What It Was Really Like To See Star Wars In 1977 - YouTube

On May 25, 1977, a pop culture phenomenon was  born. After months of hype, a movie called Star  

Wars hit theaters. But what was it really like  seeing the film back in 1977? We've gathered  

accounts from filmmakers, journalists, and  fans to take us back to a galaxy far, far away.

While it took a week or two for Star  Wars fever to fully catch on nationwide,  

it was an overnight sensation in California. The  film premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in  

Hollywood, where it became completely normal to  see lines of fans camped outside the moviehouse.

Actress Carrie Fisher told Time magazine…

"It wasn't like a movie opening,  it was like an earthquake."

The Chinese Theatre was at the epicenter of that  earthquake, and thousands of fans were drawn to  

it every day. Speaking to CNN, Star Wars fan  Chris Balduc recalled traveling from the San  

Fernando Valley to Hollywood to see the movie  on May 26th, just one day after the film opened.

"The long line wound down the street from  Grauman's Chinese Theatre and around the block.  

News helicopters hovered in the air above  the crowd. Star Wars was the first film  

to earn a reputation as a party movie —  the fans brought costumes, beach balls,  

folding chairs for the line, and an almost  palatable anticipation. [...] There was no  

better place to see it than Grauman's  Chinese in its pre-multiplex days."

On advice from 20th Century Fox, the owners of  the famous theater only booked Star Wars for a  

two-week run. When a scheduling conflict meant  they couldn't show the hit film after that,  

they resorted to desperate measures  and refurbished an old cinema.

Larry Gleason, former president of Mann  Theatres, told The Hollywood Reporter...

"We moved Star Wars there, where it played for  two weeks before coming back to the Chinese."

Star Wars toys would explode in  popularity over the next couple years,  

but back when the film was first released,  

the toys weren't ready and all kids had was  the movie itself. George Lucas' film became  

so popular with youngsters that some of them  were even ditching school so they could see it.

A lifelong fan, Patrick Payne, told StarWars.com…

"Unless you lived through it (and can remember),  it's kind of hard for modern audiences to  

understand just how different the world was in  1977, just prior to the release of Star Wars.  

I had seen the trailers on TV and  in the theater, months earlier.  

They didn't say much. However, what little they  showed had already triggered my imagination."

Payne sought out the novelization of Star Wars,  which had hit the shelves in November 1976.  

After reading the book, he knew that he absolutely  had to see the story play out on the big screen.

Payne recalled that a little thing like  class wasn't going to stand in his way…

"I, for one, was NOT going to miss this movie  even if I had to miss school! Therefore, I skipped  

school (sorry, parents), took the bus downtown  [...] and saw the very first show on opening day."

Another young film enthusiast who saw  the film on opening day was Brad Bird,  

who would later direct such hit films as  Ratatouille and The Incredibles. He described  

to CNN what happened in the theater when Darth  Vader appeared on screen for the first time.

"The audience simultaneously boos  and hisses like it's a silent movie."

In the mid to late 1970s, there  weren't a lot of movies with broad,  

cross-generational appeal being released, which  is another reason why Star Wars did so well.  

Speaking to the official Star Wars website on  the 40th anniversary of the film's release,  

artist Paul Bateman revealed that his  father wasn't really interested in  

seeing a space movie at first, but he  ended up having the time of his life.

Bateman fondly recalled...

"When we arrived at the theater, the line  to buy tickets was around the block, and  

Dad was bored waiting in the line. However,  

not too long after the opening scenes, my dad  became just as engrossed in the film as I was.  

He was cheering and reacting along with  every adult and child in the audience."

California native Fred White had just turned  eight years old when Star Wars came out,  

and despite knowing absolutely  nothing about the film,  

he was hugely excited when his father  told him they were going to see it.

White reminisced about that day to CNN...

"He said, 'It's called Star Wars.'  I clearly remember thinking,  

'Star Wars, that's a weird name.' We saw it that  day, and I never thought it sounded weird again."

Like so many kids his age, Star Wars  became a huge part of White's childhood,  

and he has shared a special bond with his dad  since that day. They even started a Star Wars  

tradition and went to the opening  day of the next two films together.

One of the reasons Star Wars managed  to stay in theaters for so long  

was because people were  returning for repeat viewings.  

There was even a healthy competition  breaking out among the fledgling  

fandom. When the topic came up on Reddit, one  user recalled seeing Star Wars over a dozen times.

The Redditor wrote...

"It was absolutely the coolest thing ever.  

Saw that sucker 14 times that summer. First  movie I ever went to see more than once."

"What do you want to do tonight? Oh, and if  you say, 'See Star Wars again,' I'm leaving."

"You don't want to leave."

Another Reddit user recalled seeing  it at least once a week for the entire  

summer after getting his initially  reluctant friends hooked on the film.

"When it finally made it to the discount theater,  

we went as groups every  weekend through year's end."

Of course, going to see a movie isn't free.  It's all well and good when you're an adult  

with a job to support your new Star Wars  obsession, but how did kids in the 1970s  

manage to see the film so many times? Well,  13-year-old Russell Burgos and his friend Scott  

maximized their budget by getting  three showings for the price of one.

He admitted to CNN...

"[We] rode our bikes seven miles to the  biggest cinema in our area, waited on line  

three hours, and then sat through three  viewings in a row, hiding behind the screen  

curtains and in the emergency exit stairwells  while the theater was cleaned between shows."

