This "distressed" Rebel Alliance T-shirt is now
among my favourites in my wardrobe of nerd gear
As I near this momentous occasion, and the re-appearance of the actors/characters from the original trilogy (episodes IV - VI), I fondly recall my experiences during the very first Star Wars craze. Months before that first film appeared in theatres, I had already bought movie magazines revealing photos and info about the upcoming space fantasy. Shortly after I saw the movie, I got myself a poster (the Hildebrand illustration... still got it!), the novelization of the movie, and even a t-shirt (white, because black was not a cool tee colour yet) showing Luke and C-3PO. Man, I got kidded so much for wearing that shirt back in elementary school in the 70's. It just wasn't cool back then. You kids today have got it easy. Sci-fi is actually cool now. Back then, you'd get the snot beaten out of you for proclaiming your love of sci-fi. I managed.
I bought up some other Star Wars books back then, like the "Sketchbook" of pre-production designs, the Star Wars Blueprints (so I could build my own landspeeder, which I never did, dammit), and the Star Wars Album, which showed off lots of behind-the-scenes pics and info. Oh, and of course, I owned the first pressing of the soundtrack on vinyl record. Really.
The still photos that I bought back in either 1977 or 1978
at the Toronto International Exhibition. How those pics
survived my rides on the rollercoaster and Tilt-a-Whirl,
I'll never know. But they still have a home here in my
Star Wars collection.
At age 16, when The Empire Strikes Back hit theatres in Canada, I saw it not once, but twice. That was the first time I ever saw a movie more than once in the theatre. I think I first saw it with friends, then again on a whim I took my kid brother to see it one Saturday afternoon. I just had to to see Empire again, so I coughed up the cash for my brother's admission The cinema was packed so we couldn't get seats together, so we had to separate, sitting near each other but one row apart. Weird, but it didn't matter at the time.
Not many years ago, I forked out for a slightly
vintage R2-D2 toy, adorable as he guards my
computer desk 24-7
Return of the Jedi came along when I was just about to graduate from high school, but at least I was hanging with a crowd who were just as nuts about Star Wars as I was at the time. Quite the cinematic experience. I don't remember much about that outing, though I do recall seeing Leia's gold slave bikini for the first time. Hey, who doesn't?
For more of my Star Wars memories, check out this post and other entries about lots of other cool stuff. All approved by the Rebel Alliance.
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