Many of the previous postings have attempted to show that the "Episode IV: A New Hope" tag was added sometime after the original release (May 1977) but before the release of "The Empire Strikes Back" (May 1980). Memory is not a science.... Here are a few published references that suggest the episode number and subtitle wasn't added until *after* the release of "Empire."

Big Reel Magazine (Issue 273/Feb 15, 1997). In the article "Star Wars: Anniversary Focuses Collective Eye On Movie Trilogy Memorabilia" by Bill Duelly, there is the following passage in the section pertaining to the film's summer 1979 re-release (its second domestic re-release): "It was during this reissue that was the last to be seen of the opening rollup that did NOT have the episode number on it. All existing and future printings of 'Star Wars' would be re-edited to open with 'Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope'."

Newsweek (May 19, 1980). In David Ansen's film review of "The Empire Strikes Back" there is a sidebar that includes the following bit: "Viewers may be in for a surprise when the credits announce 'Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.' Episode five? Have we slipped into a time warp? Actually, what we are getting is the second act of a middle trilogy of a projected nine-film cycle. The first 'Star Wars' will be retitled 'Episode IV: A New Hope'."

Time (May 19, 1980). In Gerald Clarke's review of "Empire" there is a sidebar that includes: "The very first surprise in 'The Empire Strikes Back' comes in the opening credits: the movie is identified as 'Episode V.' Since it is the immediate sequel to the original 'Star Wars', that opus has been retitled 'Star Wars: Episode IV'."

San Diego Union (May 18, 1980). In Mary Hellman's review of "Empire" she wrote: "A continuation of George Lucas' space epic, the film packs its first surprise in the opening credits that tag 'Empire' as 'Star Wars V'. Unbeknownst to fans, the first film was really 'Star Wars IV', part one of the second of three planned trilogies."

Widescreen Review ("The Ultimate Widescreen DVD Movie Guide"/2001). In the article/film list "Presented in 70mm" by Michael Coate & William Kallay there is a 1981 re-release entry for "Star Wars" with a note that reads: "The subtitle 'Episode IV: A New Hope' first appeared on prints during this two-week re-issue."

Bantha Tracks (Newsletter of the Official Star Wars Fan Club/February 1981). The article "S.W. On N.P.R." contains the following item: "'Star Wars' is coming to radio! In March, National Public Radio will broadcast 13 episodes of 'Star Wars,' Part IV, now titled 'A New Hope'."

Bantha Tracks (Newsletter of the Official Star Wars Fan Club/February 1981). There is a blurb regarding the spring re-release. " 'Star Wars' is back! For those who haven't seen it and for those who haven't seen it enough, 'Star Wars' will be rereleased in mid-April. The film will be shown at 1,500 movie theatres, domestically and in Canada, for a two-week engagement. Look in your local newspaper for announcements of where 'Star Wars' will be playing near you." Above the blurb: a triangular logo originally created in 1975 showing an early conceptual rendering of Luke Skywalker holding a lightsaber revised to show the subtitle "A New Hope" underneath "Star Wars" at the bottom. (This illustration was the original logo used for the production and can sometimes be seen in photos and documentary footage attached to the cameras used to shoot the movie. The bottom of the logo says "The Star Wars," the original title of the film, as previously mentioned in this thread by Darryl Spicer. The new logo shown in the fan club publication is the same art sans "The" plus the addition of "A New Hope.")

It's the scene where Luke and Leia have to swing across the chasm. I remember that Luke threw the grappling hook, and the hook MISSED! He then threw the hook a second time, it caught, and they swung across.

Every version I've ever seen since then has Luke successfully throwing the hook on the first try.

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the original release, which was supposedly around 100 prints

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Hey, Brad:
I realize I may have "killed" the thread with my previous posting but I'm curious about this bit about the original release having 100 prints. Do you mean 1,000? Were you referring to the total number of prints at its peak in 1977, or were you referring to the number of prints issued on opening day?

Just curious because I have some references to opening day numbers being 32 and the peak number of prints being 1,098. (Those numbers are for the U.S., not worldwide.)

By the way, if anyone is interested, I happen to have the list of those initial 32 engagements. Let me know if you want me to post it here just for trivial curiosity. It might be interesting to see which of those theaters still exist or to see if anyone remembers seeing "Star Wars" at one of them.

