From: scott@eggneb.astro.ucla.edu (scott evans)
Subject: Book Review: "The Man Who Created Star Trek: Gene Roddenberry"
Organization: UCLA Dept of Astronomy
Date: 2 Jan 93 23:25:00 PST

This message is posted in behalf of David Alexander who has no access to
the net. Any replies can of course be posted to the net or e-mailed to
me and I'll forward them to David.

Disclaimer: David Alexander grants permission to any electronic bulletin
board operator or fanzine publisher who wishes to publish this review.
Permission is given on the condition that the review is reprinted
complete: unchanged and unedited.
Copyright (C) 1992 by David Alexander.

"The Man Who Created Star Trek: Gene Roddenberry" by James Van Hise.
Pioneer books, 156 pages, oversize paperback, $14.95.

The essential qualities of a good biography are accuracy and integrety.
From those qualities comes credibility. Unfortunately, most of Gene
Roddenberry's fans had little contact with him so their ability to
determine the accuracy and integrity of James Van Hise's book are
limited. That is not the case with this reviewer.

Gene Roddenberry selected me to be his authorized biographer. I was
fortunate that we developed a close friendship. Since his death I have
had the continuing support of Majel Roddenberry, as well as access to
Gene's freinds, co-workers, and papers in the preparation of the type of
book Gene ordered me to write - an honest biography.

I am not concerned about Van Hise's book as competition as my book will
not be completed for at least another year. What concerns me is that
Gene's fans are being ripped off by a "biography" not written to tell
Gene's story but cut and pasted together from a hodge-podge of publicly
accessible material and rushed into print to make money. Expoloitation
and expediency have taken the place of care and scholarship.

This book is an example of the dark side of the First Amemdment - the
"School of Fast Buck Publishing" - where one is free to print what they
wish, regardless of its accuracy, in order to make quick money.

We can determine how much Van Hise merits our trust with a simple test:
if he writes accurately about things we know or can easily verify it is
easier to trust him when he writes about things we do not know or cannot
verify. I applied this test to the first and last chapters of his book.

Much of the first chapter comes not from original research by Van Hise
but by him heavily cribbing quotes and paraphrasing excerpts from my
lengthy interview with Gene originally published in "The Humanist" in
1990. The interview was, by Gene's own account, "the best thing ever
written" about him. Without it Van Hise's first chapter would be very
much shorter. That is bad enough, but when Van Hise strays beyond
paraphrasing another writer's original material he gets into trouble
with the simplest of details.

For example: Gene's first wife spells her name "Eileen," not "Eilene"
and Gene's oldest daughter spells her name "Darleen," not "Darlene."

Other simple details elude him: Van Hise writes that Gene was in a plane
crash while working for Pan American World Airways in 1948 with Gene
being one of 8 survivors. No. Ths happened in mid-1947 as minimal
research would have revealed. The crash was extensively reported in "The
New York Times" and had he tasken the time to look Van Hise would have
learned that there were more than 8 survivors. Gene resigned from Pan Am
in 1948, not 1949 as Van Hise reports.

Van Hise writes that during Gene's tenure as a Los Angeles policeman he
worked six months of the year doing "police stuff" and six months of the
year for the Chief of Police. A few moments spent with any of a dozen
people who worked with Gene at that time would show this to be
foolishness. These simple errors are characteristic of Van Hise's
approach to research.

Chapter XII, "Final Bow," has Van Hise exceeding himself in sloppiness.
Scholarship is replaced with uncontrolled imagination and the chapter
becomes a blend of fiction and non-fiction with the reader left without
a clue as to which is which.

Van Hise describes Gene as suffering a heart attack at home and being
rushed to Santa Monica Hospital-Medical Center, succumbing to "the
illness that had plagued him all that year." Van Hise further writes
that Gene was: "interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood
Hills. Unfortunately, some fans who attended the memorial service saw
nothing disrespectful in showing up wearing Star Trek uniforms and
regalia. To make a bad situation worse, some showd up uninvited at the
private graveside ceremony, making their presence known when the coffin
was being lowered into the grave by saying:'Beam him up, Scotty!'"	

Aside from the slap at fans from whom Van Hise presumably makes a
living, *what he describes did not happen*. I know, because I was there!

I was with Gene all through his last day - at lunch, in the car on the
trip to the doctor's office, and with him when he died that afternoon I
was at Forest Lawn the next day when Gene's body was *cremated*. There
were four people present: Majel, Gene's attorney and closest friend,
Leonard Maizlish, Gene's personal assistant Ernie Over, and me. 

A week later there was a memorial service held at Forest Lawn Memorial
Park in the Hollywood Hills attended by over 1,000 people including
family, friends, the casts and crews from both series and dignitaries
including the Mayor of Los Angeles, the Chief of Police, and at least
one former California Governor. After the forty-five minute tribute
everyone walked outside and watched a local flying group do the "Missing
Man Fromation," aviation's tribute to a deceased pilot. After the
memorial service there was a private reception for family and friends
at the Bel Air Country Club.

Van Hise's description of fans crashing a private graveside service is
complete nonsense and did not happen! *There was no burial and no
private graveside service because there was no body and there is no
grave.* Gene's ashes are in an urn kept in a secure, private location.

The memorial service was covered by a camera crew from Paramount Studios
and a large contingent of electornic and print media. The facts were
clearly reported all over the world, except, it seems, to Mr. Van Hise.

There were a few fans in Star Trek costumes at the memorial but they
were quiet and respectful. The family received nothing but an outpouring
of affection from fandom during that difficult time and to say anything
different is an insult to the character and integrity of Gene's
admirers. They were terrific.

The quality of fan behavior is starkly contrasted with Van Hise's
behavior - both towards the fans and Gene's memory - by his attempt to
foist this poorly researched and written book on Gene's fans. It should
quickly fade into the the obscurity it so richly deserves.

David Alexander.

Please send published copies to:

David Alexander
2005 Palo Verde Avenue
Suite 325
Long Beach CA 90815

*****
Scott Evans
UCLA Astronomy
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.fandom