I have met Gene at car shows. What a talented builder. Did not realize he had a hand in Star Trek. I have watch Star Trek since it started in mid 1960s. Thank you Gene.
I was at that Star Trek Convention in Ohio where you showed up after being contacted by the gal who (at the time) owned it. We were both members of "Starfleet, The International Star Trek Fan Club", which was broken down into various chapters all over the world. Our Chapter, the USS LaGrange, based in Akron, OH., did that convention you attended. The gal who owned it then (I won't mention her name) was having financial difficulties raising the amount of money needed to fully restore it, which had been her plan. For a long time, it sat, covered up, in an airplane hanger in Akron, OH. I'm glad that she finally sold it to people who have the desire to rebuild it to its former glory, and perhaps get it into the Smithsonian museum.
I walked into the Houston Space Center Museum and I was so pleasantly surprised to see the Galileo Shuttlecraft sitting right in front of me. I had seen this video so I knew it was restored, but I was shocked to be able to walk right up to a sci-fi masterpiece!
These were the true creators of si-fi. All hand made, hard work, and a lot of imagination. No computers making it easy. Good stuff, good times. Thank you for posting a large piece of my youth.
it's amazing how much work was involved to make this appear the way it did on TV, but nowadays a computer can do all the work. I truly admire the creativeness and hard work of the people of the past having to work with less than we have today.
Thank you so much Gene, you interview is as valuable as the Galileo you created. Being a guy who owned a body shop back in 1970, I really feel your words regarding the sanding and priming and painting. Blessing to you, thanks for sharing your memories with us.
We're glad you were a part of it, too, Gene! Thank you! Whenever I did Star Trek first-person fanfic, I was usually a redshirt single-stripe looie named Jerry O'Neill, whose duty assignment was shuttlecraft pilot. Lt. O'Neill was a recurring ST:TOS background character who, unfortunately, nobody except myself ever noticed, he also did some transporter duty from time to time. ANYWAY: To fly your lovely little lighter around the Great White Lady would be *BEST DUTY ASSIGNMENT EVER* and while your "Tesseract" magic (the interior is larger than the exterior) is forgivable, your "Hot Car" magic is absolutely unforgivable!! You really make me want one of these! Probably terrible for the environment, wasteful of resources (meh, safer than the Transporter, according to McCoy) but beautiful, beautiful little boat, covet covet yum want one already
Gene Winfield thank you so much for all you did to make ST the amazing show it still is. I watched when it first hit the tv screen and I can tell you Star Trek was so far ahead of it's time, we were used to single camera motion, crappy sci fi monsters wrapped in tin foil and special effects. The fact they did the best they could while the whole time the studio cut their budget to nothing makes it even more amazing that people like Mr. Winfield stepped up and did things for free.
what an amazing story. And a very kewl and intelligent man, Gene! He is a star! I couldn't believe I found this story by accident. How amazing that it exists! thanks to whomever got this story!
Thanks for sharing Gene! We all knew as kids this stuff was "real" and it was not until adults told us that we would have to wait. But your skills and magic did make it real for a while. So nice to see you are still enjoying it as much as most of the fans are. Good life work, and I hope your life has been blessed accordingly.
A very enjoyable documentary, its wonderful to hear the story of this gentlemen with so much genuine pride in his work and appreciation for the people that love that work.
When I was 17 my then-boyfriend, Roger Heisman, had the Galileo sitting on his parents' lawn in Palos Verdes. Because it sat there in all weathers the ceiling was rotting away and there were a few black widow spiders living inside. He also had a shit-ton of Trek and other props.
Thanks for that fascinating explanation of the creation of the shuttle craft, I was hooked on every word from start to finish. Gene Winfield you are a gentleman and a creative genius.
When I was 14 or 15 I was proudly showing my brother a plastic model of the Tirpitz I had assembled. He dismissed it saying if I wanted to impress him then build something from scrap. So I took out my Starfleet Manual book and looked at the diagrams for the phaser. I spent the day with cardboard and balsa wood and paint. Pulled the top of a mustard bottle, etc. When I was done I had (and have ,40 odd years later) a beautiful phaser that breaks down into both type 1 and 2. And I'll never forget walking up to him with my hand behind my back till he noticed me, only to whip it out and point it at his chest. His expression was priceless. If I wasn't busy building a house right now I'd love to build a shuttlecraft!
I'm happy for you that what you participated in so long ago turned out to be so large and gave you such a place in entertainment history, that's awesome!
