Danny writes:
While next year, 2027, is the 50th anniversary of Star Wars in theaters, 2026 is the 50th anniversary of when the promotion of Star Wars really kicked off. This is part one of a multipart series about Star Wars promotions before the initial release.
American Graffiti was released in the Summer of 1973 and was an immediate smash hit. People were obviously very interested in what George Lucas would work on next. George was interviewed in several film magazines in 1973 and 1974 where he was asked about his next movie and each time he would reply with a variation of “Star Wars is a science fiction movie that’s a cross between 2001, Flash Gordon and James Bond.” Notably, these articles don’t show any concept art or talk about any of the characters. I don’t think the general public knew about these interviews as they were in relatively obscure magazines aimed at people involved in the moviemaking industry. In fact as I track down these issues, very often the title of George's new movie isn’t even mentioned!
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| Filmmakers Newsletter, March 1974 |
That would all change in 1975 when Lucas would be interviewed by more mainstream magazines. First, he was in an article of Esquire about the new era of Hollywood including other greats such as Scorsese, Spielberg, De Palma, De Niro, and finally the writing team of husband and wife Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz. In case you don’t know about the Huycks, in addition to writing American Graffiti, they were instrumental in script polishing Star Wars including cleaning up the cantina scenes and peppering the whole movie with quippy dialog. At the end of George’s segment:
"Lucas' current project is The Star Wars, 'the first multimillion-dollar Flash Gordon kind of movie with The Magnificent Seven thrown in. But I’m also sneaking in a bit of Triumph of the Will, just so a point is made.'"
But the best thing about this article is the photo of George and his dog. There is no caption or mention of the dog’s name; but we know this is Indiana. The Alaskan Malamute who sat in the front seat of the car like a huge furry co-pilot and was the inspiration for not just Chewbacca, but also the namesake of Indiana Jones.
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| A man and his dog. Photographed by Anthony Edgeworth. Esquire Feb. 1975 |
It wasn’t until a December 22, 1975 article in Newsweek titled "Science Fiction: The Great Escape" that the general public would have its first image of Star Wars. In that six page article covering the rise of science fiction movies, Star Wars gets only half a paragraph:
"Less intellectual perhaps will be 'The Star Wars,' a $9 million movie about a juvenile gang rumble against Fascist oppressors of the galaxy. Its director, George Lucas, who made 'American Graffiti' and the futuristic 'THX-1138' doesn't care if it's called science fiction or not. 'A shoot-em-up with ray guns' is his description. 'A romantic fantasy about as serious as a spaghetti western. A sword and sorcery film.'"
The rest of the paragraph talks about Steven Spielberg's upcoming movie Close Encounters of The Third Kind and how that will soon be considered "The Jaws of Science Fiction movies." The bulk of the article discusses TV shows and novels over the past ten years, such as Star Trek, Space:1999, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Dune.
Behind the title of the article is our first public visualization of Star Wars: a black and white Ralph McQuarrie painting of a TIE Fighter pursuing Y-Wings flying towards a planet. This painting is the second version of the artwork. The first version had an early rendition of the strut covered Death Star instead of a planet. The image in the magazine gives us a glimpse of what Star Wars would be but with the low resolution of the magazine, it is hard to make out the details. This would be fixed in later publications.
In January 1976, 20th Century-Fox held an event called "26 for 76" where they touted the 26 films they planned to release in theaters in 1976. The event was to convince theater owners to book them to help finance the films in production. Star Wars originally had a December 1976 release date so it was the 26th movie on the list.
There are a surprising number of collectibles from this event including posters, magazine ads, pencils, notebooks and of course the brochure touting all 26 movies.
The poster was printed in two sizes and are extremely rare: a one sheet which was 27x41 inches and a larger 40x60 poster. Both were printed in silver ink with a black background similar to how the Star Wars advance posters would later be printed.
Pete Vilmur has previously written about the "26 for 76" Poster in the Archive Database.
It should be noted that the posters don’t mention Star Wars at all and only feature the "26 for 76" logo. The ads in Variety and Box Office magazines do a better job and include the titles of all 26 movies (including Star Wars) but are also just text, no visuals.
Lucky attendees received a binder emblazoned with the 20th Century logo all around, an exclusive "26 for 76" pencil and notepad for taking notes and the brochure listing all 26 movies. The Star Wars page reused the same McQuarrie art as the Newsweek article but it has been altered. The Y-wings and the stars in space were painted over with black and white highlights. This technique is called enhanced contrast and it was used to make things more visible on lower resolution black and white print formats like newspapers. Note that the Star Wars title used in this publication is in a font not used elsewhere and predates the Dan Perri and Suzy Rice logos that were used in 1977.
There is another interesting piece of art that I don’t think made it to production. This is a full color version of the same McQuarrie TIE Fighter painting pasted onto a board with a hand painted overlay saying Star Wars in the same font as the version used in the "26 for 76" booklet. This came from the collection of Bill Wallen who was involved with making early promotion and advertising campaigns for the film. I believe this mockup was an alternative concept for the "26 for 76" booklet that was not used because the brochure ended up being a black and white lower resolution book.
Star Wars-specific campaign brochures sent to theaters in 1977 used later versions of the logo and used actual stills from the movie. The fact that this mockup is purely concept artwork and that the Star Wars title font matches the one used in the "26 for 76" brochure both imply it was created before filming started around the same time as "26 for 76."
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| Factors 1977 internal documents of the final version of TIE Fighter art with the Falcon and Death Star. Also shown is the original negative. This is the version that is used in promotions after "26 for 76." |
The next six months are mostly silent in terms of promotion as Star Wars enters production. Principal photography doesn’t wrap until late June/early July. Part II of this series will cover the summer conventions...stay tuned!
P.S. If you like this topic, check out Pete Vilmur's classic Archive Special Feature on pre-release items.
