Quote
Originally posted by: Darth Simon
Unfortunatly, this changes some of my assumptions made, so based on the information present in the copyright listing for Star Wars and the dates the LoC aquired their copies if the crawl was already made and could have been present in the 1977 version than its possible that the versions that the LoC recieved in '78 & '79 include this crawl...the two things that makes this seem unlikely however is that the copyright date is may 25 1977, and when the subtitles for the hearing impaired were added this was noted in the copyright so it would make sense that the addition of information to the crawl would also have been noted. Also, the fact that the rereleases of Star Wars were all without the Episode IV until 1981 and the copies the LOC recieved were before this date.
I don't believe that any print of the film contained the updated crawl until 1981. The '78 and '79 theatrical presentations were the same as in '77, and there was no 1980 release. I DO believe that Lucas had "Episode IV" in mind as early as 1975, but it was NOT implemented into the film until late 1980 and was not presented theatrically until the following 1981 re-release. Therefore, if the LoC acquired 35mm prints in '78 and '79, those prints must contain the original crawl.
There was a page at the official site (which seems to have disappeared) in which Lucasfilm film archivist Sterling Hedgpeth stated:
"I found a box with all the positive elements for the 'revised' opening crawl, and the assorted trim boxes are dated from October through December 1980. This, then, is consistent with the view that Episode IV: A New Hope was added for the first time to the opening crawl for the April 10, 1981 re-release."
This is significant because he specifically mentions the raw film elements for the revised crawl as being dated Oct-Dec 1980. Therefore, the revising of the crawl could not have taken place before these dates.