#andrea dromm
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#the russians are coming the russians are coming#carl reiner#eva marie saint#alan arkin#brian keith#jonathan winters#theodore bikel#tessie o'shea#ben blue#john philip law#andrea dromm#paul ford#norman jewison#1966
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Star Trek's "Lost" Main Character
Just when you think you know everything there is to know about the original Star Trek, you learn something new, like the fact someone you barely remember was going to be a series regular. Take the case of "Yeoman Smith," played by Andrea Dromm, a petty officer secretary in "Where No Man Has Gone Before." Everyone knows that Trek had a first pilot with a different cast. But the cast of the second pilot was analyzed more in terms of who wasn't there (Dr. McCoy and Uhura were added only when the show went to series and were not in the second pilot at all), than who was.
One character in particular is easy to overlook as she seemed like just another lowly and invisible crewman, Yeoman Smith. Surprisingly, Andrea Dromm was hired to be a main character on the show.
The NBC publicity materials made for the second pilot mentioned and discussed her as they would Kirk and Spock, and treated her as a series regular, which at the time, she was:
“YEOMAN SMITH, who has drawn the important assignment of secretary to the Captain on her first mission in deep space, is easily the most popular member of Kirk’s staff. A capable secretary and efficient dispenser of instant coffee, she also provides a welcome change of scenery for eyes that have spent long hours scanning the vast reaches of space.”
Almost from the beginning though, it was not to be. Andrea Dromm caused trouble on set because, according to Herb Solow, Gene Roddenberry "hired Dromm so he could 'nail her.'" Trek was in enough trouble, as Roddenberry cast his mistress, Rachel Lee Hudec (aka Majel Barrett), which violated his Desilu "virtue clause." Lucille Ball, embarassed by her former husband Desi Arnaz's well known extramarital antics, insisted on virtue clauses in contracts for creatives.
As for what happened and why Yeoman Smith never ended up being a regular, we have two different conflicting stories. Andrea Dromm said she had to choose between making Star Trek, or making a film, "The Russians are Coming," and she picked the movie over a less prestigious tv show. Star Trek producer Herb Solow tells a different story and remembers that "Yeoman Smith" was one of two main characters who were let go to keep costs down when the show went to series. The other main character fired? James Doohan as Scotty.
After being informed he was fired after the first pilot, Doohan called his agent, the physically intimidating and formidable Paul Wilkins, who convinced Roddenberry to return Doohan to the series. It is not known how this was accomplished (Herb Solow, who's memoirs are the basis of most of what we know about early Trek, was not present, only Roddenberry was), but Doohan had his job back within the day.
As for what would have happened with Yeoman Smith if she had stayed as a main character....who knows? The character of Yeoman Rand, well known for her beehive hairdo, was a replacement for her character, so it's likely that Yeoman Smith as a main character would have filled similar roles in stories, probably beat for beat and note for note. All the same however, it's hard to ignore how much more quiet moxie, no-bullshit stares, and extrovert elan Andrea Dromm projected on screen than the more subdued Grace Lee Whitney. Dromm's character was underdeveloped, sure, but so was Scotty and Sulu at that point, and the characters they eventually became were built around their actors' strengths and warmth. It's not hard to imagine something similar might be done with Dromm, and her character might have gone on very different lines from her replacement.
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Andrea Dromm as Yeoman Smith and Gary Lockwood as Gary Mitchell
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What Makes the Alabama Bama All Bantam Double Show a Must-See Event? Who is James Bama? Exploring the Artistry Behind Alabama Bama's Paperback Covers Is This Bantam Show Champion Ready to Take on the Alabama Bama All? Who is the Master Behind the Stunning Paintings at Alabama Bama All Bantam Double Show? What Makes Alabama's Bama All Bantam Double Show Stand Out? Who is Andrea Dromm and How Did She Impact Alabama's Bantam Show? The Alabama Bama All Bantam Double show is a popular baseball game played by high school and college baseball players. It features both team and individual games. Fans can watch the game live online, and purchase tickets in advance. This event is held annually in the city of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It features the best players in the region, including several top-level recruits. https://backyardchickennews.com/what-makes-the-alabama-bama-all-bantam-double-show-a-must-see-event/?feed_id=5234&_unique_id=662cdb897edff
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Tomboy by James Bama with original reference photos of Andrea Dromm and an unknown model
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Andrea Dromm (Long Island, New York, 18/02/1941).
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Bad movie I have The Russians are Coming The Russians are Coming 1966
#The Russians are Coming The Russians are Coming#The Mirisch Corporation#Carl Reiner#Eva Marie Saint#Alan Arkin#Brian Keith#Jonathan Winters#Paul Ford#Theodore Bikel#Tessie O'Shea#John Phillip Law#Ben Blue#Andrea Dromm#Sheldon Collins#Guy Raymond#Cliff Norton#Richard Schaal
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Most fans of the Original Series will recognize this image drawn by illustrator James Bama, who is better known for illustrating the covers of the Doc Savage paperbacks and the boxes of plastic models manufactured by Aurora. The original image was commissioned by NBC to be made into posters and sold for one dollar. Only that did not happen.
