When Kenner Toys put out the first ads for Star Wars action figures and toys, they used a generic “action” music theme as background music instead of John Williams’ theme.
Was it that Kenner didn’t have and wouldn’t pay for the movie theme? If so, why do they use it now?
Well, the movie music was obviously copyrighted.
Originally, the first *Star Wars * action figures didn’t even include agreements to “actor likeness;” the faces on those first run figures barely resembled the movie characters, in a very generic way. We’re talking about the stone age of licensing and merchandising agreements, here – *Star Wars * is one of the phenomena that created children’s toy merchandising/licensing as we know it today.
Back then, Kenner had the rights to use the names and logo. Nowadays, for promotional purposes, they can use the music, and even film clips; it’s written into the contracts.
Furthermore, although I can’t cite it, I have heard that George Lucas owns a nice chunk of the company that produces the *Star Wars * toys these days. Back when the original came out, he did not. If this is true, I suspect it would tidy up the matter of who can use what from the licensing rights a great deal.
It surprised me to read that, but a quick google search confirms that GL does, in fact, own 10% of Hasbro.
I had heard on some show the other day about Star Wars that in order to get Star Wars made, he accepted all or most of the merchandising rights and the sequal rights instead of cash (or as much cash). Back then “merchandising rights” meant crappy T-shirts and posters. Alec Guiness also agreed to some merchandising rights since Lucas could not afford his asking price.