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'Star Wars' at 40: Fans recall the magic of seeing the film during that first summer
Michael Cavna, The Washington Post
First posted: Thursday, May 25, 2017 12:18 PM EDT | Updated: Thursday, May 25, 2017 12:31 PM EDT
"Coming ToYour Galaxy This Summer," blared the lobby posters like a John Williams trumpet cue.
It was early 1977, and anticipation for a curious coming attraction called "Star Wars" was building slowly but steadily. Twentieth Century Fox wasn't sure quite what it had on it hands - this effects-heavy space serial by young George Lucas was so unlike anything Hollywood had seen before. Plus, after private screenings in January and February of that year, some studio execs and fellow directors saw flaws, and openly questioned whether the film - then still in a rough state - could succeed.
Two men, though, were early believers. "I loved it because I loved the story and characters. I was probably the only one (in the room) who liked it, and I told George how much I loved it," recounted Steven Spielberg of a screening for a handful of Lucas friends, as quoted in "George Lucas: A Life," last year's biography by Brian Jay Jones.
And one month earlier, during a screening for a few studio suits, Fox executive Gareth Wigan "wept with joy," Jones writes. Wigan told his wife that night: "The most extraordinary day of my life has just taken place."
Thursday marks the 40th anniversary since "Star Wars" landed in the pop-culture galaxy, forever altering film history in countless ways - especially given how the movie served as a launch pad for so many Lucas-related cinematic and technological innovations.
Yet prior to May of 1977, even the studio was hedging its bets.
First there was the matter of the release date. Initially slated for weeks later, "Star Wars" was moved up to May 25 to avoid being gobbled up by the glut of midsummer movies.
Then there was the strategy over location, location, location. Last year, for comparison's sake, the eighth Star Wars feature film in the franchise, "Rogue One," opened on more than 4,000 screens. On May 25, 1977, though, "Star Wars" - which would only later add "Episode IV" to its title - opened on fewer than 40 screens, all carefully selected by Fox.
via GIPHY
One of those theaters was the Avco Center Cinema in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, where lines formed by morning and all seven opening-day shows sold out.
It was at the Avco that summer that actor-writer Greg Grunberg would see the film - four decades before he would appear in a Star Wars film ("Episode VII") himself. "I saw it several times" there, Grunberg tells The Washington Post, "and loved it every single time."
Meanwhile, across the country, another one of Fox's chosen few opening-day screens was the Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C. There, the lines "wound into surrounding neighborhoods, angering residents who found the air thick with pot smoke and their yards strewn with beer cans," writes Jones, the Lucas biographer. One neighbor called the "Star Wars" lineup "an invasion."
Filmmaker David Silverman was a 20-year-old animation student at the time, transferring to UCLA after two years at the University of Maryland. He vividly remembers the impression the original "Star Wars" film made on him that summer.
"I went with a group of friends, and we sat in the balcony at the Uptown, right in the center," says Silverman, a veteran writer-producer on "The Simpsons."
"The first thing that struck me was the music - that opening theme by John Williams. It was so grand. I was into symphonic film scores anyway," continues Silverman, who 30 summers later would direct "The Simpsons Movie."
"Then there was the Star Destroyer overhead - the length of that shot," he says. "I'd never seen effects like that before, except maybe in '2001,' but that was so austere." (Coincidentally, Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" had its world premiere at the Uptown Theater, in 1968.)
via GIPHY
Silverman had seen a trailer for "Star Wars" at the Uptown months earlier, he notes - before a screening of "Network" - and had been particularly unimpressed. "The trailer looked cheap and the editing was still choppy," he says - so he was especially unprepared for how thrilled he was by the final product.
Silverman, whose "Simpsons" (now celebrating its characters' 30th anniversary) has memorably spoofed the "Star Wars" franchise, also remembers appreciating the original film's sense of frisky joy.
"'Star Wars' was a lark. I thought it was like 'The Wizard of Oz' - Luke and Leia were Dorothy, C-3PO was the Tin Man, Harrison Ford was the Scarecrow and Chewbacca was the Lion," he says. "It took Spielberg and Lucas to help bring the fun to a decade of serious movies like 'The Conversation.'"
"I felt like I'd seen a game-changer," Silverman adds. "I remember being excited that I was going off to UCLA - 'Star Wars' made it seem like something exciting (in filmmaking) was going on out West."
Another child of the East Coast who relished "Star Wars" in 1977 was Tom Angleberger, who today is the bestselling author of the "Origami Yoda" series.
