ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 30, 1997 TAG: 9701300006
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER
Jason Hushour was looking for a new idea for the window display at Books Strings & Things where he works on the Roanoke City Market, when it came to him: How about ``Star Wars''?
He didn't have very far to go to get the first item for the display. His life-size cardboard stand-up of Chewbacca was in the passenger seat of his car. He added some of his other old ``Star Wars'' stuff, such as the original story album and soundtrack album covers and a 1977 puzzle box, and some of the newer figures, too.
Hushour, 21, is on the young end of the Generation X crowd that remembers ``Star Wars'' as the seminal event of their childhood. Lightsaber stick fights, C3-PO Underroos, little girls imitating Princess Leia's cinnamon-bun hair, the tiny plastic action-figure guns that got sucked up in the vacuum - they remember it all.
"Every Christmas, every birthday was `Star Wars' stuff - `Star Wars' pajamas, bed sheets, figures, toys," Hushour said. "I had two brothers. We were all obsessive about it."
He was 2 when the first movie came out. "I don't remember much. Sometimes I get flashes at night," he said jokingly. "I remember going to see 'Return of the Jedi.' Me and my mom waited in line four hours. I remember my mom crying when Darth Vader died. I was like, 'Whoa, hey, calm down, Mom. It's not ``Yentl.'''''
Hushour and a group of about 20 friends are going to see the new special edition of ``Star Wars'' when it comes out Friday. "We were going to make it a theme night and dress up," he said. "But the only easy costume idea I could come up with was to staple shag carpeting on myself and go as Chewie."
He has mixed feelings about the restored film. Inspired by ``Star Wars'' creator George Lucas, Hushour wants to study filmmaking, and he can understand Lucas wanting to improve his film, but still, "There's part of me that says you shouldn't change a good thing. It's like adding lost footage to 'Citizen Kane' or taking the matte lines out of the Red Sea in 'The 10 Commandments.' That's the stuff people like about it, that it's not perfect.
"Something that's imperfect needs the imagination to make it perfect."
LENGTH: Short : 47 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Jason Hushour poses outside his ``Star Wars''-themedby CNBwindow display. color.