The dunes of Tatooine

Leaving Death Valley this morning, we passed a familiar sight. In 1977 we went to Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood to see a new movie. We had noticed announcements of the film on small billboards on Vine Street on our way to work, driving to our office in Los Angeles. “Star Wars, eh?” we thought. “Sounds interesting.” The day the film opened we walked right up to the box office, bought our tickets, and went in and sat down. The movie was a transforming experience! The sound in the Chinese was superb; the floor actually shook during the really intense scenes. We told a couple of our friends that they HAD TO SEE THIS FILM! We took them the following weekend, and were surprised to find a line of people that stretched over a block from the box office. We finally got tickets and went in for our second helping. Unfortunately the sound was disappointingly diminished. Our friend told us that she knew the projectionist and that he had had a rather rough night. He had a terrific hangover and couldn’t stand the sound being too loud. Star Wars demands a robust soundtrack to be truly effective. Oh well.

This morning we stopped to look at the Death Valley sand dunes that were traversed over 30 years ago by C-3PO and R2-D2. The dunes looked pretty much the same, but were silent. We thought of the projectionist who turned the sound down at the Chinese 30 plus years ago.