This is more for the OP than anyone else, so sorry if TLDR.

Prior to Star Wars, there was really just 'science fiction', which had spaceships and aliens and futuristic stuff, but it was always stuff that made you THINK, often with a weird twist or "message". Stuff like Forbidden Planet, Planet of the Apes (5 movies and a TV series), 2001: A Space Odyssey, Silent Running, Star Trek, and Logan's Run (movie AND a TV series). Some special effects were pretty good (2001; Silent Running with its drones which were predecessors to Star Wars's droids) , but some were BAD (notably, Logan's Run and Star Trek).

But then Star Wars came out in 1977, the summer I was 12, the perfect age for it. The first inkling I had of it was in February or January 1977, as a trailer for the Gene Wilder/Richard Pryor movie Silver Streak. This is the same trailer:

Star Wars original trailer

Notice that the music background/soundtrack is not there. nor is the iconic Star Wars font with connecting ST and RS. My friend and I saw that trailer and thought it was the coolest thing ever, and we said we would definitely see that movie. We had no context of what was going on in those rapid-fire scenes, who the characters were, etc. But it sure looked cool as all hell, especially to a 12 year-old.

And you have to remember, we saw all those snippets just ONCE before the film came out. None of these seeing multiple commercials on TV, or seeing trailers on the internet as much as you want

The movie was to come out in early summer, but Marvel got the jump on the movies by starting their comic book adaptation a couple of months early. In early May before the film was released , I picked up issue #2; this was the cover:

IIRC, that issue covered from when Luke awakens from being knocked out by the sand people, up to when the Millennium Falcon is being sucked into the Death Star by the tractor beam. I got to know the basics of the characters -- Luke, Ben, the droids, introduced to Han and Chewie. There may have been an aside scene of Vader and Leia. That was the only issue I read before the movie came out, so, I didn't go into the movie totally clueless.

Shortly after school let out in late May, as I always did, I went to spend the summer with my grandparents and extended family in Biloxi (summers back then were heaven, but that's another story). I think the first weekend there, we all went to see the movie at the old Surfside Cinema; it was pretty much right when it came out.

Let me tell you, the movie BLEW ME AWAY. Seeing a portion of the interesting story in a comic book was one thing, but seeing the grand landscapes of Tatooine, the totally neat sets/furnishings, the vehicles, the glowing eye Jawas and the cantina aliens, the Millennium Falcon zooming around, and finally the way a light saber looked and sounded (especially when it was activated and extended) was something I had never seen before. The special effects (including the sound effects and their use in a "space movie") and camera angles were amazing. And it was like that all movie long! Action, gunplay, escapes, light saber duels, hologram chess, shooting at TIE Fighters that were attacking, etc.. Then it got to the climax, the attack on the Death Star. What I really remember as an "OH WOW" moment was when the Rebel Fighters-- which are now iconic, but which I had never scene before-- got the command to "go to X-Wing formation" AND THEIR WINGS OPENED UP TO MAKE X'S!!! That was like the coolest thing in the world to me. And then the triumphant ending to an almost perfect movie.

That movie played all summer long and well into the fall, almost to Christmas time. It was almost all we ever talked about as 12 year old boys, we became immediately one with the whole mythology of Jedi Knights and the Force, we pretended broom sticks were light sabers, when I would give my baby sister a 'pony ride' on all fours it was now a "bantha ride"; and we picked up whatever merch we could (soundtrack album, posters, T-shirts, etc.). I had some cousins in at Thanksgiving time from their podunk Minnesota hometown; they had never seen it and weren't as familiar with it, so I took them and they were blown away as well and then got into the whole thing.

The funny thing is no one knew how big it was going to be and there was a big delay in terms of toys, They weren't ready for Christmas 1977.

The after effects of its success were rather quick. The toys and such finally came out and sold millions. The characters became an immediate addition to pop culture; everyone knew who Darth Vader and R2-D2 were. By fall 1978, ABC network had come up with their Star Wars rip-off show, Battlestar: Galactica. Disney put forth their rip-off movie The Black Hole. The first big budget Star Trek movie came out in 1979 as did Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (movie and subsequent TV series). Heck, at the time I was in the GT program in middle school and for one of our extra activities we spent the whole spring semester of 1978 making our own Star Wars type rip-off movie in super 8mm, with crazy costumes, some cheap sets, spaceship miniatures filmed against a black fabric backdrop with Christmas tree light stars, and even a droid made of fruit crates and paper-mache'

This post was edited on 2/3/20 at 11:35 am