Yeoman Jolt!
Why was Cindy Robbins in tests with Leonard Nimoy?
A longtime mystery solved.
Our FACT TREK mission launched with a series of tweets which unraveled the mystery of some long-circulated test photos of the young woman photographed with Leonard Nimoy in Spock makeup but sans ears. This post collects the information from that series of Tweets in one place and adds information that was not tweet-length friendly.
Several photos of Spock actor Leonard Nimoy and a petite blonde had circulated for years before the 2018 book Star Trek Lost Scenes, by Dave Tilotta & Curt McAlony, ID’d her as Cynthia Chenault (screen name Cindy Robbins), but at that time no one knew the context of the photos. Some speculated she’d been hired to do these test photos, or that she happened to be on the lot for another show and was put to work, but that’s not how Hollywood works. We long suspected she was there for a screen test or costume test, but we couldn’t be sure until we did some digging.
Autumn 1964 screen test footage of Leonard Nimoy & Cindy Robbins
The answer was in the Gene Roddenberry papers at UCLA. Cindy Robbins was up for the role of YEOMAN COLT for the first Star Trek pilot.
In an October 15, 1964 memo to Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek’s first pilot casting director Kerwin Coughlin made a list of twenty actresses to consider, then added six more in pencil—likely later additions—including Cindy Robbins.
Of the 26 names on Coughlin’s list for the role of Colt was Laurel Goodwin—who ultimately won the part. Also on the list are two names that are probably familiar to most Star Trek or genre fans: Yvonne Craig, who went on to play Batgirl on Batman from 1967-68, and Pat Priest, who took over the role of Marilyn Munster midway through The Munsters’ first season.
Here are photos of all three of those familiar actresses, plus Cindy, from the time before they were considered for Star Trek. Both Craig and Goodwin had appeared in Elvis flix. Priest hadn't yet joined the cast of The Munsters when listed by Coughlin.
The big “aha!” was when we found two file copies of contracts, each with cover letters dated November 18, 1964, one for Cindy Robins [sic] and another for Laurel Goodwin. On the cover page of Cindy’s unsigned contract is penciled “Tests”, which suggested they were awaiting her screen test before making their final choice.
So it appears the casting was down to those two.
In order to get to the bottom of the story, we first sent Cindy Robbins an email and then got her on the phone. She was totally sweet, but admitted that she didn’t remember much about auditioning other than meeting Leonard Nimoy and that she’d previously spent hours talking about the Colt role with Gene Roddenberry, who was interested that she'd seen a UFO.
Then she screen-tested for it, hence the photos.
In the end, Goodwin got the part, but had she turned it down we likely would have seen Cindy playing the role.
But just who is Cindy Robbins?
If you’ve watched a lot of TV from the late 50s and early 60s, her face may be familiar, but she got her start…
On the Stage…
Young Cindy got her big break on the Great White Way while working as a model on a quiz show called “The Big Pay-Off,” as per this 1954 newspaper clipping.
It was this work the almost-Yeoman told us she was proudest of; notably 260 performances as Molly Belmont in By the Beautiful Sea (1954), having reportedly been selected for the role by the show’s star, Shirley Booth (as related in the Playbill for Happy Town,).
She also lamented the failure of 1959’s Happy Town, which was her first starring role in a Broadway musical.
Below is what we could find of her cast bio in Playbill (if someone reading has a copy of the next page, we’d love to add it to this article):
CINDY ROBBINS
Janice Dawson
Cindy Robbins is appearing in her first starring role in a Broadway musical. Returning to New York from the West Coast where she has been devoting most of her time to working in television. Miss Robbins needed little persuasion to drop everything and fly East to return to her first love, the theater. Cindy went out to California immediately after the closing of By the Beautiful Sea, the Broadway musical success in which Cindy made her theatrical debut, playing a role for which she was personally selected by the show’s star Shirley Booth. Dorothy McGuire, who had seen Cindy in the musical, sent off for her soon after its closing, she wanted her to play the lead in the La Jolla Playhouse’s production of Vacant Lot. As a…
After tryouts in Boston, Happy Town was rewritten and taken to Broadway, where it closed after only five performances but managed to win a Tony Award for Best Choreography.
That’s showbiz.
…On the Silver Screen…
Off the stage, Cindy did both movies and television. The biggest of her films was playing against star Rock Hudson in This Earth Is Mine (1959), for which the publicity machine dubbed her the “champagne girl” as plugged in a publicity piece (read it here). The item claims This Earth Is Mine was her first film role (her screen credit is “and introducing Cindy Robbins”), but in reality she’d previously appeared in smaller films including Dino (1957), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), Rockabilly Baby (1957), and Gunsight Ridge (1957).
…& On the TV Screen
In the late 50s & early 60s the almost-Yeoman had many TV roles. We’ll touch on a few shows with some Star Trek connections.
One was Harbor Command S01 E34 "Lover's Lane Bandits" airing on May 30, 1958. Future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry wrote for the show in S01 E37 “The Psychiatrist”, which aired 3 episodes after Cindy's.
In 1959 Cindy played opposite screen legend Bette Davis in S02 E18 “The Ella Lindstrom Story”, an episode of the series Wagon Train. Gene Roddenberry—of course—famously pitched Star Trek’s format as “Wagon Train To The Stars.”
