December 15, 2025 • 17 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, before anyone understood the reach of Star Wars, a small toy company stepped in with an idea that would alter the future of licensing. The first run of 1977 Star Wars figures was modest, yet the response from children and collectors revealed something larger. These toys made the galaxy feel close enough to hold, and that closeness turned the franchise into a merchandising powerhouse.
Jarrod Roll—museum director and public historian known for his work preserving and interpreting American material culture—explains how this shift influenced the habits of young fans and redefined what a film could become once it left the screen.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on the show,
including your story. Send them to our American Stories dot com.
There's some of our favorites. And on this show, America
is the Star, the American people of the Star, speaking
of which the Nostalgia Awakens is an exhibit featuring every
(00:30):
action figure toy made by Kenner from nineteen seventy eight
to nineteen eighty five, based on the original three Star
Wars movies. The Star Wars Toys on Displayer from Jared,
role enthusiast and the museum curator from Wisconsin. He and
his brother Kevin owned many of the toys when they
were children. As an adult, Jared collected the rest of
(00:52):
the original toys. Here's Jared roll to share the story
of how Star Wars toys revolutionized movie merchandising, licensing, and
even how kids play.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Well. I guess we will go back to, you know,
to the beginning, and that was in nineteen seventy seven.
At that time, I was four years old and my
mother is a is a fan of sci fi. She
watched syndicated Star Trek episodes and she had learned of
this movie called Star Wars that was coming out. By
the time we saw it, it already had gained a
(01:29):
lot of interest, a lot of hype. Star Wars was
released in May of nineteen seventy seven to only thirty
two theaters in the United States. Just to put that
in perspective, So thirty two theaters. It's when The Force
Awakens was released. It was it debuted in over four
thousand theaters. So again, there are people who have documented
(01:52):
the story of Star Wars, you know, the Little Movie
that Could, and how it just changed everything. When that
movie came out, there was nothing like it. It changed everything.
It changed how we think about the relationship of toys
and movies, merchandising, licensing, how kids play. I mean, it
really solidified action figure toys. I mean, up to that point,
(02:16):
toys were not licensed for movies like they are now.
They just movies weren't around long enough to justify the
costs for toy companies to invest in a toy line. So,
with the exception of some evergreen licenses like Disney Looney Tunes,
you know, because they were around for decades and they
(02:40):
had other ways of appearing unless it was a TV show,
action figure and toy lines. They weren't made for movies,
and so that's why when the Kenner Toy Company signed
on to be the sole producer of toys for the
Star Wars movies, they were taking a risk. If you
(03:00):
would go to Walmart today or Target or any place
where toys are sold, you will see toys in the
aisle four blockbuster movies before the movie even comes out.
That's a given. You want to just get the most
out of it, help even create excitement for that property.
But when Star Wars came out in nineteen seventy seven,
kids like me who left the theater, we wanted toys
(03:24):
for that movie, but there are no toys to be had.
When George Lucas was in the process of creating Star Wars,
he knew he had a story that would appeal to kids.
So George Lucas shopped around the Star Wars license to
the big toy companies, first saying, you know, I've got
(03:46):
a movie coming out. I can't tell you a lot
about it. I can't show you much about it because
I'm keeping it a secret. But you know it's going
to be science fiction and it's going to involve you know,
characters that I think will translate well into a toy
line and the bigger to companies like Mattel and Migo.
You know, they said, will pass. You know, there's too
(04:06):
much risk involved. Quite frankly, you know, science fiction. This
really doesn't appeal to kids right now, and so it's
not worth our risk to do that. That's where now
the Kenner Toy Company enters the Sceno. Kenner at this point,
they were a small toy manufacturer in Cincinnati, Ohio. They
(04:27):
were a subsidiary of General Mills Foods. So if you've
ever eaten, count Chocula cereal and that's the company we're
talking about. And they were just the small toy arm
of General Mills. And so they were willing to take
a look at it. And it was just one of
those stories where where you just had the right people
working for Kenner at the time that saw the potential
of this movie. And being a smaller company they have
(04:51):
slightly less risk and they can be a little more
nimble than versus a giant toy company. And so Kenner
Toy said, we will do this, we can do this.
