05.25.77: A day long remembered

Following his 1973 teen hit "American Graffiti," writer-director George Lucas conceived a mythical tale set on other worlds, filled with bizarre creatures, robots, spaceships and a young man yearning for adventure. "The Star Wars," as it was originally called, would recreate the excitement the young Lucas experienced from Buck Rogers serials, Westerns and Japanese samurai films - and change much about movies in the intervening three-and-a-half decades.

By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan

Left: A theatrical program booklet for "Star Wars."

Credit: 20th Century Fox