Yes, sir. You were a small part of an outstanding moment in entertainment history. Your small part was perfectly executed and when combined with the excellent work of others created a cultural touch stone that was far greater than the sum of it's parts.
I wish I had seen this last week. Last Sunday I saw Gene at the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, CA. He was there Linda Vaughn, Miss Hurst Golden Shifter from the mid 60's.
I remember seeing this shuttle in storage center in Bermuda Dunes, California, in the late 80s. Right off Interstate 10 at Washington & Varner Rd. I walked through it every time I happened to be there. It disappeared in the early 90s.
I’m a baby boomer and I watched Star Trek along with all the other programs that are in rerun heaven, when they first aired. Of course I never saw one episode of the Brady Bunch or the Partridge family or any of those shows because that came later. By then I was a teenager and I just didn’t care about those shows. That era was different when you grew up in it than the people today who look back on it. Another words like the latter-day beatle fans do not know what it’s like to have grown up with the Beatles or to live in Beatlemania. Same thing with Star Trek. Watching it was very different when it was on once a week, than daily. You’ll never know what it was like with all of these things were happening the music that was coming out in the 60s TV shows like the wild wild West, the avengers, my favorite Martian, and then towards the end of the decade all the pop art kind of things clothing etc. Of course there was a lot of horror going on to that was the race riots there was the Vietnam war there was what was called the generation gap. But out of all that turmoil there was this renaissance that seem to have started in 1956 and more less ran until 1969. In 1970 things started to change. You’re very familiar with every little nuance of Star Trek because you watch it every day and you see episodes repeatedly. Wasn’t like that in the 60s. Look at the first 10 episodes of Star Trek and figure that that was over two months of watching the series. Weekly! Imagine if you watched five of those shows and that’s all you knew about the series. Very different!
You have one million dollars worth of knowledge from a man who is still with us and could easily design and build another extra copy of what now is lost. Too bad we can't get together to recreate another ship
Yes. Only the last few seconds of the video discusses whee the Galileo is today. Should not have been in the title as that's not what the video is about.
Thank you so much for sharing a piece of our television heritage with the community and for the generations to come. How impressive is the ingenuity of this gentleman. Thank you, and Happy New Year, Ciao, L
we cant underestimate the impact of this series to the advance of science and technology nowdays .. it gave us the power to see the space exploration as necessary to our growth as living beings
STAR TREK is something to be preserved as mona lisa just because, as the Leonar's painting, star trek is inspiring and toutching for all generations, in every nations for all who believe in the future and the Grace of HUMAN BEING ....
At 1st I rolled my eyes and thought "OH, come on!" then I gave it some more thought. ST:TOS and NexGen had an inherent optimism to them that I really wish we had (have). There are so many tech breakthroughs directly inspired by engineers who grew up watching the shows that its impact on mankind* is really hard to fathom, let alone measure. So your comment went from an eye roll to a thumbs up. *=its a given with my generation that mankind embraces womankind so hold off on the automatic hating ;-)
From my reading, it was in a junkyard, set to be destroyed, and was purchased, and ended up in Akron Ohio. Have to get the correct spelling of the city in Ohio, please be patient with me on that.
Never knew Gene Winfield was involved in Star Trek, I sure know the man as a custom car builder. Nice that the Galileo didn't go to a scrap pile unnoticed.
I know exactly where the Galileo was in 1969-70. It was in the yard of the Foundation for the Junior Blind's campus in Los Angeles, on Angeles Vista Blvd. I know because when Star trek was cancelled, they loaded the Galileo full of props they no longer had a use for and donated them, and the Galileo TO the Foundation. I went to the director, Norman Kaplan, and told him "Look, this is a VALUABLE thing you have here. It needs to be preserved!" When I first saw the Galileo, it was lying either on the ground or on a trailer, I have forgotten which, but the chairs seen in this video were off their mounts and lying on the floor. Parts of the carpeting on the floor had been ripped or rolled back to expose the plywood underneath. Other props that were included were: The cloth from the Sickbay diagnostic beds, bolts of cloth from the costume department, several of the salt shakers used by Dr. McCoy, the "Givers of Pain and Delight" (the wrist bands of those were actually cut and painted tin cans!!), the Captain's Log (a three ring binder with little electric lights, and a Magic Screen kind of "screen" which was actually one of those old wax contraptions that you write on and then pull up the plastic sheet and the letters disappear.) several of the triangular styluses used on the Log, a bunch of cloth scraps, one very dilapidated phaser and the styrofoam "cubes" that crewmembers had been zapped into on one episode (today I'd say they looked like D&D dice). ALL OF THAT STUFF VANISHED almost immediately. I BEGGED Norm to allow me and my friends to rehab the Galileo and then sell it... no dice. he let the thing sit out in the rain, and tHAT is why it's so faded and patchy. It was mostly made of fiberglas and plastic and plywood, and it was NEVER intended to be outside in the elements. I am so VERY glad to know that it is now being FINALLY refurbished and returned to its former glory!
