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S02E30: Manically Remembering Early Star Wars with Steve Groos, Part One
39 Plays2 months ago
Do you remember what it was like when the original trilogy first came out? Not sure that WE do, but we had a lot of fun trying! Join Bob and his old pal Steve Groos as they try to remember what it was like in the day.
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Discord: https://discord.gg/a89TD3XdFX
Email: SFASpod@gmail.com
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Transcript
Introduction to Star Wars Memories Series
00:00:01
Speaker
We're trying to remember Star Wars in the 80s and we're doing it real quick. Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short for a star trooper?
00:00:14
Speaker
Welcome back to Short for a Stormtrooper. We are starting a new series, which I think is going to be really fun.
Reunion with Steve Gross: Discussing Star Wars Memories
00:00:20
Speaker
It's basically me and some old guys talking about Star Wars and what we remember from the 70s and the 80s.
00:00:27
Speaker
One is an old friend, one is a new friend. We're going to start with my old friend. Steve Gross is a guy I grew up with, and we have been friends forever, but we completely lost touch until...
Childhood Memories of The Empire Strikes Back
00:00:40
Speaker
just a couple weeks ago when we were back for our 40th high school reunion. He's now started tuning into the show and I wanted to have him on as we share our memories of what Star Wars was like way back in the day. So, ah you know, we're going to talk a lot about specific names and things that won't have any meaning to you. But hey, maybe you'll just enjoy hearing two guys reminisce. I think it's a lot of fun. So here's part one of my conversation with Steve.
00:01:08
Speaker
Okay, so we are trying to figure out where our Star Wars histories intersect. Yes, and I have a very specific memory that I have been telling people about for for decades, going back to 1980. I have been telling people I saw The Empire Strikes Back with Bob Gerrard on opening day, and I think it was at Woodfield, but I'm not sure, but I but i also remember...
00:01:38
Speaker
that I got out of school. My mom let me skip school to see Empire Strikes Back. and I don't know if if that's true or if that's something. No, I'm going to break your heart and tell you that that's not true.
00:01:53
Speaker
It's partially true. It's grounded in truth. We did see emperor Empire Strikes Back together, did we not? See, this is so okay so this is so funny because this is what I'm trying to reconcile. Okay, so this is what we've established so far. We were in second and third grade together.
00:02:07
Speaker
Correct. Mrs.
School Days and Star Wars Releases
00:02:08
Speaker
Davis. Yes. And then in fourth grade, I went to Mr. Murphy's classroom. You went to Mrs. Raymer's classroom. Right. Fourth grade for us being 1976 and 1977. So Star Wars came out at the very end of fourth grade for us.
00:02:24
Speaker
Yes. And I did see it because I saw it like the second week that it was out. ah My brother knew about it and we went all the way to the Edens, like way up on the North Shore of Chicago.
00:02:38
Speaker
Yep. To go see it. Right. Which is way before me, but yeah. So, so it was that summer really when everybody started watching star Wars, started seeing it. Right. Yeah. So,
00:02:49
Speaker
Who did you have for fifth grade? Do you remember? ah Mrs. Bedke. Mrs. Bedke. Okay. see So I had Mr. House. So we weren't in the same class because I don't remember really even talking about Star Wars with you until junior high.
00:03:05
Speaker
Right. When we were getting ready for Empire Strikes Back to come out. Correct. So these are the two memories that I have, we're going to have to check. And you know what? This maybe should be a Learning Geeks episode where we talk about memories. Yeah, for
Spoilers and Revelations: The Empire Strikes Back
00:03:18
Speaker
sure. Right. So, um, so what I remember is we had, cause you just sent, you just sent me a picture of it.
00:03:28
Speaker
Uh, I think Paul Heider had gotten the comic book. Yeah. Yeah. the There's a, there's a Marvel, it wasn't a comic book. It was actually ah a paperback Marvel, uh, novel is a, uh,
00:03:42
Speaker
what do you call that? yeah It was like a paperback book form, but it was the comic, right? Yes. Or the novelization. It was the novelization in comic form. And it was, it was, it was a it was a pretty dense book and, and it had everything in there. So spoilers and all.
00:04:01
Speaker
Yeah. And we got it before the movie came out. Because I remember Paul Heider telling us, Darth Vader tells Luke Skywalker that he is his father.
00:04:12
Speaker
And we're all like, what? No, right. But we, but we knew he was lying. Right. Like, yeah, I went into the movie kind of knowing that was going to happen, but knowing that it was a lie.
00:04:24
Speaker
It was a lie. So, you know what I may, I may have been, i may have been on the fence. okay i don't think Okay. I don't think I was that certain that it was a lie or that I i don't, I think I was keeping my options open.
