It is the summer of 1996. The theatre goes dark. The crowd gets comfortable in their seats as the curtains open. The feature film is about to begin shortly and all that stands between the audience and their entertainment is a few coming attraction trailers. While the light of the projector above shines on to the screen, all the moviegoers see is a black background and a small television set. The audio, quite, not even coming close to the potential of the THX sound system in the theatre gives a focus of attention as the narrator says:

For An Entire Generation People Have Experienced Star Wars The Only Way It's Been Possible... On The TV Screen. But If You've Only Seen It This Way, You Haven't Seen It At All!"

To the Original Star Wars Generation, this was the light we saw at the end of the tunnel. The Dark age was over and we were never going to go without again! Of course, existing Star Wars fans weren't the only people in the theatre, and the joy we had when we saw that trailer for the first time was shared with hundreds of other people who actually went to the screening to see the feature film the trailer was attached to (and didn't walk out after seeing the trailer).

This was a world where there were still no Star Wars conventions, and the community was still small and in a lot of ways closeted, but when the films came out again we saw the start of something unstoppable. Who cares if Greedo shot first, we found our community and it was good. Sure many of us had seen these films hundreds of times, but in 1997 we saw them again for the first time, and many of the people we sat beside, the life-long Star Wars love affair had only just begun!

As the promotional steamroller for the Special Editions began to pave a new world for us all, we began seeing Star Wars images returning to the place they belong more than any other: the theatres. There were the posters promoting the Trilogy and the individual films, but they weren't as cool as the giant 10 foot long standees that many theatres had displayed. much to the chagrin of Star Wars collectors, these weren't for sale, and there was little chance the theatres were going to give them to us. Sure, some collectors were able to persuade the theatre managers to give them the display, but most of us went on wanting. That of course didn't stop us from measuring our homes to find a space big enough to display one if we got it, and it didn't stop us from wondering if we really needed to have a couch in our living rooms where the display could sit instead.

While we doubt that it is worth the asking price on this auction, it does indeed count as one of the most memorable Star Wars promotional items ever created. Check it out!

STAR WARS super rare 10 ft promo movie theater display



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