The fourth is strong in these 'Star Wars' fans
South Jersey truck driver Michael Fright plans to celebrate by watching the first six movies, back to back to back.
South Jersey truck driver Michael Fright plans to celebrate by watching the first six movies, back to back to back.
Bucks County accountant Carl Cardozo will take the day off from work, going in search of collectible, newly-on-sale figures of Boba Fett.
Harvard professor Cass Sunstein intends to travel to the purest planet in the galaxy, Dagobah - at least in his mind.
"It's gorgeous there," he said.
And he should know.
On Wednesday, these fans will join thousands of others - film buffs, academics, nerds everywhere - to observe an unofficial but hugely popular national holiday: Star Wars Day.
That's May 4, as in, May the Fourth be with you!
The first official celebration is said to have taken place in Toronto in 2011, when a theater scheduled tribute films and costume contests, though fans have been honoring the day at least since the advent of the World Wide Web.
Now Star Wars Day is getting as big as, well, Star Wars.
Companies like Xbox, Amazon, and PlayStation hold special sales. Sports teams minor and major use the day to mash cultures - and draw customers. The meme-filled takeover of the internet has become a tradition.
Last year, astronauts aboard the International Space Station noted the day by watching one of the movies, identified by fans as Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
"Just watching @starwars. In space. No big deal," NASA tweeted.
Celebrations take place at Disneyland and Walt Disney World now that Lucasfilm Ltd. is owned by the Walt Disney Co.
This year in Philadelphia, Standard Tap is holding a Galactic Pageant, where people who dress as Star Wars characters have a chance to win a droid. In this case it's a Bluetooth-enabled BB-8, from the latest film, The Force Awakens.
It could be the droid you're looking for.
Frankford Hall beer garden hosts a talk by Star Wars collectibles expert Paul Harrison, a Bar Wars saloon crawl takes place on South Street, and the Fishtown branch of the Free Library welcomes kids for games and crafts.
"Every day to me is Star Wars Day," said Fright, the South Jersey trucker. "It's one of the first things I think about when I wake up, and one of the last things I think about when I go to bed."
Fright - the pen name of Walter DeGirolamo Jr. - is known for the zoning troubles he encountered while building giant models of Star Wars spaceships outside his house. He's semifamous as the subject of what might be called the Crying Trilogy:
YouTube videos, helpfully posted by his daughter, in which watching the trailers for The Force Awakens causes Fright to break down and weep.
Seriously.
Fright, 50, can quote entire scenes of dialogue. When he noticed minuscule errors of continuity in Episode IV: A New Hope, he paid to have the film reedited, creating his own, mistake-free movie.
Growing up, he said, his father was in a motorcycle gang. The first films provided a framework to help him understand his family's dysfunction.
"Hearing Darth Vader saying, 'I am your father,' that was it," Fright said. "I was Luke Skywalker, and Darth Vader was my dad."
The wordplay that christens the day - "May the Force be with you" - has become part of the lexicon, uttered in one context or another by everyone from Hillary Clinton to Bootsy Collins to Mayor Quimby on The Simpsons.
"The reason that phrase is so ingrained in the culture, those movies, the franchise, the whole of it, even when we didn't have movies to watch, it was still in our hearts," said Alexia Poe, a 38-year-old actress who lives near Washington.
The cohost of Trekoff, a podcast devoted to Star Trek, will mark the day by ignoring Kirk and Spock and devoting the conversation to Star Wars.
But why does the holiday exist? Why is there a day for Star Wars when there's no Jurassic Park Day? Or Hunger Games Day?
"Because it's awesome, and full of mysteries, and fun, and because it is handed down from one generation to another," Sunstein said.
Before joining Harvard Law School, he ran the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. His books include Why Societies Need Dissent; Risk and Reason: Safety, Law, and the Environment; and, this month, The World According to "Star Wars."
The new book examines what Star Wars teaches us about constitutional law. He's to talk about the book at the National Constitution Center on June 13.
"Star Wars has become America's unofficial national myth, and the world celebrates along with us," Sunstein said in an email.
People who love Star Wars love it together, he said. It's natural they want a special day.
That's why Sunstein is headed for his private Dagobah, a place of swamps and forests that served as a refuge for Yoda during his exile, and where Luke Skywalker received advanced training in the ways of the Force, according to the ultimate source, Wookieepedia.
Carl Cardozo needn't travel to celebrate. His customized Star Wars bathroom is among several rooms in his Southampton home decorated in the theme of the movies.
On Star Wars Day, he'll be up at 3 a.m. - midnight Pacific time - to try to grab those special Boba Fett items the minute they go on sale online. If he strikes out, he'll head to the Disney Store at Montgomery Mall to try to buy them in person.
"Every day," he said, "is like a Star Wars celebration in my house."
No word on whether Thursday will be renamed Revenge of the Fifth.
215-854-4906
@JeffGammage
