TheForce.Net - Collecting - SW Poster Database - ANH - Style A

A NEW HOPE
STYLE "A" - 1977

NAME: A New Hope - Style "A"
YEAR: 1977
DIMENSIONS: 27"x41" (One Sheet), 41"x77" (Three Sheet slightly smaller than usual 41"x81"), 77"x79" (Six Sheet slightly smaller than usual 81"x81"), 14"x36" (Insert), 30"x40" (Windowbox on Card Stock), 40"x60" (Two Sheet), 40"x60" (Standee Sheet), 24 Sheet, 27"x41" Heavy Stock Paper One Sheet
VARIATIONS: Record version with logo and text "Original Motion Picture Soundtrack on 20th Century Records and Tapes" added (see below).
FOLDED OR ROLLED: Both, rolled is more rare
DOUBLE OR SINGLE SIDED: Single
FAKES: Yes
REPRINTS: Yes
INFORMATION:
This poster is probably the most recognizable of all of the Star Wars posters and the most prominent in the hearts and minds of fans. In fact, it is arguably the best known of any movie poster. The striking image of Luke and Leia was featured on countless pieces of merchandise. It is so engrained in pop culture that you still see parodies of the image to this day.

This poster was painted by artist Tom Jung with design work by Smollen, Smith, and Connolly (presumably Fox or LFL marketing people). A version designed similar to this one was painted by Greg and Tim Hildebrandt and done without photo references of Hamill or Fisher. The Jung version was so loved by Carrie Fisher's mother, actress Debbie Reynolds, that she had a second copy of the poster painted:

"We had a problem with Carrie Fisher," noted Jung, "because they wanted to make her more glamorous. I got my wife to pose for the drawing, and I changed the hairdo and shoved the paint around until I came up with the figure you see now. Carrie Fisher's mother, Debbie Reynolds, loved the poster. She called David Weitzner at Fox's advertising department and asked if she could have the painting, so he asked me to do a duplicate painting, which is now hanging in Carrie Fisher's house. The original painting is at Skywalker Ranch." --Cinefantastique Feb. '97 (by Lawrence French)

The droids were added to both Jung's style A one-sheet art and his half-sheet art at the insistance of Lucas. This fact is confirmed in Cinefantastique.

In "Children of the Night" magazine from March 1977 (interview in Sept. '76), Derek Jensen conducts an interview with 20th Cent. Fox publicity director Charles Lippincott. In it, he expresses his hope that Frank Frazetta will be interested in doing the poster art for Star Wars. This explains why Tom Jung's style A SW poster art is so "Frazetta-esque".

It is a little known fact that there are FOUR different printings of this style of poster. All are original, but each is different in the text at the bottom of the poster. Star Wars Poster Archive has a really good description of the printings:

The first printing has across the bottom border "one sheet - style 'A'" and then the NSS number as "77/21-0". The second printing has across the bottom border "one sheet - style 'A'" with the NSS number as "77/21". The third printing has across the bottom border "one sheet - style 'A'" with the NSS number as "77/21" and "Star Wars" written under it. The fourth printing doesn't have the tag but just the NSS number "77/21" and "Star Wars" written under it.

Style A - 1st Printing

Style A - 2nd Printing (Signed by Carrie Fisher and other cast)

Style A - 4th Printing

This will be important information for you to consider when inspecting posters for purchase. There is apparently no difference in price between these various printings. Bootlegs of this poster are known to exist. Besides the typical telltale signs of bootlegging (27"x40" rather than 27"x41"), there's on incredibly good fake that has only one identifiable flaw in it - a hair in Luke's belt. Here's a scan of the hair error from the Star Wars Galaxy Collector #5 (Feb. 1999)

You can read more about this here

Also visit MyMoviePosters for more info on spotting bootlegs of this poster.

OTHER IMAGES:

Style "A" with Soundtrack Ad

Style "A" Additional Image

Style "A" Insert - From the Star Wars Poster Archive: "There are two variations to the Style "A" insert. The original inserts printed in 1977 have the NSS number 77-21. In the 1980's, a subsequent printing was done for the video release which was identical to the original insert except that there was no NSS number."