Alleged Screen Used Hero TOS Phaser up for auction (now the aftermath)

[Lightning]

This is interesting as I've NEVER seen a typewriter from that period in time ever time letters lined up so well.

There used to be a font you could get that looks identical to the one used. I just can't figure why the letter is typed on heavy duty recycled drawing paper?

You can see the Capitols don't line up with the lower case letters. Plus you'd be insane not to use a real typewriter when making a forgery like this. Printers dont make impressons on the page. I'm more suspicious of the irregular ink. That's not from age, that's from using a dried out ribbon. You think Fred Freiberger would let his typewriter get in such a state? Its very unprofessional.

 

[Gregatron]

The video of her that they shared is disturbing. She's clearly not cognizant.

It fits the pattern, though. If the "Friday's Child" actor WAS involved in the "hero" scam, then they were likely also taken advantage of, due to their old age. Although, as noted, I suspect that their involvement was faked as part of an elaborate ruse to make the "hero" seem authentic.

The fake Nichols midgrades and the videos featuring her endorsing them pre-date the 2021 "hero" phaser auction, of course. My guess is that the culprits knew she was in decline, got her to endorse and promote their fake props, and then waited until she had died so they could auction them off without actually having her around to be questioned about it.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

There is a verified story of a phaser prop being gifted to a guest actor on Star Trek. So we do know that it did happen, on occasion.

After wrapping filming on the second season episode “Wolf in the Fold” Pilar Seurat (the actress who played Sybo) was given what sounds like a “stunt” phaser that was then given to her son, who was a fan of the show—writer / producer Dean Devlin.

As he tells it: “She was in the ‘Wolf in the Fold’ episode and she plays a psychic princess on this planet who gets killed by Scotty when he’s possessed by the soul of Jack the Ripper,” Devlin said. “She actually came home with the stunt man’s phaser — it was rubber and kind of beat up, it was the phaser they threw all the time — and that’s what started my whole [sci-fi] addiction.”

 

[pengbuzz]

Star Trek: Original Series "Plato's Stepchildren" Type 2 Phaser Pistol at Profiles September 2019 Hollywood Auction 112 from Nichelle Nichols Collection

On September 25, 2019, Profiles in History will be offering a rare Original Series Type 2 Phaser Pistol, originally from the collection of S...

www.startrekpropauthority.com

Oh, hey, look, another super-convenient letter. This one being from Fred Freiberger to Nichelle Nichols, ostensibly written after the filming of “Plato’s Stepchildren” (which, of course, is Ms. Nichols’ most historically-famous episode, and something even casual fans know about), in which he gifts her the so-called midgrade phaser.

Do you get it, yet? Do you see the pattern, here?



View attachment 1742882

While I'm no one's "forensic expert", I do know a few things about letters, handwriting and typewritten stuff (having done quite a bit of typing in my day on Royal machines and the like. Taking a look at this "letter", several things don't appear normal to me.

1) There are no distinguishing marks that I can see on any of the letters; usually, typewriters leave distinguishing marks from each letter, such as a certain pattern inside the circle of the "c", "o", "d" and so forth.

2) Usually, paper that heavy (heavy drawing paper) is too thick for a typewriter to use without jamming (believe me, I've tried!). While you need a decent paper of about 85-100GSM, that looks to be about GSM 160 at least. And unless you keep them in a fairly secure place, the paper will degrade over time just from being so thin.

3) The line spacing at the top of the letter and the body of it is inconsistent between paragraphs. I doubt someone who did as much writing on a typewriter would make that kind of mistake (he wrote extensively for movies and TV after he left the service at the conclusion of WWII).

4) On that heavy a paper, there should be some evidence of indentations from the typebars striking it. There's not even a single indentation visible (even an electric typewriter would leave indentations in heavy paper).

