James ‘Scotty’ Doohan, ‘Star Trek’ convention, 1976

Thanks to The Retroist for this excellent find: a brief amateur documentary covering an early Star Trek fan convention in Denver, Colorado in the fall of 1976.

Join the ‘Star Trek’ club. ‘Star Trek’ convention, 1976

YouTube poster, ultimessence, has this to say about his unique video:

“One of the earliest Star Trek conventions occurred in 1976 at the Northgenn Mall in Denver Colorado in Fall of 1976.

Only 7 years after the series ended, Star Trek already had a very strong cult following in the US and even abroad. There were small fan clubs popping up all over the world, so after a while it had such momentum that someone began organizing these gatherings into conventions…At homes, schools, malls, they eventually had to rent large convention halls to accommodate the throngs of devoted ‘trekkies’.

This one had Leonard Nimoy (Spock) and James Doohan (Scotty), so I had to bring my super 8 movie camera to the Mall to film it. I brought my old pal Terry McCoy as the on-camera reporter to interview the cults and play with the toys.”

Leonard ‘Spock’ Nimoy, ‘Star Trek’ convention, 1976

My fellow sci fi geeks – you’ll enjoy this great discovery. Roll it.