A Long Time Ago, At A Convention Far, Far Away…STAR WARS!

By Chris M. Barkley: If you are a hardcore cinephile like myself, I have no doubt that you remember when a film burned itself into your memory bank so hard that you vividly remember exactly when and where you were when that magical moment happened.

For instance, I saw It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World in the early 1970’s in a now extinct theater that nowadays is a popular skating rink.

I had the privilege of seeing 2001; A Space Odyssey during a seven-day limited run in August 1974 at the now defunct Carousel Theater in all of its 70mm glory.

I first viewed Casablanca during exam week at the University of Cincinnati in 1975 in the Tangeman Student Center auditorium.  

I saw Citizen Kane for the first time in a very small viewing room of the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Main Library one winter morning during the same period.

I somehow missed the first run of The Matrix in the spring of 1999 but by the time August rolled around it was in a second-run, two dollar movie house in Norwood, Ohio near the hotel Midwestcon was held for many years. I was so dazzled by the story, characters, music and visual effects I went back and saw it two more times before it left town for good. 

But there was one particular, unforgettable film that I remember above all others.

Forty-eight years ago, on the evening of May 27th – 28th 1977, I first encountered George Lucas’ monumental and epic movie, Star Wars (as it was simply called until 1981, when it was permanently dubbed “A New Hope”.

And while my first viewing of Star Wars during the spring of 1977 was inevitable, I can say in hindsight that my initial time was not only incredibly fortuitous but historic as well.  

In May of that year, I was eleven months into my journey in sf fandom, which, in itself was also highly coincidental; I and my best friend Michaele had the good luck to stumble upon a legendary science fiction convention called Midwestcon (the 27th gathering that year) hosted by the Cincinnati Fantasy Group, who had hosted the 7th World Science Fiction Convention, Cinvention, in 1949.

In those ancient days before the internet, any word of a noteworthy sf fan activity, books, art or films was generally spread by word of mouth, magazines, radio, print newspapers or, on rare occasions, television.

As far as I was concerned, anything about Star Wars was well off my radar. If I had attended the 34th Worldcon in Kansas City in 1976 (which I could ill afford to go to at the time) I would have seen a spectacular exhibit sponsored by Lucasfilm Limited, laden with costumes, models, props teasing what the film was all about. Also present was a then little known actor named Mark Hamill, who reportedly lamented the fact that he had starred in this fantastic movie that no one had heard of or will see until next year.

Of course, Hamill, his castmates, the production crew and George Lucas himself had no idea of what they were about to unleash upon the world.

Lucas, who had some first-hand knowledge of sf fandom himself, knew instinctively that if other fans got behind this effort and spread a viral word of mouth campaign, there was a chance this might be a successful film.

This is not to say I was totally unaware of the movie; over the winter Del Rey/Ballantine Books had issued the novelization of Star Wars, which I saw and for the most part ignored because I had no idea what it was all about and looked like dozens of other space opera novels of that period.

(It should be duly noted that those first edition paperbacks, published in December of 1976 with a cover illustrated by Star Wars concept artist Ralph McQuarrie and ghost written by Alan Dean Foster, go for A LOT of pretty pennies nowadays.)

That spring, I heard  from other members of the CFG of another well known science fiction convention in Washington D.C. called Disclave, which was that area’s premiere fan events. Several people from the Cincinnati group attended on a regular basis and I decided to go as well.

I was twenty years old at the time and I wanted, for the first time in my life, to plan my own trip and travel alone. I booked a train ticket through the national rail system, AMTRAK and a hotel room at the sprawling Sheraton Park Hotel on Connecticut Avenue.

After a splendid overnight trip, I arrived at the hotel on a beautiful Friday afternoon and the first thing I heard about from friends and fans alike was about the film playing up the street at the Uptown Theater, Star Wars. I also heard that showings were sold out that day so I was not inclined to go see it initially.

Little did I know at the time that the Uptown was one of ONLY thirty-two theaters in America that had premiered Star Wars two days earlier on May 25th. Before the end of that weekend the number would grow to forty-four.

By Saturday morning, I had heard enough so I decided to find out what all of the hullabaloo was all about myself. Setting out early that afternoon, I started walking up Connecticut Avenue. 