As to the content itself:

5) According to Mr. Frieberger, he was bitter about Gene Roddenberry "getting credit for Plato's Stepchildren"; so with that in mind, why would he inform Ms. Nichols about "running into Jerome Stanley" and him "apologizing for his handling of the kiss issue"? If he's proud of it, I don't think he would be passing along someone's apologies about it.

 

[AdmiralBaxter]

You can see the Capitols don't line up with the lower case letters. Plus you'd be insane not to use a real typewriter when making a forgery like this. Printers dont make impressons on the page. I'm more suspicious of the irregular ink. That's not from age, that's from using a dried out ribbon. You think Fred Freiberger would let his typewriter get in such a state? Its very unprofessional.

Thing is if you look at that page there aren't even the basic indications of stress marks that are made when the keys make impressions...

Like I pointed out it simply doesn't look right...

 

[Lightning]

Thing is if you look at that page there aren't even the basic indications of stress marks that are made when the keys make impressions...

Like I pointed out it simply doesn't look right...

I don't think the picture is good enough to make a determination on impressions. It would be incredibly difficult and time consuming to modify a font to look like that, no two letters have identical inking. I just don't think they'd go to all that trouble and not just use a real typewriter. There's literally no reason not to use a real one, and a whole lot why its a bad idea to fake it with a computer.

 

[AdmiralBaxter]

Well after seeing that lame video.....

I can show off my R.Shanko mid (slightly undersized version he did few years back) and be proud to say this is a replica....

I guess that's part of being honest

 

[AdmiralBaxter]

I don't think the picture is good enough to make a determination on impressions. It would be incredibly difficult and time consuming to modify a font to look like that, no two letters have identical inking. I just don't think they'd go to all that trouble and not just use a real typewriter. There's literally no reason not to use a real one, and a whole lot why its a bad idea to fake it with a computer.

Here's a website that offers various free vintage typewriter fonts

Anything can be done using a computer these days

 

[Lightning]

Here's a website that offers various free vintage typewriter fonts

Anything can be done using a computer these days

I can't believe we are debating this. Every matching letter in a font is the same. Every T loks identical to every other T. None of the characters match each other in that letter. They all have different fading and strengths. You could manually change every letter in Photoshop, but why would you when you could just USE A REAL TYPEWRITER.

 

[pengbuzz]

I can't believe we are debating this. Every matching letter in a font is the same. Every T loks identical to every other T. None of the characters match each other in that letter. They all have different fading and strengths. You could manually change every letter in Photoshop, but why would you when you could just USE A REAL TYPEWRITER.

Because it's easier to fake one on a printer than to go through all the trouble of finding and setting up a manual typewriter. Not to mention usign that heavy a paper in it will bog it up.

That's why we're debating it. My apologies for eveyone not being in "lock-step" with your orders; we were out getting donuts when you typed those up and they got mailed to us.

 

[Lightning]

Because it's easier to fake one on a printer than to go through all the trouble of finding and setting up a manual typewriter. Not to mention usign that heavy a paper in it will bog it up.

That's why we're debating it. My apologies for eveyone not being in "lock-step" with your orders; we were out getting donuts when you typed those up and they got mailed to us.

Easier to Photoshop? Really??

I realize I came in a little hot, but, typewriter collector here, I have...opinions. I own 13. Have you done the kind of Photoshoping you are suggesting? Or set up a typewriter? I see nothing in that photo that makes me think any typewriter couldn't handle that paper. Plus, If you are running a multi year scam to make yourself many thousands of dollars you can afford to hit a couple thrift stores or estate sales and buy a typewriter. I would say "then go to Office Depot and buy a new ribbon" but they clearly didn't.

 

[AdmiralBaxter]

I can't believe we are debating this. Every matching letter in a font is the same. Every T loks identical to every other T. None of the characters match each other in that letter. They all have different fading and strengths. You could manually change every letter in Photoshop, but why would you when you could just USE A REAL TYPEWRITER.

You don't need to change every individual letter or even a few of them.