"I was 6 and saw it in Blacksburg, Virginia," Angleberger says. " I remember watching the trash-compactor scene and having no idea what was going on. In fact, I don't think I understood much. Luckily, I got got to see it twice more and got it all sorted out.
"And then the Star Wars toy mania set in!" the author continues. "Star Wars really defined my childhood - and my adulthood, for that matter - but it was a little while before the toys really got cranking and I got my beloved cassette tape of Roscoe Lee Brown narrating the story."
For Grunberg, too, "Star Wars" has had a profound impact on his life - particularly when J.J. Abrams, his friend since age 5, directed 2015's "Episode VII: The Force Awakens." Four decades after Grunberg went to the Avco Center Cinema that magical summer, the echoes continue.
"When we shot 'Episode VII,' the production call sheet read, 'AVCO' as the fake production name because it was such a top-secret project," the actor and "Dream Jumper" graphic novelist says.
"I thought it was so cool that they used the name of the theater where it premiered when I was a kid."
'Star Wars' at 40: Fans recall the magic of seeing the film during that first su
Michael Cavna, The Washington Post
First posted: Thursday, May 25, 2017 12:18 PM EDT | Updated: Thursday, May 25, 2017 12:31 PM EDT
"Coming ToYour Galaxy This Summer," blared the lobby posters like a John Williams trumpet cue.
It was early 1977, and anticipation for a curious coming attraction called "Star Wars" was building slowly but steadily. Twentieth Century Fox wasn't sure quite what it had on it hands - this effects-heavy space serial by young George Lucas was so unlike anything Hollywood had seen before. Plus, after private screenings in January and February of that year, some studio execs and fellow directors saw flaws, and openly questioned whether the film - then still in a rough state - could succeed.
Two men, though, were early believers. "I loved it because I loved the story and characters. I was probably the only one (in the room) who liked it, and I told George how much I loved it," recounted Steven Spielberg of a screening for a handful of Lucas friends, as quoted in "George Lucas: A Life," last year's biography by Brian Jay Jones.
And one month earlier, during a screening for a few studio suits, Fox executive Gareth Wigan "wept with joy," Jones writes. Wigan told his wife that night: "The most extraordinary day of my life has just taken place."
Thursday marks the 40th anniversary since "Star Wars" landed in the pop-culture galaxy, forever altering film history in countless ways - especially given how the movie served as a launch pad for so many Lucas-related cinematic and technological innovations.
Yet prior to May of 1977, even the studio was hedging its bets.
First there was the matter of the release date. Initially slated for weeks later, "Star Wars" was moved up to May 25 to avoid being gobbled up by the glut of midsummer movies.
Then there was the strategy over location, location, location. Last year, for comparison's sake, the eighth Star Wars feature film in the franchise, "Rogue One," opened on more than 4,000 screens. On May 25, 1977, though, "Star Wars" - which would only later add "Episode IV" to its title - opened on fewer than 40 screens, all carefully selected by Fox.
via GIPHY
One of those theaters was the Avco Center Cinema in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, where lines formed by morning and all seven opening-day shows sold out.
It was at the Avco that summer that actor-writer Greg Grunberg would see the film - four decades before he would appear in a Star Wars film ("Episode VII") himself. "I saw it several times" there, Grunberg tells The Washington Post, "and loved it every single time."
Meanwhile, across the country, another one of Fox's chosen few opening-day screens was the Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C. There, the lines "wound into surrounding neighborhoods, angering residents who found the air thick with pot smoke and their yards strewn with beer cans," writes Jones, the Lucas biographer. One neighbor called the "Star Wars" lineup "an invasion."
Filmmaker David Silverman was a 20-year-old animation student at the time, transferring to UCLA after two years at the University of Maryland. He vividly remembers the impression the original "Star Wars" film made on him that summer.
"I went with a group of friends, and we sat in the balcony at the Uptown, right in the center," says Silverman, a veteran writer-producer on "The Simpsons."
"The first thing that struck me was the music - that opening theme by John Williams. It was so grand. I was into symphonic film scores anyway," continues Silverman, who 30 summers later would direct "The Simpsons Movie."
"Then there was the Star Destroyer overhead - the length of that shot," he says. "I'd never seen effects like that before, except maybe in '2001,' but that was so austere." (Coincidentally, Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" had its world premiere at the Uptown Theater, in 1968.)
via GIPHY
Silverman had seen a trailer for "Star Wars" at the Uptown months earlier, he notes - before a screening of "Network" - and had been particularly unimpressed. "The trailer looked cheap and the editing was still choppy," he says - so he was especially unprepared for how thrilled he was by the final product.