00:04:41
Speaker
Okay. Fair. All right.
Visual Impact of Star Wars Films
00:04:43
Speaker
So, so this is what I remember about opening day of Empire Strikes Back is it was honors night at the junior high because now we're in seventh grade.
00:04:52
Speaker
Correct. Right. Yep. So it was honors night. So my mom was not going to let me go on opening day because I had to go to honors night. Oh. So I actually went over to Hyder's house and I was super bummed out because like, we weren't going to be able to see it till the next day.
00:05:08
Speaker
And my brother called me over there and it's like, I talked to mom. If we hurry, we can go to this showing at Woodfield and get you back in time for honors night.
00:05:19
Speaker
So I went with my two brothers with Steve and Jack yeah and we went out there and we're driving back home. And I was like, Oh, I can't believe that he told Luke that he was his father and he lied. And they were like,
00:05:34
Speaker
No, it's true. i mean, don't you remember like at the very end and Luke is going like father and Vader saying son. and I was like, oh my God. And my brain was blown that it was actually true. And I came back in and I was late for honors night.
00:05:49
Speaker
So I snuck in. So I snuck in. I was trying to, but everybody could see me. There was no way that you could hide. And i I went up and I sat next to you and Hyder because Gerard Gross Hyder, we were super close yeah to each other. yeah and And I told you guys, no, it's true. Darth Vader is actually Luke's father. So I remember spoiling that.
00:06:12
Speaker
Do you remember that at all? You know what?
The Legacy of Star Wars: Effects and Characters
00:06:14
Speaker
i I wish I did. i do remember the i do remember how Paul was kind of ah unapologetically grabbing spoilers and telling us about them. yeah he was yes in And i was i was I was less anxious to to know what was going to happen But i but my cure I was just too curious. I couldn't stand not knowing. So I did go through the book. i think But I think, i unlike you, I think I believed it. I mean, I knew. Okay, good. Yeah, yeah. Oh, my gosh. But you know what?
00:06:52
Speaker
The parts of the the graphic novel that I really loved were the you know, the asteroid chase, the Hoth, you know, at, at scene, those were, because visually they even worked in a, in a, you know, a cartoon format.
00:07:13
Speaker
And it was, so I was already thinking before I went in to see the film, how in the heck are they going to do this? This is going to be, Like even he's crazier yeah other than Star Wars.
00:07:26
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. and And that was, so that was my mindset. I was less focused on the plot and I was more focused on the visual and the realization yeah of how are they going to do these unbelievable scenes like the Millennium Falcon flying through an asteroid field or, you know, the,
00:07:50
Speaker
The opening Hoth scene. Yeah, the walkers. Yeah, that was... And I still, I mean, I get goosebumps just thinking about that Hoth scene because it just still, that stop action that they did... Oh, the tauntaun? Yeah, everything. It amazing. It was all fantastic. So I... Yeah, I guess I was... I mean, the story now in hindsight is...
00:08:17
Speaker
everything. I mean, Empire is my favorite of, of all the star Wars movies. And, and that's where the whole story pivots, obviously. But at the time as a, what, what were we 13? Yeah.
00:08:32
Speaker
yeah Right. It was the visuals. I, I just, I couldn't get enough of what they were doing with the special effects. It was even, i you know, I was watching recently,
00:08:44
Speaker
um Empire of Dreams. And they were talking about documentary. Yes. classic of no If you haven't seen it, you should watch it. It's amazing. A hundred percent. It is, it is a, a great inside story about the trials and tribulations.
00:09:02
Speaker
And the part that I loved that I, it's still mind blowing when you think of it is Frank Oz and the the the puppetry that he had to, I mean, they had to build all those sets with space underneath.
00:09:17
Speaker
And he would talk to the director as Yoda. And the director would would not look down at Frank Oz, but would look at Yoda and address Yoda. Like, no, no, no if Frank would be like, I'm down here.
00:09:31
Speaker
If you're gonna give me direction, you gotta talk. I'm down here, don't talk to, but Yoda was so, he became so lifelike to even the director that, ah so it was those visual elements of the film that I just, they so even to this day, I just love it. I'm just blown away at how he pulled that off 1980. It's just remarkable.
00:09:52
Speaker
It was so funny too, because there was such a Darth of any information about it. Like we we knew nothing about what was going to happen in this movie. And right I remember going to Meadowdale cinemas to see some movie with my sister. I don't know what it was.
00:10:09
Speaker
But ah it was the first time I saw the movie poster for the Empire Strikes Back. And it said on there, Frank Oz is Yoda. And we were like, Frank Oz? Because everybody knew him at that point. and The Muppets were really hot, right? Oh, it's Miss Piggy.
