The obituaries for Nichelle Nichols, who died late last week at age 89, naturally headlined her historic role as Lt. Uhura on the original “Star Trek,” and admirably highlighted her long, fruitful relationship with NASA. But only the longest obituaries mentioned her career pre-“Star Trek,” when she toured as a singer with both Lionel Hampton and Duke Ellington.
She did much of her early acting in musicals. She met Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry when she guested on his forgotten first TV series, “The Lieutenant,” and they became romantically involved for several years (though it supposedly ended before “Star Trek” began, she was caught naked in Roddenberry’s office on at least two occasions).
In short, while William Shatner and Leonard Nimony released LPs that are laughingstocks to this day, Nichols had the bona fides for an actual career as a cabaret singer. She released a few LPs over the years, most notably “Down to Earth” in 1967 and “Out of This World” in 1995. This double-entendre-stuffed song was recorded before the rest of “Down to Earth” and released as a single in 1967.
Roddenberry took advantage of her vocal talents a couple of times on “Star Trek,” as when she serenaded an isolated crewman with “Beyond Antares.” It, too, was released as a single, but not until 1979.
