I was going to post this yesterday but decided to wait the extra day so people wouldn't think it was an April Fools' Day prank. Something called THE BEATLES MEET STAR TREK opened November 5th, 1976 at the Uniondale Mini Cinema in Uniondale, N.Y. -- "Long Island's answer to the 8th Street Playhouse," according to the Cinema Treasures website. Normally I'd see a listing like this and just assume the theater owners or programmers ran a couple of Star Trek episodes with some Beatles footage and came up with the title on their own, but no, THE BEATLES MEET STAR TREK was apparently something that was in distribution in the mid-to-late 1970s, at least in the New York tri-state area. Why? Because now there's a second sighting of this oddball title.
Above is a newspaper ad for a week-long run of THE BEATLES MEET STAR TREK (on a double bill with YELLOW SUBMARINE) at the Main Street Cinema right here in New Rochelle, NY in February of 1978. A tiny theater built in 1970 on the stage of the RKO Proctor's theater next door, the Main Street Cinema tried to be Westchester's answer to the 8th Street Playhouse for a few years with heavy emphasis on cult films, revivals and midnight shows but eventually went back to more mainstream and then grindhouse fare (THE GATES OF HELL w/ TREASURE OF BRUCE LEE) before closing in 1987.
Temple of Schlock contributor Patrick Lefcourt thinks maybe THE BEATLES MEET STAR TREK was 90 minutes of the Beatles and Star Trek cartoon shows cut together, but that's just a guess.
I know Sir Paul and Wings were working on a movie project with Gene Roddenberry at one point in 1977, but that never materialized.
Star Trek AND the Beatles? Together?! That has to be the greatest combination since peanut butter hooked up with chocolate at H.B. Reese's place.
I'm just going to throw a guess out here, but I'm thinking it was probably an obscure short film somebody made with William Shatner singing "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".
ReplyDeleteI suspect it might be someone who packaged together the 16mm "STAR TREK" blooper reels with some of the readily available Beatles shorts like their arrival in America or Shea Stadium concert footage.
ReplyDeleteHoly crap, count me in as someone incredibly curious about this.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinkin' Marc's theory sounds logical. I saw several theatrical compilations of Beatles stuff back in the day. Throw in the bloopers from Trek and you can rationalize (if not justify) your title.
ReplyDeleteI completely forgot about those STAR TREK bloopers. You guys are probably right. I knew this was a compilation of something, and what you're suggesting sounds like the quickest and cheapest way to toss something together and call it THE BEATLES MEET STAR TREK. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI'll go with the blooper theory. All kinds of odd things used to hit the midnight circuit. I even remember something called THE ROLLING STONES MEET PUNK ROCK.
ReplyDeleteI'm old and I saw this in Los Angeles back then.
ReplyDeleteAs I recall, there was yellow submarine, the music videos the beatles did, some shea stadium, and the ST bloopers.