Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Poll result..."It was a very good year..."



We really had no idea how this poll would turn out, but a majority believed that Bill Shatner ditched the lace after Star Trek for a very simple reason - he couldn't afford such toups. More than a quarter believed that he thought his 1970s "Lost Years" style looked better, while only 4% thought that he just felt so down he couldn't be bothered to make the effort. 12% thought he was drawing a line after Star Trek and the (costly) end of his first marriage to Gloria Rand.

Thanks for voting!

As for the very final appearance of the "Jim Kirk lace" - we're not sure, but one possibility is Bill Shatner's week-long co-hosting appearance in February 1969 on the Mike Douglas Show (watch one episode here - Bill Shatner did another appearance on the same show in May of that year - but we don't know for sure which toup he wore then).

Incidentally, during these appearances, he sang a song called "It was a Very Good Year" - almost with tears in his eyes, was Bill Shatner bidding an emotional farewell to the toup he had loved for more than ten years - it was a very good toup?

"It was a very good toupee" - Bill Shatner's farewell tour to his beloved first toup style?

Also during these appearances, Bill Shatner sang (really sang) another song (whose title has gained a different meaning in the ensuing years!) that contained the lyrics "keep it light" - another farewell to the toup, and a hope (or warning) that future toupees will be as light as the "JKL"? Maybe the entire week of appearances in which Bill Shatner also did poetry recitals was a kind of final farewell tour - who can listen to Bill Shatner sing about his beloved "Jim Kirk lace" - "when I was seventeen" how thick the hair still was, and "it came undone when I was twenty-one" - and not well up just a little...

When I was seventeen
It was a very good year
It was a very good year for small town girls
And soft summer nights
Wed hide from the lights
On the village green
When I was seventeen

When I was twenty-one
It was a very good year
It was a very good year for city girls
Who lived up the stair
With all that perfumed hair
And it came undone
When I was twenty-one

When I was thirty-five
It was a very good year
It was a very good year for blue-blooded girls
Of independent means
Wed ride in limousines
Their chauffeurs would drive
When I was thirty-five

But now the days grow short
Im in the autumn of the year
And now I think of my life as vintage wine
from fine old kegs
from the brim to the dregs
And it poured sweet and clear
It was a very good year

It was a mess of good years

11 comments:

  1. A pretty song indeed!! I first heard it with Sinatra

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  2. It certainly looks like a 'Jim Kirk' toupee. I wondered if anyone on TOS production cared if he borrowed them at this point (assuming he did, and knowing the series was coming to an end)?

    From http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Turnabout_Intruder_(episode) -

    Filmed in late December 1968 and early January 1969

    His week-long appearance was in February/1969. Was the Mike Douglas showed filmed live? Or was it was perhaps shot earlier, so as to allow Shatner to take advantage and borrow the Jim Kirk toupee for a final hurrah?

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  3. When I was seventeen
    I still had very good hair
    I still had very good hair that would stand up well
    Under studio lights
    However bright
    They might have been
    When I was seventeen

    When I was twenty-one
    I still had pretty good hair
    I still had pretty good hair, though fewer curls
    Didn't yet need to wear
    A rug to keep my career
    From coming undone
    When I was twenty-one

    When I was thirty-five,
    I didn't have such good hair
    I didn't have such good hair for leading man roles
    In films and TV
    A toup was necessary
    To keep my image alive
    When I was thirty-five

    But now the toup is short
    Or are they transplants up there?
    And when I think of my piece from vintage Trek
    The fine old lace
    Captain Kirk wore in space
    So his scalp wasn't bare
    That was some very good hair

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  4. Oh my God, Unanimous, that was incredible and very well done. Truly awsome! Bravo! For the archives...

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  5. i remember reading that while he was Bond Pirece Brosnan had it in his contract that he wasnt allowed to wear a black tie tux in any other role...the EON lawyers argued that it was too idenified with the Bond franchise for the actor to be in it in any other film role like Thomas Crown etc

    i wonder if similarly Shatner wasnt allowed to use the JK lace onscreen in other projects once TOS had finished as it was too identified with star trek (i.e. the image of James T Kirk) thus leading too The Lost Years toup?

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  6. Shatner does not wear a toupee.

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  7. Except when he does...

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  8. Thanks for your comments/ song lyrics! We have been trying to encourage non-registered commenters to select the "Name/ URL" option in the "Comment as" tab and type in a username (anything at all). This eliminates the "anonymous" tag and helps other commenters to know who is saying what. Thanks! -ST

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  9. Looks like Unanimous has turned their new lyrics (subtext) into video subtitles XD
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5Q1V_pEU-A

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  10. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  11. That "Unanimous" version of the song could bring tears to someone's eyes...specially to the bald ones'! A beautiful moment of this blog.

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