Starships & Friendships

Rebecca: What about you, Herb? Herb: Home is where Harrison is. Harrison: Well, that’s the best definition. Starships & The two of us are a tribe. Rebecca: I want to switch gears to Star Trek, specifically Leonard Nimoy. Can you Friendships tell us something special about him? Herb: I’ll answer that, because I know Har- rison won’t. Hopefully, she’ll give you per- mission to use my answer: The Inner World of Star Trek Probably the best kept secret in the Star Trek world (a hard world in which to keep with Herb and Harrison Solow a secret) is the relationship between Harrison and Leonard. Quite simply, he adored her. He confessed to me that he was a little in awe of her—he found her intelligence formidable—and her heart a refuge. She was his confidante. He talked REBECCA EVANS, INTERVIEWER to her about deeply personal things—reli- gion, spirituality, his feelings, old wounds, Publicity for Herb Solow’s Documentary of new interests —a couple of relationships that troubled him. Elvis Presley: Elvis: That’s the Way It Is. Whenever he hadn’t heard from her for a time, he’d email or Idaho draws culture and is built on beauty and hidden treasures. I recently had the phone and say “Harrison, where are you? I need you.” Only he opportunity to conduct an interview tucked away near the Greenbelt. I felt as if I I have two sons in California and a stepson in Can- didn’t call her Harrison. He had a special name for her. It’s up entered a hidden passage as I sat in the Idaho home of the former Head of MGM Harrison: ada. And their families, of course. Herb has a daughter back to her if she would like to tell what it was. Studios, Paramount Television, and Desilu Studios, Herbert Solow and his wife, Dr. East. We each have a few cousins and I have one aunt. That’s Harrison Solow, Pushcart Prize recipi- Harrison: (smiling) No, she wouldn’t. all. ent, Literature, Theology, and Writing Herb: He had complete, and completely justified, trust in her. Professor, Author, Star Trek Authority, Rebecca: What do you like best about Idaho? former nun, and true polymath. To be Harrison: It was mutual. Herb: Peace and quiet. The natural beauty of the woods and clear, Herb is the man responsible for rivers and hills. Very western. Herb: The three of us were very close, but his bond with Har- developing and launching Star Trek and rison was extraordinary. It was reverent. These aren’t words I Yes, it feels like the real West. Like the one I grew other iconic television shows and mov- Harrison: use often, but I’d say it was spiritual or mystical. What some up in. I also like the winters. Most people who live in more ies into the world. people call soul-mates. They called it “the holy bonds of than one place go south for the winter. We’re the opposite. Yes, we are in Idaho and the encounter friendship.” I’d known Leonard for almost 50 years when he The autumns, of course, are just as beautiful. Also, there are feels both other-worldly and magical. died, ever since I hired him for Star Trek in 1964. Gene Rod- so many well-mannered people and very kind people (which The synergy between Herb and Harri- denberry first suggested Leonard to me and when I evaluated are not always the same thing) and that’s delightful. It is very son is magnetic. Yet I can’t help won- him, in addition to several other actors, for the part of Spock, peaceful, as Herb says. der, why Idaho? So, I ask. I thought he had something special – he wouldn’t just play Rebecca: I know you’ve both lived in many different cultures Spock, he would be Spock – so I told my business affairs per- Your primary home is in Cal- Rebecca: and countries both before you were married and after. Can son to have Leonard’s agent call me. And that was the begin- ifornia but you also live here, in Idaho, you each share with me your concept of “home”? ning of a legend. part time. Do you have family here? Harrison: I think I can answer that most fully with a quote from When Leonard met Harrison almost 30 years later—a few years Yes. My mother lives here. Harrison: something I wrote about Wales: before she and I met—I hadn’t seen him for quite a long time. I’ve been coming here for visits since We were both in our in early sixties. Harrison was a generation 1989 when the area was far more rural. “We all belong to tribes. Some are of our own choosing, some younger, but an old soul, and as Leonard described it, they When Herb and I returned from the UK we are born into, and some we create. This is the story of “recognized” each other instantly. in 2010, we wanted to find a sort of writ- the last stop on a pilgrimage, in a history of tribal migration ing retreat, a place I could work on PhD – from the sugar plantations of Hawaii, to an early precocity From my point of view, Harrison and Leonard were very much thesis and books and Herb could write in the cultural urbanity of San Francisco, within the canonical alike- intense, cerebral, reserved, joyful. sophistication of a classical Jesuit education, into the heady his memoirs and a second book, while Rebecca: Why a secret? still able to return home for meetings, freedom of convent life and out into the tight restrictive en- screenings and projects. Since my par- closure of English expatriate society in Canada, far back along Herb: Leonard was one of the most recognized people on the Star Trek ents were here and we’d been overseas Herb Solow and Dr Harrison the wild shores of Nova Scotia, right through the center of planet. More than any of the actors, he had been a long time, we decided to try to live here for a portion of the year. We found an Hollywood, into the living, breathing organism of Chassidism scrutinized, invaded, pursued, etc. since 1966. People wanted Solow in their Idaho retreat. enchanting place along the Greenbelt and were delighted with the quiet, the pri- and out again. And deep into the heart of Wales. to know everything about his life. Everyone wanted a piece of vacy, and this little house. That was nine years ago. I no longer belong to any one tribe. I am what my friend calls him. But he was a very private person and it was extremely dif- a ‘floater’ and what my novice mistress once called a pilgrim. ficult for him. I remember, as a young actor, he found it almost Do you have any other family? Rebecca: This I choose.” impossible to handle. He used to come see me about it, very troubled. Over the years, he managed to cope very well. But So, home is everywhere? Rebecca: he said his bond with Harrison was the one relationship in his Harrison: Everywhere and nowhere. life that was completely his, not part of his public life. It was sacred to him. He kept it from everyone, even Bill, though one 26 27 Head of Desilu Studios and Executive in Charge Forty years later … two dear friends. Leonard Nimoy and Herb Solow Herb Solow on the Greenbelt near Harrison & Herb Solow on the way Leonard Nimoy and Harrison Solow: “the best of Production of Star Trek, Herbert F. Solow watching their beloved Harrison the Solows’ Idaho retreat. to the Academy Awards. kept secret in the Star Trek world” - Herb Solow and his new actor, Leonard Nimoy at on stage at a Hollywood event. a Studio Birthday Party for Herb. other friend knew about it. I also think he wanted to protect sound like a compliment. I used to hear it all the time among Rebecca: Can you talk about the first time Herb and you met? hero of a story/movie. Because of that, I don’t relate to the Harrison’s privacy. Our privacy. our director, producer, and exec friends describing certain word in the same way that Harrison does. I see actors playing Harrison: Ah. That was an explosive certainty. Within three actors. It seemed such a dull remark. But after living with a hero roles. To answer your question though, I’d say that we all So, we agreed to keep it private as long as he lived. Har- months, we were together for life. But first we engaged in a studio exec/producer/director for over a quarter century, I have people we admire but “hero” is a burdensome title to rison still hasn’t spoken about him publicly, four years after huge argument within five minutes of our introduction. can tell you that that’s about the highest compliment they can saddle anyone with. No one’s a hero all the time. I think most his death. Until recently, she never even told her sons. That’s give. It means everything to directors, producers, and studio Rebecca: What about? people can be heroic at times, in certain circumstances, some the extent to which she is trustworthy, because her sons are executives to have a reliable actor. It means to them that he maybe even most of the time in their lives. But, like Harrison, everything to her. Herb and Harrison: Star Trek. or she can be depended on for excellence.

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