They shared some product samples with the Lucasfilm and Lucasfilm
said yeah, you you know, we're we're on the same
page when it comes to this, and so they signed
an agreement with Lucasfilm and they were the ones to
(05:14):
make these toys. You know, people will tell the story
about Bernie Loomis, you know, being asked the question, you know,
he was the president of Kenner at the time, what
size should we make these action figures? And Bernie and
Lumis Will you know, stretched out as his finger and
his thumb and said, Luke should be this tall and
that size was three and three quarter inch. The decision
(05:35):
that Kenner made was based on the idea that they
knew to make this toy line really really catch on
with kids, they needed to have a world for kids
to play in. They needed to have environments, you know
what we call playsets. They need to have vehicles for
the figures that go in. And to do that, you
can't do that inexpensively with a twelve inch toy line.
(05:59):
Up to that point, up to nineteen seventy seven, twelve
inch was a very common action figure or doll size
for boys. Dolls or action figures. G I. Joe really
started that certainly solidified it in the sixties and early seventies,
but they knew to have a millennium falcon that you
can't make a millennium falcon for a twelve inch han
(06:20):
solo there was it would be so expensive, and they're
you know, in retailers wouldn't want it for their shelves
because it would dominate the entire shelf for itself. And
so the three and three quarter inch line, you know
that that made sense, and Bernie Loomis made that choice
to keep the figures to that smaller size for that reason.
But it would take a full year before action figure
(06:42):
toys were even available for that property. So when Christmas
seventy seven rules around, kids like me, we want we
want Star Wars toys for Christmas. That Christmas is the
time that we get our toys. And unfortunately Kenner, you know,
even though they're all working non stop weekends, round the
clock to try to get toys out as fast as
(07:04):
they can, there's no way they can get them to
the shelves in time for the holiday seventy seventh season.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
And we're listening to Jared Rowll tell the story of
how a small toy company beats the big company to
the market on the Star Wars toy franchise when we
come back more of this remarkable story about Star Wars
on our American Stories. Lee hbib here, and I'm inviting
(07:31):
you to help our American Stories celebrate this country's two
hundred and fiftieth birthday coming soon. If you want to
help inspire countless others to love America like we do,
and want to help us bring the inspiring and important
stories told here about a good and beautiful country, please
consider making a tax deductible donation to our American Stories.
Go to Ouramericanstories dot com and click the donate button.
(07:54):
Any amount helps Go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and give,
And we continue with our American Stories and the story
from museum curator Jared Roll. Let's pick up where Jared
(08:16):
left off, telling the story of how the small toy
company Kenner took the offer from George Lucas to manufacture
Star Wars toys after all the big toy companies passed
on what seemed to be too much of a gamble.
Kenner began production immediately, but wouldn't have a single action
figure on the shelves until a year after the first
(08:36):
Star Wars movie premiered. But they had a plan kind
of here again is Jared.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Roll So rather than miss out on all the excitement
about Star Wars that Christmas Kenner Toys, Bernie Loomis as
the president at the time, he and his team come
up with an idea and it was a very risky idea,
and that was the cell and empty package to kids,
(09:05):
so that at least there's something to go under the
tree that year. And what that was it was called
the Early Bird Kit and it was approximately, you know,
sixteen inch by nine inch cardboard envelope, very colorful, and
the inside all you had was a cardboard display arena
(09:26):
with pictures of what the action figures will eventually look like.
There are just representations of the characters translated in the
action figures, so it's a little display arena. And then
there's some stickers and then a slip that you filled
out put in the in the mail, and then it
says when these figures are available, you know, which is
(09:47):
between February and June and nineteen seventy eight, you're going
to get them. You'll get Luke, you'll get Lea R
two in Chabaca, the first four and so it was
a real risk and some people scoffed at the idea.
