Hard to believe that 30 years have passed since Star Wars premiered on May 25, 1977. During that time my family and I were in Florida for a month long vacation. When I was in Florida I do remember picking up a copy of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine that had Star Wars on the cover of that issue. As I recall, Star Wars had opened while we were in Florida and so I didn’t see it until we got back to Steubenville, OH. I don’t remember the exact date we saw it but I would have turned 11 on June 22nd of that year which was the perfect age for that sort of movie. I remember when we got to the theater that they let us in before the movie ended (just before the Rebel attack on the Death Star) so I actually saw the end of the movie first. My dad and I then stayed in the theater and watched the movie from the beginning. I remember when the movie got to the attack on the Death Star my dad kidded me and said something like “ok we saw this part already, lets go.” Of course I said “no!” to that and he laughed (and of course we stayed until the end). After that I went to see Star Wars at the theater quite a number of weekends in a row (back when matinee’s were $1.50). In all I must have seen Star Wars over 40 times in a theater during its first run and subsequent re-releases. It had quite an impact on me back then and if I ever think about the year 1977 Star Wars always comes to mind first (then that Florida vacation we took). I remember spending lots of (my parents) money on Star Wars toys, books, magazines and other merchandise. I remember when the first Star Wars action figures appeared in stores. The success of the movie had caught people off guard and so there wasn’t much if anything in the way of merchandizing until some time after the movie came out. I distinctly remember the Kenner Toys Early Bird Certificate Package when my mother and I were at a store in the Fort Steuben Mall. The idea is that you would buy the certificate package (which was available during Christmas 1977) and you would be the first to receive the 4 action figures by February 15, 1978. How times have changed. Now merchandise for a movie is usually on the shelf before the movie is even in theaters.
More later…

Categories: Movies
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