How Did Deforest Kelley Make A Living During the 70s?
- Thread starter Aike
- Start date
Don't discount the convention circuit; There was money coming in from appearances.
Which suddenly brings an interesting question to mind.
During my con turn in the seventies (and to this day in other genres) I was never an autograph hound. Did they used to charge for autographs back then? Did they have tables? I don't remember any... but I was a Dealer's Room Fly.
Which suddenly brings an interesting question to mind.
During my con turn in the seventies (and to this day in other genres) I was never an autograph hound. Did they used to charge for autographs back then? Did they have tables? I don't remember any... but I was a Dealer's Room Fly.
Here´s a brief summary of the book from one at the reviews at Amazon.
Deforest Kelley liked to drink, smoke and relax with his wife and to collect checks from the Star Trek movies
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Deforest Kelley liked drinking, smoking and relaxing with his wife and to collect checks from the Star Trek movies
What wonderful hobbies he had!
You should rent it from the Library before purchasing...we don't want Kelly's wife or aires collecting any unnecessary checks now do we?
If I remember correctly, Dee had some sort of a scare at a convention, so he rarely did them.
As for autographs, the actors did NOT charge for autographs in the seventies. The only semi-exception was Shatner, who I remember would only give an autograph if you bought what he was hawking at the time. (The con I was at was when he was selling The Transformed Man (?) album.) The pay for autograph practice started in the early 90s with a few actors and then gradually everyone started to jump on the bandwagon.
My mistake, I guess I recalled wrong. I guess I should have double checked.
I heard that before Trek, De made his living playing bad guys in westerns. I would have a hard time watching that now that we're so familiar with McCoy...
Interestingly he played one of the Earp brothers in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and then one of the Clanton gang in TOS episode Spectre of the Gun. And both times he was one of the good guys!
Somebody online writing a review of a classic Star Trek episode mentioned as a quick off-hand remark in the middle of the review that both Grace Lee Whitney and Deforest Kelley were prostitutes at one point. I assumed he was just insulting them with some inside joke that I'm not familiar with, but it turns out Grace Lee Whitney actually did go through a rough period in her life where she was involved in prostitution. I don't know where he got that idea about Deforest, though. I can't help but wonder.
darkwing_duck1
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In a related note, I remember reading a bio piece on Shatner that said TOS allowed him to buy a sports car. After TOS, he wound up LIVING in that car for a time, since he couldn't find work.
Somehow that just seems wrong. But that was the Hollywood system back then (no residuals and such as they exist today).
Somehow that just seems wrong. But that was the Hollywood system back then (no residuals and such as they exist today).
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