I had a met and interacted with Majel on a number of occasions over the years. She could be sweet and charming and she could be a bitch on wheels. You could, however, always be her best friend by presenting her with a glass of white wine. She LOVED her white wine.
My first experiences with her were during the heyday of fandom of the mid to late 80's when Lincoln Enterprises still ruled the roost when it came to collectables. Lincoln was the first mail order company to offer Star Trek memorabilia. She had started it by selling copies of scripts and otherwise discarded frames of edited film from the series. To starving fans this was like manna from heaven. Slowly the list of items grew to include patches, stationery and jewlery. Long before there were hucksters rooms at conventions teeming with merchandise or even eBay, there was Lincoln Enterprises.
And Majel was the Queen....and she let you know it. Many a time I would see her sweep through a huckster room with an assistant in her wake scratching away in a notebook.
"You can't sell this! You can't sell that!" She would yell at each offending dealer selling something they had not "legally" purchased through Lincoln, "That's copyrighted! That's a bootleg! That's unauthorized. You'll be getting our lawyer's letter!"
To many of us fans at the time she was seen as being a little too protective. For years, fans and dealers had been able to make their own merchandise and fed a cottage industry in fandom. When George Lucas came along and shut down any fan based moneymaking off of HIS CREATION a light bulb went off at Paramount that they had missed a major money making opportunity for the previous dozen or so years and Majel was their avenging angel. Luckily, Paramount, Majel and even Lucas all calmed down and have learned how important that cottage industry really was.
It was during the Platinum Anniversary Convention in 1986 in Boston that I learned about Majel and her white wine. Majel, myself and a few other members of the convention committee were in one of the bars at the hotel in between appearances and she was sipping her white wine. When the third glass got to her was when it got interesting. Apparently, the third glass of wine is the one which causes Majel's defenses to crumble and her gossiping gene to kick in. She started telling us all kinds of dirt surrounding the filming of Star Trek II and III with some not-so-kind words and stories about some of the newer cast members.
She leaned in and whispered after a particularly spirited opinion on one actress, "Why do you think she wasn't back for the next film!" With a wink and a nod she went back to sipping her wine.
A few months later our convention committee was hosting a room party at a convention in Baltimore where Majel was one of the guests of honor. One of our members had met up with her earlier in the day and invited her to visit the party. The evening was winding down around 1AM when in through the door bursts Majel and Robin Curtis how seemed to have been in the partying mood long before coming to our room. They were best described as, "Majel was in full sail and Robin was along for the ride!"
My last encounter with her was in 1989 on one of the Star Trek cruises. (You forgot I was a geek?) One night, somewhere near 2AM, I was seated at a table with Nichelle Nichols and her husband, Majel's secretary and Majel. The boat was staffed with a Panamanian crew and apparently the waiter we ended up with had a little problem with English. Majel ordered her usual white wine but it did not make it through translation to the young man.
"White....wine" An exasperated Majel then tried describing the drink to him, "You know....WHITE (pointing at the tablecloth).....DRINK (miming drinking)! WHITE (pointing into her mime glass).....DRINK (miming again)!"
The young man nodded finally and sped off to get our order. He returned a few moments later and passed out each order just by chance leaving Majel's for last.
"WHAT IS THIS?!" She bellowed as she stood with the horrified look of a vampire being given a plate of garlic and Holy water, "Who put THIS in front of ME?!!!!!" To which she pointed down at a frothy, cold glass of MILK!!!!!!!!
It's those kinds of memories I will always treasure. It amazes me sometimes that 40 years ago I sat in front of my TV and watched some of these people on TV and now I have broken bread with them and call some of them friends. My life has been far from perfect....but, DAMN, it's been fun.
Thanks for those memories, Majel.
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