Tonight, Kathryn and I watched The Empire Strikes Back, in my opinion by far the superior of the first six Star Wars films. I was released May 22, 1981. I turned seventeen on the 26th of that year. And I saw TESB twenty times between the release date and that autumn. It's hard to imagine doing anything like that these days, because of sky-high ticket prices, but in the summer of '81, the average ticket price in the US was a mere $2.78 (vs. the current average of $8.34). Matinees were about a dollar. And that summer, that's what my girlfriend and I did. Over and over and over. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen on screen.
And tomorrow, thirty-four years and several lifetimes later, we'll see the seventh film.
Oh, and we watched Star Wars (1977) on Tuesday night. I was only thirteen when I saw Star Wars in the theater during that original release (only once), the summer in between seventh and eighth grades.
Here's a photo Spooky came across today, May 25, 1977, Star Wars opening day at Mann's Chinese Theater (formerly Grauman's).
TTFN,
Aunt Beast
