Lincoln Enterprises

Lincoln Enterprises (originally known as "Star Trek Enterprises") was a fan run mail-order catalog company started by Bjo Trimble and her husband John in 1967, as a subsidiary of the Norway Corporation. It was shortly taken over and promoted by Majel Barrett as Lincoln Enterprises, specializing in memorabilia pertaining to Star Trek and other productions associated with Gene Roddenberry. This transaction caused estrangement between the Roddenberrys and the Trimbles.
The company also distributed the publications, Inside Star Trek (under several titles) and Star Trek Animated newsletter.
Eventually, Lincoln took on merchandising on behalf of a few other series, such as Kung Fu (1972-1975).
The company was reconceived as the Roddenberry.com website, under the management of Gene & Majel's son, Eugene Roddenberry Jr., with the organisation finally winding down operations at the end of 2018.
==Similar Companies==
While Lincoln Enterprises was in a league by itself, there were also other similar endeavors. See List of Fan Run Star Trek Merchandising Companies.
==Some Samples ==
 File:Startrekcatalog.jpg| cover of catalog #2 (1969) 
 File:Startrekcatalog4.jpg| cover of catalog #4 (1974) 8 page catalog 8 1/2 x 11" which opens to 8 1/2 x 11" x 34" on one sheet of paper. Originally mailed folded in thirds.
 File:Startrekcatalog4-1.jpg| page from catalog #4 (1974) 
 Image:lincoloncatalog6.jpg| cover of catalog #6 (1977) 12 page catalog 11 1/2" x 14 1/2", tabloid newspaper format. Originally mailed folded in half.
Image:lincoloncatalog6-1.jpg| page from catalog #6 (1977) 
==A Parody ==
 Image:startrekcatalog3.jpg| a 1970 catalog, see Unofficial Star Trek Catalog for a fan-made parody 
==Mail and Merch==
The company sold Star Trek merchandise through the mail, and was the hub, at least for a while, of official Star Trek fan mail.
===Mail===
In 1994, Ruth Berman wrote a letter to Multi-Species Medicine #8 describing her sorting through "hundreds of letters a week." 
===Merch===
See Lincoln Enterprises: A Little Piece of Star Trek for an 1993 interview with Majel Barrett Roddenberry.
In 1993, the part that sold merchandise had two staff people, plus Majel. 
See more at Lincoln Enterprises#Topic: Fandom and Profit.
In the late 1960s, early 1970s, Lincoln Enterprises was the only source of collectibles and memorabilia: 
==Started as Both a Gift, and a Way to Generate Profit==
There are several origin stories for Lincoln Enterprises.
Numerous tie-in merchandise items were created and marketed while Star Trek: The Original Series was on the air, among them the AMT Enterprise and Klingon battle cruiser models, the Rayline tracer gun and the Ideal board game. All popular television shows had such tie-in merchandise at the time. It was Bjo Trimble's idea to take film clips left on the cutting room floor after editing, mount them in frames, and sell them to fans. At first, Roddenberry was skeptical, but then saw the way eager fans glommed onto the donated items he'd brought to NyCon 3 (Worldcon) in September 1967. He then hired the Trimbles to create a mail-order business to sell Star Trek souvenirs including autographed photos, copies of the scripts, film clip frames and so on.
According to Bob Justman and Herb Solow, Paramount was aware of the business and raised no objections. However, Harlan Ellison caught on early as to what was really happening. As he explained in his 1996 book The City on the Edge of Forever, Roddenberry was planning to divorce his first wife Eileen, moving out of the home in 1968 and proposing to his long-time girlfriend Majel Hudec in 1969. After setting up Star Trek Enterprises, Ellison says that Roddenberry exploited the Trimbles "by having them work their asses off independently until the divorce was finalized with Eileen Roddenberry, and thus avoiding the ex-Mrs. R’s claim to half those profits, and then freezing them out and giving it to his girlfriend, Majel Barrett."Harlan Ellison, The City on the Edge of Forever. Borderlands, 1995.Ellison along with several other writers for the show let it be known that they were not receiving royalty payments for the sale of scripts they had written. Roddenberry responded that Ellison's name was on the script, but that he had written it himself, with help from Gene Coon and D.C. Fontana. This was a typical Roddenberry practice according to Ellison, Robert Justman, composer Alexander Courage and many others; he would find ways to put his name on creative content, take the credit and amass more royalties. 
