RECOLLECTIONS

 

It is very interesting to recount my Star Wars history, to tell the tale of my involvement in Star Wars fandom. It's like taking the magic portal back in time and living sections of my life all over again. I have never told the tale in full before, and no doubt other letter writers will give you equally fascinating stories, but I shall give it a go, it's a story that spans 15 years. WOW it's almost an autobiography.

 

AND MY MOTHER SAID I'D GROW OUT OF IT

 

My life sort of began when I saw Star Wars, although in 1977 I was already celebrating my own 10th anniversary. It seems difficult to recall anything of interest in my life before I saw the film but after that my life really began. My name is Darren Maxwell and in 1977 I was 10 years old, I was living with my parents at 100 Carlton Street Carlton, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. I was in grade 5 attending the Rathdowne Street Primary School which, as luck has it, was virtually around the corner from where I lived. The school itself was one of those early 1900's structures and its main good point was that it was very small, so everyone knew everyone and once you reached grade 6 well, you were the top of the school ladder. Life as I recall wasn't too bad then until one day...

 

My very good friend Desmond "Wossa" Smith was telling me about a movie that he had just seen and all I could interpret from his ravings were simply "check it out!" I wasn't long before these rumblings were being echoed through the school, but with the younger kids it was lost on them. I came from a poor background and my mother didn't have much money although I was able to convince her to take me to see Star Wars (the kids at school would not shut up about it and so I just had to see it for myself, if only to keep up with their conversations). My mother's opinion was that it would be a waste of time but a 10 years old kid's insistence made her give in and so she took me.

 

I do not know the exact date but I can imagine it being one to three months after its Australian premiere that my mother and I rolled up to the cinema only to be confronted with the "SORRY HOUSE FULL" sign. Well that was a huge disappointment. Fortunately, another fantasy film was showing at the same time "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger" so we went and saw that instead (and it wasn't bad actually) it was a compromise that couldn't be helped. Lucky for us, it was only Saturday afternoon so it was rather early when "Sinbad" had finished, we were heading out of the cinema when we decided to inquire at the box office as to whether Star Wars had any vacancies. It did! Well we bought two tickets and hopped in line with me thinking. "Wow! Two movies in one day, a real treat." I remember we had allocated seating, we were in the absolute last row, with our heads leaning on the back wall, everybody was led in, sat down, lights out, SHOWTIME. No ads, no shorts, nothing, Star Wars was being pumped into as many sessions as possible to cater for the demand.

 

Ironically I have absolutely no memory of the film. I suspect that I died and went to heaven, and in that instant I became a Star Wars/Science Fiction fan for life. It was a pretty big impact for a snotty nosed, 10 year old kid, I imagine I went to school on Monday and went apeshit. Star Wars had become more than a fad, it was an obsession. It wasn't long before Wossa, myself and Dennis (another mate of mine) and the other dudes began frequenting the cinemas on a regular basis. We just couldn't get enough of Star Wars, it became the 'boys' game at school, a big shoot-em-up, Rebels v's Imperials. Just shoot and when you get hit, count to ten and start shooting again. At this time I discovered a fondness for the Imperial Empire and of course Darth Vader, he became my hero. Wossa was a big Han Solo fan so he was always on the side of the "goodies" and I the "badies".  In art & craft we tried making Star Wars mobiles. Duncan (an American exchange student) attempted to build a Death Star out of cane,  I mean it was huge, subsequently it didn't work,  Adam built an X-Wing fighter out of straws and it was pretty good.  I created a TIE Fighter out of sticks which was pretty sad. Football and cricket took a back seat at school in favour of Star Wars.   I still remember Wossa and Dennis arguing whether Chewbacca was a real alien or not.

 

"Do you see any zippers on him?"

"No."

"See that's because he is real."

 

Astounding logic but at the time everything was believable.It wasn't long before we attempted to do our own story in cartoon form.  But first we had to do a who's who. Luke,  Han,  Leia,  the old guy Ben "Kenoble" and the baddie Darth Vader (whom I originally thought was called Earth Raider). A question suddenly arises.

 

"Are Sandpeople and Tusken Raiders the same thing or are the little babbly things sandpeople?" There is a pause..."What were those weapons again.......light swords.  Yeah that's it!"  As you can guess we didn't seem to progress very quickly.

 

"Who can draw Darth Vader's helmet?" No takers but Wossa gives it a go.".....and there are lines here and pointy bits there and......." The result was "......ah yeah righto - it'll pass."

 

"What about the Stormtroopers huh?" Yours truly, unable to draw the real thing, creates his own design, the helmets were strangely shoe shaped and hence forth were referred to as "Bootheaded Stormtroopers." Very amusing.

 

For my 11th birthday Dennis bought me a Chewbacca figure (the little ones) and Wossa got me the Artoo Detoo one (or was it the other way around) my first Star Wars figures. It was May 13th 1978,I was in grade 6 now, the last year of my primary school years before moving onto high school. Star Wars was my life, my mother bought me the odd collectable here and there, the 'Escape from the Death Star" game was overworked to death and Wossaand Dennis, my best pals, started buying the Star Wars figurines when there were only 12 to collect. I finally got the Vader figure after numerous stores were always sold out. I even met the big D at the Children's Palace Kids Day, he didn't seem to be very tall and didn't say anything but gee whiz, Darth Vader in person, I shook his hand and all.

