'Star Wars' still major force after 30 years

Article published May 25, 2007
'Star Wars' still major force after 30 years
Ethan Sacks
New York Daily News

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It really was a long time ago.

Today, it'll be exactly 30 years since "Star Wars" blasted away all expectations after opening in just 32 movie theaters on May 25, 1977.

It's remarkable to note how, in the days before universe-filling marketing campaigns and studio tracking reports, no one, not even writer-director George Lucas, was prepared for the lines that snaked around theaters showing "Star Wars."

Audiences cheered from the opening blasts of John Williams' score to the closing credits, pausing only to boo Darth Vader.

Facing high demand for tie-in toys that had yet to be manufactured, department stores were forced to issue IOUs.

In the late 1970s in America, the movie "appealed to people at a time (when) things maybe weren't going great," says Anthony Daniels, who played C-3PO in six movies and several TV specials. "People wanted something to make them feel good.

"And boy, did it take them out of their environment!"

Or as Rick McCallum, producer of the recent prequel trilogy, says: "It was a single moment in time that's not likely to be repeated."

The movie that 20th Century Fox nearly abandoned in midproduction ended up earning $460 million at the box office in the United States alone, boosted by the release of a special edition in 1997.

The film is the second-highest-grossing movie of all time, behind "Titanic."

There is no competition, however, in the world of toys and other tie-ins. The "Star Wars" franchise has raked in $13.5 billion in merchandising alone since 1977, according to Lucasfilm.

"There's no question that was the film that made the entire movie industry rethink its attitude toward summer movies, toward juvenile movies for big kids, science fiction, special effects and, of course, merchandising," says film historian Leonard Maltin.

This weekend, people who want to praise the Force can celebrate several ways:

l Now in bookstores is J.W. Rinzler's "The Making of Star Wars," a mammoth tome so packed with photos and facts, a wookiee could get a hernia trying to lift it.

The $75 book, surprisingly, is a first for "Star Wars."

But the author recently told the New Daily News that he stumbled across four boxes of transcripts in the Lucasfilm library archives from interviews that took place between 1975 and 1978, conducted by the film's original head of marketing.

The background they provided formed the basis of the book, which is chock-full of anecdotes, behind-the-scenes photos and early storyboard sketches (Darth Vader, it seems, once looked more like a vacuum cleaner).

* Think the creature cantina at Mos Eisley spaceport was filled with a motley bunch?

Watch "Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed," a new two-hour documentary airing Monday on the Discovery Channel, and see Newt Gingrich, Dan Rather and House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi comment alongside "Lord of the Rings" filmmaker Peter Jackson. Far out.

* To coincide with the anniversary, the U.S. Postal Service is issuing 15 "Star Wars" stamps.

But Lucasfilm isn't stuck in the past: There are two TV series in the works, animated and live-action, with the latter reportedly filling in the blanks of what some characters were doing for the 20 years between Episodes III and IV.

McCallum says the plan is to get them on the air in 2009.

"'Star Wars' was revolutionary, otherwise it wouldn't have lasted this long," says Peter Mayhew, the 7-foot-3 English actor who played Chewbacca. "So I'll talk to you again in another 30 years."

Copyright © 2007
The News & Record
and Landmark Communications, Inc.

Are mormons racist?

This was in response to an unflattering article written about the LDS stance, before 1978, on blacks and the priesthood. It makes some excellent points:

There probably just wasn't enough time for the author, Mr. Hutchinson to include every historical detail, so there are no hard feelings. However, I'd like to point out that one of the positions of Joseph Smith's Candidacy for President and one of the main reasons why the Missourians hated the Mormons was because of their pro-abolitionist stance. As a matter of fact, Joseph Smith predicted that civil war would break out over the matter. Given that he was murdered in 1844, this was no small feat to predict the civil war.

Though Mormons believe that there was a spiritual signifigance to his death and believe he was a Martyr because of his religious role sealing his testimony with his blood, secular history points to other reasons for his murder, including the threat to the Southern States that a successful presidential candidacy would seriously threaten Black Slavery in the South.

Further historical research also reveals that Black freemen did hold positions of responsibility in the early Mormon Church. After the martyrdom of early church leaders (others besides Joseph were also murdered) over their progressive view of human rights (they also were persecuted for befriending the Native Americans), is it a wonder that Mormons were forced into a more conservative position on Blacks holding the Priesthood?

However, these secular details are moot, because either there is a real priesthood, divine authority from God in the Mormon Church and only God can decide to whom that authority is bequeathed, or it's all a sham. Who cares if a false priesthood is given or withheld from a specific group of people? To be bothered by it, however is a form of admission that it's a real priesthood and the authority of God, but then you have to come full circle and leave it up to God upon whom to bestow that power and all the social pressure that can be combined shouldn't make one iota of difference if it's really God's priesthood and Him deciding to whom to bestow it until true revelation reveals a change.

The criticism is also moot because the condition described as racist no longer exists. The ongoing antagonism is a mystery indeed. Can't win for losing, so I'd suggest that Mormons and anyone with common sense just go one with their business and ignore the hate mongering comments of Mr. Sharpton and others.