By the time I saw Star Wars in November of 77, it had been playing for a while (6 months). I had seen the trailers on TV and at first I thought it looked rather stupid and boring. The TV spots were pretty much like the teaser trailer. 'The story of a boy and a girl.' I remember certain quick clips from the movie. The 'Here they come' line, the Tuskan raider, R2 being shot by the Jawas, the swing accross the chasm. Those were the ones that really stand out in my mind from the TV spots. Anyway, at first I had no desire to see the movie. However, as the summer of 77 went on the movie was everywhere. It was all people could talk about. I started reading articles in magazines on it and the more that I read the more I wanted to see it. Also, my best friend at the time, Gary, had seen it and loved it. There was one catch. The film was rated PG and even at 11 years old, my mother wouldn't let me see a PG rated film. I was still only allowed to see G rated Disney films. I was in sixth grade for cripes sake! So, I was asking my mother about seeing the movie (probably more like begging if I remember correctly) and she was saying no. I was too young. Well, my brother was listening to the conversation (he was in college at the time and the movie was showing at a theatre near campus) and he told my mother that it was harmless. The only swear words in it were two Damns. This was odd considering that my mother and father had real potty mouths and swore like sailors. I guess they didn't know that us kids were using swear words as early as third grade. LOL! So, my mother relented or should I say she said she'd think about it.
So, the night arrived. We didn't even know that we were going to go see it. If I remember correctly, my mother wanted to surprise us kids. I suppose my mother finally got tired of hearing me talk about it and in her mind she figured the only way to get me to shut up was to take me to it. Boy was she wrong! Terribly, terribly, terribly WRONG! It was a Friday night and we all went to Burger Chef for dinner before the movie. I got my very first piece of Star Wars memorabilia that very night. She bought my sister and I the Han Solo and Chewbacca poster from Burger Chef for 50 cents with the purchase of a large drink. We each got a poster and were just thrilled. We drove clear to the west side of town to the theatre to see the movie. Just the movie. No popcorn or anything. Hell, we didn't need it. We were already on an adrenaline high. Of course we had to sit through the obligatory trailers before the movie. I even remeber what trailers were showing that night. Saturday Night Fever, Eyes of Laura Mars and You Light Up My Life (yes that movie!). Once the film started, I was captivated. I don't think I moved through the whole thing! My eyes were glued to the screen. This was unlike anything that I had ever seen! Sure I had watched Sci-Fi stuff on TV and even seen a few old black and white movies from the 50's, but this was BIG! I mean BIG!
Immediatly my favorite charaters were R2 and 3PO. I don't know why, but they were. I also really liked Luke. This was before I realized what a whiner he was. LOL! My sister, of course, was in love with Han Solo. Let me tell you, if my mother got sick of hearing about Star Wars, I was equally sick of hearing about Han Solo! Sheesh. Anyway, on the way home, the movie was all we could talk about. Even my father found something about it to like and he pretty much has the emotions of a cracker. My mother on the other hand, really didn't have much too say. Looking back on it now, I believe she might have been thinking that she made a serious mistake in taking us to see it. We just wouldn't shut up about it. Unfortunately for her, once the credits rolled on the film, her personal Hell was just beginning.
I took this movie to heart like nothing before in my life. As a kid I'd always had my favorite TV shows, Six Million Dollar Man, Starsky & Hutch and The Brady Bunch, and I never missed them. But this was to take on a whole new demension for me. My first real obsession had been born. For the next two years, Star Wars was all I could talk about. I started collecting the trading cards. First the Wonder Bread series and then the Topps series (I still remember my very first Star Wars card. C-3PO from the Wonder Bread series). I had to have the action figures. All of them. I started collecting articles out of magazines, and newspapers. I collected stickers, cards and posters out of cereal. My life became Star Wars 24-7. It drove my mother crazy! And not just my mother. Soon my sister in law. If I even mentioned the movie around her she would get bitchy. The only thing that I think my mother was greatful for in the whole mess is that it certainly made Christmas and birthday shopping for me WAY easy! I saved any birthday money I got (and at this time I prefered to get money instead of gifts) and Christmas money just so that I could buy Star Wars action figures. My first one was Luke Skywalker. There really wasn't much choice. He was the only one that I could find. He cost my mother $1.98 at Service Merchandise. After that, I pretty much took over buying them myself. I won't get into which ones I bought when (even though I can list them in order as I bought them) and where. I still have them and their cards. Once I stopped buying them when I was in college, I had collected all of them (except the last 17 that came out as Power of the Force so I had only gotten EV-9D9 from that set. I was going to get the rest but Kay-Bee Toy & Hobby sent them back because they weren't selling. Dammit! They had all 17 of them too! Bastards!!!!).
Of course I had to have the ships and playsets as well. The one that I really wanted was The Death Star Space Station playset. That was just totally cool to me. However, I would have to wait until the Christmas of 1980 before I would get that. My mother got really, really lucky to find that. I had the Tie fighter (the original white one), the X-wing, the Land of the Jawas (really boring set), the Droid Factory (super boring) because I HAD to have the three legged R2-D2, and the Troop Transporter (I found that really boring as well). I didn't get any of the Empire toys except the figures. Although I really, really wanted the AT-AT. That was totally bitchin'. I also never got the Falcon. Those are two things that I would really like to get now to sort of complete my collection so to speak. And possibly Vader's Tie Fighter. I had the Han Solo gun. The noise it made was just about as bad as nails on a chalkboard. Wait, I did have two Empire toys. Darth Vader's Star Destroyer, and the Turret/Probot playset. Both were pretty boring as well. I have since sold most of this stuff. I still have my X-Wing, Tie Fighter, Death Star Space Station and all of my action figures (mostly in those wonderful figure carrying cases). Ahh, the memories. I even watched the Holiday Special when it aired. That's how excited I was about Star Wars. I didn't miss anything on TV about it. I was totally captivated by the Making Of special. For weeks afterwards, I got into several arguments with people that R2 and 3PO were real robots since it was mentioned that they used several real robots in the movie. I guess I got things just a little mixed up.
By the time Jedi rolled around, my true obsession with Star Wars had died down. It started with Empire. While I liked the movie very, very much, it just wasn't the same. I guess I was growing up a little. Eventually I did just concentrate on the trading cards and the figures. I also (thank God) still have my complete set of Burger Chef posters and they are in great shape for being almost 30 years old. No matter how much time passes, or how many times I see Star Wars, nothing can quite recapture feeling that I had when I first s