Poll result and more from the Weekly World News.

Our latest poll sought your views on the question of what kind of toupee Bill Shatner will be wearing ten or twenty years from now (if any).

More on this image here.

Only 3% of voters thought none - at that age, he'd realize the illusion no longer worked. 16% thought he'd be wearing the very same "Denny Katz" as now; 22% thought it'd be an updated version of the "Denny Katz" but perhaps a little whiter and thinner; 27% thought that Bill Shatner would be wearing something even darker and thicker than what he wears now.

29% of votes went to "Something that suggests some age-appropriate thinning, but certainly not baldness." In summary, not many of you believe that even a ninety-year-old Bill Shatner is going to be seen without his beloved toupee.

Thanks for voting!


Meanwhile, thanks to Google's efforts to scan all published materials in the universe (to look for mentions of Bill Shatner and his toupee, no doubt) we have another story from the legendary tabloid Weekly World News (previous entry here). In this case, it's from 2001 - completely invented of course - involving a stolen toupee:


Former Star Trek honcho William Shatner offers a $5,000 reward after a brazen robber steals his favorite toupee - snatching it right off his head as he dines at a sidewalk cafe. The toupee is later returned in the mail when the rug bandit apparently comes down with a bad case of cold feet.


In true Weekly World News style, the following story is "Elvis was Murdered!"

Finally, it is with mixed emotions that we bring you confirmation that the William Shatner sitcom $#*! My Dad Says has not been renewed by CBS for a second season. We've been pretty critical of the series, and aren't really sad to see it go, but are saddened that the idea of a Bill Shatner sitcom didn't work out. Will another chance like this come along?

Vanity Fair goes straight for the toupular.

As many of our readers will know, Bill Shatner has been all over the media lately promoting his new sitcom $h*! My Day Says. Among the more interesting pieces on the actor is a New York Times piece entitled "The Many Iterations of William Shatner" as well as the answering of 10 fan submitted questions for Time magazine. And then there is a recent Vanity Fair piece entitled "William Shatner and Betty White Are Making a Sex Tape for A.A.R.P." The article, which includes an interview with Bill Shatner, ends with the following exchange:

Q: O.K., one more question. You wear a toupee. We all know it, it’s obvious, but you won’t admit it. How long are you going to hold on to this ruse? Is it a mystery you’ll be taking to your grave?

A: Probably. But if it’s any consolation, that’s not very long from now.


We've long been pressing for interviewers to probe the toupee issue in more detail - but not like this! The entire interview feels awkward, with interviewer Eric Spitznagel seemingly doing more to put himself center-stage than actually seeking to elicit a decent interview from his subject. The toupee question (at the very end) feels like a dare was made with a friend - will he or won't he ask?- rather than a genuine attempt seeking to broach such an incredibly important issue.

We have also often suggested that there are numerous signs that Bill Shatner is actually now willing to talk toup: from ending his autobiography with the question "Do I wear a toupee?" to all kinds of hints about the issue. And by hosting interview shows such as Shatner's Raw Nerve and Aftermath, it's entirely possible that Bill Shatner is again signaling how such a potentially uncomfortable subject as his toupee could be delicately addressed - if the interview is conducted properly: "Ask me about my toupee the way that I ask my guests about their complex issues," he seems to be saying.

Bill Shatner interviewing actor Kelsey Grammer

So it's a shame that despite these subtle signs, the toupee subject has essentially been left to the realms of the gimmick-provocateur interviewer rather than the true professionals, resulting in uncomfortable exchanges like the one above (or this).

Bill Shatner, discussing Raw Nerve, once told The Winnipeg Free Press:

"My impulse was...that [my interviewees] would feel confident enough to reveal themselves a little bit more than they have in the past. And I felt that I could effect that because I was speaking to them on their own grounds....I had no agenda, I wished not to hurt them, I didn't want to do any tabloid stuff. I very specifically kept away from tabloid matters and talked about things of the heart."

The legendary 1977 Frost/Nixon interviews lasted for 12 days.

The toupee is not a tabloid matter and should not be treated as such. For more than fifty years, Bill Shatner's heart (and mainly his head) have drawn upon the powers of the piece. It's a remarkable, moving and ultimately life-affirming story (the joy of the "Jim Kirk lace", the sweaty despair of the "Lost Years" toups, battling middle age with the "TJ Curly" and finally settling down and finding greater self-ease with the "Denny whatever-it-is"); whoever succeeds in gently coaxing this story from Bill Shatner will quite possibly have - in the words of Perry White from the 1978 movie Superman - "The greatest interview since...God talked to Moses!"

A poll, a paper and a plug...

