Found someone else who has remembrances of a version of Star Wars on VHS from 1979. This version was missing the opening crawl and had a repeat section around the time Kenobi says "It (TIE) followed us". (Which is around the 1 hour mark.) Sounds like a similar two tape source as the mothr widescreen.
http://www.sexyarchaeology.org/imported-20110724151822/2011/9/16/basement-archaeology.html
A few months ago I was digging through some boxes in my basement when I discovered an artifact from my childhood. That artifact was a VHS tape; a bootleg copy of Star Wars. Not Star Wars: A New Hope, STAR WARS, full stop (collector's will note how incredibly rare this version is). The tape was marked only by a small piece of aged masking tape with the title scrawled in pencil.
http://echobasenews.com/interview-sam-witwer.html
I do, however, remember seeing Return of the Jedi in the theater. My dad was able to get bootleg copies of Star Wars and Empire on VHS, but Return of the Jedi in the theater...that was something special."
http://watchplayread.com/2011/10/who-else-was-this-kid/
reminds me of when I was a wee lad who was watching this on bootleg VHS tapes.
http://www.scifinow.co.uk/news/jar-jar-binks-sidelined-from-the-phantom-menace-3d-trailer/
One of my favourite memories of going to the cinema is the night I went to see Phantom Menace,
(even though I had seen it at least 5 times before on good old bootleg VHS!)
http://ellisbeetle.com/blog/2011/08/george-lucas-and-a-little-kid-with-a-afro/
I remember, I had a something no one in my neighborhood had. My father was able to get a bootleg copy of the VHS tape from 20th Century Fox, then it became apparent that something had stuck. It wasn’t out on VHS so I didn’t mention it to my friends in fear that the old guard would find out and spread their hate. I’m sure if they had, 20th Century Fox would have gotten an anonymous call about that bootleg copy.
http://www.byrnerobotics.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=40064&PN=1&totPosts=97
the drummer in my dad's band had a bootleg tape of the movie and I probably watched it at least 100 times when they were rehearsing.