People Weekly, July '77

Another great little item from Ebay is this issue of People Weekly which came out right amidst the hype of the theatrical release of Star Wars. It's items like these that really make collecting fulfilling for me; little snapshots of that era that cover so may things other than Star Wars itself. The advertisements are great too.

'How come I enjoy smoking and you don't, you pussy!' I'm too young to remember the joys of Peter Frampton and as for the 'Thrust of the matador', I think I'll pass thanks.

The article on Star Wars didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know, but it does have some nice behind the scenes pictures I've never seen before.

The '78 Holiday Special Animated Segment

Few Star Wars fans need an introduction to the infamous 'Holiday Special' that was aired November 17th, 1978. I wasn't around then, but I've seen it since and yes, it truly is dreadful. I won't go into the details here (perhaps at a later date), but by far the best part of the whole debacle was this 9 min animated short which famously introduced the bounty hunter Boba Fett who wasn't even in the first film. By then, the hype was building for 'Star Wars 2' and the following year Kenner released an action figure of the character in both the small and the 12 inch lines with 'Star Wars' packaging.

The animated segment was produced by Canadian company Nelvana Studios (who would go on to produce the 'Droids' and 'Ewoks' cartoons of the late 80's). What is special to me about this cartoon is the fact that most of the original cast voice their characters. Try getting Harrison Ford on board such a project these days! Anyway, here it is, 'The Faithful Wookie'...

Official Poster Monthly #2

First item for this blog is a little gem I picked up relatively cheaply on Ebay about a year ago. The 'Official Poster Monthly' was a magazine begun by Paradise Press in the US in late '77. Basically it's one gigantic poster (2ft by 3ft) with newspaper style articles on the reverse depicting little snippets of info on the making of the film and bios on characters and vehicles etc.







In issue 2 (released Nov '77) we have one of those great little bits of 'pre-Empire Strikes Back' lore on Darth Vader which, needless to say, gets it totally wrong. As with the writers of the Marvel comics (some of those later), publishers were really sailing without a compass when it came to the histories of the characters. Let me quote;

"Those who learn about the Force must be on their guard, however. As on earth where we have White and Black Magic, so the Force has its dark side and Vader, for reasons that are unclear, became consumed by it. It led him to that fateful day when, in a fierce battle, he killed Luke Skywalker's father.
What is less well-known, is that Vader was then almost killed by Ben Kenobi, who was understandably enraged at his disciple's fall from grace. Vader's life might have ended then and there with a quick stab from a light saber; instead, during the fight, Vader stumbled backwards and fell into a volcanic pit where he was nearly fried alive."

An interesting little piece of early Star Wars merchandise, and probably one of the first mentions as to why Vader wore that black suit and mask in the first place. On the reverse of the magazine is an advertisement for some vintage memorabilia like the '78 Calendar, t-shirt transfers, key chains and 'Authentic Darth Vader Communicator' which I have no idea about, although it humorously states that its mirror can be 'used to see your own reflection'! Wow, that space-age technology...