gets... I find that when I do become... it doesn't mean I don't read my mail --I do. And some of it I have to sit down and answer. It requires it because the mail is so literate and the letters I get are so well written. And not only from you, but the European mail just kills you. The letters are absolutely gorgeous and they're the biggest Star Trek fans, much like you, that you could ever believe in Germany. And it's amazing to me how well the German young people write English. Some of them, of course, write the whole thing in German and I guess they think you can speak German, but you can't. Yes.
Conventions
Do I have any future conventions? No. I’ve done... I feel like a gypsy. I have never done so many conventions in my life as I have done in the last year. Really, it seems like... [Malin?: Wait till next year] Mr. Malin, I’m hearing echoes. I was telling Carolyn just the other day, we’ve got to calm down. Slow it down. I have one that I’m going to do in Tampa, FL in January. Oh, God, that Florida bunch! I don’t mean it. That’s as far as I know at the moment. I’m trying to stay home and get to know my dog.
First Convention Experiences
Well, I think I attended the second or the third. [...] I think it was around 1974. It was my first convention. And they had had an earlier one somewhere where they just decided to get together and they expected maybe 150 people and - it seemed like 300 or 400 or 500 people showed up. So they decided to throw another one. And they did at this hotel in New York in Times Square, Manhattan. And, to their astonishment, thousands showed up. It was really a mess of people. And when I walked out on the stage and saw this group of people, such as you, and the balcony all filled, packed, and saw the enthusiasm, it was unbelievable. I came home and I told Carolyn... I said, "I don't know what's going to happen with Star Trek, but something is going to happen. I don't know in what form it's going to come back, but down the line it's got to come back." Because it was unreal and it was a very, very interesting feeling, to say the least, to see that reaction. And, surely enough, it eventually did.
The Houston Disaster Con
She wished to thank me for some words that I mentioned in Houston when we had the fiasco there. It is always disheartening to see any kind of gathering such as a Star Trek convention that falls into trouble of any sort, because the spirit is usually so good among all of you that you just don't like to see anyone offended or anything going on with anybody, and let's just hope that will never happen again. It's most important Thank you. It was a great experience, really
Appearing with Nimoy in St. Louis
Yes, that was a rare moment. She was at the Saint Louis convention where Leonard and I appeared together on stage and the fans wrote... presented certain scenes, in fact Sue Keenan came in second. [to Sue] Well, look, don’t hide your face, that’s terrific! Yeah, I remember all that stuff. Leonard and I did this scene, and it was really very funny, we had a marvelous time.