via danny_boy in:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/What-do-you-think-was-the-best-release-of-the-OT-at-the-time-it-came-out/topic/13043/

60 Minutes on Video Piracy 1979

(mentions SW at 4:05 & 5:20)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZtfEDyTXiU

Watch out for this:

It is what I am assuming to be the first bootleg of Star Wars which according to the FBI surfaced just 2 weeks after it debuted in the cinemas!.
This is how it looked to the very first generation of home video enthusiasts(pirates!)

Also digitized is a 1982 update to this piece:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeBqu73x0zc&feature=related

(it's more or less the same)

Comparison moth3r widescreen source beta: left and right crop seem close. Close as in equal. The old tube tv's cut off a bit.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1057&message=39097670&changemode=1

Original Theatrical Release????

Has it EVER been available????

The one that opens with "Star Wars" and no "Episode IV" on the screen....

I have have only seen that version one time after the 3 times I saw it in the theater in L.A when it was released.

That one time was on some "Pirated" Sony U-Matic tapes. (Image quality was pretty much as good as video gets on NTSC., audio was Mono).

Hearing back from another lead has a comment people often mimick:

Really fuzzy picture, of course. I'm sure it was a copy of a copy of a copy. But the Star Wars tape was enough to get me hooked from an early age. :)