its a damned shame it got neglected for so long and deteriorated so badly. should have been kept up and in good shape the whole time, the general public is lucky we didnt lose this piece of film heritage.
You obviously don't know how Hollywood works... Most sets and models are NOT made to be preserved or exhibited in museums 50 years after the TV show or movie they were made for was shot! Most sets are built up quickly and torn down quickly. It is very unusual for any of these sets and props to be used for much longer than 5 years. They're generally not very durable. There have been fan reproductions of props and models that were much more durable than the originals! It's also very unusual to save large numbers of models or props from TV shows and movies. To begin with, where do you store these things and WHO's going to pay for the upkeep and regular maintenance of these things?!? They don't keep 11-foot models in storage for long unless they know they're going to be reused OR the study forgets they have models and props in storage (which happens more often than people think)! Most of what the Smithsonian Institution has as part of its museum collections is not even on display. According to a quick check, it's something like TWO PERCENT of the collection is only display because there simply isn't even museum space to exhibit and at least half the stuff in storage in warehouses around the country has to be restored! Again, restoration takes money and who's going to pay for it when there are a million other things that have higher priority than a pop culture TV series?!?
@@AvengerII Not to mention, the people that run studios don't see them as artifacts. They look at them like disposable tools, nothing more. Then, you have filmmakers who have sets and props destroyed on purpose so they don't wind up being used in low budget crap films. Stanley Kubrick had the models and most everything built for "2001" destroyed for just that reason. Michael Landon had the "Little House on the Prairie" set blown up, and even shot their last episode around it. He did it because he was worried it would wind up being used in slasher flicks. Still, I hope more artifacts like this are preserved.
Actually the shuttlecraft and props' FIRST owner after the studio, was Norman Kaplan of the Foundation for the Junior Blind in Los Angeles. See my comment elsewhere for details. Basically I was the ONLY one who actually RECOGNIZED (at the time) the VALUE of the Galileo. I was ignored. Seeing this video, however, I feel vindicated.
Great video. My feelings of nostalgia of watching Star Trek reruns late at night after bar time back in the 1970's, having an English muffin with peanut butter and cream cheese with orange juice gives me great pleasure.
A friend's father in college (1975) from LA told me that a guy bought it off the lot in an auction and put it on his front lawn, which his neighbors hated because the paint was peeling.
Yikes -- so many components to make this shuttle viable and usable for filming! Thank you for your fascinating leccture on how you created the Galileo.
Gene Winfield is a smart guy and a nice guy, swing by his auto restoration place on sierra highway outside Mojave and you will see, the man is his own kind of genius..
I was at that auction, and yes, was bidding on it. Don't regret for a minute loosing that one, I didn't have the time to work on it and would have stored it away till I retired (this year in fact). I'm glad it went to a good home, and when it's done, I'll take a trip out and see it. Till then I'll be working on the BSG Viper I did get years ago :)
I remember seeing the Galileo in Long beach at someone's lot, when I was a little kid some time in the early 80s; i don't remember exactly. I wasn't even into Star Trek back then (musta been like 8yo) but I knew what it was the moment I saw it. I was compelled to go out side into the lot and walk around it, it wasn't protected out side at all, exposed to everything. But it wasn't in a pile with other junk it was in it's own place next to other stuff.
I thought (at the time the show was first broadcast) that the exterior looked OK but the interior looked cheap and non-functional. I appreciate that budget constraints were undoubtedly a factor determining the set design. Likewise, their spacesuit design was terrible . . .
Great info here, I was a Trekkie from way back in the 60’s. My desk in school was decked out with crayon colored buttons I made my self. To me my desk was a pilot seat aboard the Enterprise. LOL!!!
