Star Wars Buzz Part II: 1976

(Be sure to read Part I (1974-75) and Part III (1977) of this series to get the full scoop on Star Wars pre-release buzz!)

In Part I of this three-part series, we covered Star Wars press coverage from 1974-75, when the first scraps of information about the fledgling production were slowly making their way into the mainstream. Today, we continue with coverage from 1976, the year that saw at least three convention appearances by the Star Wars Corporation and the first trailers hitting theaters in December. As we saw with the 1974-75 coverage, Star Wars in the press was still pretty meager compared to other major productions of the day, but it is interesting to see how the idea of Star Wars was starting to take shape in the public mind through the filter of mainstream media.

From January to June, 1976, Star Wars press was pretty much limited to the trades, with production schedule and casting announcements scattered in publications like Film Bulletin and Daily Variety. Naturally, casting announcements seemed limited to mostly recognizable names like Alec Guinness and Peter Cushing, although Mark Hamill did get a mention as the film's lead, Luke Starkiller, in April of that year.

Be sure to click the thumbnails to read sections of the articles within.

Starting in the summer of 1976, the fan community was finally being targeted over a year before the film's release, thanks in large part to the efforts of Star Wars Corporation's publicist, Charles Lippincott. He had frequented comic book and science fiction conventions to get the word out about Star Wars (a strategy actually considered unconventional at the time), and also gave interviews with several fan-based publications such as Fantascene and The Buyer's Guide for Comic Fandom.

With three conventions behind it, the Star Wars publicity machine really started rolling by the fall of 1976, with articles in kid-friendly publications like Junior Scholastic and a new magazine targeting the science fiction fan community, Starlog. 1976 coverage culminated with an expansive piece in Mediascene magazine, which looked at both the making of Star Wars and at the comic book series that was to launch in February the following year. For years, this magazine was the only source for viewing a handful of rare early Star Wars storyboard sketches by Alex Tavoularis.

Additional mentions or related coverage not depicted:

• April 30, 1976: The Locus newsletter (#188), which served the hardcore science fiction fan community, lists science fiction films currently in production at the time, including Star Wars. The list was suspiciously compiled by Star Wars Corporation's Charles Lippincott, who undoubtedly had researched those films that would be competing with Star Wars.

• Summer, 1976: Britain's Sight and Sound magazine devotes a rare full page of coverage to Star Wars, describing many of the scenes being shot as witnessed by the story's author. Lucas also offered a bit of rare insight into his take on Star Wars: "I wasted four years of my life cruisin' like the kids in Graffiti, and I'm now on an intergalactic dream of heroism. I'm telling the story of me, and -- who knows? -- it might set a trend."

• June 20, 1976: The Los Angeles Times reported from the Star Wars set as well, with some telling quotes from Lucas about his vision for the film: "I suppose it's science fiction. But we don't explain everything. We take all the hardware for granted. The story really is an action-adventure, a fantasy, a Buck Rogers updated."

• December, 1976: The first teaser posters, movie trailer, and a lavish promotional book about Star Wars (loosely resembling the program book sold at theaters months later) were distributed to exhibitors and potential licensees. The first printing of the novel was also released in December.

Information contained in this and the related stories were culled from many sources, first and foremost from the author's collection, collector Guy Harrison, and two expansive Star Wars bibliographies compiled by fans Bob Miller and Lita Sheldon during the late 1980s.