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George Lucas was born George Walton Lucas, Jr. in Modesto, California in 1944. As a teen he loved car racing, but a bad accident just before high school graduation ended that dream, and he went to community college and got interested in film. He transferred to the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, where he became good friends with future filmmakers like John Milius and Stephen Spielberg. As a grad student he directed a short film, Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB, which he later expanded into his first feature film, THX 1138. He won a scholarship that let him work on the set of Finian's Rainbow, which was being directed by Francis Ford Coppola. They became friends, and in 1969 they co-founded American Zoetrope, which produced Coppola's The Rain People, and Lucas' THX 1138, but the movies were not commercially successful. Coppola was hired to direct The Godfather in 1972, and Lucas then started Lucasfim, and he wrote and directed American Graffiti, based on his teen years in Modesto, and Coppola was the producer. The movie was a huge success, both critically and at the box office. Lucas next wanted to direct a re-make of Flash Gordon, but couldn't get the rights, and instead wrote Star Wars, an homage to 1930s serials. But the studio hated the idea, and they reluctantly agreed to finance the movie because of the huge success of American Graffiti, and because Lucas agreed to no director salary, in exchange for 40% of the profits and all merchandising rights (the studio thought there would be no profits!). To make the special effects, Lucas started a separate company ILM (Industrial Light & Magic), and another company Sprocket Systems (later Skywalker Sound) to do the editing and mixing. Of course Star Wars was an immense success, and we all know that Lucas made two hugely successful sequels, and later made the hugely successful Indiana Jones series with old friend Steven Spielberg. But Lucas became so busy with his various projects, and his Skywalker Ranch that he stopped directing movies after Star Wars, only coming out of retirement to direct the three "prequel" Star Wars movies from 1999 to 2005. While Lucas has certainly had a remarkable career, I can't help but feel sad that the world lost such a wonderful director when he had such great success with Star Wars, and I especially wonder what might have happened had THX 1138 and The Rain People been successes for American Zoetrope, and if Lucas and Coppola had remained working together over the next few decades. As of 2021, Lucas is still alive at the age of 77, and married to Mellody Hobson.

Important Added Info: Note that this REPRODUCTION still has been personally autographed (signed) by George Lucas!

Note that this autographed item is part of a remarkable collection. In each of our last several all-signed auctions, we auctioned hundreds of items from this collection and now we are auctioning many more signed photos and miscellaneous other signed items (plus many signed index cards that have a different note on those)!
     In the 1970s, our consignor was a teacher who taught a film class, and he also part-time ran the local movie theater (and he saved all the presskits from the movies the theater showed).
     Starting in the late 1970s through the late 1980s, he wrote to famous celebrities, and enclosed an 8x10 still or repro (or sometimes another item) from his collection, and he wrote a literate personalized letter, talking about his work as a film teacher, and discussing his favorite movie by that star.
     He received signed photos back from a good percentage of the people he wrote to, and if the people simply sent him a stock photo back, he did not save it, but if he felt the autograph was genuine, and if they added a personalized note, then he did save them.
     In the late 1980s, he pretty much stopped sending letters and photos, simply because he was just too busy. So this item (and the vast majority of the other photos and other items we are auctioning for this consignor) were obtained in the late 1970s or 1980s, through personal correspondence with this star. This is of course excellent, because back at that time celebrities were not selling their signatures nearly as much, and many of the stars were pretty forgotten and were happy to get letters from people like our consignor!
     He of course does not have any "Certificates of Authenticity", but he only kept ones he felt were surely authentic, and those are the ones we are auctioning. However, bidders can certainly compare the signatures to known examples on the internet to judge for themselves.
     As is true of all the signed items we are currently auctioning, we give every buyer 30 days in which to review what they purchased and they can return any item as long as it is within 30 days of the end of the auction. On non-signed items, we give a "lifetime guarantee" on everything we auction, but on signed items, we give the above modified guarantee of 30 days after the auction closes.

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Bruce Hershenson,
306 Washington Avenue, West Plains, MO 65775