Mark Hamill, known to millions as Luke Skywalker, said he was shocked last month when he saw a post on Twitter. An Arizona bookstore said it had found his original “Star Wars” soundtrack, whose sleeve had been inscribed and given to him by the composer John Williams, and wanted to return it to the actor.
“I wasn’t completely sure that it was mine,” Mr. Hamill said in an interview on Monday. “But I know that I’d had an album signed by John. How would they know that?”
Mr. Hamill said he didn’t even know that the record, which Mr. Williams gave him before the 1977 release of the first “Star Wars” movie, had been missing. Mr. Williams had signed the sleeve with the inscription, “Dear Mark Hamill, May the Force always be with us,” and the actor had assumed it was still in the basement of his California home with the rest of his vinyl records.
To be sure, the actor never kept a lot of “Star Wars” memorabilia. There are, of course, the boots he wore in the first film, and the stormtrooper costume he wore when he rescued Princess Leia. The gift from Mr. Williams, who composed the music for almost all of the films in the franchise, was also special, he said.
The first time Mr. Hamill heard the “Star Wars” soundtrack, he said, he was sitting in a two-seat car with Gary Kurtz, a producer of the film, and did not know what to expect.
“It was an unforgettable moment,” Mr. Hamill said. “Tears were rolling down my face. I could not believe how impactful it was.”
Mr. Hamill said he later told Mr. Williams that his music and the emotion it evoked was largely responsible for the success and durability of the “Star Wars” franchise.
Mr. Hamill, 68, said he hadn’t seen the album since the early 1990s, but he emphasized: “I never would have sold that record.”
When and how the “Star Wars” soundtrack left Mr. Hamill’s home is unclear.
But in July 2018, a woman took 10 to 20 boxes filled with her deceased father’s “Star Wars” collection to Bookmans Entertainment Exchange in Flagstaff, Ariz., a used book retailer that also sells records, films and games, said Micheil Salmons, the branch’s general manager.
The collection included merchandise, memorabilia, action figures and toys. But the real prize was the vinyl record that appeared to be inscribed by one “Star Wars” icon to another.
“It was marked as not made for distribution, which was a key to us that this was something special,” said Kevin Iannone, a book appraiser at the store and longtime “Star Wars” fan. The pen indentations in the cardboard and the signature itself also indicated authenticity, he said.
The record was placed in the music office at the back of the store, where it sat for about a year and a half, Mr. Salmons said.
When a new employee took over the records section recently, the soundtrack was exhumed and displayed just before Christmas with a price tag that read $499.50, said Mr. Salmons, a big “Star Wars” fan.
The record was put on sale for only a couple of days, Mr. Salmons said, before he took it down so he could try to return it to Mr. Hamill.
But how?
Mr. Salmons first posted a picture of the soundtrack on Reddit, asking whether the item belonged to Mr. Hamill. Someone then shared the post on Twitter, where Mr. Hamill saw it and contacted the bookstore.
Within days, Mr. Salmons was at the post office to send the soundtrack back to its owner.
The return of the record decades after he had last seen it was “totally unexpected and positively surreal,” Mr. Hamill said on Twitter.
In the interview, he added, “This is so above and beyond, considering they could’ve sold it.”
And Mr. Hamill made his gratitude clear. He wrote on Twitter how grateful he was and encouraged people to spend “lots & lots of $” at the store. He also signed memorabilia for the bookstore and its employees, including a “Star Wars: A New Hope” DVD and Mr. Iannone’s replica of one of the medals given to Luke Skywalker and Han Solo at the end of the film.
In the “Star Wars” films, a multibillion-dollar franchise, Mr. Hamill’s character went on to destroy the Death Star, become a Jedi knight and reconcile with his father, Darth Vader. Mr. Hamill has also provided the voice for the Joker in several animated “Batman” television shows, movies and video games.
“Here’s a guy who’s huge in pop culture and in a franchise that’s particularly powerful,” Mr. Iannone said. “It’s been a surreal experience getting in touch with that level of fame.”
The bookstore's newly signed DVD will not be sold. It will be displayed for a few weeks in the same glass case that held Mr. Hamill’s record, Mr. Salmons said. Then he will frame it and hang it on a wall.
“It was a big deal around the store when we got the record because there’s a lot of ‘Star Wars’ fans here,” Mr. Iannone said. “Pardon the pun, but we’re over the moon.”
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