Plastic Galaxy myth?

[Simply Sci-fi]

Plastic Galaxy is a great documentary but the story it tells of the Star Wars licence being signed in April 1977 seems very shaky to me. Steven Sansweet is convinced that the deal was signed ahead of the film coming out (the same story that he tells in Concept to Screen Collectable) but it doesn’t necessarily make it true. A document is shown while Sansweet is talking about Kenner’s plans before the film was released but it is a retailer order form dating from after the release of the film. It offers the Star Wars Poster Set, Dip Dots Design Book, jigsaw puzzles, the Escape From the Death Star board game and the Early Bird set.

It seems as if there is a developing myth that Kenner signed the deal before the film came out. As far as I have been able to ascertain, Kenner only showed an interest in Star Wars before the film was released and that he deal was only made when Star Wars was a hit. In an interview with rebel scum.com Bernie Loomis said “Well, the picture came but it wouldn't go and the world went crazy. Where are the toys? My former associate Ray Wagner, now President of Mattel, and I both remembered the relatively recent failure of a Mattel space line call Matt Mason; he remembered it more strongly than I did. Mark Pevers, [the person] in charge of licensing for Fox, came to see me in Cincinnati and I expressed the terms on which we would license Star Wars”. http://www.rebelscum.com/loomis.asp

In Plastic Galaxy Kenner Design Manager Ed Schifman seems to be speaking about seeing Star Wars after it has been released at the cinema: “Bernie called me into his office and said ‘I want you to take your staff to a movie this weekend’ and I said ‘Bernie, it’s a holiday weekend’ and he says ‘so what?’ We just bought the rights to this movie. I want your staff to see this. He didn’t tell me anything about the movie. He didn’t tell me what the name of the movie was. At least they paid for the tickets.” As far as I am aware, the Kenner staff did not view a preview performance. The only previews of Star Wars in front of a general audience were on May 1st 1977 at the Northpoint Theatre San Francisco and the second on the very next day at the Metro Theatre in Los Angeles.

Sansweet says that the merchandising strategy changed overnight after Star Wars was released. He even wound things back further by saying that Kenner was developing concepts for Star Wars before the deal was signed. The document from Jim Swearingen that was shown is shown is dated August (presumably 1977). If toy concepts were genuinely being developed in early 1977, why isn't there a document from that time?

I’m intending to tell the true story of Star Wars in my book and I’d appreciate any further information people may have, especially original documentation. Plastic Galaxy had an ideal opportunity to tell the definitive story of Star Wars toys and I hope that it hasn't simply supported a myth that Kenner had the foresight to sign the deal for Star Wars before its release.

Craig.

 

[Palifan]

Hi Craig,

Nice write up (as ever!), and some interesting points. Thought I'd re-post this link from another thread I just noticed as it sort of ties in with what you're talking about.

http://blog.theswca.com/2014/10/court-wars-star-wars-in-legal-system.html

Ian

 

[Simply Sci-fi]

Thanks for the link. This is a very interesting blog post by Tommy Garvey but some of the information is not derived from the court case. Garvey states; “Unlike Ideal, however, Kenner expressed interest in the license and entered into an agreement with TCF in April 1977.” I’d like to know what he based that on. Is this a case of disinformation being perpetuated?

The Star Wars licence does not seem to have been available in June 1977 as the court case info reveals "In late-June, Pevers met with Stuart Simms, a marketing executive with Ideal, to discuss a TCF series called 'Young Daniel Boone.' Simms, however, opened and closed the meeting by asking whether there were any licenses available on 'Star Wars' which would interest Ideal. Pevers indicated that no such licenses remained." Apart from explaining the story of Ideal versus Kenner, the blog doesn’t add anything to the history of the origin of the Star Wars line.

Craig.

