More Trekkie trivia

No, I'm honestly not a Trekkie. In fact, I've never seen a Star Trek movie or even watched a full episode of Star Trek on TV. I'm not a sci-fi fan, unless you count my obsession with Ray Bradbury's Illustrated Man. It's truly all about the MCM connection to me, so this is the last Star Trek post, at least until I get another tip that fascinates me.

That said, I never realized there was so much material on the Internet about mid-century furniture and Star Trek, but Jonathan Goldstein at Planner, Perimeter, Predictor, Paul McCobb put me wise to another topic...this one about the Enterprise captain's chair. Apparently, there is considerable evidence to support the idea that the chair from the original series was built around the Naugahyde cushions and walnut arms of a Model No. 2405 or a Model No. 4449 chair designed by Arthur Umanoff for Madison Furniture Industries of Canton, Mississippi, which was manufactured between 1962 and 1968.

Louis Shomick, president of Madison from 1950 till 1966 insists it was their chair. However, Herbert F. Solow, a former Desilu vice-president and John Jefferies, brother of Star Trek art director Walter "Matt" Jefferies, insist it was built from scratch. Jefferies claims he remembers helping his brother build the frame, base and pedestal from plywood...but he doesn't mention anything about making the cushions and arms.

Here are the two chairs. Again, you decide.

From nytimes.com

Enterprise captain's chair
designboom.com

Madison Furniture Industries Model No. 2405
gomod.com

In 2009 Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, paid $305,000 for a Madison chair to be placed on display at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle. Apparently, he had few doubts about what was used to make Kirk's chair.

Now it's off to continue my research about Ren and Stimpy's affinity for the Arne Jacobsen Egg Chair. So far, I've turned up nothing, in spite of the fact that several 30-somethings say they distinctly remember that very thing from the cartoons and have suggested I do a post about it. Happy, happy, joy, joy!

Burke chairs and the Star Trek debate

Yesterday we made a short road trip to East Texas to pick up four Burke chairs. Burke, Inc. was headquartered here in Dallas, Texas, and produced the Saarinen-style tulip chairs that had a four-star pedestal base instead of the round base of the Knoll chairs. Because Burke was a local company, the chairs are popular here.

A debate has raged for quite some time about whether or not Burke chairs were used on Star Trek: The Original Series. Most of the comments I've read in forums indicate a belief that they were, although at least one person claimed they were made by a company called Contemporary Shells.

The most compelling evidence for the Burke chairs having been the TOS chairs were concept sketches by Walter "Matt" Jeffries, the art director of the Star Trek series which I found at Star Trek Prop, Costume & Auction Authority.

I don't claim to know for sure. All I have are pictures of the Burke chairs and a couple of Star Trek photos, as well as the sketches by Jeffries, one of which is very clearly labeled "Modified Burke."  I'll let you decide for yourself.

designaddict.com

designaddict.com

Burke Model 115
austinmodhouse.com

One of our four Burke 116s
craigslist.org
(That's the previous owner in the background. This is his CL listing.)

Jefffies concept sketch
startrekpropauthority.com

Another Jeffries concept sketch
startrekpropauthority.com