So cool! I'd like to hear more stories like this, it's scifi history now, interesting to know. Fascinating too, how they had to use their creativity to overcome budget problems and lack of available technology and the clever ways they solved these problems. Great video! LLAP
I believe it was 1992-93, A friend of mine and I found The Galileo in A U-Haul Storage lot in Palm Desert, Calif. Off the 10 freeway on Washington Street. We were able to get a tour and go inside. Funny that I don't see the tiny back room in the restoration. The owner was trying to do some restoration, bragged about using salad bowl for the warp nacelles. I have exterior and interior photos of the shuttle.
Endeavor was already part of the fleet. There were 5 shuttles in the purchase program .. Columbia, Challenger, Endeavor, Atlantis, Discovery and of course the non flying test bed ...Enterprise of which only 3 that flew into orbit remain - Endeavor, Atlantis and Discovery.
The shuttlecraft was completely restored and put on display at the 20th anniversary of Star Trek convention at the Disneyland hotel in 1986. At the time it was owned by someone in Palm Springs, Ca and I took photos of it before and after the restoration which I have in my Ebay store. He sold it to someone in Ohio in he early 1990s who stored it outdoors and it all but disintegrated in the harsh northern winter weather so that it had to be completely restored AGAIN! If it had been stored properly indoors in a warehouse in Ohio it would not have had to undergo a second restoration.
I'd like to see it in person. That'd be cool. The original Enterprise bridge is in the Hollywood Museum on the strip. I got to sit in Capt Kirk's chair! A thrill after growing up watching the original series! We all got to "beam out" to the next part of the tour. They also have Gort from The Day The Earth Stood Still. It's the prop one that stood next to the ramp when he wasn't required to move.
See also a design from the early sixties called "Dyna-Soar", (Boeing X-20). It was a "lifting body" design that looks somewhat like the eventual Shuttle.
" Gene Winfield" Kados to Gene, half my life was Star Trek and that transport was something I would have made, except skill and money would not have made it as well... Thanks for the video..
I have met Gene at car shows. What a talented builder. Did not realize he had a hand in Star Trek. I have watch Star Trek since it started in mid 1960s.
Thank you Gene.
I was at that Star Trek Convention in Ohio where you showed up after being contacted by the gal who (at the time) owned it. We were both members of "Starfleet, The International Star Trek Fan Club", which was broken down into various chapters all over the world. Our Chapter, the USS LaGrange, based in Akron, OH., did that convention you attended. The gal who owned it then (I won't mention her name) was having financial difficulties raising the amount of money needed to fully restore it, which had been her plan. For a long time, it sat, covered up, in an airplane hanger in Akron, OH. I'm glad that she finally sold it to people who have the desire to rebuild it to its former glory, and perhaps get it into the Smithsonian museum.
Galileo 7 was always one of my favorite episodes. Gene as a life long Trek fan I thank you for building her
Wow, Gene Winfield, what a lovely guy! Thanks so much for taking the time to tell us about the Galileo. Cheers.
I walked into the Houston Space Center Museum and I was so pleasantly surprised to see the Galileo Shuttlecraft sitting right in front of me. I had seen this video so I knew it was restored, but I was shocked to be able to walk right up to a sci-fi masterpiece!
It's up in Ticonderoga New York now.
These were the true creators of si-fi. All hand made, hard work, and a lot of imagination. No computers making it easy. Good stuff, good times. Thank you for posting a large piece of my youth.
guys like him are the real stars of star trek
Yeah. Die hard fans and believers
I saw it on the 78 freeway in Vista CA. 1980 to 1984. Blew my mind. Almost jumped out of my car.
I've had a Galileo Christmas tree ornament for almost 30 years. The design was beautiful!!!
it's amazing how much work was involved to make this appear the way it did on TV, but nowadays a computer can do all the work. I truly admire the creativeness and hard work of the people of the past having to work with less than we have today.
Thank you so much Gene, you interview is as valuable as the Galileo you created. Being a guy who owned a body shop back in 1970, I really feel your words regarding the sanding and priming and painting. Blessing to you, thanks for sharing your memories with us.
Movie props like this are what I would expect to see at a place like Universal Studios.
Just to be clear, We are all glad you were a part of it too!!
This guy is such a wonderful storyteller. I could listen to him all day.
Appreciate your comment,. I scrolled down just to see if anyone in the entire comment thread was sane, and you restored my faith in humankind. Thanks!
Glad to see that this piece of memorabilia isn't lost. Great story!
Very interesting! And I'm so glad that they used this Galileo to film our fearless crew both inside and out.
