Alec Guinness as Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi.

The tale is in the tattoo.

If anyone doubts Phil Laboon's fever for the Force, he need only flash his left arm. That is where you will find his Han Solo tribute tattoo.

Of course, the 25-year-old also has a Pomeranian named Lando Calrissian in honor of the Billy Dee Williams character, and several hundred "Star Wars" comics, books and novels.

Chewbacca and Han Solo defend themselves against imperial stormtroopers in "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope." Click photo for larger image. Related articles From movie to myth: Documentary explores the influences of the 'Star Wars' saga From movie to myth: Flash back to '77 -- 'Star Wars' makes a kid of everyone Our Complete Star Wars Guide Readers remember, timeline, Los Angeles marathon, postage stamps, original reviews, trivia quiz, interactive presentation. George Lucas and cast talk about "Phantom Menace" and more ...

"For those that never gave 'Star Wars' a chance because it doesn't have crazy car crashes or high school dance teams, I say shame on you," he says. "This is the No. 1 movie franchise of all time."

And it marks its 30th anniversary today.

Laboon, owner of an Internet marketing company in Baldwin, was among fans, far and wide, who responded to a Post-Gazette call for "Star Wars" memories for our Web site (see www.post-gazette.com). Laboon was 4 years old in 1986, when he first saw the movie.

Many others were children when "Star Wars" was released on May 25, 1977, and they also recall the moment with remarkable clarity.

Mary Lynn Baronett of Bethel Park says it was the first movie she remembers seeing, at a drive-in, since replaced by a Taco Bell and day-care center. Tom Link from the South Side was a kindergartner when his father took him out of school to go to a matinee at Showcase Cinemas East in Wilkins.

Amy Gallo of Jefferson Hills was 7 when the movie premiered. "The first time we went to see 'Star Wars' was the day of my first Holy Communion. I wore my white dress and veil, so I very much felt like Princess Leia herself!"

Bob Raspet of Plum was 6 when, inspired by the TV previews, he begged his father to take him to the movie. But his dad turned the car around when he saw the long lines outside the theater.

"I cried the whole way home," Raspet says, and he bugged his father daily until he took him back to the theater. Today, Raspet has more than 5,500 "Star Wars" items and is a local contact for the Pennsylvania Star Wars Collectors Society.

Filmmaker George Lucas knew what he was doing by opening a summer movie in May, standard procedure now, but an unheard-of gamble then.

"The big weekend to open movies was Christmas, ever since movies began," Lucas says in a new book titled "The Making of Star Wars" by J.W. Rinzler (Ballantine Books, $35). "The second time is the Fourth of July weekend. But I said I want my film to be released in May for Memorial Day weekend."

"And the studio said, 'But the kids aren't out of school' -- and I said, 'Well, I don't want the kids out of school. I want the kids to be able to see the movie and then talk about it so we can build word of mouth.' They thought I was out of my mind."

He was out of his mind, all right.

The studio also wanted to replace the scrolling words at the beginning with a narrator who would read the text for the benefit of little children. We all know how that one turned out.

On May 25, 1977, when the movie opened, Lucas was across from Mann's Chinese Theatre in a hamburger joint on Hollywood Boulevard. He actually was still working on the fourth sound mix for the wide release. Today, "Spider-Man 3" may open in 4,252 theaters but "Star Wars" was slowly rolling out across the country.

Lucas didn't realize his movie was playing across the street (it was a last-minute substitute for William Friedkin's unfinished "Sorcerer"), and when he later called the head of Fox, he heard "Star Wars" was doing fabulous business, the Rinzler book reports.

Lucas, of all people, advised caution. "Remember, science fiction films do really great the first week, then they drop off to nothing. It's a good sign, but it doesn't mean anything. Let's wait a couple of weeks."

That simply confirmed "Star Wars" was never just another movie, and that's not revisionist history. Lucasfilm Ltd. and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment bundled newspaper stories from the time and sent them out in summer 2006 to promote new DVDs of episodes IV, V and VI, and they showed:

A 14-year-old from Everett, Wash., merited a feature story because he had seen the movie 63 times ... and counting. The teen, whose wardrobe included six T-shirts with different movie scenes, already had a 1978 "Star Wars" calendar at the ready and a bedroom wall plastered with posters and newspaper articles, plus a shrine to the soundtrack album.

A theater in Las Vegas planned eight showings of "Star Wars" a day, just as it had for "The Exorcist," but for different reasons. A savvy manager expected repeat business for 'Star Wars," whereas not too many customers wanted to watch Regan's house of horrors over and over.

A 25-year-old from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, told an Akron reporter: "It's supposed to have everything a good old-fashioned movie should have -- shootouts and a sidekick robot." A 34-year-old man added, "I dig on science fiction, period."

In Chicago, lines were forming two hours in advance and one theater manager hired an extra 20 employees to handle the crush. In Los Angeles, scalpers were fetching $20 a ticket.

A William Arnold piece published in a Seattle newspaper was headlined, "Why is America in love with 'Star Wars'?" Press people were descending on 20th Century Fox to get the answer. Darned if some of them knew.

Actress Carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia, confessed, "We gagged on some of the lines and were sure it was going to be a disaster." Mark Hamill, identified as a former soap opera star who plays the protagonist, called it an involving movie with a happy ending. "It's a movie that makes you feel very, very good."

In late April 1978, in anticipation of the one-year anniversary, the Dallas Times Herald reported 87 million Americans had seen "Star Wars." That was more people than voted in the 1976 presidential election. And if you can know a movie by its trash, the paper added, "After the opening of 'Star Wars' in Chicago, the littered theater had to be cleaned out with snow shovels."

On June 9, 1978, the Tacoma News Tribune noted: " 'Star Wars,' the prize-winning movie that spread ripples of change throughout most of American culture, begins its 52nd week today at Tacoma's Roxy Theater. ... The Roxy has worn out three prints of the film since it opened," the owner said. "The audiences now are watching No. 4."