January 10, 2025 • 17 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, the "Nostalgia Awakens" is a Star Wars action figure exhibit from enthusiast and museum curator Jarrod Roll. He's here to share the story of how Star Wars toys revolutionized movie merchandising, licensing, and even how children play.
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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 Ouramerican 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 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 the original toys.
(00:53):
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 evolve. You know,
characters that I think will translate well into a toy line,
and the bigger toy companies like Mattel and Migo, you know,
they said, will pass. You know, there's too much risk involved.
(04:08):
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 were a
subsidiary of General Mills Foods. So if you've ever eaten
(04:30):
Count chocolate 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 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 slightly less risk and they
(04:53):
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 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 make these toys. You know, people will tell
(05:17):
the story about Bernie Loomis, you know, being asked the question,
you know, usually 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 that Kenner made was based on the idea
(05:38):
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 that they knew to have a millennium falcon, that
you can't make a millennium falcon for a twelve inch
(06:20):
han 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
(06:42):
action figure 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
around the clock to try to get toys out as
(07:04):
fast as they can, there's no way they can get
them to the shelves in time for the holiday seventy
seven season.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
And we're listening to Jared Rowll tell the story of
our 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. Folks, if you love the great
(07:31):
American stories we tell and love America like we do,
we're asking you to become a part of the Our
American Stories family. If you agree that America is a
good and great country, please make a donation. A monthly
gift of seventeen dollars and seventy six cents is fast
becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to Our American
Stories dot com now and go to the donate button
(07:52):
and help us keep the great American stories coming. That's
our American Stories dot Com. And we continue with our
American Stories and the story from museum curator Jared Roll.
(08:14):
Let's pick up where Jared 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 Star Wars movie premiered, but
(08:38):
they had a plan kind of here again is Jared roll.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
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 sixteen inch
by nine inch cardboard envelope, very colorful, and the inside
all you had was a cardboard display arena with pictures
(09:27):
of what the action figures will eventually look like. There
are 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 and
put in the in the mail, and then it says
when these figures are available, you know, which is between
(09:48):
February and June of nineteen seventy eight, you're going to
get them. You'll get Luke, you'll get Lea R two
in Chabacca 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 at the
(10:09):
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 I've read,
(10:30):
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 to get them 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 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
(11:11):
job opening in it, just on the side, just 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, I
(11:34):
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 the 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
(11:57):
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 blister 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 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 really hard
(13:01):
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 I 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 he's the one
(13:22):
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
(13:43):
under two bucks apiece, 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,
or grandparents, and they would also get the Sears and
(14:04):
JC Penny Christmas catalogs in October, and I remember that
year getting, you know, laying down on the floor, their
carpeted 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
(14:26):
of Star Wars product under the tree, 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
(14:48):
the influence on entertainment. For example, Star Wars was parodied
on on Saturday Night Live. It was there were so
many knockoff movies that were produced during that time, and
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.
(15:11):
Everybody tried to cash in on the excitement surrounding Star Wars,
so it was always there. It was always in front
of us, you know, 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
(15:33):
that helped me as a kid remember 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 know 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 that
(15:55):
story for me. And it was all canon. It was
all Star War or 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. It was always there. And part of it, too,
(16:17):
I wonder, is that because we were never fully satisfied.
You know when when you're my kids today, you know
when they see am 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 a time period now where we have
(16:39):
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 we saw what happened next, and
(17:01):
we find out that, you know, the good guy's really
losing this movie, Han Solo was frozen, Luke loses his hand,
and Darth Vader as 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
sure we were always reminded of Star Wars. You know,
(17:21):
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 this other stuff that went along
with it.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
And 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 Ouramerican 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 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 the original toys.
(00:53):
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 evolve. You know,
characters that I think will translate well into a toy line,
and the bigger toy companies like Mattel and Migo, you know,
they said, will pass. You know, there's too much risk involved.
(04:08):
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 were a
subsidiary of General Mills Foods. So if you've ever eaten
(04:30):
Count chocolate 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 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 slightly less risk and they
(04:53):
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 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 make these toys. You know, people will tell
(05:17):
the story about Bernie Loomis, you know, being asked the question,
you know, usually 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 that Kenner made was based on the idea
(05:38):
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 that they knew to have a millennium falcon, that
you can't make a millennium falcon for a twelve inch
(06:20):
han 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
(06:42):
action figure 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
around the clock to try to get toys out as
(07:04):
fast as they can, there's no way they can get
them to the shelves in time for the holiday seventy
seven season.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
And we're listening to Jared Rowll tell the story of
our 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. Folks, if you love the great
(07:31):
American stories we tell and love America like we do,
we're asking you to become a part of the Our
American Stories family. If you agree that America is a
good and great country, please make a donation. A monthly
gift of seventeen dollars and seventy six cents is fast
becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to Our American
Stories dot com now and go to the donate button
(07:52):
and help us keep the great American stories coming. That's
our American Stories dot Com. And we continue with our
American Stories and the story from museum curator Jared Roll.
(08:14):
Let's pick up where Jared 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 Star Wars movie premiered, but
(08:38):
they had a plan kind of here again is Jared roll.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
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 sixteen inch
by nine inch cardboard envelope, very colorful, and the inside
all you had was a cardboard display arena with pictures
(09:27):
of what the action figures will eventually look like. There
are 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 and
put in the in the mail, and then it says
when these figures are available, you know, which is between
(09:48):
February and June of nineteen seventy eight, you're going to
get them. You'll get Luke, you'll get Lea R two
in Chabacca 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 at the
(10:09):
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 I've read,
(10:30):
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 to get them 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 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
(11:11):
job opening in it, just on the side, just 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, I
(11:34):
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 the 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
(11:57):
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 blister 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 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 really hard
(13:01):
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 I 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 he's the one
(13:22):
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
(13:43):
under two bucks apiece, 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,
or grandparents, and they would also get the Sears and
(14:04):
JC Penny Christmas catalogs in October, and I remember that
year getting, you know, laying down on the floor, their
carpeted 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
(14:26):
of Star Wars product under the tree, 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
(14:48):
the influence on entertainment. For example, Star Wars was parodied
on on Saturday Night Live. It was there were so
many knockoff movies that were produced during that time, and
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.
(15:11):
Everybody tried to cash in on the excitement surrounding Star Wars,
so it was always there. It was always in front
of us, you know, 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
(15:33):
that helped me as a kid remember 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 know 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 that
(15:55):
story for me. And it was all canon. It was
all Star War or 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. It was always there. And part of it, too,
(16:17):
I wonder, is that because we were never fully satisfied.
You know when when you're my kids today, you know
when they see am 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 a time period now where we have
(16:39):
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 we saw what happened next, and
(17:01):
we find out that, you know, the good guy's really
losing this movie, Han Solo was frozen, Luke loses his hand,
and Darth Vader as 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
sure we were always reminded of Star Wars. You know,
(17:21):
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 this other stuff that went along
with it.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
And 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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