An early "Jim".

Not long ago, as part of our toupological analysis, we presented a series of photos from Bill Shatner's appearance in the 1958-59 play The World of Suzie Wong. Our conclusion was that in some of these pictures, Bill Shatner was either toup-less or only wearing a rear cap-like piece. Meanwhile, in other pictures, Bill Shatner looked like he was wearing a full frontal piece. Since the play ran for fourteen months, our (speculative) conclusion was that early publicity photos showed Bill Shatner's real frontal hairline, while later pictures did not - it was evidently a time of great toupological experimentation for young Bill.


Now, thanks to the good folks at My Star Trek Scrapbook, we have another picture of Bill Shatner's performance in the play - and in this case, the actor almost certainly appears to be wearing a full early version of the "Jim Kirk lace". Since most decent theaters had and have large collections of hairpieces for both men and women, it is possible that this early "Jim" is not custom-made for the actor, but rather a hastily-chosen stage wig. The excessive thickness of the frontal hairline, along with a generally awkward, bulky shape suggest a cheaper piece. Whether this was, instead, Bill Shatner's own recently-purchased very first toupee, we can't say...