Lucas has always fiddled with the film. I saw it in the theater during the first run, and he made changes between the first and second runs, long before there were any home video releases. He had a different actress overdub Shelagh Fraser’s voice as Aunt Beru before it ever became Episode IV: A New Hope.
The main differences between versions pre-Special Editions were in the audio mixes. IIRC, the mono mix was the last to be completed and included lines like “Close the blast doors!” and Threepio’s tractor beam explanation. It might have also included the newer Beru voice.
So in reality, there isn’t even one definitive version of the original Star Wars since there were three different versions showing in its first run. The initial release of The Empire Strikes Back also had an earlier cut of the final scenes in the 70mm print, FWIW.
Going strictly by memory here but I saw SW 1 week after release at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
I am sure the “Episode 4 A New Hope” was in the crawl.
I want to remember that, at least, “Episode 4” was at the top of the opening crawl in the first theatrical release when I saw it at a special screening for radio contest winners the night before the day it opened nationally. (I still have my, “May the force be with you.” button that they handed out to all attendees.) Since, as I recall from reading at the time, it was Lucas’ desire to create something that looked like a chapter of an old serial, this seems like something he would have done.
I am astonished how many people think they saw the later crawl during the original release. It is completely documented. There’s even a Wikipedia page on it. Or you can just watch it on YouTube.
Repeat. The original did not have:
A subtitle.
An episode number.
It’s like that fictitious ending to Big that keeps coming up here.
Was that always your reaction, or is it something that only started bugging you after the special editions came out? I only ask, because I never heard anyone complain about that until it started getting bundled up in the “Han shot first!” and related outrages.
I’m young enough that, despite seeing the movie in the theaters during its original run, I have no memories of ever seeing it without “Episode IV” in the crawl, and would swear that it’s always been there if I didn’t know better. (I also have a distinct memory of seeing the scene between Biggs and Luke on Tatooine in the movie, which is also impossible - pretty sure I saw a still in some related merchandising, and interpolated it into my memory of the movie.) But I always thought it was really cool. It was my first introduction to the idea of deliberately telling a story out of order, which was a completely mind-blowing idea when I was eight.
I had the Marvel Comics Star Wars issue back then, and it had a Jabba who looked like this. I wonder if that’s what aceplace57 is conflating with the film.
I’ve fallen prey to this; until recently I could swear I remembered the “Indy ties himself to the submarine with his whip” scene being in the Raiders film, when I was apparently just remembering it from the novelization which I read around the same time.
I’m just going off of my memory here. Also as Lobot mentioned up thread there were 3 different versions in the original release. If this is true it is entirely possible that one had a different crawl.
I believe the original scene with the original actor was released on the video cassette “From Star Wars to Jedi” - a documentary that showed the making of the first three movies.