No clear majority for our latest poll, which gauged your views on the impact of Bill Shatner deciding to go bald. 36%, the greatest share, thought a breakup with the toupee would be worse than the breakup of The Beatles! 28% thought that a toupological U-turn would simply create a firestorm around the veracity of previous toupee denials. Only 7% thought that it would make up for years of such toupee denials. Thanks for voting!


Meanwhile, in an article for the August 25th, 2010 edition of the Chicago Tribune, author Steve Dahl poses an interesting question, and one which our philosophers have been grappling with for years. Speculating what questions could be answered if he were an undercover reporter posing as a washroom attendant at the Emmy awards, he asks: "Who washes his hands? Who speaks at the urinal? Does William Shatner comb his toupee?" A perhaps more important question: if Bill Shatner removes his toupee and no-one is there to see it, has he really removed his toupee at all?

Multiple Emmy Award-winning actor William Shatner!

Finally, we're going to take a rare detour away from the subject of Bill Shatner's toupee. As many of you know, an endorsement from the William Shatner School of Toupological Studies (one of the world's foremost scientific and research institutions - and in no way formally associated with William Shatner, the man) is a prize that many companies, products and even politicians frequently try to gain. Knowing that such endorsements could sway elections and otherwise have a dramatic impact on global events, we mostly turn down the thousands of such requests that we receive. But in this case, we actually volunteered to bring something to the attention of you, our valued readers - so please forgive us for the departure.

Section of Ron Jones' isolated score for the TNG episode "11001001". Hear more Ron Jones cues here.

Our friends at Film Score Monthly are releasing a mammoth 14-CD collection of the work of Star Trek: The Next Generation composer Ron Jones. For those of you who aren't familiar with the story, Ron Jones was hired as one of two regular composers at the start of the series. He insisted on approaching each Trek episode as a unique work, devising memorable leitmotifs for characters, alien races, emotions and situations, and underlining atmospherics and dramatic undertones with his compositions - all of this ended up getting him fired from the show at the end of the series' fourth season.

Ron Jones on the scoring stage of Family Guy, image sourced here.

Inexplicably, executive producer Rick Berman, perhaps the least popular major figure in modern Trek history, viewed great music as distracting and "noticeable". Instead, he wanted something called "sonic wallpaper", which often (though, to be fair, not always) basically amounted to a lot of bland noise.

"I am The Patron Saint of Mediocrity"

Jones wouldn't/couldn't budge and despite producing scores that were original, dynamic and truly loved by fans of the show (such as for the Borg two-parter "The Best of Both Worlds"), his principled refusal to conform ultimately got him fired (interestingly, the series' first cinematographer Edward R. Brown also got himself dismissed by Berman for lighting scenes according to emotions). Firing a man for scoring great music, we think, represents one of the more significant injustices in the history of motion picture entertainment. It hurt Ron Jones, who gave his heart and soul to the show, badly.

Ron Jones' celebrated score from "The Best of Both Worlds" - sourced from YouTube.

The firing, we feel, also heralded Berman-Trek's slow descent into bland "NASA realism" instead of the more aesthetically punchy and individualistic "where the mind went..." concept favored by old-school Trek producers Gene Roddenberry and Bob Justman. Up to that point, Star Trek had a great musical legacy, and Ron Jones' efforts, we think, belong up there with the best of them. In a broader sense, a marked and genuine fear of decent and dynamic musical compositions has become an industry-wide problem in much big-budget Hollywood product today. Composers were once viewed as genuine creative partners of film directors; today, they are often asked to merely subtly copy the temp music that adorns rough cuts of movies, replicating one tired cliché after another.

Anyway, we are truly delighted for Ron that FSM has released a box-set of his efforts, compiled by (unabashed Shatner's Toupee fan) Lukas Kendall. It's a large and thus expensive set, but to those of you who can afford it, we heartily recommend it. Place your orders here. FSM also have some very detailed on-line notes on Ron's music here. Thanks, and our apologies again for the non-toupological diversion. Is there a toupee connection? Kind of: Ron Jones was hired by Bob Justman, a man who also found and fought for the bald Patrick Stewart to be hired on ST:TNG...

"The greatest hairpiece of the twentieth century."

Bill Shatner as T.J. Hooker. Image sourced here.

A must-read GQ profile which does a great job of trying to explain the nature of Bill Shatner's iconic status and complex personality. Featured within the piece is the following:

"...Of course, Shatner refers here to T. J. Hooker, the early-1980s television show that served as a vehicle for the Caligulan feast of a toupee that The Washington Post once dismissed as a 'goony rug' but that is now universally acclaimed as the greatest hairpiece of the twentieth century."