We’ll discuss Wagon Train’s untold relation to Star Trek in the future
Cindy appeared as the new wife to a cad played by a very young Robert Redford in the fourth season opener of Perry Mason, S04 E01 “The Case of the Treacherous Toupee”, which first aired on September 17, 1960 (neither Redford nor Cindy wore the titular toup). Cindy returned to Perry Mason in 1962’s “The Case of the Melancholy Marksman” along with future Star Trek vets John Harmon (Rodent, Tepo), Jon Lormer (Haskins, Tamar, and the Old Man who touched the sky), and William Schallert (Nilz Baris).
Cindy guested twice as May McBean in The Tall Man, first in S01 E09 "Larceny and Young Ladies" which first aired on November 12, 1960, and again in S02 E18 "Substitute Sheriff" which first aired on January 6, 1962. That series was created by Samuel A. Peeples (who wrote Star Trek’s 2nd pilot “Where No Man Has Gone Before”). His secretary was a young woman named Dorothy Fontana (who got four writing credits on that show—read more about that on Star Trek Fact Check—and who went on to be Roddenberry’s secretary and then story editor on Star Trek).
Tennis-enthusiast Cindy appeared on Leave It To Beaver in S05 E33 "Tennis, Anyone?" airing May 19, 1962. Two years earlier, Star Trek’s Majel Barrett appeared on the same series as Lumpy’s mom in S03 E32 "Beaver and Violet”.
Cindy appeared in two episodes of McHale’s Navy, a show with a few Star Trek connections, chief among them that its first aired episode was written by Gene L. Coon. Her first role was in S01 E06 "Operation Wedding Party", which aired on November 15, 1962.
Her second McHale's Navy was S02 E36 "A Da-Da For Christy", which originally aired on May 19, 1964. This may have been her final TV role before her Star Trek audition. In 1965 she married singer Tommy Leonetti and then moved to Australia.
While in Australia, under her married name Cindy Leonetti, she wrote Little Dream, an illustrated children's book concerning 'Little Dream' who waits in the land of Nod, desperate to be chosen as some child’s dream. Below is an excerpt from a 1972 newspaper item mentioning the book:
A BOBBYDAZZLING five foot blond with an equally bobbydazzling blond daughter, Kimberly, Cindy has just authored a children's book. The one-time movie actress (under the name Cindy Robbins) who gave it up to be plain Cynthia Leonetti now has another redhot career under way.
"Little Dream" has become a bestseller for tots in Australia and for that reason Cindy was nominated 1970 Mother Of The Year. Fast becoming famous Down Under, she tells how embarrassing it was the day she trotted incognito-babushka, dark glasses, no makeup-into a bookstore to inquire after "Little Dream" only to have the clerk smile, It's doing very well, Mrs. Leonetti.”
After retiring from acting, Cindy didn’t abandon TV entirely. She wrote for the animated Heathcliff and the CBS Schoolbreak Special. She co-produced and produced four episodes of, and wrote six episodes of, The ABC Afterschool Special/Weekend Special. One of these, The Adventures of Con Sawyer and Hucklemary Finn (1985) starred Drew Barrymore and Cindy was one of the writers nominated for a daytime Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Children's Special.
Cindy's done it all, even if she missed doing Star Trek.
Our thanks to almost-Yeoman Cindy for helping finally put that photo mystery to bed and letting us tell a bit of her story.
—30—
Special Thanks
To our friends David Tilotta & Curt McAloney for providing these beautifully restored photos of Cindy and Lenny! Check out their amazing book STAR TREK LOST SCENES and then buy it! (Here’s a link, so shop now!)
See Also
Our blog post Archival Interview: Almost-Yeoman Cindy Robbins, sharing the archival 1959 interview “Bubbling Cindy” (link)
Revision History
Originally posted May 6, 2020
Updated May 15, 2020 to include information about the book Little Dream
Updated May 28, 2020 to include image of Little Dream book and citation for a related newspaper clipping, and to remove an error stating Leave It To Beaver shot at Desilu, when it did not.
Updated Sept. 8, 2021 to adjust formatting and add link to archival interview “Bubbling Cindy” in an earlier blog post.
Sources
Gene Roddenberry Papers, UCLA. Specifically:
October 15, 1964 memo from casting director Kerwin Coughlin to Gene Roddenberry, subject: List of Suggestions for the Various Roles in “Star Trek”:, p3.
November 18, 1964, from Ed Perlstein to the Harold Gefsky Agency re “Cindy Robins” [sic], unsigned file copy contract w/cover letter for Robbins to play Yeoman Colt
November 18, 1964, from Ed Perlstein to Kumin-Olenick Agency re Laurel Goodwin, unsigned file copy contract w/cover letter for Goodwin to play Yeoman Colt
Email & Phone Interview with Cindy Robbins, March 2020 by Maurice Molyneaux.
Playbills for By the Beautiful Sea (1954) and Happy Town (1959)
American Musical Theatre, A Chronicle, Gerald Martin Bordman, Richard Norton, Oxford University Press, 2010, p78
“Bubbling Cindy” by Dick Gray, The Atlanta Constitution, 1959‑6‑29
Cynthia Chenault/Cindy Robbins on the Internet Movie Database
ProQuest
Local Model Moves Into Musical Comedy; Feb 3, 1954; Los Angeles Times, p 22.
Beautiful Sea’ Rolls in Tonight, by Louis Calta New York Times; Apr 8, 1954; p33
Cindy Robbins Has Rock as Romancer, Scheuer; Aug 28, 1958; Los Angeles Times, p B7.
Cindy Leonetti, Aussie Mother Of Year; Misses U.S. Hot Dogs; Feb, 14, 1972; The Indianapolis Star, p 16, Sec 5
Star Trek Lost Scenes and authors David Tilotta and Curt McAloney