--- title: Celebrate Star Wars Day With These 5 Surprising 'Star Wars' Facts description: Space knowledge straight from TIME's 1977 take on the classic movie canonical: https://time.com/3836877/1977-star-wars-facts/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-04T10:00:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:04.425Z article:section: History og:title: Celebrate Star Wars Day With These 5 Surprising 'Star Wars' Facts og:description: Celebrate Star Wars Day on 'May the 4th' og:url: https://time.com/3836877/1977-star-wars-facts/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2b8dfc1d283713f/6987ed0b35ba6ffd28c0b149/star-wars.jpeg?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Star Wars og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Celebrate Star Wars Day With These 5 Surprising 'Star Wars' Facts twitter:description: Celebrate Star Wars Day on 'May the 4th' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2b8dfc1d283713f/6987ed0b35ba6ffd28c0b149/star-wars.jpeg?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 5 Surprising _Star Wars_ Facts, Straight From 1977 ## Video: 100 Years of Blockbusters in 5 Minutes [Watch (HLS stream): 100 Years of Blockbusters in 5 Minutes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/tfrXo5zL.m3u8) (5:21)  _Published 2014-02-12. Time has taken the highest grossing film each year for the past century and crammed them into 5 and a half minutes. No Intermission._  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 4, 2015 10:00 AM UTC  A poster for George Lucas' 1977 fantasy film 'Star Wars' A poster for George Lucas' 1977 fantasy film 'Star Wars'Movie Poster Image Art / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 4, 2015 10:00 AM UTC The name of the movie appeared nowhere on the cover of that week’s issue of TIME, but a banner of text proclaimed that, inside those pages was the story of the year’s best movie. The day was May 30, 1977, so you might be able to guess what that movie was: _Star Wars._ The article, complete with nearly a dozen photos from the movie, took readers through the vocabulary of the universe created by George Lucas and explained why such a strange-sounding picture would be worth seeing. But, even though it’s been nearly four decades since _Star Wars_ required such explanations, the 1977 story still contains some surprising nuggets of space knowledge. In honor of this year’s [_Star Wars_ Day](http://time.com/87062/may-the-4th-be-with-you-a-brief-history-of-star-wars-day/) — May the 4th — here are a few of them: **The movie only opened in about 50 theaters.** As a point of comparison, _The Phantom Menace_ opened in nearly 3,000 in 1999, according to [Box Office Mojo](http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=starwars.htm). **Before the movie opened, there was a rash of theft at the production offices.** As word of mouth ramped up, the world was desperate for _Star Wars_ memorabilia and information. Thousands of color transparencies were stolen — the going rate for a black-market purchase was $5 a pop — and miniature models used to film spaceship scenes went missing as well. **The look of Tatooine’s landscape is thanks to George Lucas’ potential skin issues.** Luke Skywalker’s home was meant to be a jungle, and producer Gary Kurtz even went to the Philippines to find a shooting location—except that “the bare thought of spending months shooting in the jungle made Lucas itchy.” The solution? The desert. **The casting company behind the Mos Eisley Cantina regulars was called Uglies, Ltd.** “There \[Lucas\] found actors to portray thugs assembled from all parts of the galaxy,” TIME explained. ‘Then Makeup Man Stuart Freeborn went to work, making the uglies uglier…” ### Rare Photos of George Lucas Behind the Scenes of Star Wars  George Lucas and Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) on the set of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope in a galaxy far, far away. Lucasfilm  Lucas gives direction to Sir Alec Guinness (Obi-Wan Kenobi) in Episode IV. Lucasfilm  Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) and Harrison Ford (Han Solo) sit around Lucas on the set of The Empire Strikes Back. Lucasfilm  Lucas with Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), along with Hamill and Ford on the set of Episode IV. Lucasfilm  Lucas directs Peter Cushing (Grand Moff Tarkin) and Carrie Fisher. Lucasfilm  Harrison Ford and Lucas share a moment in Endor on the set of Return of the Jedi. Lucasfilm  Lucas on set filming the opening scene of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. Lucasfilm  Lucas reviews concept art for Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones. Lucasfilm  Lucas inspects a model pod racer for Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. Lucasfilm  Lucas makes sure that the Death Star is fully armed and operational for Return of the Jedi. Lucasfilm  Lucas holds up Jango Fett's helmet. Lucasfilm  Natalie Portman (Queen Amidala) and Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi) listen to Lucas' directions on the set of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. Lucasfilm  Lucas directs a lightsaber battle between Ian McDiarmid (Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious) and Samuel L. Jackson (Mace Windu) on the set of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. Lucasfilm  Lucas sets up camp next to a Bantha on the set of Episode IV. Lucasfilm  Lucas finds the droid he was looking for. Lucasfilm **C-3PO’s eyes were made of real gold.** Unsurprisingly, it was hot inside the costume for the droid referred to by TIME as “threepio.” The rubber and plastic that was used for joints approached its melting point, and it became dangerous for actor Anthony Daniels. But one part of the suit was not in danger of being destroyed: the eye pieces were covered with real gold, to prevent corrosion. **The actors weren’t exactly excited about the script.** In an earlier draft of the script, the Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi started out as a crazy old geezer whose wisdom is revealed over time. Actor Alec Guinness told the filmmaker that it would be better for “his method of acting” if Kenobi was clearly wise the whole time; Lucas agreed to make the change. As for Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, they were excited about the project by the time the magazine article appeared, they weren’t afraid to admit that Lucas’ script was mouthful after mouthful. “There were times when I issued a threat to tie George up and make him repeat his own dialogue,” Ford told TIME. “I told him: ‘You can’t say that stuff. You can only type it.’ But I was wrong. It worked.” **_Read the full 1977 story, here in the TIME Vault:_** [The Year’s Best Movie](http://time.com/vault/issue/1977-05-30/page/56/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3836877/1977-star-wars-facts/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3836877/1977-star-wars-facts/"},"headline":"5 Surprising Star Wars Facts, Straight From 1977","datePublished":"2015-05-04T10:00:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:41:04.425Z","description":"TIME proclaimed the space fantasy to be the year's best movie","url":"https://time.com/3836877/1977-star-wars-facts/","keywords":["movies","Star Wars topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2b8dfc1d283713f/6987ed0b35ba6ffd28c0b149/star-wars.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2b8dfc1d283713f/6987ed0b35ba6ffd28c0b149/star-wars.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Star Wars","caption":"Star Wars","creditText":"Movie Poster Image Art / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3836877/1977-star-wars-facts/","name":"5 Surprising Star Wars Facts, Straight From 1977"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"100 Years of Blockbusters in 5 Minutes","description":"Time has taken the highest grossing film each year for the past century and crammed them into 5 and a half minutes. 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