It's like, where do you where do you come up
with the idea of selling an empty package for kids
for Christmas? That seems like a non gift, But yet
(10:09):
at the same time, for the people that did receive those,
for those kids that did receive those early Bird kids
under the Christmas tree, right, it wasn't the figures, but
it was the next best thing. It was a promise
for the figures, and at least it was something. And
by all accounts the people that I spoke to personally
who did receive one at Christmas time or the accounts
(10:29):
I've read, they were excited to get them, and many
of them. Thousands were sold. And it's one of those
just wonderful toy stories that has gone down in history
about when Kenner's sold an empty package to kids when
inside all you had was a promise and that is kid,
you're going to be the first again. And when they're available,
they're just not ready right now for you. Merry Christmas.
(10:51):
So the early Bird kid, if you can find one sealed,
like unopened, we're talking five figures, you know. I honestly,
they don't come up up very often, you know, but
if you have one, like I have one as part
of the Nostalgia Awakens exhibit. I have the original envelope,
and thankfully the kid who opened it did a really
nice job opening in it, just on the side, just
(11:14):
to kind of slit the side open just so carefully
had pulled the contents out, and so it has all
the contents yet. And you know, that thing costs a
few thousand dollars to buy, at least a day when
I had bought it, because again it's cardboard, is what
you call ephemeral. It's not meant to last forever. Now,
(11:34):
I did not get the Early Bird Kit as a
kid at the time. I wasn't even aware of it
as a kid. Where when I first started getting toys
was when everybody else pretty much did, and that was
going to be in spring of nineteen seventy eight. So
I remember the day actually, so I would have been
five years old, just about five, yeah, because I turned
(11:58):
five in April and it was spring time because it
was warm out, and my mom and my brother and
I were over at her friend's house visiting, and my
mother's friend's son, Jamie, who is my age, he shows
me a little Darth Vader action figure, and I buged
my mom, said, Mom, they have toys of Star Wars, now,
(12:19):
can you take me to go get one? And you know,
after enough haranguing, we eventually went to what we used
to call the five and dime stores. And I still
remember the creaky wood floors and walking in there and
that kind of smell of a small town five a
dime store and walking in and seeing the display for
Star Wars and walking really quickly up to it and
(12:41):
just looking and scanning with my eyes just to see
what they made. And they're in this end cap is
a selection of action figures, you know, on blistered cards,
and I remember just standing there and I would take
one off, I'd look at the back, and then I'd
set it in and just have to make a choice
in my mom's like, okay, make a choice, my ready
to go, ready to check out. And I didn't know
which one, and I could only pick one, which is
(13:01):
really hard because I don't know what you do with
just one of them. But at the time, I remember
C three PO was there and and R two D
two was there, and a Sam person was there, but
but Luke wasn't there, Otherwise it would have got him
right away, I'm sure, but Chabacco was there, and so
he was the one I picked, and I took him home,
and he was my first Star Wars action figure, and
(13:22):
he's the one that that has started at all. And
then from that point on, getting Star Wars toys was
such an important part of my childhood. You know, it
was always on my radar, you know, if I could
save any little bit of money, you know, and we
would stop at a small you know, at a store
or whatever. Grocery store sometimes carried them, and they weren't
very expensive. They were originally they were under two bucks apiece,
(13:45):
so they're you know, they're within purchasing power of a kid.
But the real big, you know, big opportunity to start
a collection would have been at Christmas of that year,
Christmas of seventy eight. My grandparents, they were the ones
that really gave us a toy grandparents, and they would
also get the Sears and JC Penny Christmas catalogs in October,
(14:08):
and I remember that year getting, you know, laying down
on the floor, their carpetive floor in their living room
and turning page by page and just seeing those toys
in there and just circling and circling and circling and
close to circle them all because you want them all.
That year, that Christmas was wonderful because we received a
lot of a lot of Star Wars product under the tree,
(14:28):
and that was amazing. Star Wars had such staying power
in the late nineteen seventies. I mean, we have to
remember that it didn't just influence kids, you know, kids
toys and kids imagination. It influenced everything. When we go
back and look and see the influence on entertainment. For example,
(14:50):
Star Wars was parodied on on Saturday Night Live. It
was there. There were so many knockoff movies that were
produced during that time. Adults too, and adults loved Star
Wars as well. It wasn't just kids. It people back
then of all ages really fell in love with that
story and those characters. Everybody tried to cash in on
(15:13):
the excitement surrounding Star Wars, so it was always there.
