The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 38

D4 II SCENE BRKAKINC NKWS: VANC0UVKRSUN.COM THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013 FAN EXPO Uhura's Trek lip-lock was almost with Spock Nichelle Nichols tells the story behind her famous kiss with Captain James T. Kirk MARK LEIREN-YOUNG SPECIAL TO THE VANCOUVER SUN PWMWWMBJ'yiM'MIIIMWIalW mill MIMJUIM 'J i V-- IVoah, woah, woah. Jf anybody is gonna get to kiss Lieutenant Uhura it's gonna be me. NICHELLE NICHOLS QUOTING CO-STAR WILLIAM SHATNER tilHh (III IjAMlUtll'm pHLItl IHUltHKl SmOHU UW KM OKI TV's first interracial kiss was supposed to be an inter-species kiss. Nichelle Nichols (a.k.a.

Lieutenant Uhura from the original Star Trek series which debuted in 1966) told The Vancouver Sun she was rehearsing her lip-lock with Leonard Nimoy (a.k.a. the Vulcan, Mr. Spock) when William Shatner (a.k.a. interstellar stud, Captain Kirk) saw the smooch. "Bill Shatner saw what was going on and he said, 'Woah, woah, woah.

If anybody is gonna get to kiss Lieutenant Uhura it's gonna be And he had the whole thing changed so the first interracial kiss was with Lieutenant Uhura and Captain Kirk." Nichols laughs almost constantly as she recalls her most memorable Star Trek moment. "Bill wanted to rehearse all the time. He said he wanted to get JIN" I this right! I said to him, "It's right, it right. I promise you, it right. And the camera was shaking and the director was laughing his head on.

We really had a good time." Uhura relatively small part on btar get started there's someone who says he's your greatest fan and he wants to meet I thought it was a little kid because it was kind of a family event and there were a couple of little kids there. And I said, 'Well And I turned around and I said, 'Where is And he said, 'He's right over here. He's right here, behind "So I stood up and turned around to see this cute little boy and it's Dr. Martin Luther King." Nichols laughs again. "And he was smiling to me and he walked up to me and he says, 'Yes, I'm your greatest fan, Nichelle And that's how I met Dr.

Martin Luther King. He was a big Trekkie." Fan Expo has something for everyone who loves comics and comics-inspired TV and films. Featured guests include the Amazing, Incredible and Invincible Stan (the Man) Lee (creator of Marvel Comics characters like Spider-Man, Iron Man and The Hulk, 'nuff said); iconic comic artist Neil Adams, who defined Batman in the '70s and beyond; Sean Astin (Sam from Lord of the Rings), Sanctuary star Amanda Tapping, Vancouver's twin terror film makers, The Soska Sisters; James Marsters and Juliet Landau (Spike and Dru from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and the cast of Continuum. Fan Expo Preview April 20, 21 1 Vancouver Convention Centre Information: fanexpovancouver.com 1 1 1 Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura share TV's first interracial smooch. TV who wasn't playing the maid.

Nichols was such an inspiration that at the height of her fame, Goldberg asked to join the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. After convincing Trek producers she wasn't joking, Goldberg came on-board the new Enterprise as the wise alien bartender, Guinan. Nichols' lasting impact and her open attitude toward friends and fans of the iconic show it's tough to imagine her yelling at Trek lovers to "get a life" is the big reason she's a favourite at events like Fan Expo Vancouver (April 20 and 21 at the Vancouver Convention Centre). Although she's probably told the stoiy a million times, Nichols graciously shared her memories of meeting America's most iconic civil rights leader. "I was in Beverly Hills at an event and we were the guests and I was sitting up on the dais and I was one of the first ones who they took up to our place on the stage.

And one of the producers came up to me and said, 'Ms. Nichols, before you sit down and before you Nichelle Nichols played Lieutenant Uhura in the original Star Trek series. Trek for anyone who spent the last few decades in another galaxy, she was the communications officer had a huge impact on America's black community. When Nichols contemplated leaving the low-rated series to return to her career as a singer (she'd toured with Duke Ellington) Dr. Martin Luther King convinced her to stay by stressing that she was going where no black woman had gone before.