 

The biggest problem our faze caused us was "The Instant Expert Syndrome" everybody knew everything and there were no end of disagreements between kids

"The babbly things are Sandpeople."

"No they're not, they're Jawas."

"I think you're wrong."

"Look they say so in the movie, the little things are Jawas." (pause)

"I'm still not convinced."

 

It took a while to convince me on that one. We were all victims of IES, we were all experts on Star Wars and were eager to show off our new found knowledge or any other information that we happened to come across even if it did turn out to be incorrect, and believe me, we were wrong more often than we were right.

 

For us at that time life was good, Star Wars was still in the cinemas, we headed the top of our school, we each had the set of the 12 figurines, we knew everything about the movie (so we thought) and things were great.

 

Then we rolled into 1979. I left primary school and was promoted from Grade 6 to Year 7 (Form 1 in the old terms) and I changed schools from Rathdowne Street Primary to Princes Hill High, the other end of the suburb, an eternity away. I was the only one of my friends who went to Princes Hill, all the others (except Wossa who was now in grade 6) went to University High which was closer to Rathdowne Street. Our Star Wars school partnership ended. Princes Hill High was infinitely bigger and was full of strangers, not one recognisable face anywhere. A Star Wars fan in a strange land.

 

At first I didn't hide the fact that I liked Star Wars, I mean at primary school it was all the norm. In high school things were different and as time went on I felt as though I was only fan of the film out of a population of a thousand. Unlike at Rathdowne Street where my friends and I were at the top of the classes, here it was the reverse, everyone was older. Boy did I feel alone. Subsequently for me school was no fun and although Wossa, Dennis and I still got together after school and on weekends, the middle patch in the weekdays had no zest in them, also other friends like Adam and Duncan had gone their separate ways. It really came down to us 3 loyal friends, 3 Star Wars fans. It didn't take me long to realise that Star Wars was not a topic of great appeal at high school, I mean it was already 2 years old and for many a thing of the past. I soon learned to clam up and to keep all that I had to say to myself, this also was to cut down the amount of ridiculing I was receiving from the other kids. 1979, what a bad year.

 

1980, the year of the Empire. As with Star Wars, I have no recollection of seeing The Empire Strikes Back for the first time, maybe I died and went to heaven for a second time. All I do know is that it strengthened my love for the saga even more. A couple of the kids at school saw Empire as well and actually liked it, and so they were a bit more sympathetic to my attitude towards it, which was good. Somewhere during this year Wossa my closest and best friend under the Star Wars sky and I parted company. He moved to another high school and I shifted closer to Princes Hill thus making contact difficult and somewhere there I lost him and never saw or heard from him ever again. Many years later I had heard that he was trying to track me down but to no avail. I still wonder if he is a fan or not, he is not in fandom so I can only assume that he "grew out of it." Which is a shame. Dennis and I kept in contact but the distance was taking its toll, at opposite ends of the suburb, it was long bike ride for a 13 year old and eventually we lost contact with each other.

 

Our Year 8 class was the same as Year 7, so nothing changed in that respect. I still remained quiet about my Star Wars love because there was nobody there to listen and that was the problem.

 

"Am I the only Star Wars fan left on the planet?" It was a pretty depressing time for me. A love for Star Wars but with no one to share it with. I still bought the odd collectable when I could and collected stuff for my scrap book. I must've read the novelisations millions of times (including Splinter of the Mind's Eye which in primary school we all thought was the sequel the Star Wars) and saw just about every Star Wars rip off movie there was. I mean some were real rubbish, but it was Sci-fi and I loved it.

 

In 1981, things began to change, I moved up to year 9 and the structure of it meant that I was with different students for different classes, thus I was able to mix with a lot more other kids. I was still the only Star Wars fan around but the tension of being with the same class month after month eased. It was about this time that I met George Chouvardas, a quiet kid who had a great talent as an artist and as luck has it a Star Wars fan as well, (now that put a change on things) George had a friend called Tony and his brother (another George) was also a Star Wars fan. The assemblidge was getting bigger but it would be another year till things hit a higher gear. But through all this time I still had no real outlet for my interests, I had not yet heard of fandom, conventions or fan clubs. I was a 14 year old Star Wars fan looking for a family.

