Time for your siesta, Luke.
Star Wars is back in the news this week, with the official announcement that Luke, Han and Leia will once again appear in the upcoming Episode VII. Yeah, let's see how that goes. I mean, OK, I'm not totally on top of everything these actors are doing, but.... Mark Hamill has only retained a bit of fame by voicing The Joker on Batman cartoons; Carrie Fisher writes book after book about her mental and weight issues; and Harrison Ford hasn't done much of importance in movies in a very long time (though he does sport a snappy earring now).
But no Lando? Come on, it's not like Billy Dee Williams has film offers filling his mailbox every day. Get that smooth talkin' dude back into the game.
"This deal is getting worse all the time."
Jump back in time:
Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope first hit theatres in 1977. I was there. I'm not sure how many times I saw it in cinemas back then, but I do remember being on that bandwagon well before the film even completed production. I was one of those sci-fi nerds who bought Starlog and Future and other magazines to follow spacey TV and movie news and even real-life stuff (like the construction and launch of the very first space shuttle, Enterprise - hm, that name sounds familiar). So I had already been reading about Star Wars for months before that first movie even appeared on the silver screen.
My Luke and 3PO T-shirt looked awesome, so awesome in fact, that I nearly got beat up by the older kids at school. The teasing was relentless. And don't get me started about my Star Trek shirt!
I collected as much Star Wars related stuff as I could get my hands on - and afford. I bought just about every book I could find at the time, which weren't all that many compared to nowadays, when stores are chock full of books based on the seven feature films and countless TV series spin-offs. In '77, at the age of 13, I was a bit old for the action figures and other toys. But I did grab that original Hildebrandt poster and it is still in my collection (see below). Over the years, I've picked up some other Star Wars posters, which were reprints, but still handsome enough for my walls.
And the books... well, I'm happy that I hung onto all of them, for I've enjoyed thumbing through those pages over the decades. My main collecting years were around the time of Episode IV, with just the odd purchase following the releases of Eps V and VI (the novelizations, which at the time were the only way to re-enjoy the stories in those pre-home video days).
The Star Wars bed sheets and blanket were a nice touch to my bedroom as a tween kid, but there came a point when I knew it just wasn't cool anymore. So I put those things into storage (and I think I still have some of them somewhere) and I only kept the books out in plain view. Naturally, I eventually bought all of the movies on VHS, then later on DVD. I'm not a big collector anymore, but I do cherish my first editions of early Star Wars books and memorabilia. Not to mention the movie soundtracks on CD... and I sure played that Episode IV score (on vinyl, no less!) a lot.... even more than my rock albums for a while there.
Good times
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