Bjo Trimble confirms this account in a 2012 interview with Marc Cushman. 
==Majel Barrett's 1976 Comments Regarding the Promotional Aspects==
From an interview with Majel Barrett conducted by Susan Sackett in 1976: 
==Bjo Trimble's 1971 Comments e==
From Bjo Trimble in The Nimoyan #3 (November 1971): 
==D.C. Fontana's 1974 Comments==
D.C. Fontana had this statement regarding film clips and reproduction of Star Trek items, and she mentioned "Lincoln Enterprises": 
==Bjo Trimble's 1974 Comments e==
From a Equicon/1974 progress report:
See TPTB Notices Some Merchandising Opportunities.
==Gene Roddenberry's 1976 Comments==
==Bjo Trimble and John Trimble's 2016 Comments==
==Fan Comments ==
Despite it being a for-profit company, some fans saw it more as fan service. In 1974, Sharon Ferraro wrote: 
Some fans were not willing to overlook the connections between fannish goals and profit. From a 1974 letter: 
Another fan in 2009 wrote: 
A fan's comment in 2011:
==A 1975 Location==
In December 1975, two fans attempted to locate the physical location of Lincoln Enterprises. 
==Publications==
*many merch catalogs
*Inside Star Trek
*Fifty Most Asked Star Trek Questions
==As a Source of Canon==
The editors of STAG wrote in 1977: "Sources for our contests will be: Gene Roddenberry, other people connected with the show, the Lincoln Enterprises booklet, Fifty Most Asked Star Trek Questions, and Bjo's "S.T. CONCORDANCE." -- from STAG (March 1977)
==History: As Per Majel Barrett Roddenberry==
All quotes below by Majel Barrett Roddenberry from Lincoln Enterprises: A Little Piece of Star Trek:
 
 
==Topic: Fandom and Profit==
Where there are fans, there is financial opportunity.
Lincoln Enterprises has been financially entwined with the show since the beginning. 
Fans first heard of the IDIC in the summer of 1968 via a "Vulcan Pendent" announcement, probably written by Roddenberry himself and published in the first issue of Inside Star Trek (July 1968, pp. 15–16). It describes "ardent rock hound and amateur lapidary" Roddenberry as having come up with the Vulcan philosophy after he presented Leonard Nimoy with a unique "hand-crafted piece of jewelry," a "pendent" [sic] of polished yellow gold (circle) and florentined white gold (triangle), with a stone of brilliant white fabulite — an artificial gem "developed by the laser industry and used in space mechanisms for its optical qualities," and thus well-suited as a gift for an actor in a science fiction show. Readers were encouraged to submit their interest in such a product to the then-Star Trek Enterprises mail order firm. It was noted that "less expensive materials" would keep costs down. The IDIC was first offered for sale in May 1969, first as a special announcement sent out to fans and then on page 4 of Inside Star Trek 12.
The Vulcan IDIC pendant was designed by Gene Roddenberry as a marketing premium long before the third season. As evidenced in some of his letters and memos, Roddenberry was fond of circle-and-triangle designs and had wanted to use them for purposes of theatrical unity as early as the first season's "The Return of the Archons".
In 1969, a flyer for the twelfth issue of the show's official newsletter Inside Star Trek, fans were told:
The line between fannish and not, and the official and unofficial was a trick one. The legality of film clips was discussed in 1976: 
By 1977, Lincoln Enterprises was well-known for many things, not of least was the amount of merchandise they sold and in their ever-presence. When a fan commented on the recent quality of fanfiction, they wrote: 
In 1991, there was conflict with Creation Con and the selling of Star Trek merchandise. From an exchange of letters in Southern Enclave #1: 
==Further Reading==
*, by Susan P. Batho (2009) (an academic paper which studies the effect of the Viacom Crackdown and Australian fan clubs, it also has much about Lincoln Enterprises)
*Lincoln Enterprises at Memory-Alpha (accessed February 18, 2019)
==Notes==
==References==
category:Star Trek TOS
Category:1967
Category:1960s
Category:1970s
Category:1980s
Category:1990s
Category:2000s