I am proud to be able to claim that my Richard Chamberlain web site at the following address: http://members.tripod.com/~ukculttv/rchamberlain.html online since March 1998 was the first site on the Internet dedicated to the actor. Before it’s creation there was hardly any information about Richard on the Internet, and what there was mainly consisted of one page of information, which often contained incorrect data. When the site first went online, I found it very difficult to get it listed at the various celebrity databases and search engines and therefore people surfing the web would have difficulty locating it. The celebrity databases didn’t seem to want to make a new listing for Richard Chamberlain while there was only one site on the whole Internet available. However, after making repeated requests I did manage to get it listed on some of the celebrity databases, and in some of the newspapers here in the United Kingdom, and soon had a steady flow of visitors from over seventy different countries.
After seeing the demand and market for my site, and receiving many emails from fans from across the World, I decided to create a new Richard Chamberlain web site with a more user-friendly domain name of http://richardchamberlain.tvheaven.com online since May 1999. This second site was a vast improvement over the first site and contained more extensive material on Richard. This second web site had over 10,000 visitors in the space of just a few months, and I also received hundred’s of emails regarding both of my sites.
Here in the United Kingdom, as with many other countries, the Internet did not start to take off until the later part of 1998, and I think this is reflected in the number of visitors to my first site, and also to The Slipper and the Rose website (see below). When both of these sites were created the "net" was still in its infancy with regards to the number of people online, the general mass population and those who had access to the Internet. The statistics for the number of visitors shows that there were more visitors to my new site in the space of the first three months, than visitors to the first Richard Chamberlain Web Site in the previous eighteen months. The same can also be said of The Slipper and the Rose website.
The Slipper and the Rose website is the one and only site completely dedicated to this Richard Chamberlain film. The website started with eight photos and some basic information in September 1997. By 1999, the site had grown to over 15 pages of pictures and information and had 4529 visits. The whole site was moved to it’s own domain http://www.theslipperandtherose.com in July of 1999. Since then the site has had more than 22,000 visits of its own. Director/writer, Bryan Forbes and co-writers/songwriters, Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman, have also frequented the site and left their seal of approval. The site contains more than a hundred photos from the film, biographies, song lyrics, memorabilia, games, trivia, soundtrack information, production notes and a Sherman Brothers area. Thanks to the collaboration with Image Entertainment, The Slipper and the Rose website has been able to keep fans updated with all the release information for this film, which hit stores in America on VHS and DVD for it's first American release, on 25 April 2000.
In July 1998, Nohea Enterprises Limited, on behalf of Richard Chamberlain, created an Artworks web site displaying Richard’s own paintings that were available for sale. This site has had over 55,000 visitors since its creation; one contributory factor is probably the amount of money they had available to spend on advertising and registering the site on the Internet compared with the other fan-based sites with very limited budgets. Although the cost of producing my own web sites, including obtaining material and online charges, runs into the thousands of pounds/dollars. The Artworks site originally contained a guest book for visitors to sign but was later removed from the site in 1999. This was the reason why I decided to include a guest book on my new site since November 1999.
Another U.K. created web site, Richard Chamberlain: The Home Page went online on the 21 May 1999. This site offered an in-depth look at the actor's career and was created by a journalist and lifelong fan. The site has had over 15,000 visitors to date, and makes up one of three UK Richard Chamberlain web sites.
Timeline
1997 September The Slipper and the Rose website by Jenni Ferreira U.S.A.
1998 March Richard Chamberlain Web Site by Darren Smith U.K.
1998 July Richard Chamberlain Artworks by Nohea Enterprises Limited U.S.A.
1999 May Richard Chamberlain Online by Darren Smith U.K.
1999 May Richard Chamberlain: The Home Page by Sarah Morgan U.K.
