STAR WARS AT 40 (AND ME TOO)
Forty years ago today, STAR WARS premiered on 32 screens. Written and directed by George Lucas, this little space fantasy film about the battle against an evil Galactic Empire rapidly spread across the country as it captured the imagination of audiences everywhere. I was six months old.
I was so young when Star Wars hit that I can’t remember a time when it didn’t exist. My dad told my mom ‘David will love this…when he’s old enough’ and they were right on. My first Star Wars action figure was the droid R5-D4 from the second wave of toys, which was released as fast as the toy company could make them.
How did I end up seeing Star Wars so many times in theaters before the days of VCRS? Well, it not only played continually in theaters; it was re-released every year between movies. This meant that by the time I WAS old enough, my cousin Kevin and I got to see it quite a few times before THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and my mind was REALLY blown.
Thank you to my mom and dad, George Lucas, Ralph McQuarrie, Joe Johnston, John Williams and of course Mark, Carrie, Harrison, Tony, Kenny, Peter and countless others who contributed to this galaxy far, far away. By introducing me to a world of imagination, hope, creativity and art, Star Wars helped foster my imagination at an early age, which inspired me to be an artist and 'outside the box' thinker.
I don’t have the whole ‘artist’ thing figured out just yet, but with more training there's a chance I'll get there.
Maybe it will happen before we both turn fifty.
May the Force be with you,
David
May 25, 2017