Where did you 1st see STAR WARS

ABC Rochdale 1980/81 double bill with ESB. My mum wouldn't let me see it in 1978 she thought it would be too scary!!

I was born in 76, so was too young for the original release of SW. I was taken to see the SW/Empire double bill (not sure if it was the 1981 or 82 run). We actually walked in halfway through as we only went to see Empire (i can just imagine getting my 6 year old to sit through 2 films!). I do remember thinking I wasn't disappointed as I had seen the first film before and seeing the medal ceremony as we took our seats. SW made its debut on VHS in 1982 so perhaps I saw it here first or was taken to a previous showing? I 've asked my old man and he can't even remember taking me!! :roll:

[ATTACH=full]144456[/ATTACH]

My first SW cinema experience was in the George cinema in Beith, Ayrshire. It closed down a couple of years after and was really run down towards the end. One of my memories that same night is the smell of the toilets - as a child it made a mark! A million miles away from the fancy multiplex cinemas we have now!

[ATTACH=full]144457[/ATTACH]

78-79, and my mum bought me a Hammerhead :roll:

Early 78 at the Odeon Bristol, it's the first time I remember seeing a queue that wrapped around the block. I think we waited whilst it was playing and were one of the last ones in for the next showing. It was just myself and my Dad and I'm not sure what he made of it but he could see the impact that it made on a 6 year old. When we got back home the Batman and Robin Animated series was on so it was just win win for me that day!

Ian

tiefighterboy said:

Drive in movie...summer of 77.

Click to expand...

Same here, a drive in. I remember vaguely, at 4 1/2 years old, being in the very back of a station wagon similar to the one pictured here. Both Parents in the front and 5 kids behind them.

Palifan said:

Early 78 at the Odeon Bristol, it's the first time I remember seeing a queue that wrapped around the block. I think we waited whilst it was playing and were one of the last ones in for the next showing. It was just myself and my Dad and I'm not sure what he made of it but he could see the impact that it made on a 6 year old. When we got back home the Batman and Robin Animated series was on so it was just win win for me that day!

Ian

Click to expand...

I might have been in the same queue as you, Ian
Also saw it early '78 at the Bristol Odeon. The queue wound all the way back to Brentford Nylons.
Totally mind-blowing to a 9 yr old!

I'd seen the trailer back in the summer (attached to King Kong, IIRC) and couldn't believe I'd have to wait another 6 months to see it.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=efs57YVF2UE

I've still got the original cinema programme and Hildebrandt poster, which my Dad bought for me after the screening.

Early 99. Yes 1999. I was only 6. Saw allof the original trilogy and was hooked even at that age and have never looked back since I have april in my Mind and a month later I was one of the first in the cinema to see EP1

Dark Sith Lord said:

Early 99. Yes 1999. I was only 6. Saw allof the original trilogy and was hooked even at that age and have never looked back since I have april in my Mind and a month later I was one of the first in the cinema to see EP1

Click to expand...

I suddenly feel very, very old.....

As I remember it a boy had some star wars toy with him in the kindergarten, so this was the first time I heard and saw something with star wars.

I saw it in Halifax, Yorkshire, probably at the ABC cinema, though I've no idea whether it was '77 or '78. I'd have been 4 at the time and remember little about it other than coming out of the cinema and being pretty overwhelmed!

Being born in 1976, my first cinema experience of Star Wars was seeing 'Return of the Jedi' in my local cinema, the 'Ormonde' in Greystones, Co. Wicklow, Ireland. I would have been 7... I think I actually saw the other Star wars films after that?

Here's a picture of the cinema. Its since closed down..


Here's a nice shot of it in its hayday.


A little piece of interesting TV history, it was the actual Cinema used in the C4 Father Ted episode where they are objecting to the risqué film :lol: :lol:

I often pass the cinema where i first saw Return of the Jedi (the first Star Wars film i saw at the cinema). It's no longer a Cinema but actually the church my dad attends in my home town (Northfields, Ealing)

It started off it's life, however, as an Odeon cinema. Some time in the 40s or 50s. It looked pretty grand back then!


But went downhill, if only ever so slightly, in the 70s:


And it looked more like this when i first visited in the early 80s. I think they blew their budget on the sign cos the inside was actually quite ****.