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Boston, MA: Charles

Cincinnati, OH: Showcase

Denver, CO: Cooper

Detroit, MI: Americana

Indianapolis, IN: Eastwood

Los Angeles, CA: (1) Chinese (Hollywood; 70mm), (2) Avco (Westwood; 70mm), (3) City Center (Orange; 70mm)

Louisville, KY: Showcase

Minneapolis, MN: St. Louis Park

New York/New Jersey: (1) Astor Plaza (Manhattan; 70mm), (2) Orpheum (Manhattan; 70mm), (3) Stanley-Warner Triplex (Paramus; 70mm), (4) Menlo Park, (5) Twins South (Hicksville; 70mm)

Philadelphia, PA: five unspecified theaters

Phoenix, AZ: Cine Capri

Pittsburgh, PA: Showcase

Portland, OR: Westgate 1

Rock Island, IL: Showcase

Sacramento, CA: Century 25

Salt Lake City, UT: Center

San Diego, CA: Valley Circle

San Francisco, CA: Coronet (70mm)

San Jose, CA: Century 22

Seattle, WA: 150

St. Paul, MN: Roseville 4

Washington, DC: Uptown

Source: Daily Variety ("Fox' Star Wars Heads For Hyper Space," May 27, 1977)

Note that only eight of those engagements were 70mm presentations. However, many of the initial 35mm engagements switched over to 70mm later on in the run as more prints were struck and other engagements ended and prints were moved over.

Boston, MA: Charles
*OPEN* Cincinnati, OH: Showcase
*DEMO* Denver, CO: Cooper
*DEMO* Detroit, MI: Americana
*CLOSED Indianapolis, IN: Eastwood

*OPEN* Los Angeles, CA: (1) Chinese (Hollywood; 70mm),
*OPEN* (2) Avco (Westwood; 70mm),
*CLOSED (3) City Center (Orange; 70mm)

*OPEN* Louisville, KY: Showcase
*CLOSED Minneapolis, MN: St. Louis Park (The Cooper or the Park??? Both are closed)

*OPEN* New York/New Jersey: (1) Astor Plaza (Manhattan; 70mm),
*OPEN* (2) Orpheum (Manhattan; 70mm),
(3) Stanley-Warner Triplex (Paramus; 70mm),
(4) Menlo Park,
*CLOSED (5) Twins South (Hicksville; 70mm)

Philadelphia, PA: five unspecified theaters

*DEMO* Phoenix, AZ: Cine Capri
*OPEN* Pittsburgh, PA: Showcase (Showcase North, Showcase East, or Showcase West??? All open)
*OPEN* Portland, OR: Westgate 1 (Located in Beaverton???)
Rock Island, IL: Showcase
Sacramento, CA: Century 25
*DEMO* Salt Lake City, UT: Center
*CLOSED San Diego, CA: Valley Circle
*OPEN* San Francisco, CA: Coronet (70mm)
*OPEN* San Jose, CA: Century 22
*CLOSED Seattle, WA: 150
*OPEN* St. Paul, MN: Roseville 4 (Located in Roseville)
*OPEN* Washington, DC: Uptown (Hi, Steve!)

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The Stanley Warner was probably one of the last movie palaces built in America. It opened around 1960, with over 2000 seats and a balcony, marble columns, art deco decor, huge loby with escalaters going up the balcony area. The Stanley Warner chain merged at some point with the RKO theatre chain, forming RKO Stanley Warner theatres. In the 1970's, when multi-plexing became popular, they "twined" the theatre by building a whole new building next to it, with it's own lobby and 600 seat auditorium with a waterfall curtain. This theatre has it's own marquee and was called The Route 4 Cinema. Shortly before Star Wars opened, they twined the big theatre by walling off the Balcony and putting a seperate theatre upstairs. The complex was then renamed the Stanley Warner Triplex.

I saw Star Wars there, second weekend it was playing in 70mm. There was no ANH at the begining of the crawl. None of the origial 1977 prints were struck with ANH. Although the film was never out of release, playing for over a year in some theatres, it had a wide re-release in the summer of 1978, when ANH was added. Those theatres still playing the film were sent new reel 1's, with the new crawl physically spliced into the older printing.

Other sources besides my memory on this:

The 1977 ABC TV Making Of Star Wars special, which opens with R2D2 and C3PO dipping their foot prints into cement and the announcer indicating this is the most successfull film of all times, makes no mention of this being part of a series. I still have my Beta tape that I recorded in 1977. You would think that George would take this oppertunity to announce upcoming episodes, but he didn't.

