Sally vs. Carrie

 

In May 1977, my father took my brother and I to the movie theater at Quince Orchard, Maryland (Gaithersburg) and we finally got to see the first Star Wars movie – well after all our friends had.  In summer 1980, our cousins took us to see “The Empire Strikes Back” in Rockville, Maryland.  And in London, 1983, my brother and I saw “Return of the Jedi” at Leicester Square, with some highly vocal local boys who were kind of annoying.  But imagine our immense surprise when the bounty hunter taking Chewbacca in to Jabba the Hutt, and unfreezing Han Solo from his carbon freezing, takes off the helmet to reveal it’s… Princess Leia.  Soon after, the heretofore fully-clothed Leia now appeared in a highly provocative bikini – aka “Slave Leia” and a common sight in cosplay circles.  I think I speak for all males out there when I say that Carrie Fisher was definitely a knockout in that attire.

 Around the same time “Star Wars” came out, another popular movie came out.  In this film, a charismatic rogue, “Bandit”, drove a 1977 Pontiac Trans Am Special Edition eastbound from Texarkana to Georgia, distracting the police from a large rig carrying 400 cases of Coors beer further east than it could legally be sold at that time.  He picked up an attractive girl, “Frog” (Sallie Field) who was escaping from a wedding (Snowman, observing her bridal gown flying out from the Trans Am’s t-tops: “what’s she wearing now?”).  Her father-in-law-to-be, played by Jackie Gleason, wasn’t too pleased at this change of plans and took to pursuing the couple well outside his jurisdiction – as one angry local cop reminded him. 

 Sally Field and Carrie Fisher are two beautiful actresses who I sometimes confuse with one another: they are both very cute, somewhat short, and have iconic roles.   Field (DOB 11/6/46) is ten years older than Fisher (DOB 10/24/56) but remarkably still among us.  Fisher, sadly, passed away fairly recently (12/27/16).  Both are highly attractive, fairly short, and brunette.  Fisher has a famous actress mother, Debbie Reynolds (“The Unsinkable Molly Brown”), and I’m not sure Field’s parents are famous.   They both went on to other roles afterwards.   Fisher served as Sally’s (Meg Ryan) friend in “When Harry Met Sally”, and Field served as Forrest Gump’s mom.