Questions about the mono mix for the first film

Vaderisnothayden said:

Somebody here once said that there's anecdotal evidence that Lucas was working on the mono mix when Star Wars was released. Can anybody clarify what working on the mono mix would mean in that context? Was he recording it then with the actors or just putting it together, with the actor work being before then?

Also, does anybody know what date or year the mono mix for the film was first released?

I believe he was mixing the mono mix when the film was released, with all the recording being done months before.  The original version was in stereo, then he found alternate takes and dialog he may have liked better and put them in.

I'm not sure why they just didn't compress the stereo into mono, but I'll leave that for someone else to explain.

Short story version is, very few theaters had Dolby back then, and there were technincal problems with mono playback of a Dolby Stereo track, (now no longer the case) hence the need for a mono mix.

The 70mm mix was probably rushed a bit to meet the release date as well.

Lucas and company had no way to know if Dolby would be a short lived technological gimmick or not. Stereophonic sound in movies had never really caught on beyond the few huge venues equipped for it. Therefore, the mono mix was considered "definitive", and more time was taken with tweaking it.

Summer 1977, as Star Wars rolled out into wider release in regular 35mm engagements.