Holy 1955 Futura, Batman!

You take the tank-locomotive thingy, old chum.  I’ll drive into town and wave at the pretty girls in this.

Since you were asking, this is what ‘ol Doug wants in his Christmas stocking. Believe it or not, Fiberglass Freaks is offering replica Batmobiles from the 1966 Bat-TV series starring Adam West for a cool $150,000. The original was a 1955 Lincoln Futura restyled by legendary custom car genius George Barris.

http://www.buybatparts.com/joomla/index.php/replicas

http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/most-iconic-car-of-tomorrow/

Starfleet Command – 1964 NYWF Connection

A gorgeous shot of some of the best 60′s googie architecture ever. The DS9 Starfleet Command building in the foreground, it’s sail framing the iconic Starbase Eleven towers in the distance. the date is 1964, so folks are reading about Moon Maid and Dick Tracy in the Sunday paper before heading off to be amazed that sunny day at the  New York World’s Fair.

Something fun to look at while I prepare today’s entry about Bob Justman. I’m being a bit self indulgent with it, so expect it to post later today!

The Ford Pavilion

Another futuristic 1964 NY World’s Fair building that has been used numerous times to populate Starfleet facilities. It’s seen in the opening of the Directors cut of ST: TMP.

Gimme! Gimme!

My buddy Gooch just stopped by wearing this shirt!  I chased him all up and down Burbank Blvd trying to  snatch it from him. 1) I’m a huge EC comics fan, and the art for this poster is spot on. 2) I’m wild about the Space Needle, and (3)  the NX  is in it! Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy! Gooch buddy… watch your shirt!

Starfleet Command Building – San Francisco

An impressive architectural model of the GM Pavilion from the ’64 NY World’s Fair, the inspiration for the main building at Starfleet Command in the San Francisco Presidio.

Rockin’ It Old School

Paul Maples, Gary Hutzel’s favored motion control man, prepares to fly the USS Enterprise old school, at Image G in Studio City. Mike and I were lucky enough to be there for what was probably the last time this icon would be physically photographed.

It was the end of a long week at work for me, and I am ready to wash those pixels outta’ my hair. I don’t know about you, but I need to look at some physical models for a little bit. When I feel that way, it’s the original Enterprise for me. It just cannot be beat. It’s a masterpiece. How is it possible that a 45 year old speculative spaceship design still stirs the imagination? I’m talking the alpha ship, from the original series. No restyling, or updating needed. Don’t misunderstand me. I am 100% for stretching the Star Trek mythos in as many ways as it can go. That sort of defines what science fiction is all about… stretchability, flexability, and let’s see what this baby can do. I simply love this design in it’s original state, and IN PERSON. So hey, I’m gonna’ surf thru those days back at G and the 1701… no bloody A, B, C, or D…  and get misty for a minit, so why don’t you come along? I know you feel just like I do…

 

Starbase 11

In my mind it always was Starbase 11.

NYS Pavilion – ’64 NY World’s Fair.

The Incredible Fred Freeman

I don’t even need to ask Rick Sternbach, Andy probert or Mike Okuda if they were influenced by preeminent space artist Fred Freeman. There is no doubt.

A native of West Newton, Mass., Mr. Freeman was a successful commercial artist in New York City from the late 1920′s through the 50′s, doing many illustrations and magazine covers for publications including The Saturday Evening Post and Collier’s. These articles were highly influential in convincing the American public that a trip to the moon was a viable. These images came from a 1959 article in This Week Magazine  from the Los Angeles Times.

Thomas Kellogg, the Avanti and the Galileo Shuttle

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The father of the Galileo shuttle was not Matt Jefferies, but an industrial designer named Thomas Kellogg. Kellogg was part of the Avanti design team put together by the greatest industrial designer of them all, Raymond Lowey Incidentally, Lowey was the man I drew my inspiration from when styling the NX Enterprise. He was a master at rethinking existing designs. His book “Industrial Design” was on my desk throughout the entire design process.

Look at the Avanti images on this page, and you will clearly see the design lineage of the Galileo. Here is some history of the Avanti: The Studebaker-Packard Corporation was teetering on the brink of financial collapse when Sherwood Egbert became its president in 1961. He decided the company needed a hot, splashy car and hired Raymond Loewy who had earlier worked for Studebaker and whose designs ranged from streamlined locomotives to the logos of Shell and Lucky Strike.

(Below) One of the earliest known sketches of the Galileo. As you can see, the design remained pretty much intact throughout the construction process. The only real change was the addition of Enterprise style nacelles, and a minimizing of a large glass windshield which went up and over the passengers.

 

Connections – The 1964 NY World’s Fair

The General Motors pavilion at the ’64 NY World’s Fairwas a nexus of sci fi extrapolation influencing the look of science fiction films, and in particular Star Trek, to the present day. As a kid on the loose at the fair, I helped myself to all the printed material that I could carry. Some of it ended up on the wall of the Trek art department as a source of inspiration three decades later. The Fair was a major influence on original Trek art director Matt Jefferies, and it continued to be for us as well.