None of the original 1977 posters have any mention of ANH.

I have seen both 16mm and 35mm prints without ANH. In fact, some years ago, I ran a private showing of one of the British IB Techicolor Star Wars prints. It had the ANH in the scroll, physically spliced into the print, on regular eastman (non IB) film stock.

At the time Star Wars was released, SciFi was out of fashion, and nobody though the film would do much business. Fox had to practically beg theatres to play it, which was why it did not open on many screens. Remember, Lucus pitched Star Wars to 2 other studios before Fox reluctantly agreed to make it. Also, at that time, we did not have these huge wide releases that we do now. A huge release in 1977 would have been about 400 prints.

A couple of notes: The 1978 summer wide release was the first time I saw it at a nabe house in 35mm mono. The last reel DID have added Spanish sub-titles. When i returned a week later. the last reel had been changed to an English only reel.

1979 Re-release: I saw this on opening day. The Empire Strikes Back was a LITERAL trailer, stuck on at the END of the film, after the audience had completely left. Again, when I returned a week later, the trailer had been moved to front the beginning of the movie. Smart move (for those not new to the film.

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First saw it in 1977 in the U.K. and it definately had the Episode IV A New Hope bit at the front...

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As Yoda might ask: "So certain are you?"

Mitchell Dvoskin wrote:

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None of the original 1977 posters have any mention of ANH.

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This comment, while correct, doesn't carry much weight as evidence for much of anything because *none* of the domestic one-sheet posters ever included any references to "A New Hope" (at least the ones I'm familiar with); they always referred to the movie simply as "Star Wars." This includes the poster for the '78 reissue Mitchell mentioned, as well as the '79, '81, '82, and '97 anniversary reissue. Even the Killian Enterprises 10th Anniversary one-sheets referred to the film merely as "Star Wars."

I'd be surprised if anyone posting and/or reading this thread still believes the "Episode IV: A New Hope" tag was on the prints from day one. What *still* seems to be in question, however, is *when* the tag first appeared. Even after a couple specific postings we're still getting conflicting information!

Paul Linfesty wrote:

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Now, the CONCEPT of STAR WARS being episode IV certainly existed in 1979.

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A 1979 reference to "Episode IV: A New Hope" appears in the book "The Art Of Star Wars" (Ballentine). The "cover page" to the script that appears in the book shows: "Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope from the Journal of the Whills by George Lucas - January 15, 1976." The first printing of this book was dated November 1979.

The most recent release of "Star Wars" prior to the publishing of the book was the August/September rerelease. I had considered mentioning this in my earlier post but ultimately felt it was not relevant. We were discussing the *prints* of the film, after all. Now before anyone posts something like, "See, it said 'A New Hope' right there on the script. Lucas had all this episode business thought out from the get-go," let me point out that that "cover page" from "The Art Of Star Wars" was made up specifically for that book. Actual production copies of the script do *not* include any references to "A New Hope," and the closest thing to any sort of episodes or chapters or hints of a possible series is that the cover page says "The Adventures of Luke Skywalker as taken from the Journal of the Whills - Saga I: Star Wars." Sure, Lucas knew he had enough material for a film series, but I *really* doubt he had the whole thing intimately worked out at that point. (He had his hands full just making the one movie...and it is quite possibly a miracle that it turned out so well.) Which is why I don't think they fussed with adding the "Episode IV: A New Hope" tag right away.

Also, by November of 1979 (when "The Art Of Star Wars" was published) "The Empire Strikes Back" was in post-production. "Once Upon A Galaxy: A Journal Of The Making Of The Empire Strikes Back" by Alan Arnold (Ballantine, 1980) indicates principal photography occured between March and September of '79 and with the film in post at the time of completion of the book, I think it is a safer bet that Lucas at that time had commited to the then nine-part series and decided to use the episode numbers and subtitles on the films. Just my opinion, of course. Would love to hear any opinions, memories or recollections to the contrary.

Edens

Esquire

River Oaks

Yorktown

There was a 70mm engagement of STAR WARS in Chicago at the Oakbrook from December 1977 - July 1978.

Edens
*OPEN* Esquire
*OPEN* River Oaks (Calumet City - there are now 4 different theaters in the complex)
*CLOSED Yorktown (Lombard, IL)