A Fox Executive’s 1976 Memo on Star Wars

We’ve heard stories of how some folks involved witH the original Star Wars were convinced it would flop as soon as it hit theaters. We even read about how George Lucas was willing to hedge his bets by trading out some of the film’s profits. But there were those who saw something special in the production.

Peter S. Myers was the vice-president of domestic distribution for 20th Century Fox in 1976. In November of that year, he heard reports from people involved with the movie Star Wars and those who had seen rough footage of the film in progress. Myers then sent a four-page telegram to his underlings, outlining an unprecedented distribution plan for the movie.

I AM SAYING THE PICTURE SHOULD GET BETTER TREATMENT THAN GODFATHER, KING KONG, JAWS, POSEIDON, OR TOWERING INFERNO.

You can read all four pages of the telegram at Vulture. -via Uproxx

(Image credit: 20th Century Fox)

Newest 3

Newest 3 Comments

Scratch that. I saw the trilogy at the theater, and also saw Revenge of the Sith on the silver screen, alone. I wanted to see if I should take the kids, and decided not to. They were pretty young at the time.

Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)

Me too! But there's a reason... I had to go see the first one twice because I had a little too much to drink and fell asleep the first time. I wrote about it once.

Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)

THE Star Wars (episode 4 as it turned out) was one of the very few movies I went to the theater to see twice. Saw the next one once, but never saw any others at the cinema. I just don't go to them anymore.

Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)

Commenting is closed.

Click here to view up to the first 100 of this post's 3 comments

We hope you like this article!
Please help us grow by sharing:

Get Updates In Your Inbox

Free weekly emails, plus get access
to subscriber-only prizes.

We won't share your email. You can cancel at any time.