The original blog entry on the Fair’s influence on Star trek can be found here -  http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/01/29/days-of-future-past-the-treknywf-connection/

(Below) Promotional flyer for the General Motors pavilion at the NYWF. The GM sail was the inspiration for Starfleet HQ in San Francisco, as seen in the DS9 episode “Homefront”.

Fun With The USS Yeager Contoversy

We’ve stirred up a real hornet’s nest with the Yeager kitbash -

“… it just doesn’t make sense in a real-world situation to kitbash parts from one starship class onto an entirely different class and expect it to work correctly, especially when one half of the ship is a state-of-the-art Intrepid class, and the other half is a 40-year-old scaled-up Maquis raider. To prove my point, take a 2009 Ford Mustang, cut it in half, and stick the other half of a 1969 Buick Riviera to it, and see if it’ll run  ”    - Mark Delgado

OK Mark, here you go -

Most Iconic Car of Tomorrow

Now for another in a long line of indulgences. The 1955 Lincoln Futura showcar.

This vehicle is futurism maximus. I’ve been in love with this car since the first time I layed eyes on it. I think it was in an old movie called “It Started with a Kiss” with Glen Ford. The Lincoln Futura was the brainchild of Lincoln Mercury’s postwar chief stylist, Bill Schmidt.  Inspired by a scuba-diving encounter with a shark, Schmidt sketched a low, long, wide, and flat vision of the future with a predatory full width grille, ominously hooded headlights, and killer tail fins.  Built by Ghia in 1954, the $250,000 dream car was dubbed the Lincoln Futura.  It took just three months to ready the concept car for its debut at the Chicago Auto Show in January 1955.

Once while walking across the Paramount lot, I took a short cut through New York street. There like the ghost of futures past… a beautiful fire engine red Lincoln Futura show car. I thought I was dreaming.

Everything you ever wanted to know: http://www.1966batmobile.com/background2.htm

The Futurism of Jacque Fresco

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My favorite futurist is a gentleman named Jacque Fresco. Headquartered in Venus, Florida, Jacque and his partner Roxanne Meadows have been developing viable ideas for the future, not dissimilar to what Gene Roddenberry envisioned. I learned of Jacque and Roxanne one night while watching  Mega-Structures on the Discovery Channel, and was captivated by their outlook of an optimistic future. This is one of the prime elements missing from the later Star Treks after Gene passed on. Gene really had a vision of the world of tomorrow, and that’s what made Star Trek.

I became fast friends with Jacque and Roxanne and made a number of animated sequences of their designs. Here are a few frames for your kind examination. If your interest is piqued, check out The Venus Project: http://www.thevenusproject.com/intro_main/essay.htm

Disney’s Man In Space series

 

 Andy Probert, Mike Okuda, Rick Sternbach, and even a low-life like me… one thing we all have in common is that as kids we watched the most influential series about space travel ever… Walt Disney’s Man in Space (1955). It left an  indelible impression on us, and the rest of the country too. Arguably Disney’s Man in Space series, along with a landmark collection of articles in Collier’s Magazine, convinced the American public that space travel was not only feasible, but destined.

If you are new to Man in Space, you are in for a treat. Werner Von Braun, Willy Ley and Heinz Haber were series consultants (evidenced by the accuracy of the predictions). Plus, everybody’s favorite uncle, Dick Tufeld, narrates.

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Days of Future Past – The Trek\NYWF Connection

Twice a week  and for two summers, impressionable eleven year old Doug Drexler was dropped off by his Dad at the front gate of the world of tomorrow. It did not neccessitate a slingshot around the sun, nor did it call for call for Mr. Atoz and his Atavachron.  The lad’s awe inspiring and futuristic destination was not some far flung decade,  but then and there in 1964. It rose from the most unlikely of places… a landfill in Flushing Meadow. It was the  New York World’s Fair, and it was the proverbial world of tomorrow. It would impress him to the core.

As Spock observed, time could be perceived as a river, with eddies and backwashes. Someone else was washed up onto that shore, and our paths undoubtedly crossed at the jetting waters of the iconic Unisphere,  or trekked side by side along the undulating Kodak Moon Deck, or stood in line at Ford’s Magic Skyway. My fellow time traveller was Walter “Matt” Jefferies…  aviator, illustrator, art director, and he would become one of the most important artistic influences in my life.

The 1964-65 New York World’s Fair was the largest international exhibition ever buit in the United States, and it was all about THE FUTURE. Never before, and never again would there be such an amazing conglomeration of optimistic, sci-fi, wet dream, futurism in one place. Matt Jefferies absorbed it all with intense fascination. And so the New York World’s Fair was the birthplace of the Star Trek design ethic. I would never be the same because of it… and although you probably were never there, and most likely never heard of it, neither would you…

This Old Space Station

In the background, K-7 bombs Regula 1′s photo op.