Votss

In 1977, I clearly remember seeing ANH in a theatre within the first two weeks of its release and the deleted scenes(lost cut) were included in the film. I was 11 years old and saw it twice at the theater. The first time I saw it I clearly remember Luke looking up at a sparkling space battle. Luke speeds past a woman yelling. The Toshi station scene and how dimly lit it was. I remember being sort of confused by these scenes and the pace of the film and it’s connection to the robots in the opening. I always thought that I was imagining all theses memories until the deleted scenes were finally released. The Biggs meeting and Aunt Beru and the pouring of the blue milk was all there. The cantina was weird and stranger. Vader climbed into a fighter near the end and yells as he is spinning away.
The second time I saw ANH, the scenes were cut and film is as we all know it today. I’ve been searching for others who have seen a rough version also and finding more reports that I’m not alone.
The only thing I can figure is that within the first two weeks of distribution the studios released rougher cuts of the 70mm film and these were shown to the public just to get the film out on schedule… within a few short weeks a newer trimmed down distributed film with final cuts was made and theaters were asked to return rough films and/or make cuts to match final release since film copies were expensive and easier to do if certain theaters had the capability… all I know is what I clearly remember, and somewhere other than George’s safe a rough cut still exists… in color and with sound. On a final note, A lot of Star Wars fans back in 77 brought tape recording equipment into shows and made audio tapes. These tapes may prove to be the final answer… that some of us were able to witness something special! The lost rough theatrical release.