For those of us old enough to remember, the summer of ’76 remains THE hot summer of our childhood. Water shortages, broiling heat and brown grass everywhere, and that was the summer that Star Wars was filmed. Writing for The Borehamwood Times, Paul Welsh looks back to that red hot summer.
That was shooting at Elstree during our last heat wave summer in 1976? Well of course it was Star Wars, which was destined to become an all-time great but frankly when I visited the set my money was not on it. I thought science fiction movies were old hat. The unit publicist invited me to visit the set. Naturally I was impressed that Alec Guinness was staring and Peter Cushing was doing a small part. As for the rest of the cast, I had not heard of any of them.
Then he told me about a giant furry thing and a talking robot and I headed for the bar, in which I have just celebrated my birthday 42 years later. I was introduced to this young director named George Lucas. I wisely told him I thought the film would flop. Today he is a billionaire in Hollywood and I am a pensioner in Borehamwood. I still think George and Steven Spielberg should have bought Elstree Studios back in 1988 and I had a meeting with them on a soundstage while Sean Connery and Harrison Ford were rehearsing a scene for Indiana Jones And A Last Crusade. It was not to be, but that is a story for another day.
