While not a complete Star Wars junkie, I am a fan of the franchise, so when the opportunity presents itself, I generally snap up any autographs of members of the cast of both the original films and the later prequels. On Monday, December 8, 1997, I got the chance to meet two members of the Star Wars family at the Bookery Fantasy comic book store in my hometown of Fairborn, Ohio: Kenny Baker, the dwarf actor who was the performer inside the R2-D2 costume in all six of the films, and John Hollis, who played Lobot in The Empire Strikes Back. At the time, I had no idea that Hollis was Lando Calrissian’s cyborg aide – but that didn’t stop my from purchasing one of his photos.
In addition, David Prowse, who was the man behind the Darth Vader mask was scheduled to be in attendance. They were all appearing from 3pm – 7pm and as I recall I arrived with my friend Eric Flinn closer to the ending time. So we did not get to meet Prowse, who had already left for some reason.
In any case, the store had some signed photos of Prowse, and actually had a couple of other actors who regularly made the circuit of personal appearances. As I recall, all photos were $10, so I of course picked up Hollis and Jeremy Bulloch (who was Boba Fett in Empire and Return of the Jedi, and actually made an appearance as a different character in Revenge of the Sith) had them sign, and then purchased Prowse, Kenny Baker, and Peter Mayhew, who had portrayed Chewbacca. I later got a chance to meet Mayhew as can be seen here.
These were some of the minor characters and I later had the chance to meet a couple of major ones, one of them also in my hometown! Unfortunately, I got no photos of either Hollis or Bulloch – so maybe we can try again one day when the Force is with me…
Autographs of 1997 will continue…
1997 will continue…
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