In a literal sense, the opposite would appear to be true - that very few people see Bill Shatner's hairpieces (particularly those from the 1980s) as the greatest of the twentieth century. However, in a far broader sense, it's arguably the combination of Bill Shatner the man and Bill Shatner the toupee-wearer that have made his pieces the "greatest". Together, they are more than the sum of their parts.

Over the years the toup has done everything from subtly pointing to the emotional complexities of on-screen characters, to inspiring Star Trek's writers, to commenting on global political events. In that sense, Bill Shatner's toupees really are the greatest of the twentieth century...and here's to the twenty-first!

Bill Shatner in 1967: "So I had to have a full wig"!

Utilizing Google's research tools (more here), reader "ttttttttt" has found a great little article from a May 19th 1967 issue of the now defunct Pittsburgh Press. The article (sourced here) reports on Bill Shatner's involvement with the movie White Comanche, which was filmed during the hiatus between Star Trek's first and second seasons (this gap in filming ran from February to May 1967 - more here). In the article, the actor mentions having to wear a wig:

"William (Star Trek) Shatner, who made a movie 'White Comanche,' in Spain, in which he played dual roles - brothers, one reared as an Indian and one as a cowboy:

He Had to Be Doctored

'One brother had to be blond and I couldn't bleach my hair because of the series. So I had to have a full wig. One character is light-eyed, and one dark, so I had to have contact lenses made.'"



Has Bill Shatner been caught in some sort of toupological fib? A closer inspection reveals layers of nuance and considerable room for maneuver:

"I couldn't bleach my hair because of the series" - Bill Shatner did have his own real hair at the back and sides, and bleaching that may indeed have presented a problem.


A closer inspection of the above image from White Comanche reveals that Bill Shatner's own hair at the very base of the wig is indeed darker and has not been intensively dyed.

"So I had to have a full wig."

This one is a little more tricky. Is Bill Shatner emphasizing the words "had to" or "full"? If the first is true, then he is essentially saying that he had to wear a wig, even though he need not have - not true: baldness meant Bill Shatner wore a toupee, irrespective of hair color issues. Although, here, the distinction could be between a toupee, hairpiece or wig - he had to wear a wig, instead of the toupee. If the emphasis is on the latter "full", then the meaning is somewhat different. "So I had to have a full wig" - meaning "a wig larger than the hairpiece I normally wear."

Since there is only clever parsing and no overt verifiable deception, our Shat-no-Meter rates this one as "Mostly True".


To hear Bill Shatner say the word "toupee" click here, and to hear him say the word "hairpiece" click here.

In fine toupological company.

-"Are they writing about your ears again, Leonard?"

-"Err...not this time, Bill!"

Inspired by our previous post, reader "vvatima" decided to undertake some additional toupological research and managed to unearth a June 19th 1967 story from the New York Times entitled "Modern Men Discover Fountain of Youth in a Hairpiece".

The article, which looks at toupee-usage by Hollywood's leading men, notes that:

"...an estimated 10 to 20 percent of male performers [wear toupees], including John Wayne, Burt Lancaster, Rex Harrison, Fred MacMurray, Bing Crosby, Sean Connery, Fred Astaire, Pat O'Brien, Henry Fonda, Gene Kelly, Rick Jason, Mel Ferrer, William Shatner, Carl Reiner, Barry Sullivan and Jack Paar." (emphasis ours)


What's interesting here is that 1967 was a period when Bill Shatner was becoming increasingly sensitive about the toupee, not just as part of his on-screen actor's persona, but off-screen behind-the-scenes too. So, the question is: how did the NYT confirm this information? Via a source? Via Bill Shatner?

Perhaps of even greater significance is that the article places Bill Shatner in the company of some of the biggest leading-men in Hollywood history, including Burt Lancaster, John Wayne, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. Surely the shock of having one's "makeup secrets" revealed to the world would have been mitigated by the delight of being listed with such acting giants!

Click below for the full article:

And click on our "press report" tag for more early toupee reports, including one from a decade earlier.

UPDATE:

Reader "RM" points to a June 13 1992 story from The Morning Call:

"William Shatner and his wife/first mate Marcy Lafferty have beamed down to The Logan Tavern in New Hope to give a press conference announcing their performance of "Love Letters" at Bucks County Playhouse through tomorrow ..."

The article continues:

"Even if the 60-year-old former starship captain carries a hint of a paunch, he looks 20 years younger than his age. And Shatner, who was once the object of ridicule in gossip columns for wearing a girdle and a tribble-like toupee during his 'T.J. Hooker' days, showed up without his infamous hairpiece. And, surprise, he's not bald -- just a little thin on top."

