"This will be a day long remembered," he said. He was right!

December 8, 1977. Sound familiar? It should, to any fan of Star Wars who lives, or lived, in South Australia. What was so special? Well...

Uh huh. You guessed. This was the day Star Wars opened in Adelaide -- a long seven months after it opened in the US. That was the way it happened, way back when. Australia might as we have been -- well, Tattooine. 

The tickets had been booked about ten days in advance and picked up about two days before. They were standing on the mantelpiece, just waiting for opening night ... and this was it. On December 8th, just over 1,000 people formed up at the Hoyts Cinema One, in the Regent Arcade, downtown, and ... the rest is history. 

Many people came in costume, looong before the word "cosplay" was invented. Me? No, but I do even remember what I was wearing that night! It was very hot and humid -- as December can be in our neck of the woods. I was 19, plus a few odd weeks, and a movie romance was about to begin that would follow me through the next four decades...

Being 19, I glommed onto Han Solo, of course. The smuggler, the pirate, the gunfighter -- why wouldn't you? It wasn't a question of "not liking" Luke and Leia (which was pronounced Lee-a at the time, remember?), but more about identifying with the powerful "loose cannon" who was (duh) a somewhat more romantic a figure than a farm hand who'd just made it out of the boonies, and a teenage politician.

Sure enough, it didn't take long before Luke and Leia (soon to be pronounced Lay-a ... and make out of that what you will; and people did) were beefed up into full-on action heroes:

Looking back across the years -- and across so many films -- I realize the original Star Wars (not to be known as A New Hope for some time!) was always my real favorite. The others films were not quite what I'd wanted to see as the saga continued. I confess to being somewhat discumknockerated when Return of the Jedi was framed and packaged for fairly young children. I give you a challenge: watch Hope and Jedi back to back, eyes wide open, and focus on Harrison Ford's performance. In Hope, he's acting to adults. In Jedi, he's acting to children. There's a marked difference in the performances; and you'll forgive me if, as an adult, I prefer the Star Wars we enjoyed before it changed direction and was aimed at kids.

So I'll sign off with a bunch of "Snapshots" from behind the scenes, which conjure the distant days when Star Wars was still so new, even the pronunciations were yet to be nailed down ... much less the circumstances of Luke's father! And I do believe I know what I'll be watching tonight...

Of course, there's more (there's always more!), and of course we saw all the other movies, and bought all the DVDs (and before them, the VHS videos, and in future, very likely the Blue-ray disks!), so...

(Copyright stuff on the images: they belong to Lucasfilm Ltd., or possibly even to Disney, these days. I do NOT own them ... I use them here as a celebration of Star Wars, not for personal gain. Call it free advertising for Rogue One, which is imminent. Don't worry, Walt, I won't send the bill. Now, would I do that?!)