Craig Miller

Name:	Craig Miller
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Occupation:	was the "fan liaison" for Star Wars between
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Craig Miller was the Star Wars "fan liaison" between 1977-80. His work for Lucasfilm during that time included creating fan "buzz" for the franchise.

Around August 1980, he was replaced by Ira Friedman (perhaps in a minor role!), and then Maureen Garrett (in a very major role).

Miller created and and was the director of the Official Star Wars Fan Club.

He was the producer (and the writer of most) of the first two years of Bantha Tracks.

Miller was a co-chair of Equicon/1974.

Miller was also responsible for creating the 800-number telephone hotline for The Empire Strikes Back that allowed fans to call up to receive more information about the movies and characters. This "accidentally shut down the state of Illinois’ phone system."

He is the author of the for-profit book "Star Wars Memories: My Time In The (Death Star) Trenches."

His Part in Early Fan Relations

letter by Craig Miller, published in Against the Sith #3 (January 1979)

The zine, Against the Sith #3 (January 1979), had a letter from Miller. It is an example of an early attempt to control and monitor fan activities:

"We're trying to get copies of all fanzines dealing with Star Wars to put into our archives. Especially the high quality ones.

Allyson Whitfield recommended Against the Sith as one of the better zines being produced, and one we should get for our files.

If available, we'd like to get four copies of each issue, past, current, and when available, future. If that many are not available, please send however many are, and we'll xerox the rest. The copies will be divided with one copy going to the company's archives, one copy going into George Lucas's archives/collection, one copy going into Gary Kurtz's archives/collection, and one copy into our file on fan activities.

Please send me whatever you have available, at the address given below, along with a bill for the cost. We'll send you a check for the fanzines.

Thank you for your time and trouble, and, especially, for your interest in Star Wars.

May the Force be with you,

LUCASFILM LIMITED

Craig Miller

Director of Fan Relations"

The zines sent to Miller ultimately became part of University of Iowa Fanzine Archives.

For more about this see, Open Letters to Star Wars Zine Publishers (1981).

Brought the Phone Company to Its Knees

Craig Miller was responsible for creating the 1-800-521-1980 telephone hotline for The Empire Strikes Back. It allowed fans to call up to receive more information about the movies and characters.

a transcription of two of the calls, reprinted in the 1980 zine, Millennium: Each phone message ended with the character telling fans they could find out more by going to the movie: C-3PO said: "You'll just have to see it for yourselves when The Empire Strikes Back comes to a theater near you on May 21st. 1989."

In 2016, Miller said:

Miller remembers one of his better publicity coups, setting up an 800 number (1-800-521-1980, the film’s release date) that allowed fans to call in before Empire and hear little clues about the upcoming sequel, as recited by Luke, Leia, Han Solo, C-3PO and Darth Vader.

“There was no advertising; we talked about it at conventions, and Starlog ran a two paragraph announcement of it,” Miller recalled. “And with just that, we completely swamped the 800 system.”

AT&T forced Lucasfilm to buy more phone lines, cease their advertising (easy, since they weren’t doing any) and apologize to the public and other 800-number users. “That was great because now it was being carried all over the world that we were apologizing that Star Wars fans were so enthusiastic about seeing Empire that they swamped AT&T,” Miller said, laughing.

Miller: Bringer of Pain and Delight

... there was just as much speculation and as many weird rumors about the future of Star Wars back in 1979 as there is today. And Miller had a very good time playing with their emotions and expectations.

“Oh, they cared [about rumors],” he said, laughing. “We wrote a fake treatment for The Empire Strikes Back, and had just enough things people knew would be there - like that there would be an ice planet - and let it leak so there would be more rumors. And Starlog Magazine helped us. We gave them the earliest photos of The Empire Strikes Back, and they wrote an article saying ‘We don’t know what’s happening on Empire Strikes Back, but here’s a list of rumors we heard.’ And it was a list that I compiled and gave them.”

Even George Lucas himself was tickled by the idea. “I showed it to George,” Miller recalled, “and he said ‘You should write more rumors!’” And that’s exactly what Miller did.

Interviews

• Alderaan Interview with Craig Miller (1980)

Further Reading

• "Boba Fett was originally supposed to be the main villain in Return of the Jedi". Consequences of Sound by Collin Brennan (May 04, 2016)
• Boba Fett Was Supposed to Be a Bigger Bad Than Darth Vader by Jordan Zakarin (May 4, 2016)