Instead it became used by NBC television stations (and NBC itself) as a part of their advertising campaign for this new show. The artwork was often transformed into other versions such as the one above with the name of the show following the vapor trails from the Enterprise with its never actually seen jet flames shooting out of the nacelles and the rear. (More on that later).
Here is a black and white version of what newspaper and TV magazine readers might have seen in 1966
And of course, it also appeared on the first book that contained adaptations of Star Trek episodes as written by James Blish. You know you have found an original copy of the paperback if it appears without the number 1 after the title. As the series became popular, this first volume would be reissued with the cover updated in various other arrangements of the same basic image.
Bama’s illustrations depended on realism and usually he worked from photographs, copying the important details of the character’s appearance and posture. Of course, the series hadn’t aired yet so he would have little to go by. Except for those photos used in the advertising brochure. As you can see above, David Tillota and Curt McAloney’s Lost Star Trek History put together a collage of each of the photos used by James Blish. Look familiar? Several of them appeared in the NBC publicity brochure mentioned last week in an article on my other page, From the Files of Redshirtgal.
By the way, we need to give a special thanks to David Tilotta and Curt McAloney for giving us permission to use this illustration. Curt even resized it for me so it would look better using Tumblr’s formatting.
It’s interesting to see how each figure was used in the illustration. Each character, starting with Kirk, gets progressively smaller until you only see an indistinct grouping of crewmen.They become part of that backdrop with the planet and the Enterprise streaking by.
Speaking of the Enterprise streaking by, those flames and vapor trails were creative additions by James Bama. He grew up with a fascination for comic books (Flash Gordon was one of his favorites) and this likely influenced his idea of what a rocket ship looked like. It’s a form of artistic license, similar to hearing the whooshing sound the Enterprise makes as it moves across the screen in the opener to every episode.
Another well-known illustrator, Bob Larkin, paid homage to James Bama’s image in his cover of the Marvel comics adaptation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. (Bob Larkin also designed covers for many Star Trek novels such as Mudd’s Angels, Vulcan!, and The Fate of the Phoenix. Note the arrangement of the characters, much like those in James Bama’s artwork.
D.C. comic book artists David Ross and Bob Smith’s tribute to Bama’s style appears on the cover of this first annual Star Trek comic edition.
Now here is one other connection to Star Trek that very few fans actually know about . One of Bama’s models was Andrea Dromm, who played Yeoman Smith in the second pilot “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” Both photos above were taken by James Bama in preparation for an illustration for a paperback novel.
(A very big thanks to Andrea Dromm and her nephew Christropher Dromm for allowing us to use these photos.)
You can see the result of how the first photo was used to help Bama create the cover illustration for Tomboy. Andrea Dromm was clearly the model for the first cover of The Heller.
But James Bama is mainly known to sci fi fans and poster art collectors as the illustrator for the covers of Doc Savage novels, numbering 62 in all. Bama’s eye for detail is quite apparent, capturing items like the muscles, sinews, and veins of model Steve Holland in this illustration. And the ripped shirts. If you look at the number of ripped shirts on Doc Savage covers, you’d wonder if Captain James T. Kirk might be a descendant.
One of James Bama’s childhood favorites was the Flash Gordon comic book series. Ironically, Steve Holland played Flash Gordon on TV.
James Bama also designed the covers for the model kits made by Aurora, in particular the ones with famous Hollywood monsters such as Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolfman, and of course, The Bride of Frankenstein. His advertising illustrations spanned over twenty years.
In the late 60s, Bama’s artwork took a new direction. After moving to Wyoming, he left his advertising illustrations behind and began painting modern day Western and Native American life. In the piece shown, titled “Bittin’ Up Rimrock Ranch,” you can see he never left his realistic approach behind.
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To wrap up the last of the publicity photos I have found over the years for “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” here are a grouping of Sally Kellerman and William Shatner posing together. Notice the first two have that wonderful new prop, the phaser rifle. Sadly, the phaser rifle never appeared again except in a new round of publicity photos that we will post in a few weeks.
To promote each episode of the new series, press kits including publicity photos and a brief description of each episode were sent out to the individual NBC affiliate stations across the United States. The stations were allowed to use them for their own purposes, so the descriptions often wound up in the the local newspaper TV program guides published weekly and some may have occasionally used one of the episode photos in their newspaper ads as well.
Credit for the above image goes to Lost Star Trek History https://www.startrek.com/article/50-years-later-where-no-man-has-gone-before
#Star Trek TOS#Star Trek publicity photos#Where No Man Has Gone Before#Captain Kirk#William Shatner#Elizabeth Dehner#Sally Kellerman#Yeoman Smith#Andrea Dromm
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Andrea Dromm
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wild, unique surf sounds from the rare 1967 ABC Television special Hit the Surf (1967) hosted by “the Clairol girl” Andrea Dromm.
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“Tomboy” by Hal Ellison (Bantam, 1963)
“The Heller” by William E. Henning (Bantam, 1963)
Both covers by James Bama. The model was TV commercial actress Andrea Dromm.
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Andrea Dromm and John Phillip Law in The Russians are Coming The Russians are Coming (1966)
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