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Nichols's MLK story - latest re-telling

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There was a PBS television show back in the 70's where she first started telling this charming story (it was a "Women in Science Fiction" special--the other two guests were Ursula K. LeGuin and Harlan Ellison). Back then she said she thought about quitting the show, then wondered what MLK would think if she left the show, and what he would do and how he would handle it, and she decided to stay with the show. In other words, it was just a hypothetical conversation, a reverie if you will. And I have it on an RCA VK-120 somewhere around here...

In the 80's, it because an actual phone call between her and MLK. In the 90's, it became a private meeting between the two. So now it's a fawning MLK practically begging her to stay on the only show Coretta Scott King allowed him and the kids to watch? Wow... we've come a long way, baby... so to speak.

Still, I love her and always will. She's no different than the rest of them in their recollections of events some 45 years ago.

Hell, my father and I watched Henry Aaron jack 715 out of the park on TV. When my kids were little, he'd tell them how he went to the game and watched it live. These days he tells my kids how he and I were at the baseball park. Time embellishes many things...
 
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Great quote in your sig, Beaker--were you at the convention last weekend, or has he said it elsewhere?
 
A beaker full of death said:
http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/star-trek-actress-says-martin-luther-king-jr-influenced-the-show--1451

It's like Abrams-Trek -- it's fun to spot the differences between this version and the last one.

I think the 23rd Century part is new (and demonstrably false). Anyone else?

As I've said before: she's a lovely lady inside and out, but I really wish she hadn't started believing her own bullshit.
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This is the first time I heard it was at a sponsered dinner; or that MLK was 'introduced as her biggest fan...'; but hey that makes what..six different versions netween a letter, a phone call, and three different versions of 'talking to MLK in person'; and the 'hypothetical conversation' <---- That's a new one, but most likely the actual/original one.

But hey - she also believed she was the most popular character on the show (ie more fan mail than Shatner and Nimoy), and was informed by a Paramount mailroom employee that the studio heads said, "You have to throw all those letters out...":lol:
 
What the Hell? This retelling of the story is completely different from any of the other ones I heard.

"I took 'Star Trek' because I thought it might be a nice adjunct to my resume and I'd get to Broadway faster. ... I thought it was going nowhere for me."
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New.

But then Nichols met King at a NAACP dinner, where he was introduced as her "biggest fan." King urged her to continue her role. "He said what Gene Roddenberry had done was to establish who we were in the 23rd century,"
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New.

Nichols says he told her: "You are part of history, and it's your responsibility, even though it wasn't your career choice."
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New.

A beaker full of death said:
I really wish she hadn't started believing her own bullshit.
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I doubt she actually does.
 
It was NEVER established to be the 23rd century until TWOK.

So by mentioning the fact it was set in the 23rd century----it is clear that Dr King was psychic on top of his other virtues.

He was psychic and she is psycho.
 
I found a paperback book of Nichelle Nichols autobiography. Pretty good actually.

Her paternal grandfather was a white man from the south who married a black woman around the turn of the century, when such unions were unknown, taboo and forbidden. She said that he was a very strong and determined man. They lived in an integrated part of Chicago, an experimental community at the time.

My reading of the story was that Nichelle bumped into MLK somewhere and her telling himm that she wanted to leave Star Trek because the lead is an unbearable SOB, with King advising her to stay as a role model for black women. Feel a bit bad that the story isn't true.

Roddenberry would not let Nichelle out of her contract after the second season. She wanted to do a show on CBS called Mannix. She knew that Star Trek has ran its course and wanted to move on to something new. Turns out that Mannix had something of a 10 year run, while Nichelle's career kind of went nowhere after the series. Seems that the 70's were lean times for our TOS heroes and she wasn't much different, and she did not talk to Roddenberry for a long time after this.

She had a private joke with Gene Coon, she would sometimes answer his phone and say "Coon's coon!" Really. Of course this was the 60's.

She said that during the filming of "The Wrath of Khan" that Shatner was a real asshole to Ricardo Montalbon (sorry Ric, can't spell your name and too lazy to look it up.), because Shatner did not want to be upstaged. To her, Ricardo was one of the nicest people you ever would want to meet. She said that Shatner's problem is that he wants to be the star of the show and everyone else is beneath him, instead of it being an essamble piece.
 
Mr. Scott said:
Her paternal grandfather was a white man from the south who married a black woman around the turn of the century, when such unions were unknown, taboo and forbidden. She said that he was a very strong and determined man. They lived in an integrated part of Chicago, an experimental community at the time.
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Not all that unknown in the South, but I've never heard of "an integrated part of Chicago, an experimental community" in the 1940's.

Mr. Scott said:
My reading of the story was that Nichelle bumped into MLK somewhere and her telling himm that she wanted to leave Star Trek because the lead is an unbearable SOB, with King advising her to stay as a role model for black women. Feel a bit bad that the story isn't true.
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And it's completely different than the one she's telling now...

Mr. Scott said:
She had a private joke with Gene Coon, she would sometimes answer his phone and say "Coon's coon!" Really. Of course this was the 60's.
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As a Southerner, I find this impossible to believe. Coon has been a racial epithet for as long as I remember, and I grew up in the 60's.

