I read Monsterlady’s post earlier this week about ‘core fandom’ and their early Pokemon experiences. I have to admit that I really have no idea what ‘core fandom’ is versus just regular fandom. But reading that post triggered a set of old memories about how Star War’s impacted me back in the day: grist for a new post!
My first Star Wars
The year was 1977: I was thirteen and my nephew Shane was about seven. Someone, probably my sister Judy, thought we would like to see this new ‘Star Wars’ movie. And oh boy, was she ever right!
I can’t remember much detail of that first time I watched Luke and Leia or heard Darth Vader’s (James Earl Jones) incredible voice. I have only a few snippets of recollection to go by like my nephew being there. I’m pretty sure this would have been in the summer, a few months after the movie initially released. That means it was already clear that Star Wars was something ‘special’ but was perhaps not yet recognized for the phenomenon it would become.
I ended up watching Star Wars (the ‘A New Hope’ subtitle came later) in the theatre four or five times over the coming year or two. I could hear Vader’s breathing apparatus easily in my mind then and to this day that iconic sound still sends a small chill up my spine.
I later watched the video edition of Star Wars uncounted times, each time triggering emotional memories. Every time it came on TV I watched it again as well. Yes, I watched the Christmas Special. I didn’t get into reading the ‘expanded universe’ books as much as I did with Star Trek: for me, Star Wars was a movie experience, and books just couldn’t compare.
And of course I watched The Empire Strikes Back when it came out in 1980 with intense devotion. Lando’s betrayal! Vader is Luke’s father! Luke’s hand! This was Shakespearian stuff.
The long lineup and being ‘first’
I heard about the upcoming third movie shortly after graduating High School. My friend Tim convinced Jeff, Chris, and I that we had to make this into an event. This was the first and still best ‘fan lineup’ I ever participated in. My memories of this event are a bit clearer than for the first two Star Wars films.
Looking online I see that the premier was on May 25, 1983: consulting the calendar I see that this date was a Wednesday. I think by that time I was a university drop out: my friends who were still attending university must have skipped class that day.
We gathered at the theatre the night before the first showing in our city. As I recall we arrived there well before midnight and were able to secure our place as ‘first in line’. Others started showing up a couple of hours later.
I recall that we took turns going to a nearby donut shop, possibly Tim Hortons but probably a less famous alternative, to get caffeine and donuts. For some reason I decided to wear a coonskin hat that I had bought while at Disney Land a year or two earlier- perhaps I thought it would make me stand out somehow. Or perhaps I somehow had a strange prescience that one day Lucas Films would become a Disney property… no, not likely that.
Sometime after midnight a police car drove up to the theatre and asked what we were doing- there were probably less than a dozen of us waiting in line at the time. We told them we were in line for the new Star Wars movie, and got an understanding nod and a reminder to not cause any trouble.
The real crowds started showing up as the sun began to rise. The line for the 11:00 AM first showing eventually wrapped around the block, and there was even some press that came by to interview the weirdos near the front of the line. I used an online newspaper archive to get the clipping below of the article from the Edmonton Journal: yes, I am the “Kelly Adams” in the column.
I can’t remember much about viewing the actual movie that day other than the audience was very loud. After the showing we talked for hours before going back to our respective homes to catch up on the sleep we’d missed.
Still a fan after all these years
In the years since I have watched all the prequels and sequels, and almost all of the various streaming series. I have also watched several of the Lucas edits and re-releases.
I think it is safe to say that I am still very much a Star Wars fan, although I was never a big fan Jar Jar or the Ewoks. I don’t despise the newer entries in the saga like some fans do: I’ve re-watched the early movies frequently enough to know that they are all flawed in various ways.
But George Lucas and the various creatives he gathered around him as well as the Disney tribe that followed have truly formed Star Wars into an epic mythos. Flawed and imperfect as it may be, I still find something that inspires me or touches on my emotions in each iteration.
It is sometimes a bit of a shock to my system to realize that, when I watched the first Star Wars movie in 1977, I was closer in time to the original Wizard of Oz movie with Judy Garland than I am now to that first Star Wars. Nearly 50 years of entertainment is an impressive run by any standards.