It was always in front of us, trading cards and
comic books. It lived on. So even if that if
Star Wars left your local theater, it lived on. I
remember getting bubblegum cards of Star Wars and those were
very important because that helped me as a kid remember
(15:35):
the movie and also learn more about the lore of
the movie. And these cards would tell you who the
you know, the names of the characters, and it'll tell you,
like what was going on in that scene because it
happened so fast when you're sitting in the theater and
I only saw it twice as a kid, and so
these cards helped fill in those gaps and really expand
(15:55):
that story for me. And it was all canon. It
was all stars. It wasn't like somebody was making stuff up.
It was all there. And so that that helped Star
Wars stay in my mind all throughout that time period
seventy seven, seventy eight, seventy nine, and then the excitement
and Empire coming out, so it never it never waned.
(16:15):
It was always there. And part of it, too, I wonder,
is that because we were never fully satisfied. You know,
when when you're my kids today, you know when they
see a we go to the theater and see a movie,
you know, it's on DVD six months later and they'll
watch it over and over and over and over again,
because it's a great movie. But then it's just kind
of you know, it's gone and then you know, the
next great blockbuster comes along. I mean, we live in
(16:38):
a time period now where we have so much, so
many wonderful stories being told of properties that we're excited about,
superheroes and space and things that you know that as
a kid, this weren't there, and and so it had
such staying power that and the anticipation of the sequel.
We had to find out what happened next, and when
(16:59):
we saw it had up and next and we find
out that, you know, the good guy's really losing this movie.
Han Sol is frozen, Luke loses his hand, and Darth
Vader is his father. Whoa what's gonna happen next? Well,
you have to wait another three years, like what it
was like a lifetime of waiting for that to happen.
But it was always there, and people making products made
(17:19):
sure we were always reminded of Star Wars. You know,
they knew it too, and so there was always something
there to remind us. Oh, books on tape, so we
had as a kid, I had a little story book,
a little cassette tape, and I listened to that thing
over and over and over again, and so I knew
the movies well, not because I saw the movies a lot,
but because of all those other stuff that went along
with it.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Andy great job is always to Greg Hangler, Jared Roll's
story of Star Wars merchandising, and something more on America
and American lives here on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on the show,
including your story. Send them to our American Stories dot com.
There's some of our favorites. And on this show, America
is the Star, the American people of the Star, speaking
of which the Nostalgia Awakens is an exhibit featuring every
(00:30):
action figure toy made by Kenner from nineteen seventy eight
to nineteen eighty five, based on the original three Star
Wars movies. The Star Wars Toys on Displayer from Jared,
role enthusiast and the museum curator from Wisconsin. He and
his brother Kevin owned many of the toys when they
were children. As an adult, Jared collected the rest of
(00:52):
the original toys. Here's Jared roll to share the story
of how Star Wars toys revolutionized movie merchandising, licensing, and
even how kids play.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Well. I guess we will go back to, you know,
to the beginning, and that was in nineteen seventy seven.
At that time, I was four years old and my
mother is a is a fan of sci fi. She
watched syndicated Star Trek episodes and she had learned of
this movie called Star Wars that was coming out. By
the time we saw it, it already had gained a
(01:29):
lot of interest, a lot of hype. Star Wars was
released in May of nineteen seventy seven to only thirty
two theaters in the United States. Just to put that
in perspective, So thirty two theaters. It's when The Force
Awakens was released. It was it debuted in over four
thousand theaters. So again, there are people who have documented
(01:52):
the story of Star Wars, you know, the Little Movie
that Could, and how it just changed everything. When that
movie came out, there was nothing like it. It changed everything.
It changed how we think about the relationship of toys
and movies, merchandising, licensing, how kids play. I mean, it
really solidified action figure toys. I mean, up to that point,
(02:16):
toys were not licensed for movies like they are now.