We're glad you were a part of it, too, Gene! Thank you! Whenever I did Star Trek first-person fanfic, I was usually a redshirt single-stripe looie named Jerry O'Neill, whose duty assignment was shuttlecraft pilot. Lt. O'Neill was a recurring ST:TOS background character who, unfortunately, nobody except myself ever noticed, he also did some transporter duty from time to time. ANYWAY: To fly your lovely little lighter around the Great White Lady would be *BEST DUTY ASSIGNMENT EVER* and while your "Tesseract" magic (the interior is larger than the exterior) is forgivable, your "Hot Car" magic is absolutely unforgivable!! You really make me want one of these! Probably terrible for the environment, wasteful of resources (meh, safer than the Transporter, according to McCoy) but beautiful, beautiful little boat, covet covet yum want one already
Gene Winfield thank you so much for all you did to make ST the amazing show it still is. I watched when it first hit the tv screen and I can tell you Star Trek was so far ahead of it's time, we were used to single camera motion, crappy sci fi monsters wrapped in tin foil and special effects. The fact they did the best they could while the whole time the studio cut their budget to nothing makes it even more amazing that people like Mr. Winfield stepped up and did things for free.
what an amazing story. And a very kewl and intelligent man, Gene! He is a star!
I couldn't believe I found this story by accident. How amazing that it exists!
thanks to whomever got this story!
Thanks for sharing Gene! We all knew as kids this stuff was "real" and it was not until adults told us that we would have to wait. But your skills and magic did make it real for a while. So nice to see you are still enjoying it as much as most of the fans are. Good life work, and I hope your life has been blessed accordingly.
I just saw the Galileo spacecraft sitting in the visitor center at Space Center Houston, NASA. :) Had no idea it was there!
A very enjoyable documentary, its wonderful to hear the story of this gentlemen with so much genuine pride in his work and appreciation for the people that love that work.
When I was 17 my then-boyfriend, Roger Heisman, had the Galileo sitting on his parents' lawn in Palos Verdes. Because it sat there in all weathers the ceiling was rotting away and there were a few black widow spiders living inside. He also had a shit-ton of Trek and other props.
Thanks for that fascinating explanation of the creation of the shuttle craft, I was hooked on every word from start to finish. Gene Winfield you are a gentleman and a creative genius.
When I was 14 or 15 I was proudly showing my brother a plastic model of the Tirpitz I had assembled. He dismissed it saying if I wanted to impress him then build something from scrap. So I took out my Starfleet Manual book and looked at the diagrams for the phaser. I spent the day with cardboard and balsa wood and paint. Pulled the top of a mustard bottle, etc. When I was done I had (and have ,40 odd years later) a beautiful phaser that breaks down into both type 1 and 2. And I'll never forget walking up to him with my hand behind my back till he noticed me, only to whip it out and point it at his chest. His expression was priceless.
If I wasn't busy building a house right now I'd love to build a shuttlecraft!
I'm happy for you that what you participated in so long ago turned out to be so large and gave you such a place in entertainment history, that's awesome!
Yes, sir. You were a small part of an outstanding moment in entertainment history. Your small part was perfectly executed and when combined with the excellent work of others created a cultural touch stone that was far greater than the sum of it's parts.
Watching this gave me a huge geekgasm. I am spent. Thanks for the upload!
Amazing history....
Very happy that the old girl was salvaged and restored.
I wish I had seen this last week. Last Sunday I saw Gene at the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, CA. He was there Linda Vaughn, Miss Hurst Golden Shifter from the mid 60's.
I remember seeing this shuttle in storage center in Bermuda Dunes, California, in the late 80s. Right off Interstate 10 at Washington & Varner Rd. I walked through it every time I happened to be there. It disappeared in the early 90s.
Absolutely amazing! Thank you Gene for your ingenuity and craftsmanship. You are a part of my history and I hope I get to see the Galileo one day.
I saw this Spaceship at Space Center Houston in 2018. At that time it was in the cafeteria.
Thanks Gene - a critical addition in the ST universe! It is as iconic as they come.
I’m a baby boomer and I watched Star Trek along with all the other programs that are in rerun heaven, when they first aired. Of course I never saw one episode of the Brady Bunch or the Partridge family or any of those shows because that came later. By then I was a teenager and I just didn’t care about those shows. That era was different when you grew up in it than the people today who look back on it. Another words like the latter-day beatle fans do not know what it’s like to have grown up with the Beatles or to live in Beatlemania. Same thing with Star Trek. Watching it was very different when it was on once a week, than daily.