The suggestion is that Bill Shatner attended a press conference of all things without wearing his toupee. Since this was a press conference, there will likely be pictures somewhere out there. However, we are somewhat skeptical - this would appear to be highly out of character for the actor, still very sensitive in the 1990s about his baldness.

Toupward and Wigstein.

...or should that be All the Shatner's Toupees? During the early 1970s, The Washington Post gained acclaim for its ongoing investigations of the Watergate scandal led by the reporting team of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

Woodward and Bernstein as portrayed by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in the classic 1976 movie All the President's Men.

In 1994, the paper finally turned its attentions towards the equally important subject of Bill Shatner's toupee in a review of the movie Star Trek: Generations.

The review, by Rita Kempley, contained the following paragraph:

"A spectacular dogfight between the Enterprise and a Klingon warbird perks things up enormously. Meanwhile, Picard heads off the bad guy on a planet below. Then, at last, comes the moment every viewer is waiting for. Picard meets Kirk, Stewart meets Shatner, baldy meets the super-rug. Toupee or not toupee? By the end, there's no question that Kirk is the captain of captains."

Many critics found Bill Shatner's hair in Star Trek: Generations (1994) to just be too thick.

This immediately prompted us to establish a new category within the archives of the WSSTS: "Review Toupee Digs". Indeed, The Post is but one example during the original Star Trek cast's movie years of reviewers poking fun not only at the gang of seven's advancing years, but also at Bill Shatner's suspiciously thick "TJ Curly" hair. We know that there are dozens and dozens of these kind of subtle toupee digs out there within newspaper and magazine reviews spanning The Motion Picture through Generations. So if you, our valued readers out there, track down any more, please let us know!

Update: Reader "RM" points to a review of Star Trek VI in USA Today:

You don’t have to be a Trekkie to savor this timely plot [of Star Trek VI]. Even though Scotty looks like he’s hiding a meteor under his shirt, Kirk looks like a squirrel is napping on his head, and Spock’s ears aren’t quite as perky, this is quite a suitable send-off.

If anyone has a source for this we could link to, please let us know. Thanks!

"Shatner's toupee abducted by aliens!"

The Weekly World News is a tabloid famous for its sensational headlines about UFO abductions, Elvis sightings and all the rest of it. But back on 7th February 1995, they did a story (based on a report by the British Sun newspaper) on William Shatner that was - shock! - entirely accurate. The above article relates to an incident in which radio DJ "MJ Kelli" asked Shatner about his toupee, which infuriated the actor, prompting him to say "I don't wear a hairpiece." See here for more on the incident - we ruled on Shats' denial in that case with out Shat-no-meter here.

Another early Shatner toupee press report.

For the People (1965)

Thanks to a reader, we previously managed to locate a press report from 1957 (see here) which openly notes that Shatner "had already ordered a toupee to camouflage a thinning spot in the cinnamon hair."

Well, now we have located another report, this time from the somewhat curious and very difficult to navigate (but also full of interesting material) Star Trek archive site Memory-prime.de. The June 1965 story (newspaper unknown) refers to Bill Shatner's role as an assistant district attorney in the short-lived, but well-received CBS series For the People, which largely sank because it aired at the same time as the popular NBC series Bonanza. The article makes a prominent mention of Shatner's lack of hair - it appears that at the beginning at least, the toupee was an open secret:

1957 article confirms Shatner toupee purchase.

Studio One - The Defender (1957). The first toup appearance? In this production, Shatner is apparently wearing a quality studio-supplied toupee, but he would soon purchase one of his own.

There is a great article here at Google Docs, which is a reprint of an October 1957 Maclean's Magazine profile of the young William Shatner. The article contains the following very interesting paragraph:

"...Mel Balarino, MGM's casting director...looked Shatner over. What he saw was a splendid young bobcat of a male, with a close cap of cinnamon hair, tufted eyebrows and white teeth bared in a grin of undisciplined charm...[Gloria Rand and William Shatner] had both begun watching their diets again: steak, fresh fruit, yogurt. While others in their apartment block lounged by the pool with gin drinks and suntan oil, Shatner would withdraw into a corner and skip an imaginary rope. Then he'd dive into the pool and later, when he'd straightarmed himself out, would report to Gloria, 'Fifteen lengths that time. Best exercise there is.' He had already ordered a toupee to camouflage a thinning spot in the cinnamon hair." (Emphasis ours. The money for this purchase would likely have come from his salary from the movie The Brothers Karamazov which was filmed in 1957.)

Thanks to a reader for alerting us to this! We sincerely appreciate the detective work of all you Shatner toupologists out there!