They just movies weren't around long enough to justify the
costs for toy companies to invest in a toy line. So,
with the exception of some evergreen licenses like Disney Looney Tunes,
you know, because they were around for decades and they
(02:40):
had other ways of appearing unless it was a TV show,
action figure and toy lines. They weren't made for movies,
and so that's why when the Kenner Toy Company signed
on to be the sole producer of toys for the
Star Wars movies, they were taking a risk. If you
(03:00):
would go to Walmart today or Target or any place
where toys are sold, you will see toys in the
aisle four blockbuster movies before the movie even comes out.
That's a given. You want to just get the most
out of it, help even create excitement for that property.
But when Star Wars came out in nineteen seventy seven,
kids like me who left the theater, we wanted toys
(03:24):
for that movie, but there are no toys to be had.
When George Lucas was in the process of creating Star Wars,
he knew he had a story that would appeal to kids.
So George Lucas shopped around the Star Wars license to
the big toy companies, first saying, you know, I've got
(03:46):
a movie coming out. I can't tell you a lot
about it. I can't show you much about it because
I'm keeping it a secret. But you know it's going
to be science fiction and it's going to involve you know,
characters that I think will translate well into a toy
line and the bigger to companies like Mattel and Migo.
You know, they said, will pass. You know, there's too
(04:06):
much risk involved. Quite frankly, you know, science fiction. This
really doesn't appeal to kids right now, and so it's
not worth our risk to do that. That's where now
the Kenner Toy Company enters the Sceno. Kenner at this point,
they were a small toy manufacturer in Cincinnati, Ohio. They
(04:27):
were a subsidiary of General Mills Foods. So if you've
ever eaten, count Chocula cereal and that's the company we're
talking about. And they were just the small toy arm
of General Mills. And so they were willing to take
a look at it. And it was just one of
those stories where where you just had the right people
working for Kenner at the time that saw the potential
of this movie. And being a smaller company they have
(04:51):
slightly less risk and they can be a little more
nimble than versus a giant toy company. And so Kenner
Toy said, we will do this, we can do this.
They shared some product samples with the Lucasfilm and Lucasfilm
said yeah, you you know, we're we're on the same
page when it comes to this, and so they signed
an agreement with Lucasfilm and they were the ones to
(05:14):
make these toys. You know, people will tell the story
about Bernie Loomis, you know, being asked the question, you know,
he was the president of Kenner at the time, what
size should we make these action figures? And Bernie and
Lumis Will you know, stretched out as his finger and
his thumb and said, Luke should be this tall and
that size was three and three quarter inch. The decision
(05:35):
that Kenner made was based on the idea that they
knew to make this toy line really really catch on
with kids, they needed to have a world for kids
to play in. They needed to have environments, you know
what we call playsets. They need to have vehicles for
the figures that go in. And to do that, you
can't do that inexpensively with a twelve inch toy line.
(05:59):
Up to that point, up to nineteen seventy seven, twelve
inch was a very common action figure or doll size
for boys. Dolls or action figures. G I. Joe really
started that certainly solidified it in the sixties and early seventies,
but they knew to have a millennium falcon that you
can't make a millennium falcon for a twelve inch han
(06:20):
solo there was it would be so expensive, and they're
you know, in retailers wouldn't want it for their shelves
because it would dominate the entire shelf for itself. And
so the three and three quarter inch line, you know
that that made sense, and Bernie Loomis made that choice
to keep the figures to that smaller size for that reason.
But it would take a full year before action figure
(06:42):
toys were even available for that property. So when Christmas
seventy seven rules around, kids like me, we want we
want Star Wars toys for Christmas. That Christmas is the
time that we get our toys. And unfortunately Kenner, you know,
even though they're all working non stop weekends, round the
clock to try to get toys out as fast as
(07:04):
they can, there's no way they can get them to
the shelves in time for the holiday seventy seventh season.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
And we're listening to Jared Rowll tell the story of
how a small toy company beats the big company to
the market on the Star Wars toy franchise when we
come back more of this remarkable story about Star Wars
on our American Stories. Lee hbib here, and I'm inviting
(07:31):
you to help our American Stories celebrate this country's two
hundred and fiftieth birthday coming soon. If you want to
help inspire countless others to love America like we do,
and want to help us bring the inspiring and important
stories told here about a good and beautiful country, please
consider making a tax deductible donation to our American Stories.