Silverman, whose "Simpsons" (now celebrating its characters' 30th anniversary) has memorably spoofed the "Star Wars" franchise, also remembers appreciating the original film's sense of frisky joy.
"'Star Wars' was a lark. I thought it was like 'The Wizard of Oz' - Luke and Leia were Dorothy, C-3PO was the Tin Man, Harrison Ford was the Scarecrow and Chewbacca was the Lion," he says. "It took Spielberg and Lucas to help bring the fun to a decade of serious movies like 'The Conversation.'"
"I felt like I'd seen a game-changer," Silverman adds. "I remember being excited that I was going off to UCLA - 'Star Wars' made it seem like something exciting (in filmmaking) was going on out West."
Another child of the East Coast who relished "Star Wars" in 1977 was Tom Angleberger, who today is the bestselling author of the "Origami Yoda" series.
"I was 6 and saw it in Blacksburg, Virginia," Angleberger says. " I remember watching the trash-compactor scene and having no idea what was going on. In fact, I don't think I understood much. Luckily, I got got to see it twice more and got it all sorted out.
"And then the Star Wars toy mania set in!" the author continues. "Star Wars really defined my childhood - and my adulthood, for that matter - but it was a little while before the toys really got cranking and I got my beloved cassette tape of Roscoe Lee Brown narrating the story."
For Grunberg, too, "Star Wars" has had a profound impact on his life - particularly when J.J. Abrams, his friend since age 5, directed 2015's "Episode VII: The Force Awakens." Four decades after Grunberg went to the Avco Center Cinema that magical summer, the echoes continue.
"When we shot 'Episode VII,' the production call sheet read, 'AVCO' as the fake production name because it was such a top-secret project," the actor and "Dream Jumper" graphic novelist says.
"I thought it was so cool that they used the name of the theater where it premiered when I was a kid."
'Star Wars' at 40: Fans recall the magic of seeing the film during that first su
'The Force' still strong in Star Wars set decorator, 40 years later
By Joe Warmington, Toronto Sun
First posted: Saturday, May 27, 2017 04:28 PM EDT | Updated: Saturday, May 27, 2017 05:02 PM EDT
It may have been a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away but Roger Christian never underestimated the power of The Force.
So he understands when people tell him every day how Star Wars changed their life.
It changed his.
“George Lucas was on to something there,” he said with a smile in his Etobicoke home.
The truth is Christian was on to some amazing stuff, himself.
This week marked the 40th anniversary Star Wars release and on his desk is one of the legendary prop treasures from that classic movie that turned into its own empire.
It’s the lightsabre, itself. On a bookshelf is the gold Oscar statue he won for his production design.
Now 73, soft-spoken, cerebral and humble, Roger can’t believe it was actually 41 years ago in 1976 when Christian found what become the iconic movie weapon used by Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.
“The idea of the lightsabre was in George’s script but we still didn’t have it,” recalls Christian, who was the set director on the first Star Wars film and who later was second unit director on The Return of the Jedi, was well.
The problem was the crew was off to Tunisia to start shooting.
“George said we needed to have something because it had to hang off of Mark Hamill’s belt,” said Christian.
Roger was in a photography store in London, England, buying camera equipment to make the binoculars Luke used and before he left, looked through some boxes when it jumped out at him.
“It was a flash handle from an old press camera,” he said. “It was like destiny struck for me. It was Excalibur.”
They added a ring to the bottom of it, and glued some wood dowlings to the base to allow for some modern day swashbuckling on set that would later, with the technology of the day, be replaced with the light that soon became synonymous with the Star Wars signature Jedi Warrior weapon.
“A lot of Star Wars was put together with glue,” Christian said laughing. “We had very little money. We had to improvise.”
The Millennium Falcon is an example.
“We just bought a bunch of old airplane parts and put it together,” he said.
R2D2 and C-3PO and the weapons used by Harrison Ford’s Han Solo and Carrie Fisher’s Leia were inventions on the fly too.
They are all part of film and popular culture history now.
Four decades after that history being made, Christian reflects on the whole journey of how he got involved.
“George was hoping to make what he called a ‘space western’ and he was looking for a dusty-looking science fiction look rather than a shiny look,” he said. “I was working on sets for a movie called Lucky Lady starring Gene Hackman, Liza Minnelli and Burt Reynolds in Mexico and George came down to see me.”
Roger was one of the original five people hired on Star Wars. As the project developed, there were many who scoffed at it, but not Roger.
“George was creating something for people to believe in and I saw that,” he said. “It was a heroes’ journey.”
