BeardedOne
09-23-2008, 01:46 AM
Joan Winston, who played a leading role in creating the first Star Trek convention in 1972, and went on to achieve a second-order fame as one of world's most avid Trekkies, has died of Alzheimer’s disease on Sept. 11. She was 77 and lived in Manhattan.
Ms. Winston was born in Washington and grew up in Brooklyn, where she attended public schools. After her father decided to send her younger brother to college instead of her, she went to work at Bonwit Teller as a merchandiser. She later worked in the contracts departments of CBS and ABC in New York.
Meanwhile, she led a star-crossed second life. A passionate fan of science fiction, she went into deep space when the Starship Enterprise set off on its voyage on Sept. 8, 1966. When the campaign to keep the series on the air took off, she picketed NBC. She sent story ideas to Gene Roddenberry. In 1968 she pulled strings to attend the taping of a Star Trek episode--the last one, as it turned out.
She made the most of her opportunity. In his book about Star Trek fandom, Get a Life, William Shatner described Ms. Winston as "bright, bubbly, and energetic beyond every law of human physiology and comprehension." Mr. Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk in the series, steered clear of the earliest Star Trek conventions but later became a regular on the circuit. (We weren't able to dig up any footage from the first Star Trek convention--but in the video below, you can see many cast members at the 1974 blowout, wearing clothes that now look only nominally less weird than their Federation uniforms.)
My first forays into SF fandom were led by Joan's book "The Making Of The Trek Cons". Though I never met her, we had many mutual friends.
Ms. Winston was born in Washington and grew up in Brooklyn, where she attended public schools. After her father decided to send her younger brother to college instead of her, she went to work at Bonwit Teller as a merchandiser. She later worked in the contracts departments of CBS and ABC in New York.
Meanwhile, she led a star-crossed second life. A passionate fan of science fiction, she went into deep space when the Starship Enterprise set off on its voyage on Sept. 8, 1966. When the campaign to keep the series on the air took off, she picketed NBC. She sent story ideas to Gene Roddenberry. In 1968 she pulled strings to attend the taping of a Star Trek episode--the last one, as it turned out.
She made the most of her opportunity. In his book about Star Trek fandom, Get a Life, William Shatner described Ms. Winston as "bright, bubbly, and energetic beyond every law of human physiology and comprehension." Mr. Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk in the series, steered clear of the earliest Star Trek conventions but later became a regular on the circuit. (We weren't able to dig up any footage from the first Star Trek convention--but in the video below, you can see many cast members at the 1974 blowout, wearing clothes that now look only nominally less weird than their Federation uniforms.)
My first forays into SF fandom were led by Joan's book "The Making Of The Trek Cons". Though I never met her, we had many mutual friends.