King told Nichols that once she opened these doors, they weren't going to close behind her. Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg is living proof of that. In a recent interview with The Sun, Goldberg talked about seeing Nichols on Star Trek as a life-changing moment. It was the first time she'd ever seen a black woman on ADVERTISING INFORMATION sunprouince.com The Rogue presents Blues Night Out with Taj Mahal Shemekia Copeland mm Thursday April 25, 8pm Chan Centre (6265 Crescent Rd, UBC) Vancity TiTB straight tetetmsier an arts partnership with and IIIIl! Presents -r Kiran Ahluwalia Sunday April 28, 8pm St. James Hall (3214 W.ioth Ave.) Tickets information www.roguefolk.bc.ca and 604-736-3022 1.

lJ 1 -SR. u4 TONY DEJAKTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS A Superman figurine sits on the porch of Jerry Siegel's boyhood home in the Glenville neighbourhood of Cleveland, Ohio. Superman collaborators Siegel and Joe Shuster lived several blocks apart. BOOKS Superman's blue-collar roots firmly entrenched THOMAS J. SHEERAN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS musical I 'mm'' 7 "Til1 of all musicals! if Valerie Easton Artistic Director Chad Matchette Producer mm OKLAHOMA! Music bjv Richard Rod gets Bookft Lyrics Oscar ifammerstein II V.wtS on me play "firet'n Ormv UV lildi-s" by 1-WiR T.iilgs Original Uanas by Agnes de Mille mm mix: Both were sons of Jewish immigrants, struggled during the Depression and hustled to make something of themselves.

Superman's first appearance, in Action Comics No. was April 18, 1938. The first and greatest superhero has gone on to appear in nearly 1,000 Action Comics and has evolved with the times, including a 1940s radio serial, a 1950s TV series and as a reliable staple for Hollywood. Pop culture expert Charles Coletta at Bowling Green State University said Superman ranks globally with George Washington and the Super Bowl as American icons. But it wasn't just hardscrabble circumstances that tempered the Man of Steel, Siegel's daughter said.

Laura Siegel Larson said Cleveland's public library, comic pages and high school mentors all nurtured her father's creativity. The school even allowed Siegel la mimeograph the science-fiction magazine he wrote and sold by mail subscription, she said. Spiegel recalled coming up with the idea while looking at the stars arid imagining a powerful hero who looked out for those in distress. Today, Siegel's home is easy to pick out on a street with a mix of renovated and dilapidated homes: A stylized red Superman adorns the fence and a sign identifies the home as "the house where Superman was born." Hattie Gray, 61, who moved into the home nearly 30 years ago unaware of its history, has got used to the parade of Superman fans walking by, trying to savour a piece of comics lure. Shuster's home has been demolished and replaced by another, but the fence has oversized Superman comic book pages displayed.

The nearby commercial strip has a state historic marker detailing Superman's Cleveland roots. Uinjction and Chnrtopraphy by Valerie Easton CLEVELAND The tough, blue-collar roots of Superman's creators are getting a fresh look on the superhero's 75th anniversary. Creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster lived just a few blocks apart in the Cleveland neighbourhood that shaped their teenage lives, their dreams and the imagery of the Man of Steel. In the city's Glenville neighbourhood, Siegel and Shuster laboured on their creation for years before finally selling Superman to a publisher, Shuster was Canadian, born in Toronto, where he grew up until moving with his family to Cleveland when he was 10. As a boy, Shuster whose cousin Frank Shuster later gained fame as half of the Canadian comedy team Wayne and Shuster was a newspaper carrier for the Toronto Daily Star (now the Toronto Star).

This gave him fodder for the newspaper career of Superman's alter ego, Clark Kent. In early drafts of their creation, Clark Kent worked for The Daily Star, later changed to The Daily Planet. Shuster also has said the Toronto skyline of his boyhood influenced his drawings of the Metropolis skyline of the Superman comics. The Man of Steel became a Depression-era bootstrap strategy for the SiegelShuster team, says Brad Ricca, a professor at nearby Case Western Reserve University. In his upcoming book Super Boys, Ricca says the story of Superman's creation is mostly about their friendship: two boys dreaming of "fame, riches and girls" in a time when such dreams are all the easier to imagine because of the crushing economic misery.

Siegel and Shuster reflected Cleveland's ethnic Musical nireiion by James Bryson llflf 1 APRIL "Chorus amazing, band tight, dancing spectacular iiift(g)i) 11-27 Tix at Great Price $40 plus special pricing for students and seniors masseytheatre.com and CIJIOTBO orcaUbU4-SZl-bUbU electric." PL David Jones XS ssr Ai wwt 1 ncMi rcT pit-'- iHiviiT( CKNW sham) mmm sssto.