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| - The actual origins of the company and its original merchandise are somewhat shrouded in lore. Bjo Trimble has stated in 2004, "Actually, John & Bjo Trimble set up the original Lincoln Enterprises. Neither Gene nor Majel had any idea how to set up a mail-order business, while the Trimbles have put together several such businesses. At Creation Grand Slam, Eugene Roddenberry acknowledged our efforts with a big hug & thanks. He is very like his father, who also believed in big bear hugs" [1](X), having added to former Desilu Studios executive Herbert F. Solow that Roddenberry founded the company in order to "...give Majel something to do." (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, 1997, p. 400) At a later point in time, Trimble has additionally stated, "John and I not only started Lincoln Enterprises for Gene, but we talked him into it. Nobody in Hollywood (in those bygone days) believed that a sales franchise could be built around, of all things, a TV show! Ha!," adding that an initial free dissemination of the below-mentioned, hugely popular, film clippings at a small local convention became the convincing factor for Roddenberry to proceed, "Gene saw that the fans really, really wanted these things that industry people generally threw away." [2] Reaffirming the statement she gave to Solow in 1997, Trimble already conceded in 1999 that, contrary to the relationship the couple had with Gene Roddenberry, theirs was a troubled one in regard to future wife Majel, "John and I set up Star Trek (now Lincoln) Enterprises for Gene, only to find that he really wanted to turn it over to his new wife, Majel. We ran several small mail-order businesses prior to setting up ST Enterprises, but always failed due to lack of money to advertise widely. Majel had no business experience, so we left and she took over, the business never really took off as it should have." [3] Still, Gene Roddenberry decided to craftily conceal his and his paramour's legal footprints in regard to the company's establishment, partly to obscure the questionable origins of the early below mentioned production-used merchandise he offered up for sale through his company. This having been a somewhat shady activity, was actually, albeit somewhat circumferentially, conceded by Majel Barrett herself, when she later stated in a 1993, with contradictory half-truths interlaced, and not altogether too convincing interview, "Lincoln has been in existence for probably almost a hundred years. It was originally Lincoln Publishing and it was owned by another gentleman many, many years before. His attorney was Leonard Maislich [sic.]. For some reason or another he gave the incorporation to Leonard. I don’t know how it basically happened, but it really belonged to Leonard Maislich until he gave it to me in the early eighties. It [Lincoln] was merely set up for Gene to handle fan mail for Star Trek." (Strange New Worlds magazine, issue 10, Oct/Nov 1993) No records of a "hundred years" ancient "Lincoln Publishing" are known to exist and the "gentleman" in question was actually Roddenberry himself as Maizlish had been Roddenberry's life-long attorney, representing him legally since long before The Original Series. By transferring title to his attorney (who, when legally registering the company, had somehow managed to antedate the company's establishing date to 6 April 1962 – hence Barrett's "has been in existence for probably almost a hundred years" remark [4]), Roddenberry had thrown up a smokescreen if the studio ever decided to pursue the matter legally, which however, they never did. As already implied by Trimble and Barrett themselves, there had actually been another, personal reason as well to proceed in this manner, as it was also meant to hide the Lincoln revenues from Roddenberry's soon-to-be ex-wife Eileen as well. Unsurprisingly, and not entirely unjustified as the original Roddenberry couple was still legally married at the time of the incorporation of Lincoln Enterprises, Eileen found out later, and she did pursue the matter legally, suing all involved parties for damages, resulting in that Maizlish was actually found guilty of "conspiracy to commit fraud" for his part in the deception, though it assessed no punitive damages against him. Incidentally, Roddenberry's life-long accountant – not only for him as a private person, but for his business endeavors as well – , Mort Kessler had not been involved with the original deception, as he only became much later employed as such by Roddenberry. However, he became implicated when he in good faith attached his name to the obligatory registration renewals, and he therefore decided to settle out-of-court with Eileen. [5](X) It was for these reasons why Lincoln Enterprises was not established as a subsidiary of the Norway Corporation, Roddenberry's official production company through which he had always handled his business and legal affairs, but as a separate entity, in the process also explaining why the early, short-lived company name "Star Trek Enterprises" was changed to "Lincoln Enterprises", so named because Roddenberry, "(...)loved Abraham Lincoln. It’s that simple," as per Trimble. [6] Still, being a staunch Roddenberry acolyte notwithstanding, even she could not refrain herself from calling Roddenberry a "conniver" at one point. [7] After Star Trek was canceled, Paramount Television wanted to sell Roddenberry all rights and title to the series for US$100,000-$150,000 in 1970, but he, knee-deep steeped in the fallout of his bitter and costly divorce from Eileen, was nowhere near able to raise this amount on his own. It was around that time that Paramount discovered that Roddenberry was selling Star Trek merchandise through Lincoln Enterprises, which, not owning the brand, was formally an illegal endeavor. Yet, both parties struck a deal resembling the below-mentioned previous Writers Guild of America deal, allowing Roddenberry to continue in return of a percentage of the sales, as Paramount also started to realize that their Star Trek property was not a too bad one to have after all. Not yet having a well oiled Star Trek marketing machine of their own, Lincoln Enterprises suited the studio well in raising the awareness of their increasingly profitable Star Trek brand. It has also explained why Paramount has never sued Lincoln and/or Roddenberry for what was essentially studio property theft in the 1968-1969 period. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Continuing Mission, p. 2; NBC: America's Network, p. 220) However, by that time there was residual resentment on the studio's part, as former Desilu production staffer Craig Thompson attested to when he managed to borrow the original 11-foot Enterprise studio model from the studio for a 1972 exhibition at the college he was then working for. On that occasion he was told by studio executives, "In fact, Gene Roddenberry had apparently tried, unsuccessfully, to get his hands on the Enterprise and they wouldn't let him have it," and while the studio at that time had no real interest in the model, they, even willing to let Thompson keep the model (but who for personal reasons was not able to), were otherwise dead-set on not wanting "(...)GR to get a hold of it, for whatever reasons." [8](X)
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