 

[Tommy_Garvey]

Thanks for the link. This is a very interesting blog post by Tommy Garvey but some of the information is not derived from the court case. Garvey states; “Unlike Ideal, however, Kenner expressed interest in the license and entered into an agreement with TCF in April 1977.” I’d like to know what he based that on. Is this a case of disinformation being perpetuated?

That's a direct quote from the court case, not my personal opinion or disinformation being perpetuated. Fox initially pitched the SW brand to Ideal (and most certainly other companies) on February 14, 1977. They presented the license in late-February at Toy Fair, and signed the deal with Kenner in April of 1977. The court is supplying these facts after getting them directly from Kenner and Fox, only seven months after the contract was signed, so I highly doubt they made a mistake on that front. The court is including it in the facts section of the decision, so there was no question in either party's mind as to the validity of those dates. Everyone involved in the case agreed that was when and how the deal went down. The license wasn't available to Ideal in June 1977 because Kenner already had it. The contract was already signed and the design process at Kenner already underway. Ideal was trying to either get Fox to drop Kenner and go with them, or perhaps find something Star Wars they could produce instead of Kenner, but they failed.

Tommy

 

[Simply Sci-fi]

Hi Tommy,

Thanks for the extra information. I really appreciate it. Who better to clear up the facts than the writer? The blog took some extensive research and the information is very revealing.

If 20th Century Fox and Kenner stated at the court case that their deal for Star Wars had been struck in April 1977, it has become and always will be a part of Star Wars history. It is also means that I need to back off of this subject, especially in my book. If other sources suggest that the deal was made after the film was released, they are going to have to be plain wrong.

My book is about Star Wars in Britain and exactly when the deal was struck for the toys does not really matter. I just hoped to be able to get to the bottom of what happened, especially why a letter from Jim Swearingen dated August appears to be referring to the possible choice of characters for the range.

Another subject connected with legal action is the infamous Force Beam toy. I suppose that if legal action was ever taken by 20th Century Fox that the SWCA blog would have covered it.

There were at least two court cases in Britain connected to Star Wars. Screen International reported how Starforce magazine had been taken to the High Court in London over copyright infringement. Factors Europe was also awarded an injunction against Taylor Scope Ltd and seized over 37,000 unlicensed Star Wars badges. The information must be on record if someone wants to bury into it.

Craig.

 

[theslider]

Holiday weekends in the States were 31 May, 5 July, 6 September, 11 October and 25 October in 1977. I am inclined to believed it was the first one. Think the deal with Kenner was signed in April (or thereabouts) and the Kenner exec sent the employees to an early screening so they could get a look at it.

Also, if the deal for the toys hadn't been signed until after the film had opened then it would've gone to a higher bidder/bigger company, e.g. Mattel/Ideal/etc as all those toy companies would've seen how big/popular it was and wanted a piece of it (cf Ideal's rip off line in 1977 (on that blog about court cases).

 

[Tommy_Garvey]

Not a problem! Glad we were able to clear up the issue. Never hurts to double-check sources and make sure that everyone has their ducks in a row. I know I recently finished a book describing all the deaths to have ever taken place inside a Disney park, and I sure ran into my fair share of misinformation during my research. Many of the stories were mistaken or provided no citations as to where the info had come from originally, so I understand the frustration.

If you discover any other issues or things you question, please don't hesitate to ask anyone at the SWCA directly for clarification or input. We're only too happy to help you with your research, especially since we all love reading new books on SW collecting!

And thanks for the leads on other court cases! I'm putting together a list of them and know I'm still missing some.

Tommy

 

[cfawcett]

My uncle was one of the kenner designers who attended that screening. I can assure you it was before the movie was released.

Also, Charles Lippincott is on Facebook and regularly shares all his experiences and paperwork about the licensing deals. There's no doubt it was inked prior to the movie's release.

Cj

 

[SOJ]

Charles Lipponcott has just chimed in on this very subject on facebook and called out Brian Stillman for not interviewing him for plastic Galaxy. Brians been replying, a very interesting read.