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| Charles Lippincott, the key man responsible for selling the original film to the sci-fi community in 1976/77. |
As anyone reading this site will know, the original Star Wars in its all creative and production phases over 1975 to 1977 was seemingly going to be a tough sell to audiences, or so believed the people at Twentieth Century Fox, who thought the film was destined to be a flop. Fortunately, its writer/director George Lucas and producer Gary Kurtz had a secret weapon up their sleevies in selling and marketing their unique film, not just to generic audiences but to the sceptical sci-fi community worldwide: Charles Lippincott, a genuine star on the rise Wunderkid who would be instrumental in getting many major and very press worthy merchandise deals done prior to and during the film's release, would cleverly build up interest in key magazine/newspaper sectors, interview/look after the film's young (and sometimes wild) stars across various international press jaunts, and be just a solid, reliable, trusted presence to Lucasfilm in the crazy worlds of Hollywood and the movie-making system.
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| With Kermit Eller as Darth Vader at the famous Chinese Theatre footprints event - Summer 1977. |
No stranger to sci-fi/fantasy, having worked on Westworld a few years earlier than Star Wars, for MGM, Lippincott's talents in advertising and marketing, and his interest in the genre, were to be equally well used on subsequent projects like the original, and terrifying Alien (also for FOX), the colourful 1981 Sam Jones-starring version of Flash Gordon, and producer of Sylvester Stallone's nineties take on the UK comic antihero Judge Dredd.
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| Lippincott in his later years, and still with that classic T-shirt 1976 McQuarrie logo shirt. Image: Facebook. |
Talented, insightful, opinionated, but most of all dedicated and an all-round nice guy, Lippincott, who had a lively and very informative social media presence these last few years as one of the definitive paperwork holding/remembrances historian of the original Star Wars, will be greatly missed by the SW fan community and film fans worldwide...
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| Joe Johnston's early idea for the first Star Wars promotional booth at the 1976 Comic Con, presumably concepted with Lippincott's input. |
https://www.starwars.com/news/charley-lippincott?fbclid=IwAR0B3qqFpVyqrKGxWeXfKnCGC6DsZg-YM8GFc9rmyu1DDOYbDbJ08hNknlg
https://variety.com/2020/film/news/charles-lippincott-star-wars-a-new-hope-publicist-dead-dies-1234612584/
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/charles-lippincott-dead-star-wars-publicity-mastermind-was-80-1295384
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