Now It All Doesn't Seem that "Far Far Away:" Remembering "Return of the Jedi" Summer, 40 Years Later

 

Fans, and Darth Vader, waiting in line to see

"Return of the Jedi," at the Loews Astor Plaza

Theater in New York City, in 1983.

by Michael Lyons

On the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend of 1983, my dad and I made plans to see Return of the Jedi.

The film, which celebrates its 40^th anniversary this month, had opened just the day before, and I wouldn't have to wait for the weekend. In New York, schools have "snow days" to use during the winter when weather forces the schools to close. If the schools didn't use them, students got the days off in May, tacked on to Memorial Day weekend.

Winter of 1983 must have been mild because Memorial Day weekend meant we would have off the Thursday and Friday before. And that was fine with me because the new Star Wars movie had opened, and now, I wouldn't have to wait until Friday night to see it.

The original "Return of the Jed" poster.

It was a very typical Long Island day in May (60-degree temperatures and rain), so my Dad and I set off to see the 12:30 show of Return of the Jedi on its second day in theaters.  As we walked up to the RKO Twin Movie Theater in Commack, NY, at about 12:15, we noticed only two other people in line.

Could we have been this lucky?  Are we number three and four in line for the new Star Wars film?

My dad asked one of the two guys waiting, "So, you guys are in line for the 12:30 show of Return of the Jedi?"

"12:30?" one of them answered, looking bewildered.  "No...we just bought tickets to the 3:30 show."

My dad and I returned the bewildered look as we slowly realized that the 12:30 show was sold out, so the theater began selling tickets to the next show.  I looked at my dad, and my dad looked back at me, and, being the best dad in the world, he said simply, "Well, I guess we are waiting."

He then walked over to the box office and bought two tickets to the 3:30 showing of Return of the Jedi.

And...we waited...

At first, we went to the Candlelight Diner located next door to grab lunch. But, as we sat there, enjoying the pinnacle of gastronomical cuisine, the diner burger, we watched the line of ticket holders next door at the RKO Twin grow, and grow, and grow, to the point that the line was now snaking around the corner and into the parking lot.

We joined them, and eventually, inside the theater, jammed, elbow to elbow with every other overly eager fan who had been waiting for this day since The Empire Strikes Back in the summer of 1980, we could sense anticipation, the likes of which hadn't been felt since...well...since The Empire Strikes Back in the summer of 1980.

Poor Blue Thunder with Roy Scheider was playing in the theater next door. No one was going in there.  That movie had a good few weeks, but the summer was about to belong to Jedi!

The lights in the theater dimmed, and the packed house audience applauded (oh, the days when a movie theater audience applauded when the lights went down). Then, everyone applauded again when the 20th-Century-Fox logo and fanfare appeared, again when the LucasFilm logo appeared, again when "A Long Time Ago..." appeared on screen, and finally when the title "Star Wars" exploded onto the screen with John Williams' music.

What followed was one of those communal, magical, moviegoing experiences. From Jabba the Hutt's lair, to the partially completed Death Star, and from Luke and Vader's duel to the Ewoks battling the Empire on the planet of Endor, the laughs, cheers, and applause rang out throughout.

As I left the theater, even then, I knew I had seen something special.  When I returned to school the following week and told friends (without spoilers), some responded, "How did you see it? I tried, and it was sold out!"  I simply said, "We waited."

A summer that seemed consumed (at least to me and my friends) by Return of the Jedi followed.  There were glasses at Burger King, Marvel Comics adaptations, covers of Starlog magazine, images of Carrie Fisher in that Leia Bikini and action figures, action figures, and more action figures.

The June 1983 issue of "Starlog" magazine.

I bought none of those action figures. I wish I had and simply just kept them in their packaging. A Gamorean Guard mint in the box could have helped finance my last car.

The Summer 1983 issue of "Rolling Stone."

But I was heading into my senior year of high school, and Star Wars, then, wasn't considered "cool." I had to stay in the "geek closet," hoping none of my friends spied me buying the movie poster at Spencer Gifts.

These were a hot commodity during the summer of '83!

As a fan, Return of the Jedi also had a sense of sadness. At the time, there was talk that this would be the last Star Wars film. Additionally, heading into my final year of high school and then off to college, I felt as if I was saying goodbye to a part of my childhood (I was 11 when I first saw Star Wars in 1977).

Oh, what a different world we live in today. Star Wars is omnipresent, and it seems everyone is a fan.

A similar sense of excitement that circled Return of the Jedi is ongoing in our current world.  It happened when The Force Awakens was released, "Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge" opened at Disney theme parks, and when The Mandalorian returned to Disney+.

Although, Return of the Jedi seemed like the end of an era. Sure, there were, and have been, plenty of summer blockbusters and movie franchises that have made it through to our pop culture zeitgeist since 1983. But, after Return of the Jedi, home video and cable became part of our worlds, changing the movie release landscape to this day.

Something about waiting in line on a rainy day and sitting in a crowded theater to visit that "galaxy far, far away" forty years ago this summer made everything just a little more exciting.

The RKO Twin movie theater in Commack, NY.

Sources: cinematreasures.org

Interested in reading more of my articles, listening to my podcasts, or purchasing my book, Drawn to Greatness: Disney's Animation Renaissance?" Head over to my website, Words From Lyons