You’ll never know what it was like with all of these things were happening the music that was coming out in the 60s TV shows like the wild wild West, the avengers, my favorite Martian, and then towards the end of the decade all the pop art kind of things clothing etc. Of course there was a lot of horror going on to that was the race riots there was the Vietnam war there was what was called the generation gap. But out of all that turmoil there was this renaissance that seem to have started in 1956 and more less ran until 1969. In 1970 things started to change.
You’re very familiar with every little nuance of Star Trek because you watch it every day and you see episodes repeatedly. Wasn’t like that in the 60s. Look at the first 10 episodes of Star Trek and figure that that was over two months of watching the series. Weekly! Imagine if you watched five of those shows and that’s all you knew about the series. Very different!
You have one million dollars worth of knowledge from a man who is still with us and could easily design and build another extra copy of what now is lost. Too bad we can't get together to recreate another ship
Fantastic interview...loved the Galileo..wonderful imagination and workmanship.
Man this guy had the coolest job doing this.
14 minutes of Star Trek memories and 1 1/2 minutes of where is it now...
A more accurate title could've been "The Making of the Galileo".
All kind - of : Nobs *R > G*
Yes. Only the last few seconds of the video discusses whee the Galileo is today. Should not have been in the title as that's not what the video is about.
Thank you so much for sharing a piece of our television heritage with the community and for the generations to come. How impressive is the ingenuity of this gentleman. Thank you, and Happy New Year, Ciao, L
we cant underestimate the impact of this series to the advance of science and technology nowdays .. it gave us the power to see the space exploration as necessary to our growth as living beings
STAR TREK is something to be preserved as mona lisa just because, as the Leonar's painting, star trek is inspiring and toutching for all generations, in every nations for all who believe in the future and the Grace of HUMAN BEING ....
At 1st I rolled my eyes and thought "OH, come on!" then I gave it some more thought. ST:TOS and NexGen had an inherent optimism to them that I really wish we had (have). There are so many tech breakthroughs directly inspired by engineers who grew up watching the shows that its impact on mankind* is really hard to fathom, let alone measure. So your comment went from an eye roll to a thumbs up. *=its a given with my generation that mankind embraces womankind so hold off on the automatic hating ;-)
I saw it in the NASA Museum in Houston last year. It was in the lunch room for some reason. :)
It looks beautiful!
Trescued brought 2 nj boatyard. Nearly lost 2 superstorm. Sandy 2012
A great piece! Too bad they had no idea what they had at the time, but luckily the buyer was able to trace back the history. Amazing!
From my reading, it was in a junkyard, set to be destroyed, and was purchased, and ended up in Akron Ohio. Have to get the correct spelling of the city in Ohio, please be patient with me on that.
Never knew Gene Winfield was involved in Star Trek, I sure know the man as a custom car builder. Nice that the Galileo didn't go to a scrap pile unnoticed.
I know exactly where the Galileo was in 1969-70. It was in the yard of the Foundation for the Junior Blind's campus in Los Angeles, on Angeles Vista Blvd.
I know because when Star trek was cancelled, they loaded the Galileo full of props they no longer had a use for and donated them, and the Galileo TO the Foundation.
I went to the director, Norman Kaplan, and told him "Look, this is a VALUABLE thing you have here. It needs to be preserved!" When I first saw the Galileo, it was lying either on the ground or on a trailer, I have forgotten which, but the chairs seen in this video were off their mounts and lying on the floor. Parts of the carpeting on the floor had been ripped or rolled back to expose the plywood underneath. Other props that were included were: The cloth from the Sickbay diagnostic beds, bolts of cloth from the costume department, several of the salt shakers used by Dr. McCoy, the "Givers of Pain and Delight" (the wrist bands of those were actually cut and painted tin cans!!), the Captain's Log (a three ring binder with little electric lights, and a Magic Screen kind of "screen" which was actually one of those old wax contraptions that you write on and then pull up the plastic sheet and the letters disappear.) several of the triangular styluses used on the Log, a bunch of cloth scraps, one very dilapidated phaser and the styrofoam "cubes" that crewmembers had been zapped into on one episode (today I'd say they looked like D&D dice).
ALL OF THAT STUFF VANISHED almost immediately. I BEGGED Norm to allow me and my friends to rehab the Galileo and then sell it... no dice. he let the thing sit out in the rain, and tHAT is why it's so faded and patchy. It was mostly made of fiberglas and plastic and plywood, and it was NEVER intended to be outside in the elements.
