Fans fete 30th anniversary of Star Wars

Star Wars fans have descended on Los Angeles for five days of festivities to celebrate the original space epic's 30th anniversary.

The massive Star Wars Celebration IV event, which is being held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, got started a bit early on Wednesday with a free, marathon screening of all six Star Wars films.

The screening attracted several thousand people and reflected all ages, said event spokesman Jonathan Zaleski.

A long time ago, before Star Wars sold out, the Force turned farce and R2-D2 became a postal pimp, there was magic in the air.

It was the summer of 1977, and movie fans like Tim Doyle were as excited as a kid could get.

The Toronto writer was then just 6 years old, living in Sarnia, Ont. He travelled with his family to London, Ont., to see a movie the trailer had billed as "the story of a boy, a girl and a universe." It also had robots and spaceships and cool lightsabers.

"We went on the train to London to see Star Wars," Doyle recalled in an interview. "It fried my circuits. I was just a little immigrant kid from Ireland, and I'd never seen anything like it."

Doyle wasn't alone in his ardour. Millions of other people had exactly the same reaction to Star Wars three decades ago. They fell under the spell of the heroic rebel quest of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia and the quasi-religious life force known as "The Force." They booed the galactic fascist Darth Vader, the planet-destroying agent of the evil "dark side" of The Force.

In a recent survey, Sky Movies discovered that the Star Wars Trilogy was the most watched film by all male respondents and the second most watched film by the female respondents, with 50 per cent of all participants claiming that they had watched the films more than twenty times. Canadian actor Charles Ross has seen it far more often.

Star Wars was continually running in the background while Ross was growing up in the wilds of Victoria, Canada, and the result is his hilarious show, One-Man Star Wars Trilogy, where he single-handedly plays all the characters, sings the music, flies the spaceships, fights the battles and condenses the plots into just sixty minutes!

Since its debut in Toronto, in January 2001, One-Man Star Wars Trilogy, written by Ross and directed by TJ Dawe, has toured Canada and the USA, including an off-Broadway run, to huge acclaim. Charles has appeared on a number of prestigious American TV shows, including The Today Show and Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and Star Wars creator LucasFilms loved the show so much, they hired him to promote Star Wars: Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith and to appear at the official Star Wars Conventions, Celebration III and Celebration IV.

In Los Angeles a giant "Star Wars" celebration, the fourth of its kind, runs through Sunday at the city's Convention Center. Organizers said they were expecting 10,000 visitors each day.

On the first day at the event thousands gathered to sit through a screening of all six "Star Wars" films -- 17 hours in all. Many were dressed as their favorite "Star Wars" movie characters.

Special 30th anniversary items on sale at the Convention Center event include figurines of the robots R2D2 and CP3O, new posters, bibs for babies, and Teddy bear-style Ewok dolls, based on the fuzzy creatures that appear in the 1983 movie.

The most recent movie in the series raked in 850 million dollars in box office receipts worldwide.

Antonio Villaraigosa, mayor of this city of four million -- the second most populous in the United States -- even proclaimed Friday as "Star Wars Day."

The US Postal Service (USPS) is marking the anniversary by selling a limited number of stamps with pictures from the six movies, including Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and the feisty robot R2D2.

The collection of 15 stamps includes scenes from all six movies of the series. Each stamp is worth 41 cents, the minimum cost of mailing a basic letter.

On The Cultural Impact Of The Films

"For the most part, it's really a positive experience in that the most passionate fans are so young, and they need an optimistic message like those in the 'Star Wars' pictures. I'm really proud of being associated with something that was so uplifting and optimistic for young people." --Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker)

"It's been a really wonderful opportunity to get a chance to enter into something that was already ingrained in the culture and to get expand on that. And, it's been so nice to be able to make kids smile, when they see you and say, 'Oh, its Amidala!' That's such a gift." --Natalie Portman (Queen/Senator Padme Amidala)

"The films bind generations together -- It grows on the younger people because the mom and dad talk about them. They develop a common bond in families." --Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca)

On Becoming A Screen Hunk (And Telling Him That Your Wife Was In Love With Him)

"She'll get over it. Mine did." --Harrison Ford (Han Solo)

On Becoming An Action Figure

"My daughter likes them because she can stick pins in them when she's mad at me." --Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia)

"In the early days, they put out an action figure that made me look like the blond guy from 'Scooby Doo,' but now they're becoming a little more sophisticated. They're putting the cleft in my chin and making my hair brown instead of yellow." --Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker)

On George Lucas

"I do greatly admire the man -- I mean, he's the guy who put me where I am today. He took me as an 11-year-old boy, gave the responsibility of a featured role in a huge film and then since then, has nurtured my talents by allowing me to take the lead role in the two Ewok television movies, then in "Labyrinth" and then he gave me the title role in 'Willow,' which was another leap of faith for him. I'm totally grateful to him." --Warwick Davis (Wicket the Ewok)

"It's been great being a part of that whole experience -- all of us who had the experience working with George Lucas have been very fortunate. We're talking about a real legacy." --Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian)

On Fan Conventions

"The first time I went to a convention I went, 'How pathetic,' seeing all these people dressing up in silly costumes. Then I thought, "Well, wait a minute -- this is exactly what I do for a job! I better shut up!" --Anthony Daniels (C-3PO)

"In 1982, I met a young kid with his dad, and recently that young kid came to a convention. Here he had grown up and had become an animator because of the 'Star Wars' movies. It's extraordinary how many people have caught on to George Lucas' dream, and many of those youngsters are now working in animation studios or are directors or film cameramen. It's done an awful lot of good." --Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett)

On Favorite 'Star Wars' Collectibles

"It was the shampoo, where you could twist off my head and pour liquid out of my neck. 'Lather up with Leia and you'll feel like a princess yourself.' I don't think they make it anymore, but that was my favorite." --Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia)