Personal life of Gene Roddenberry
[1] While at Los Angeles City College, he entered into a relationship with Eileen-Anita Rexroat, whom he went on to marry on June 20, 1942, before his deployment in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II.
While at Los Angeles City College, Roddenberry began dating Eileen-Anita Rexroat, who was two years younger.
[2] They became engaged before Roddenberry left Los Angeles during his military service in the United States Army Air Corps.
Roddenberry applied for a marriage license on June 13, and they were married seven days later at the chapel at Kelly Field, San Antonio, before Chaplain George W.
[7] After his survival of the crash of Pan Am Flight 121 in June 1947, Roddenberry returned home and the couple's first child, Darleen Anita, was born in Hackensack, New Jersey on April 4, 1948.
[12] After being introduced to television executives through connections at the LAPD,[13] he began working part-time as a writer during the mid-1950s although found the time pressures increasingly difficult.
[16] Herbert F. Solow, later producer for Star Trek, explained that she felt that the circles that Roddenberry was running in were going to ultimately cost them their marriage.
[18] After he met Nichols when she was cast in "To Set It Right," an episode of The Lieutenant, he began a friendship that lasted for the rest of his life.
[23] Barrett was not convinced that Roddenberry was going to leave his wife at the time, later explaining that he was troubled because he had made a promise to Eileen and took the commitment seriously.
[25] As work began on "The Cage", Barrett and Roddenberry's relationship was out in the open, and they invited Solow to join them for drinks.
[17] Solow spoke to NBC's executives about it, who were shocked as they remembered Barrett as Roddenberry's girlfriend from her time on set during filming of The Lieutenant.
Director James Goldstone overheard Roddenberry telling someone that Dromm had been specifically hired because he wanted to have sex with her.
[25] Barrett was not the only woman that Roddenberry was involved with during the production of the series, and he boasted to crew members about "late night casting sessions" with potential actresses, and once asked producer Robert H. Justman to cover for him by telling his wife that they were working late when in fact Solow was heading home to his family.
The other producers sought to ignore Roddenberry's ongoing dalliances, but Justman drew a line at acting as his alibi.
[31] Instead, Roddenberry gave his secretary, Penny Unger, a pay raise in exchange for telling both Eileen and Barrett that he was in meetings when required.
[33] The stories about Roddenberry's womanizing grew among the cast and crew of Star Trek, and he appeared to revel in each new tale.
[24] The separation and divorce after twenty-six years of marriage, particularly with my Southern family traditions and concerns over the sanctity of personal contracts, was a traumatic experience.
After they recited impromptu poetry at each other in the middle of the reception, he explained loudly how he had spent a year seducing the woman during his marriage.
[38] The divorce was not easy, and Roddenberry felt that he did not get his fair share of the assets, and that he never received some promised items such as his war medals.
[40] In 1969, while scouting locations in Japan for MGM,[41] Roddenberry claimed that he realized that he missed Barrett and proposed to her by telephone.
[43] Roddenberry had considered it "sacrilegious" to use an American minister in Japan,[42] and the ceremony was attended by two Shinto priests as well as maids of honor.
This was resolved two days after his divorce was complete, and on December 29, a small ceremony was held at their home followed by a reception for family and friends.