I am so VERY glad to know that it is now being FINALLY refurbished and returned to its former glory!
30 days to build and no money , i say he did amazing job- its privilege to work on projects like that
Thanks for the memories Gene.
its a damned shame it got neglected for so long and deteriorated so badly. should have been kept up and in good shape the whole time, the general public is lucky we didnt lose this piece of film heritage.
Fixt100 should have gone to The Smithsonian where the Enterprise is now under glass.
It's in houston at the JSC
After all of that and the studio let the craft rot? Insane!
You obviously don't know how Hollywood works...
Most sets and models are NOT made to be preserved or exhibited in museums 50 years after the TV show or movie they were made for was shot! Most sets are built up quickly and torn down quickly. It is very unusual for any of these sets and props to be used for much longer than 5 years. They're generally not very durable. There have been fan reproductions of props and models that were much more durable than the originals!
It's also very unusual to save large numbers of models or props from TV shows and movies. To begin with, where do you store these things and WHO's going to pay for the upkeep and regular maintenance of these things?!?
They don't keep 11-foot models in storage for long unless they know they're going to be reused OR the study forgets they have models and props in storage (which happens more often than people think)!
Most of what the Smithsonian Institution has as part of its museum collections is not even on display. According to a quick check, it's something like TWO PERCENT of the collection is only display because there simply isn't even museum space to exhibit and at least half the stuff in storage in warehouses around the country has to be restored! Again, restoration takes money and who's going to pay for it when there are a million other things that have higher priority than a pop culture TV series?!?
@@AvengerII Not to mention, the people that run studios don't see them as artifacts. They look at them like disposable tools, nothing more. Then, you have filmmakers who have sets and props destroyed on purpose so they don't wind up being used in low budget crap films. Stanley Kubrick had the models and most everything built for "2001" destroyed for just that reason. Michael Landon had the "Little House on the Prairie" set blown up, and even shot their last episode around it. He did it because he was worried it would wind up being used in slasher flicks. Still, I hope more artifacts like this are preserved.
Actually the shuttlecraft and props' FIRST owner after the studio, was Norman Kaplan of the Foundation for the Junior Blind in Los Angeles. See my comment elsewhere for details. Basically I was the ONLY one who actually RECOGNIZED (at the time) the VALUE of the Galileo. I was ignored. Seeing this video, however, I feel vindicated.
Fantastic concept. Beautiful shuttle design.
wow what a great guy,, he did a great job on that,, a real craftsman,, in less then 30 days to,, so the ford pinto of space shuttles was born.
What a wonderful video and he is such a nice humble man! I am glad that the Galileo 7 is being restored!
I still have my First Plastic Model Kit of the Shuttlecraft " Galileo ". I Built that in Summer 1974 when I was a Little Kid.
Thank you---I love these types of historical videos!
Located at the NASA Space Museum in Houston
SDLively at the moment it’s at the intrepid in NYC
Great video. My feelings of nostalgia of watching Star Trek reruns late at night after bar time back in the 1970's, having an English muffin with peanut butter and cream cheese with orange juice gives me great pleasure.
I am a star trek fan but I don't buy any props or build a room full of items, I just enjoy the episodes.
To a Star Trek fan this is cool, to everyone else not so big.
A friend's father in college (1975) from LA told me that a guy bought it off the lot in an auction and put it on his front lawn, which his neighbors hated because the paint was peeling.
Fascinating.
Yikes -- so many components to make this shuttle viable and usable for filming! Thank you for your fascinating leccture on how you created the Galileo.
This would make a great museum display for TV or Air & Space ! :-)
yeah just watched the Galileo 7 episode again yesterday. The Menagerie also is a good shuttle scene on film. Great design, timeless!!
The future... and it's still lit by incandescent light bulbs! Gotta love it.
Thank you ! Wow , we learn everyday, i had no Idea how it was built or what had happened to the Galileo ! Fascinating !
Gene Winfield is a smart guy and a nice guy, swing by his auto restoration place on sierra highway outside Mojave and you will see, the man is his own kind of genius..
I was at that auction, and yes, was bidding on it. Don't regret for a minute loosing that one, I didn't have the time to work on it and would have stored it away till I retired (this year in fact). I'm glad it went to a good home, and when it's done, I'll take a trip out and see it.