Go to Ouramericanstories dot com and click the donate button.
(07:54):
Any amount helps Go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and give,
And we continue with our American Stories and the story
from museum curator Jared Roll. Let's pick up where Jared
(08:16):
left off, telling the story of how the small toy
company Kenner took the offer from George Lucas to manufacture
Star Wars toys after all the big toy companies passed
on what seemed to be too much of a gamble.
Kenner began production immediately, but wouldn't have a single action
figure on the shelves until a year after the first
(08:36):
Star Wars movie premiered. But they had a plan kind
of here again is Jared.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Roll So rather than miss out on all the excitement
about Star Wars that Christmas Kenner Toys, Bernie Loomis as
the president at the time, he and his team come
up with an idea and it was a very risky idea,
and that was the cell and empty package to kids,
(09:05):
so that at least there's something to go under the
tree that year. And what that was it was called
the Early Bird Kit and it was approximately, you know,
sixteen inch by nine inch cardboard envelope, very colorful, and
the inside all you had was a cardboard display arena
(09:26):
with pictures of what the action figures will eventually look like.
There are just representations of the characters translated in the
action figures, so it's a little display arena. And then
there's some stickers and then a slip that you filled
out put in the in the mail, and then it
says when these figures are available, you know, which is
(09:47):
between February and June and nineteen seventy eight, you're going
to get them. You'll get Luke, you'll get Lea R
two in Chabaca, the first four and so it was
a real risk and some people scoffed at the idea.
It's like, where do you where do you come up
with the idea of selling an empty package for kids
for Christmas? That seems like a non gift, But yet
(10:09):
at the same time, for the people that did receive those,
for those kids that did receive those early Bird kids
under the Christmas tree, right, it wasn't the figures, but
it was the next best thing. It was a promise
for the figures, and at least it was something. And
by all accounts the people that I spoke to personally
who did receive one at Christmas time or the accounts
(10:29):
I've read, they were excited to get them, and many
of them. Thousands were sold. And it's one of those
just wonderful toy stories that has gone down in history
about when Kenner's sold an empty package to kids when
inside all you had was a promise and that is kid,
you're going to be the first again. And when they're available,
they're just not ready right now for you. Merry Christmas.
(10:51):
So the early Bird kid, if you can find one sealed,
like unopened, we're talking five figures, you know. I honestly,
they don't come up up very often, you know, but
if you have one, like I have one as part
of the Nostalgia Awakens exhibit. I have the original envelope,
and thankfully the kid who opened it did a really
nice job opening in it, just on the side, just
(11:14):
to kind of slit the side open just so carefully
had pulled the contents out, and so it has all
the contents yet. And you know, that thing costs a
few thousand dollars to buy, at least a day when
I had bought it, because again it's cardboard, is what
you call ephemeral. It's not meant to last forever. Now,
(11:34):
I did not get the Early Bird Kit as a
kid at the time. I wasn't even aware of it
as a kid. Where when I first started getting toys
was when everybody else pretty much did, and that was
going to be in spring of nineteen seventy eight. So
I remember the day actually, so I would have been
five years old, just about five, yeah, because I turned
(11:58):
five in April and it was spring time because it
was warm out, and my mom and my brother and
I were over at her friend's house visiting, and my
mother's friend's son, Jamie, who is my age, he shows
me a little Darth Vader action figure, and I buged
my mom, said, Mom, they have toys of Star Wars, now,
(12:19):
can you take me to go get one? And you know,
after enough haranguing, we eventually went to what we used
to call the five and dime stores. And I still
remember the creaky wood floors and walking in there and
that kind of smell of a small town five a
dime store and walking in and seeing the display for
Star Wars and walking really quickly up to it and
(12:41):
just looking and scanning with my eyes just to see
what they made. And they're in this end cap is
a selection of action figures, you know, on blistered cards,
and I remember just standing there and I would take
one off, I'd look at the back, and then I'd
set it in and just have to make a choice
in my mom's like, okay, make a choice, my ready
to go, ready to check out. And I didn't know
which one, and I could only pick one, which is
(13:01):
really hard because I don't know what you do with
just one of them. But at the time, I remember
C three PO was there and and R two D
two was there, and a Sam person was there, but
but Luke wasn't there, Otherwise it would have got him
right away, I'm sure, but Chabacco was there, and so
he was the one I picked, and I took him home,
and he was my first Star Wars action figure, and
(13:22):
he's the one that that has started at all. And
then from that point on, getting Star Wars toys was
such an important part of my childhood. You know, it
was always on my radar, you know, if I could
save any little bit of money, you know, and we
would stop at a small you know, at a store
or whatever. Grocery store sometimes carried them, and they weren't
very expensive. They were originally they were under two bucks apiece,
(13:45):
so they're you know, they're within purchasing power of a kid.