 

1982 screamed on in, I was in Year 10 and things really began to prosper. While other kids were graffitting their school bags with names of pop groups, I had 'Star Wars Forever' and 'Long Live the Empire' plus 'Darth Vader Rules' etc. on mine. I was becoming more open about my interests since I was no longer the youngest or the lowest grade kid in the school. George, Tony, the other George and I became good friends. Tony's George had acquired a copy of Empire on video, the quality was R.S. but that didn't matter. George Chouvardas kept drawing Star Wars pictures and building models with great skill, he even made a 2-3 foot long Star Destroyer out of cardboard with lights inside which still exists even to this day. Somewhere during this time I met a kid called Tasman Sanford who became a good friend of mine and when Star Wars was officially released on video cassette he hired it for a weekend. I watched it 9 times in 2 days, what an overload. All around me attitudes appeared to be changing, people were starting to show an interest in the films and what with Jedi on the way things could only get better. I suddenly discovered that I had friends who cared (although differently from people like Wossa and Dennis). We collected the gum cards and other assorted oddments and although I had seen stacks of other Science Fiction movies, I was a Star Wars fan first and foremost and a Darth Vader fan first before that. I also discovered Minotaur Books in the city, the first real media Sci-Fi book store in Melbourne.

 

In 1983 my life had a major change, but before that took place a few things happened. I started painting a mural on a wall at school dedicated to the Imperial Empire (it is still there today). With Jedi on the way our little Star Wars clique was blossoming and thriving well and everything was great, except that Return of the Jedi was not due to be released in Australia until October 28! The only thing we could do was watch all the reports from American news programs to see how it was doing over there. Then it happened, Tasman suggested that he and I on behalf of our school newspaper do a report on Jedi at the film's distribution office in the city in the hope of seeing parts of the film earlier. I mean nothing ventured nothing gained, right? So we went straight to the top to Mr. Frank Henley the Director of Fox/Columbia and conducted our interview. As interviews go it was pretty mediocre but the bonus was that Mr Henley gave us 30 free passes to a preview of Jedi on August 14th. I almost died, to see the film 2 months before everyone else! Mr Henley also gave us a few Jedi daybill posters as well. My first poster collectable, we split the tickets 50/50 and my whole life hence forth with Star Wars was foretold from that moment because of Tasman and his idea. I will be forever indebted to him for it. I got all the lads together and handed out the tickets what a coup, we even brought our parents along as well, but the best bit was yet to come.

 

Sunday August 14th rolled around, I was introduced to some Star Wars fans by a lady I had invited to join us, I met Marj Miller and Helena Russell who happened to be involved with HAMILLS the Australian Star Wars Appreciation Society, I didn't even know that a club existed and they mentioned about the premiere of Jedi in October and how they were all going to be there in costume. Well I said yeah straight away and was encouraged to get dressed as the Lord V. himself, well this was looking really good. The best was still yet to come, we went into the cinema, Hoyts Cinema Centre number 1 (where Star Wars and Empire had been shown) the biggest cinema in Melbourne right down to the very front row in the middle. In front of us was fresh air and the screen, then it started. Enormous cinemascope, loud enough to make the seats vibrate and somewhere in this screening I died and went to heaven yet again.

 

After the film I was introduced to my now longest friend in fandom. Shane Morrissey who was in charge of the Melbourne end of HAMILLS. 10 years later we are still the best of friends.

I attended a HAMILLS fundraiser in Moonee Ponds a month later and met up with everybody again. This was my first Star Wars/Science Fiction social event and all the Star Wars knowledge and trivia I had emassedover the past 6 years was finally put to the test in the trivia quiz. I had discovered my element. I spent the next month trying to piece together a Darth Vader suit for the premiere, I already had tickets bought through HAMILLS (ironically I was never a member of the club). October 26 arrived, the city streets had been blocked off just for the film and there was a live band playing and dancers as well, pretty impressive really considering that it was all for a movie. It was here that I wore my first ever costume. I located the HAMILLS group and the night became one to remember, I wanted Star Wars and was getting plenty of it and while I lapped it up I made a critical error in not getting contact names and addresses. When all was said and done I had no one to call and I did not know how to contact any of the HAMILLS people and so I was alone again. All was not bad though, our clique grew larger because of Jedi and we had some great times but as 1983 turned into 1984 things quietened down considerably.

 

In 1984 my life hit its biggest turning point. I was doing an extra term of Year 11 (my final term of my schooling life), I was now 17, the mural I had started painting was finished after I had left school and entered the workforce. Then somewhere on a radio at work I heard that tickets to the preview of Star Trek III could be obtained from the station. Since I missed the premiere of Star Trek II, I promptly rang up.

I attended the screening and ran straight into all the old HAMILLS people. A girl who I recognised from high school strangely enough asked me while we were chatting whether I was interested in theatre work. For some reason, on instinct I said "Yes". A small theatre group called Starforce which was made up of HAMILLS members was in operation and were looking for people to join, now I was definitely interested. I was given a place and a time to turn up and that was that.

 

The following Friday night I walked through the door of an old scout hall in Albert Park and although I was not instantly aware of it, I had just joined Star Wars/Science Fiction Fandom. My new home, my new family and I have never looked back.

 

My name is Darren Maxwell I am now 26 years old and am currently Executive Committee member for Star Walking Inc The First National Star Wars Saga Convention of Australia (Force One). I am also a board member for Star Walking Inc. Next to the Director Shane Morrissey, I am also a founding member for this organisation and one of its longest serving (6 years). I have been on the committees of 4 conventions and attended 13 others and have been involved in 8 special event banquets.

 

And my mother said I'd grow out of it.

 

Darren Maxwell

 

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