NCC-1701 Enterprise – from sports cars and dune buggies to starships

From left: Vern Sion, Mel Keys, Volmer Jensen (owner of the Production Models Shop)

You’d have to be a real Trekker to know that the original Enterprise (”No bloody A, B, C, or D!”) model, the 11-footer used for shots in the original series, emerged from the Production Models Shop on Providencia Avenue in Burbank, California, on December 29, 1964. Based on a design by Matt Jefferies and an earlier three-foot proof-of-concept model by the Howard Anderson Company, the construction of the 225-pound model was contracted to Richard Datin, who subcontracted it to Volmer Jensen, Mel Keys and Vern Sion, mostly using wood, sheet metal rolled into tubes (the nacelles) and vacuum-formed plastic (the saucer).

Yet what most Trekkers don’t know (and probably don’t much care) is that Mel Keys, the young man in the button-down shirt in the center of the above photo (and to the far right in this photo on the Eavesdropping with Johnny blog), had an earlier claim to fame in the sports car world as a builder at Victress, one of the better known fiberglass sports cars of the 1950s.

Victress S-1A roadster

In fact, Mel’s career started where many automotive design wonders got their start, at the Art Center College of Design in the years 1954 to 1957, when it was still located on West Third Street in Los Angeles. William Boyce-Smith, who founded Victress, employed the talents of another couple of Art Center graduates, Merrill Powell and Hugh Jorgensen.

That’s how I got on at Victress, thru Hugh. I didn’t really work on their payroll: I helped do some of their prototype work and got paid in Victress dollars. I mostly worked on the plug for the C-3 coupe… Merrill and Doc let me work on my C-3 in the back of their plant. I never did finish it…

Mel Keys on the left with two part-time workers at Production Models Shop

After Victress, Mel started a company called Fibercraft to produce fiberglass-bodied cars, then in 1963 Mel went to Production Models, owned by Volmer Jensen, whose daughter Mel would marry.

I worked for Production Models Shop from the first part of 1963 to the middle of 1974. We very rarely got work from the studios; most of the models we built were for people like inventors or others that needed a model of a product they were trying to promote. I really enjoyed that kind of work because we never did the same thing twice.

In that time – around late 1970 or early 1971 – in his garage at home, Mel worked on a fiberglass dune buggy project for about three months with an assistant, Brian Dries. That dune buggy would later go on to become known as the Bounty Hunter, one of the few dune buggies that didn’t directly knock off Bruce Meyers’ Manx.

True to the fiberglass tradition, I designed it and he made one body for himself and made two small changes to my design and then went into business for himself. I never got a mention as being the designer, but I have pictures of the prototype, so if I wanted to I could prove who really designed it. Lately I have been thinking of doing that just to set the records straight. I don’t think anyone would care, though.

We’d like to get in touch with Brian Dries to get his side of the story, but haven’t had any success in locating him. Brian, if you’re out there, shoot us an email.

Back to Mel’s story, Volmer Jensen wanted to retire in 1974, so Mel went on to Carl Newell Mfg. in Glendale, where he designed a line of ocean fishing reels. In 1997, Mel retired to Lake Charles, Louisiana, where he actually still has the molds from his Fibercraft venture.

Interesting aside: The original primer for the 11-foot Enterprise model was reportedly Ford truck gray. Who else but a car guy would use Ford primers for a futuristic starship?

Thanks to Geoff Hacker for the info and the photos!