Happy Birthday, Star Wars

[sdelmonte]

A long time ago, - thrity years - in a theater far away - the old RKO Keith's on Main Street and Nothern Boulevard in Flushing - an unheralded film called Star Wars opened.

Where has the time gone?

OK, people, make me feel old. How many of you saw it in the theaters back then? How many saw it the second time in the 90s?

Comments

[camwyn]

I remember seeing it in theaters, but it had to have been at a second-run theatre or something, because thirty years ago I was three years old- and I can remember my aunt who took me to see it knowing about the events of Empire. I must've seen it at a $2 theatre on Steinway Street or something.

[sdelmonte]

I'll count that. It was still the original Han Shot First version.

[camwyn]

Damn straight it was.

[dawning-star.livejournal.com]

I saw it in the nineties. I didn't exist when it originally came out.

Have I succeeded in my duty of making you feel old? ;)

[sdelmonte]

Yup. :)

[allisona.livejournal.com]

Me, I saw it in the theatres in the summer of '77. I was 16 and it blew my mind. Saw it three times that summer, which was unheard of for me. Collected articles, bubble gum cards- yeah, it was a passion. Had a crush on Luke Skywalker. Every time I watch that first Star Wars film I still do.

Went back to see the (ahem) "new and improved" versions in the 90's, too.

But nothing will beat the awe of that summer of '77.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I saw it in the theater in '77. mabfan and I saw it together, as well, in the '90s.

[mbarr.livejournal.com]

I saw it in the theatres in the 90's, but I rememeber seeing on of the original trilogy, at least, in the theatre. It might have even been Empire.. but I'm thinking it was Return. I wasn't *quite* born yet when the first one came out- July 21st '77...

But I obviously saw the original Han shoots first, at some point.. at least once :-)

[maya-a.livejournal.com]

Saw it in theaters both times. We couldn't stop talking about it on the way home in the subway from Times Square that first time. We were as high as the proverbial kites. The special effects! The mythic story! Wow, was that a blast! The second time, a disappointment, but at least I have always loved the Ziegfeld.

Gulp. 30 years. That means it's almost 30 years since the blackout, too.

[akawil]

I saw the original run in the theater, at the age of 4.

I remember being terrified and hiding under the seat. I'm pretty sure this was during the scene where they're being shot at in the hallway, right before they jump into the garbage crusher.

[aberrantangels]

I saw it sometime within the first year after it opened (so I would have been seven or eight), and again when the Special Edition was in cinemas.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Saw it multiple times in the theatre the first time around. I was 7 years old in 1977, and I became obsessed with Star Wars. I'd have a fortune in toys at my moms if I'd been more gentle in playing with them. :)

[silveraspen]

Original run and rerelease both, yep.

Except for Empire, which for some reason my mom thought was not okay for young me to see in the theater. She was soundly disabused of the notion at Thanksgiving that year when I buried myself in the corner of the room with my cousin's comics and novel adaptation and desperately tried to catch up. Yes, even when I was THAT YOUNG.

There were no arguments over RotJ.

[zsero.livejournal.com]

I saw it in the summer of 77-78. I was 13. It was only the second time I'd been to a cinema, and the first time I'd done so at my own initiative.

I saw it again when it came out in the '90s.

[skygiants]

I was probably around eight years away from being a gleam in my parents' eyes.

. . . on the other hand, if I was a gleam in their eyes, and they saw it, which I know they did, then it could be argued . . .

[agonistes]

...to make you feel doubly old: I was just under eight years from being around in 1977.

And when it came out in the 90s, I couldn't drive, and my parents are, shall we say, not geeks.

But! Chesterfield showed me on the church TV and VCR when I was eight and he was six! And it was THE BEST THING EVER!

[unfilthy.livejournal.com]

Hey, just popping in to let you know that you've got an invite waiting for you. You can pick it up here: http://www.livejournal.com/manage/invites.bml

[the_croupier]

Yup, saw it both times. I was still in the single digits of life when I saw SW, but old enough to get completely swept away by it.

I'm still amused by the few fragments of fanfic that survive from those years between SW and Empire. People's expectations of what was going on were so very different from what Lucas had in mind. You can still see the difference in how Foster writes Luke and Leia in Splinter of the Minds Eye.

[happyfunpaul.livejournal.com]

I saw the original "Star Wars" in 1977 in a movie theater (can't recall which one, but somewhere in the Boston area), though not until the movie had already been out for a month or more. I saw it three times that summer, in all; I was nine at the time, which was a most excellent age to see Star Wars.

I also saw the theatrical rerelease in the 1990s.