But the real big, you know, big opportunity to start
a collection would have been at Christmas of that year,
Christmas of seventy eight. My grandparents, they were the ones
that really gave us a toy grandparents, and they would
also get the Sears and JC Penny Christmas catalogs in October,
(14:08):
and I remember that year getting, you know, laying down
on the floor, their carpetive floor in their living room
and turning page by page and just seeing those toys
in there and just circling and circling and circling and
close to circle them all because you want them all.
That year, that Christmas was wonderful because we received a
lot of a lot of Star Wars product under the tree,
(14:28):
and that was amazing. Star Wars had such staying power
in the late nineteen seventies. I mean, we have to
remember that it didn't just influence kids, you know, kids
toys and kids imagination. It influenced everything. When we go
back and look and see the influence on entertainment. For example,
(14:50):
Star Wars was parodied on on Saturday Night Live. It
was there. There were so many knockoff movies that were
produced during that time. Adults too, and adults loved Star
Wars as well. It wasn't just kids. It people back
then of all ages really fell in love with that
story and those characters. Everybody tried to cash in on
(15:13):
the excitement surrounding Star Wars, so it was always there.
It was always in front of us, trading cards and
comic books. It lived on. So even if that if
Star Wars left your local theater, it lived on. I
remember getting bubblegum cards of Star Wars and those were
very important because that helped me as a kid remember
(15:35):
the movie and also learn more about the lore of
the movie. And these cards would tell you who the
you know, the names of the characters, and it'll tell you,
like what was going on in that scene because it
happened so fast when you're sitting in the theater and
I only saw it twice as a kid, and so
these cards helped fill in those gaps and really expand
(15:55):
that story for me. And it was all canon. It
was all stars. It wasn't like somebody was making stuff up.
It was all there. And so that that helped Star
Wars stay in my mind all throughout that time period
seventy seven, seventy eight, seventy nine, and then the excitement
and Empire coming out, so it never it never waned.
(16:15):
It was always there. And part of it, too, I wonder,
is that because we were never fully satisfied. You know,
when when you're my kids today, you know when they
see a we go to the theater and see a movie,
you know, it's on DVD six months later and they'll
watch it over and over and over and over again,
because it's a great movie. But then it's just kind
of you know, it's gone and then you know, the
next great blockbuster comes along. I mean, we live in
(16:38):
a time period now where we have so much, so
many wonderful stories being told of properties that we're excited about,
superheroes and space and things that you know that as
a kid, this weren't there, and and so it had
such staying power that and the anticipation of the sequel.
We had to find out what happened next, and when
(16:59):
we saw it had up and next and we find
out that, you know, the good guy's really losing this movie.
Han Sol is frozen, Luke loses his hand, and Darth
Vader is his father. Whoa what's gonna happen next? Well,
you have to wait another three years, like what it
was like a lifetime of waiting for that to happen.
But it was always there, and people making products made
(17:19):
sure we were always reminded of Star Wars. You know,
they knew it too, and so there was always something
there to remind us. Oh, books on tape, so we
had as a kid, I had a little story book,
a little cassette tape, and I listened to that thing
over and over and over again, and so I knew
the movies well, not because I saw the movies a lot,
but because of all those other stuff that went along
with it.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Andy great job is always to Greg Hangler, Jared Roll's
story of Star Wars merchandising, and something more on America
and American lives here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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