Roger is still on that journey. Having also worked on Alien and many other films, he’s now developing a full-length movie from Black Angel, a short film he did as a prequel to the Empire Strikes Back, and is also working on a documentary of his time working on Star Wars, much of which is outlined in a fascinating behind-the-scenes book he recently released called, Cinema Alchemist.
It’s a page turner and a conversation with him is riveting from his stories about the cast members to his new life in Canada where he’s married to a Toronto lawyer and businesswoman Lina Dhingra and they have a three-a-half-year old son Arjun. Christian also has two grown kids from a previous marriage – his daughter Camille, who lives in London, and his son, Thomas, who also lives in Toronto.
Interesting that his little boy has no idea that his famous dad was the guy behind the lightsabre.
“The other day, he said when he grows up he’d like to work on Star Wars,” said Christian, laughing. “Maybe he heard about it at school.”
Forty years on, The Force is still very much with Roger Christian.
jwarmington@postmedia.com
'The Force' still strong in Star Wars set decorator, 40 years later | WARMINGTON
By Joe Warmington, Toronto Sun
First posted: Saturday, May 27, 2017 04:28 PM EDT | Updated: Saturday, May 27, 2017 05:02 PM EDT
It may have been a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away but Roger Christian never underestimated the power of The Force.
So he understands when people tell him every day how Star Wars changed their life.
It changed his.
“George Lucas was on to something there,” he said with a smile in his Etobicoke home.
The truth is Christian was on to some amazing stuff, himself.
This week marked the 40th anniversary Star Wars release and on his desk is one of the legendary prop treasures from that classic movie that turned into its own empire.
It’s the lightsabre, itself. On a bookshelf is the gold Oscar statue he won for his production design.
Now 73, soft-spoken, cerebral and humble, Roger can’t believe it was actually 41 years ago in 1976 when Christian found what become the iconic movie weapon used by Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.
“The idea of the lightsabre was in George’s script but we still didn’t have it,” recalls Christian, who was the set director on the first Star Wars film and who later was second unit director on The Return of the Jedi, was well.
The problem was the crew was off to Tunisia to start shooting.
“George said we needed to have something because it had to hang off of Mark Hamill’s belt,” said Christian.
Roger was in a photography store in London, England, buying camera equipment to make the binoculars Luke used and before he left, looked through some boxes when it jumped out at him.
“It was a flash handle from an old press camera,” he said. “It was like destiny struck for me. It was Excalibur.”
They added a ring to the bottom of it, and glued some wood dowlings to the base to allow for some modern day swashbuckling on set that would later, with the technology of the day, be replaced with the light that soon became synonymous with the Star Wars signature Jedi Warrior weapon.
“A lot of Star Wars was put together with glue,” Christian said laughing. “We had very little money. We had to improvise.”
The Millennium Falcon is an example.
“We just bought a bunch of old airplane parts and put it together,” he said.
R2D2 and C-3PO and the weapons used by Harrison Ford’s Han Solo and Carrie Fisher’s Leia were inventions on the fly too.
They are all part of film and popular culture history now.
Four decades after that history being made, Christian reflects on the whole journey of how he got involved.
“George was hoping to make what he called a ‘space western’ and he was looking for a dusty-looking science fiction look rather than a shiny look,” he said. “I was working on sets for a movie called Lucky Lady starring Gene Hackman, Liza Minnelli and Burt Reynolds in Mexico and George came down to see me.”
Roger was one of the original five people hired on Star Wars. As the project developed, there were many who scoffed at it, but not Roger.
“George was creating something for people to believe in and I saw that,” he said. “It was a heroes’ journey.”
Roger is still on that journey. Having also worked on Alien and many other films, he’s now developing a full-length movie from Black Angel, a short film he did as a prequel to the Empire Strikes Back, and is also working on a documentary of his time working on Star Wars, much of which is outlined in a fascinating behind-the-scenes book he recently released called, Cinema Alchemist.
It’s a page turner and a conversation with him is riveting from his stories about the cast members to his new life in Canada where he’s married to a Toronto lawyer and businesswoman Lina Dhingra and they have a three-a-half-year old son Arjun. Christian also has two grown kids from a previous marriage – his daughter Camille, who lives in London, and his son, Thomas, who also lives in Toronto.
Interesting that his little boy has no idea that his famous dad was the guy behind the lightsabre.
“The other day, he said when he grows up he’d like to work on Star Wars,” said Christian, laughing. “Maybe he heard about it at school.”
Forty years on, The Force is still very much with Roger Christian.
jwarmington@postmedia.com
'The Force' still strong in Star Wars set decorator, 40 years later | WARMINGTON