The reason most would use a computer is because it's easier than trying to hunt down a vintage typewriter.

We are debating this purely for a good mental excercise.

After all if these guys are going to make a forgery of a phaser there's no way in heck I'll trust them to do anything else honestly

 

[joberg]

This is interesting as I've NEVER seen a typewriter from that period in time ever time letters lined up so well.

There used to be a font you could get that looks identical to the one used. I just can't figure why the letter is typed on heavy duty recycled drawing paper?

Yes...a little too neat in my book also. Old typewriters had a tendency to have little details specific enough to be piece of evidence to the police:
a particular letter would always be crooked, or one that is always darker than the others, etc...
And the cardboard seals the deal for me Why would you write such letter using that type of medium?( I owned a few manual typewriters in another life btw)

 

[pengbuzz]

Easier to Photoshop? Really??

I realize I came in a little hot, but, typewriter collector here, I have...opinions. I own 13. Have you done the kind of Photoshoping you are suggesting? Or set up a typewriter? I see nothing in that photo that makes me think any typewriter couldn't handle that paper. Plus, If you are running a multi year scam to make yourself many thousands of dollars you can afford to hit a couple thrift stores or estate sales and buy a typewriter. I would say "then go to Office Depot and buy a new ribbon" but they clearly didn't.

Yes to both; I've worked with Photoshop daily since the late 90', and have done stuff like this for tabletop RPG props (LARPing detective mysteries with a group; I assist the DM with materials).

As for heavier papers, I've tried using them in typewriters and the jam up like you wouldn't beleive. And just because you can "hit a thrift store and buy a typewriter" doesn't mean it will be up to operating correctly; the type bars can be bent to hell, the carriage have myriad usses (anything from busted springs to rust pitting the return rail it slides on), etc.

Not to mention in the time it takes to set up one typewriter, and can print off 12-14 of those letters on a printer.

On that note: I'm going to depart this convo, due to the fact that we're moving and I won't be on for a bit. But thank you for replying, and I apologize for my snarkiness in this as well. In my old age, I'd like to pull back a bit from the debates and try to relax (blood pressure is worrying my doctor).

 

[asalaw]

Yes to both; I've worked with Photoshop daily since the late 90', and have done stuff like this for tabletop RPG props (LARPing detective mysteries with a group; I assist the DM with materials).

As for heavier papers, I've tried using them in typewriters and the jam up like you wouldn't beleive. And just because you can "hit a thrift store and buy a typewriter" doesn't mean it will be up to operating correctly; the type bars can be bent to hell, the carriage have myriad usses (anything from busted springs to rust pitting the return rail it slides on), etc.

Not to mention in the time it takes to set up one typewriter, and can print off 12-14 of those letters on a printer.

On that note: I'm going to depart this convo, due to the fact that we're moving and I won't be on for a bit. But thank you for replying, and I apologize for my snarkiness in this as well. In my old age, I'd like to pull back a bit from the debates and try to relax (blood pressure is worrying my doctor).

Good luck on your move. We moved in June and we're still unpacking...

 

[Treadwell]

FWIW I don't recall having any trouble with thicker paper back in the pre-Cambrian era when I used typewriters.

 

[ghostryder]

The one we're now discussing - is this a different Profiles in History phaser than the Heritage phaser which kicked off this thread?

 

[Gregatron]

The one we're now discussing - is this a different Profiles in History phaser than the Heritage phaser which kicked off this thread?

Yes.

A different fake, but obviously made by the same parties.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

FWIW I don't recall having any trouble with thicker paper back in the pre-Cambrian era when I used typewriters.

Many a weekend have I spent telling stories to my nieces and nephews of the strange machine without autocorrect that I used to transcribe my thoughts onto paper…

 

[ghostryder]

Yes.

A different fake, but obviously made by the same parties.

Thanks for the info.

For clarity sake, was this the auction? The 2019 Profiles one?