Mr. Scott said:
She said that during the filming of "The Wrath of Khan" that Shatner was a real asshole to Ricardo Montalbon, because Shatner did not want to be upstaged.
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Again, I find this impossible to believe. Shatner probably was never even on the set at the same time Ricardo Montalban was. They have no scenes together.

Mr. Scott said:
To her, Ricardo was one of the nicest people you ever would want to meet. She said that Shatner's problem is that he wants to be the star of the show and everyone else is beneath him, instead of it being an essamble piece.
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The show is about Kirk, Spock and McCoy (in that order). The others are interchangeable and easily replaced. Look at how Koenig ended up taking some of the load from Takei because the latter was filming The Green Berets.

Ms. Nichols is clearly misremembering things.
 
Mr. Scott said:
Roddenberry would not let Nichelle out of her contract after the second season. She wanted to do a show on CBS called Mannix. She knew that Star Trek has ran its course and wanted to move on to something new. Turns out that Mannix had something of a 10 year run, while Nichelle's career kind of went nowhere after the series.
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If that were true, what stopped her from joining the cast of Mannix after Trek ended? Nimoy did it with Mission: Impossible without a problem and all three of those shows were filmed on the same lot.

Mr. Scott said:
She had a private joke with Gene Coon, she would sometimes answer his phone and say "Coon's coon!" Really. Of course this was the 60's.
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That was Gene Coon's secretary who did that according to Justman & Solow's book.

Potemkin_Prod said:
Mr. Scott said:
She said that during the filming of "The Wrath of Khan" that Shatner was a real asshole to Ricardo Montalbon, because Shatner did not want to be upstaged.
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Again, I find this impossible to believe. Shatner probably was never even on the set at the same time Ricardo Montalban was. They have no scenes together.
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Correct, they were never on the set at the same time. Meyer discusses in the DVD commentary having to film the Reliant scenes separately from the Enterprise scenes since they were using the same set painted differently.
 
Wasn't Nichelle a day-player? And actors break contracts all the time, especially when much bigger opportunities come along. I can't imagine Desilu would have batted an eye about a background player leaving the show. More likely, she wanted a part in Mannix and didn't get it.
 
According to David Gerrold in his Trouble With Tribbles book, Ande, Gene Coon's secretary once told a bigoted visitor to the office that "I'm Gene L.'s Coon".
 
^^^No, the above poster has it correct. Gerrold relates that Ande would often answer the phone that way. He makes no mention of visitors being told this.

Sir Rhosis
 
Potemkin_Prod said:
Mr. Scott said:
To her, Ricardo was one of the nicest people you ever would want to meet. She said that Shatner's problem is that he wants to be the star of the show and everyone else is beneath him, instead of it being an essamble piece.
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The show is about Kirk, Spock and McCoy (in that order).
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Which of course doesn't apply at all to TWOK, Nichols' faulty recollections to the contrary.

Bennett was a canny producer, having established himself in the TV industry of the early 80s more strongly than most of the folks who'd previously managed Trek. In deciding to feature Khan in his movie it certainly was not lost on him that Montalban was far more widely seen and successful on television at that time than any of the Trek cast because of Fantasy Island and a minor movie star in his own right (if "minor" even applies).

Everyone on the movie - doubtless Shatner included - knew that getting Montalban was a big boost to the production. Whatever Shatner's reputation might be otherwise he's never been one to bite the hand feeding him.
 
Dennis said:
....Everyone on the movie - doubtless Shatner included - knew that getting Montalban was a big boost to the production.....
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IIRC, one of the first publicity stills I saw for the film was Montalban in TIME magazine with two of the Khan's babes along side of him (and far shorter than him, too). TIME was quite excited about the production, even though they called Khan an "android."
 
It's too bad the story got so exaggerated. The point of the story is well made: nobody made any big deal about Uhura: she was there, doing her job efficiently and taking over other duty stations as well. The fact that was drop dead gorgeous was certainly a bonus. Just having a black woman, doing an important job and being treated as an equal both personally and professionally made more of an impact in some ways than calling attention to it would have. Sad to say it looks like the MLK angle is just one of those fabrications that took on a life of its own, when the point could have been made just as well without throwing his name in there. I mean, what could anybody say if she said something on the order of "I was ready to quit, until I realized that Dr. King wouldn't want me to...(for all the reasons stated above).
 
This story has definitely "grown" in the past 4+ decades. I, for one, and totally sick of hearing it --- although it is intriguing to see how Nichols continues to expand and further embellish the story as each year passes. I suspect that by 2012 she will be saying something like "MLK sent me a letter, then phoned me, then bumped into me at a dinner, and then requested a private meeting with me. He wanted me to become his personal assistant and appear at all of his rallies with him, but he finally decided that I would better serve the cause in my role as the switchboard operator on Star Trek."

I love Nichols, Takei, and Koenig...but I fear that in the 40 years since TOS went off the air they have exaggerated their importance to the series. Nichols also once said Uhura was "fourth in command." They have been telling their "recollections" about TOS at conventions and in interviews for 40+ years...and a certain amount of embellishment has occurred...and I suspect that the actors actually believe their self-created grandiose interpretations of their importance and contributions to the series.
 
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