The Uptown Theater was approximately 3/4 miles away from the hotel. As I got closer, I began to see that there were a great number of people gathered in the distance. When I reached the site I was astonished to see that the line of people stretched from the box office ticket window, south down the sidewalk and up Newark Street N.W., and astoundingly, past the urban neighborhood houses. 

I have never seen a longer line for a film since then.

There were a great deal of people milling about the theater. As I surveyed this swirl of humanity a miracle occurred; as I was standing there a man and a woman were profusely apologizing to another man, who was holding two red tickets. 

As the couple left, he turned, saw me and held up the two tickets. “They couldn’t make the midnight show. Would YOU like to buy them?”

Well, of course I said, “SURE!” 

He explained that he was one of the Uptown managers and was outside basically for customer service and to handle the crowd. 

“How much?” I asked eagerly.

“Three dollars each.”

And with that I handed over a five and a single dollar bill to witness history.

I walked back to the hotel somewhat surprised at my luck. I gave away one ticket upon my return but for the life of me I cannot remember who the lucky recipient was.

The rest of the day went by in a blur; I can’t remember a single thing I did between then and attending the film.

I returned to the theater by 11:30 p.m. to ensure I got a good seat. There were only a few dozen people ahead of me. Since the Uptown seated 850 people per showing, I was wise to turn up early.

When the doors opened, I hustled and quickly snagged a seat right towards the middle of the fifth or sixth row from the back of the theater.

When midnight came, the lights went down and there were no preview trailers. The audience spoke in low murmurs. I had no idea of what I was about to see.

I sat back as Alfred Newman’s familiar 20th Century Fox theme tolled. And after this evening, I would forever associate it with this particular film.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…the Star Wars logo burst into existence for the very first time! 

With an incredible clash of instruments, composer John Williams, doing the opposite of what he did two summers ago with his masterful and epic score for Jaws, had a stranglehold on my imagination immediately.

Next came the serial-like expositional screen crawl followed by the camera panning down to the planet of Tatooine and came the first of many splendors; Princess Leia’s cruiser under fire from Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer, which thundered over our heads with astounding effect.  With the four-track Dolby sound system, it seemingly put everyone there seemingly in the middle of the space battle!

And then, a cacophony of thrills; the deserts of Tatooine, the Jawas and their transport, the captive robots, the twin suns, the lightsaber, Mos Eisley spaceport, the Millenium Falcon going into hyperspace, the dreaded Death Star utterly obliterating Alderaan, the rebel’s escape and the climactic battle…

And two hours and one minute later it was all over.

The crowd rose in unison to applaud and scream their approval. A majority of them stayed for the credits as they rolled, something else I had NEVER seen before! For the record, I had no intention of leaving either. There was a very enthusiastic cheer for the Dolby sound system credit as well.

And so, with the last note of Williams magnificent score ringing in our ears, we exited the hall. I stood outside on the sidewalk, still quite stunned at what I just witnessed. The crowd was abuzz with many animated conversations and wildly exaggerated  hand gestures. 

And then I turned and saw one of my new fannish friends, a Baltimore area fan named Michael Walsh (who went on to become the Chair of ConStellation, the 41st Worldcon in 1983), in a similar state of mind. 

We locked eyes, spontaneously joined our hands together and began to dance like two madmen. 

(I also have the satisfaction of personally conveyed that scene to C3PO actor Anthony Daniels as he signed my copy of his book I Am C3PO, during his 2019 book tour. He gave me a generous, wide eyed smile in return.)

 And the rest, as they say frequently, is history. For the most part, I’ve enjoyed many of the series’ spin offs and sequels (with the possible exception of the Ewoks) and especially after the now concluded prequel series Andor, which I rank among the best of all of the iterations.

As far movie going experiences go, there are very few fantastic or transforming experiences as seeing Star Wars for the very first time on a 70mm screen in a full house of unsuspecting moviegoers.    

I haven’t forgotten that evening and I’m willing to bet that very few of those who were there haven’t either.

Reference Links:

• ‘Star Wars’ fans line up in DC for new movie, bursting with dedication – WTOP News
• An Oral History of the Uptown Theater – Washington City Paper