In a passionate Medium article, Star Wars fan  Rob Conery said that seeing the movie in theaters  

at age nine was a life-altering experience  for him, reminding younger film fans just  

how unique it was at the time. According to  Conery, it wasn't just the visual effects  

that made Star Wars unlike anything people  had seen before, it was the whole package.

He wrote…

"Most movies you would go see as a kid were kind  of crappy. I remember really liking Escape to  

Witch Mountain and the Herbie movies, but  as I grew older I wanted something more.  

More adventure and, yes, a little  bit of suspense and scariness, too.  

We just didn't have that back then  — it was all goofy Disney dreck."

That all changed when Star Wars  came along. According to Conery,  

it was the perfect escape  activity for the pre-internet age,  

when kids didn't have endless  entertainment at their fingertips.

Conery added…

"There was absolutely nothing like Star Wars when  it came out. I'm struggling to come up with some  

relevant analogy for movies today; something that  makes you jump up and scream, that alters your  

life profoundly and makes you believe in space  travel, exotic alien planets, and the Force."

Much like Conery, fans from around  the globe had their eyes and minds  

opened to endless possibilities by this film.

"You've taken your first  step into a larger world."

Patty Hammond, creator of the Everyday Fangirl  blog, won tickets to see Star Wars from a local  

TV station. The trouble was, the theater was a  40-mile round trip-journey from her family home.

Hammond wrote about the  experience for StarWars.com…

"Back then, the freeway system was not what  it is today, and a trip to the theater took  

over an hour. However, with Dad being a big  science fiction fan, we decided to do it."

Lucas' space opera more than lived up  to her and her father's expectations.

Hammond elaborated...

"When we came out of the theater he said,  

'Mark my words! This movie WILL become a  classic.' Boy, did he predict that one."

Of course, back then, it wasn't  uncommon to drive to a movie  

and see it without ever having to leave your  vehicle. Star Wars played as a double feature  

with Smokey and the Bandit at a number of  drive-in theaters, including one in Kansas,  

where CNET's Bonnie Burton was watching  in awe from the back of a pick-up truck.

Burton remembers with wonder the  experience of seeing Star Wars outdoors...

"I can't adequately express the fun of  watching Skywalker blow up the Death  

Star on a big screen beneath  a sky full of twinkly stars.  

As an imaginative kid, it was hard to  see where the Star Wars galaxy ended  

and our own night sky began. After that  experience, I'd stare up at the sky throughout  

my childhood hoping to see the Millennium  Falcon zip by Earth on its way to Coruscant."

One of the reasons that Star Wars got such an  enthusiastic welcome in 1977 is because there  

wasn't a whole lot of joy at the time. George  Lucas' debut feature THX 1138 was a dark,  

gritty sci-fi experience, but he grew up  adoring characters like Flash Gordon and  

wanted to capture that type of magic with  an uplifting tale of good versus evil.  

Lucas' vision apparently didn't go  down well among veteran sci-fi writers,  

who didn't want to see the genre  watered down for younger viewers.

August Ragone, who saw the movie  on opening day, told Tested…

"They hated that Star Wars legitimized  sci-fi. But at the time, we needed Star  

Wars. We had a recession, we had an  energy crisis, and we needed some  

serious escapism. It was the perfect adventure  movie for a kid and the kid in everyone."

According to Ragone, Star Wars  lifted and connected people.

The longtime sci-fi fan also said…

"It was a moment in time and a shared experience  that happened in cities all across America.  

It caught everybody off guard, and  something like that hasn't happened since."

Even veteran broadcast journalist Walter  Cronkite spoke highly of the film when he  

was interviewed for the documentary Empire Of  Dreams – The Story Of The Star Wars Trilogy.

Cronkite had this to say...

"George Lucas' Star Wars lifted us out  of our [...] depression of the '70s and  

into an awareness and focus on space, and its  possible future. This movie stood by itself."

Lucas, himself, had a similar perspective  on the film and why it was so successful…

"It's been a long time since people have  been able to go to the movies and see a,  

sort of, straightforward,  wholesome, fun adventure.”

Believe it or not, some people weren't that  into Star Wars when they saw it on the big  

screen in 1977. While many veteran  film critics, such as Roger Ebert,  

waxed lyrical about the film, some of  his peers were definitely not impressed.

Joy Gould Boyum wrote in The Wall Street Journal…

"There's something depressing about seeing  all these impressive cinematic gifts and all  

this extraordinary technological skill  lavished on such puerile materials."

"I find your lack of faith disturbing."

It's hard to understand now but some  viewers were so underwhelmed that  

they actually walked out of the  film. Speaking to StarWars.com,  

fan Denise Steil revealed that she  watched the majority of the movie  

alone at a theater in small town Mississippi  after her friends decided to get up and leave.

"We arrived a little late, as usual, just as  Artoo and Threepio were walking across the  

sands of Tatooine. About 15 minutes later,  my friends declared the movie to be 'lame'  

and walked out. I stayed, by myself, and  fell in love with Luke Skywalker, Han Solo,  

and Princess Leia. I met with them again the  following night and again the following weekend."

Although it's tame by today's standards, for  some younger viewers, Star Wars was actually  

a little too violent. In the U.K., one young girl  complained about the scene in which Alec Guinness'  

Obi-Wan Kenobi protects Luke and slices off Ponda  Baba's arm with a swift stroke of his lightsaber.

"It was exciting, but I didn't like the bit  when the man chopped off the person's arm."

"Why not?"

"Cause there was blood!"

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