Till then I'll be working on the BSG Viper I did get years ago :)
I remember seeing the Galileo in Long beach at someone's lot, when I was a little kid some time in the early 80s; i don't remember exactly. I wasn't even into Star Trek back then (musta been like 8yo) but I knew what it was the moment I saw it. I was compelled to go out side into the lot and walk around it, it wasn't protected out side at all, exposed to everything. But it wasn't in a pile with other junk it was in it's own place next to other stuff.
GREAT video by the way - well produced, entertaining and informative. It was a curiosity I didn't even realized I had...
I always loved the simple, clean design of the Galileo and now I know it largely came from a schedule constraint.
I thought (at the time the show was first broadcast) that the exterior looked OK but the interior looked cheap and non-functional. I appreciate that budget constraints were undoubtedly a factor determining the set design. Likewise, their spacesuit design was terrible . . .
For 1960s technology that was really good. He sounds like a nice chap someone you would want as a friend.
This Video should be Put onto a Blu-Ray Edition of the Original Series.
Am glad I lived in star trek era
Great info here, I was a Trekkie from way back in the 60’s. My desk in school was decked out with crayon colored buttons I made my self. To me my desk was a pilot seat aboard the Enterprise. LOL!!!
Fascinating! Just wouldnt happen like this today.
Very freakin cool. I believe it is accurate to say, "YOU the man!" Thanks for the memories.
What a great story,thank you for sharing it.
Love it. I always wondered what happened to the shuttle craft.
Thanks a lot for uploading this terrific video. I loved every second of it. LLAP
Outstanding job, Gene. Thank you!
So cool! I'd like to hear more stories like this, it's scifi history now, interesting to know. Fascinating too, how they had to use their creativity to overcome budget problems and lack of available technology and the clever ways they solved these problems. Great video! LLAP
Some fascinating trivia I was not aware of until now.
I believe it was 1992-93, A friend of mine and I found The Galileo in A U-Haul Storage lot in Palm Desert, Calif. Off the 10 freeway on Washington Street. We were able to get a tour and go inside. Funny that I don't see the tiny back room in the restoration.
The owner was trying to do some restoration, bragged about using salad bowl for the warp nacelles. I have exterior and interior photos of the shuttle.
The narrator forgot about Endeavor, which replaced Challenger in the fleet.
Endeavor was already part of the fleet. There were 5 shuttles in the purchase program .. Columbia, Challenger, Endeavor, Atlantis, Discovery and of course the non flying test bed ...Enterprise of which only 3 that flew into orbit remain - Endeavor, Atlantis and Discovery.
Jornadas nas Estrelas e Perdidos no Espaço eram as minhas séries preferidas. Abraço! Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Such a shame this iconic work of art was neglected and abandoned to decay. I would love to see her after she is restored to her former glory!
Galileo was fully restored way back in 2013. She is now on display at Space Center Houston (Johnson Spaceflight Center, Houston, TX).
Fascinating. Gene Winfield, what a cool guy.
This was in storage @ 1000 Palms CA , in the 80's. I know I had the storge next to it.
Gene Winfield's left hand looks like the hand on the cover of Dokken's Tooth and Nail. All kidding aside, this was a great video.
Awesome, love it. I always wondered what happened to some of those old props. Thanks for posting!
It's nice that these fans with money restore props like this. Trek was always my favorite show as a kid back then.
The shuttlecraft was completely restored and put on display at the 20th anniversary of Star Trek convention at the Disneyland hotel in 1986. At the time it was owned by someone in Palm Springs, Ca and I took photos of it before and after the restoration which I have in my Ebay store. He sold it to someone in Ohio in he early 1990s who stored it outdoors and it all but disintegrated in the harsh northern winter weather so that it had to be completely restored AGAIN! If it had been stored properly indoors in a warehouse in Ohio it would not have had to undergo a second restoration.
I'd like to see it in person. That'd be cool. The original Enterprise bridge is in the Hollywood Museum on the strip. I got to sit in Capt Kirk's chair! A thrill after growing up watching the original series! We all got to "beam out" to the next part of the tour. They also have Gort from The Day The Earth Stood Still. It's the prop one that stood next to the ramp when he wasn't required to move.
See also a design from the early sixties called "Dyna-Soar", (Boeing X-20).
It was a "lifting body" design that looks somewhat like the eventual Shuttle.
So nice work, so much work, and so interesting. Moore of these, please.
" Gene Winfield" Kados to Gene, half my life was Star Trek and that transport was something I would have made, except skill and money would not have made it as well... Thanks for the video..
As of May 2016, the Galileo is in the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, Space Shuttle Pavillion in NY City