But they made up for it by showing cool movies like The Terminator and things with Charles Bronson in!





In the 90s someone pulled the plug on the Northfields cash cow and turned it in to a super trendy night club called The Top Hat Club. Thelma's Fry and Bake couldn't believe their luck!



That lasted al of 5 or 6 years and in the late 90s the place was converted into a pentecostal church where i saw my dad get married - (no child should have to see that. )
(Thelma's Fry and Bake, for those who were wondering, is now a kebab shop)


Shots of the inside, as it is now. (My dad did a lot of the carpentry when they dd it up about 10 years ago but it's generally still the same shape and style it was as a cinema all those years ago)

Jeff that's just fantastic! :lol: I loved Father Ted! I'm quite impressed by that bit of trivia :lol: :lol:

I never saw any of the OT at the cinema due to my age but I did see the ESB & ROTJ special edition re-releases at the ABC in Brentwood :mrgreen:






Couldn't find many other pictures of the place but I do remember asking them if I could have the ESB poster after they stopped showing it and they gave me a spare that they had in the office. I had that poster on my wall for many years :lol:

I first saw Star Wars on TV in the mid 80s, it was at Christmas and I specifically remember a Mickey Mouse cartoon being on before it, from memory it was a space themed episode but I can't remember which one. Empire and Jedi were both on VHS from the Fiveways video rental store in Brighton, I remember the Chariots of Fire and Cocoon trailers from the videos

I didn't get to watch any of them on the big screen til the special editions in 97, which I saw at the Bournemouth Odeon.

Joe said:

Jeff that's just fantastic! :lol: I loved Father Ted! I'm quite impressed by that bit of trivia :lol: :lol:

Click to expand...

Yeah, it was a big deal the day they were filming Greystones was still really a village then....
Here's a better shot of Dermot Morgan outside the main doors


Here's another old pic I found of the 'Ambassador' cinema which is located at the top of O'Connell Street in Dublin city centre. It's before my time but it's a nice piece of photographic history... 8) obviously a double bill around the ESB era.


I distinctly remember being brought to this cinema in the 80's to watch "Carebears, The Movie"........ :lol:
It was my sister's turn to pick that time......obviously!

I don't know exactly when I first watched Star Wars. I asked my Mum and she said she went to see it at the Cinema with my Dad and I prob first saw it in 79 or 80 whenever it was on the telly. I must've been very young, 3 or 4. I can't remember not having seen it. My Mum and her mate took me and her mates two sons to see Empire at the Odeon in Southend, Essex and I saw Jedi at a little cinema in Ilfracombe, Devon with my family whilst on holiday.

Saw Star Wars on its release in the Oadby picture house near Leicester, sadly like most of the small cinemas its since closed its doors & is now a funeral directors :|

I was 6 when ITV showed Star Wars between Christmas and New years day 1984 on my grandparents black and white telly. I remember vividly the countless MFI/B&Q type sales during the ad breaks.
Never occurred to me that the SW figures/ships i was playing before the screening were from a movie until ITV showed the pre christmas ads showing what films they were going to show at christmas 84. I remember i had a 77 cardback during the showing and looking at the back of the card at the extreme top right and thinking when the hell is Bossk (bounty hunter) going to appear in the film! Return of the jedi on the front of cardback didn't mean anything to me.
Next showing i saw of SW was again on ITV, New years day 88, on the same black and white telly at my grandparents home! Pretty sure they showed the first Superman film either before or after SW that day.
Finally i saw SW on colour when i bought a VHS tape about 1993.

Frunkstar said:

its since closed its doors & is now a funeral directors :|

Click to expand...

What's the story with Cinema's and Funeral Directors... :lol: :lol:

Robstyley said:

I don't know exactly when I first watched Star Wars. I asked my Mum and she said she went to see it at the Cinema with my Dad and I prob first saw it in 79 or 80 whenever it was on the telly.

Click to expand...

Actually it wasn't on TV until '82:

http://www.thestarwarstrilogy.com/starwars/post/2013/07/12/1982-Star-Wars-TV-Times

Or amazingly VHS til 85!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_changes_in_Star_Wars_re-releases#1985:_VHS_Release