President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, which he proposed in the mid-1980s, was controversial and negatively dubbed “Star Wars” by critics who were inspired by the 1977 epic film by George Lucas — the first in a series of Star War films. Fast forward four decades and the Reagan Library is opening a flashy new exhibit on Friday and it gave the media a peek on Wednesday, March 13.
The exhibit is jammed with real props, costumes and artifacts from the blockbuster film, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, produced by Lucasfilm and distributed by Twentieth Century-Fox — the first film released in the Star Wars film series.
C-3PO and R2D2 on display next to an original X-34 Landspeeder during a media preview of the “Star Wars and SDI: Defending America and the Galaxy” exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Star Wars collectible toys on display during a media preview of the “Star Wars and SDI: Defending America and the Galaxy” exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Han Solo Blaster on display during a media preview of the “Star Wars and SDI: Defending America and the Galaxy” exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
C-3PO and R2D2 on display next to an original X-34 Landspeeder during a media preview of the “Star Wars and SDI: Defending America and the Galaxy” exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
David Prowse’s (Darth Vader) Script A New Hope (1977) on display during a media preview of the “Star Wars and SDI: Defending America and the Galaxy” exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
A Star Wars TIE Fighter on display during a media preview of the “Star Wars and SDI: Defending America and the Galaxy” exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Workers put the final touches on the “Star Wars and SDI: Defending America and the Galaxy” exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Star Wars collectible toys and comic books on display during a media preview of the “Star Wars and SDI: Defending America and the Galaxy” exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Star Wars collectible toys on display during a media preview of the “Star Wars and SDI: Defending America and the Galaxy” exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Mark Hamill Thank You Letter 1978, on display during a media preview of the “Star Wars and SDI: Defending America and the Galaxy” exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Star Wars collectible toys on display during a media preview of the “Star Wars and SDI: Defending America and the Galaxy” exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
A BGM-109G Gryphon nuclear missile on display during a media preview of the “Star Wars and SDI: Defending America and the Galaxy” exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Command Launch Equipment (CLE) on display during a media preview of the “Star Wars and SDI: Defending America and the Galaxy” exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Stay Wars movie memorabilia on display during a media preview of the “Star Wars and SDI: Defending America and the Galaxy” exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Melissa Giller, chief marketing officer for the Reagan Foundation, said, “We thought it might be fun to sort of tell the story of Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative. What it really meant, juxtaposed to the pop culture phenomenon of Star Wars, but unlike the exhibitions that are currently touring, we wanted our props or costumes or artifacts related to the movies to be real and authentic to the movies.”
Among these gems, Giller said, “Princess Leia’s dress is pretty remarkable, I’d say that. Everyone who’s a Star Wars fan is going to have their own specific thing that they’re really interested in. I think having Carrie Fisher’s dress as Princess Leia from ‘A New Hope’ is pretty remarkable. The fact that we have the original 1977 New Hope script, signed by David Prowse who played Darth Vader, next to an actual Darth Vader helmet that (Prowse) wore, I think is pretty remarkable.”
The exhibit also includes original “concept sketches that George Lucas and his artists were drawing, of what they wanted the characters in the movie, in the atmosphere, to look like.”
Giller described the hunt for the “real thing” in which they tapped private collections, auction houses, a traveling exhibit and other key sources. “Yeah, we have the actual landspeeder,” she said, “and then what you haven’t seen yet is we have a whole gallery dedicated to the merchandise and the toys of Star Wars.”
She reminded the journalists and others who attended the pre-show, “When George Lucas first came up with this idea, no one wanted to buy the script from him, and no one thought that toys or merchandise would be anything — and he sort of really pushed it through and now it’s, you know, a billion dollar business.”