00:10:24
Speaker
yeah And um like, what's it going to be? And then my sister said, oh, I wonder if he's going to be a Muppet. It was like mind blown. Yeah. You know, so, you know and then we didn't know for sure until we actually saw him. Although we had our suspicions that that was well and not exactly a Muppet. Let's let's be fair. That was a high. That was a high end.
00:10:45
Speaker
Yeah. It wasn't a Fozzie bear. No. Let me let me ah bring your your memory back up to full speed. So now you can tell people the right thing.
00:10:56
Speaker
It was Return of the Jedi that you're thinking of. ah It was okay good. Okay. Yeah. So you were not, you were not far off at all. That's okay. That makes sense.
Empire vs. Jedi: Clarifying Memories
00:11:07
Speaker
Because what, total sense what happened was, um, my oldest brother, Steve was living in downtown Chicago at the time. And so they were doing a midnight show of Jedi at the biograph theater in Chicago.
00:11:20
Speaker
Okay. So he got tickets for me and my girlfriend. Cause now we're in high school and we have girl girlfriends and stuff. yeah And I remember actually, I remember leaving Empire Strikes Back and thinking, I'm going to drive to the next Star Wars movie.
00:11:36
Speaker
And sure enough, you know, so I saw the midnight show. um You know, got home three in the morning, got two hours of sleep, went to school the next day. And then you and I ducked out last period to go to Spring Hill.
00:11:53
Speaker
We went to Spring Hill Mall and we saw a Jedi. That makes sense. That makes total sense. So that would have been 80... 83. 83. Yep. They were juniors. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:12:04
Speaker
eighty three yep our juniors wow yeah Well, and that would explain why I remember it better because I don't remember much through those Maplewood, Kerry Jr. high years. They're kind a That's where I wanted dial it back because i I did not remember talking to you about Star Wars at all until Empire Strikes Back came out.
Star Wars Influence on Childhood Hobbies
00:12:25
Speaker
Well, right. I had my own neighborhood group over in Lake Killarney that ah was way into not just Star Wars, but You know, we were doing early Dungeons and Dragons and, you know, Fight in the Skies. We used to have epic risk, you know, battles. Oh, yeah. I never knew that.
00:12:47
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So my, um you know, Don Ahrensberger, our band director yeah at Cary Grove, the the legendary Don Ahrensberger, his sons, Dave and Mark, were two of my good friends. Yeah.
00:12:57
Speaker
And Dave and Mark and their next-door neighbor, Steve Manchester, and their next-door neighbor, Ken Crounce, we were kind of like the Star Wars pod. Okay. And we would get together. And one of the things right after Star Wars came out is, you know we all immediately started collecting the cards.
00:13:15
Speaker
Oh, right. The Topps cards. The Topps trading cards, yep. And just... And we would actually trade them. I mean, we would try to get the complete sets and we would, you know, the guys that didn't like the stickers would dump, you know, a sticker for a couple other cards. So it it became, that was my entry into really, you know, loving Star Wars. When I first was told, my mom told me about Star Wars, she's like, I see this, you know, movies coming out. It's getting a lot of buzz. You might like it. And I was all about Jaws. I just loved oh Jaws. I couldn't, I mean, I saw Jaws a bunch of times in the theater.
00:13:50
Speaker
Loved it. i mean, it predates Star Wars a couple of years, but it was still, it was in the theaters for a long time. And that was more of my focus at that point. And again, maybe that's the visual element again, but yeah once I saw Star Wars, I'm like, wait a minute. And then the merchandising kicked in and the figures and the cards. And I think what it did is it allowed us back then, you know, in the,
00:14:19
Speaker
you know, the days before we had VHS and then DVDs and now streaming, you know, we could keep the movie alive and study it. Yeah. And immerse ourselves in it without having to go back and see it. i I definitely saw Star Wars multiple times in the theater and Empire multiple
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:14:38
Speaker
times. But, you know, we could, in in in between those viewings, we could look at the cards, talk about it, really analyze what's going on.
00:14:48
Speaker
We'll wrap it up there and we will wrap it up with Steve next week. So in the meantime, please hit like, hit subscribe, tell your friends, join the discord, have a lot of fun, enjoy Star Wars, go watch something for crying out loud or play a game.
00:15:02
Speaker
You know what? I just got a new PC ah back to a windows PC and i am playing star Wars squadrons again. And actually the new version of X-Wing, which, you know, I'll probably do a show about sometime.
00:15:16
Speaker
I'm going on way too long. Sorry. We'll see you later. at May the first be with you. Bye-bye. Who's that mindless choice to do? Podcasts, hope you see them through. Star Wars is your favorite in it.
00:15:27
Speaker
Let's chat for 15 minutes. Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short for a smorn trooper? Aren't you a little short for smorn trooper?