Video: This Fan Camped for Three Days for The Phantom Menace Premiere at the Continental

Patricia Calhoun December 20, 2015 7:29AM

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Fans lined up at theaters across the country Thursday for the premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens — but Zach Putnam was not among them. He was waiting for the reviews, because he remembered all too well the disappointment of Star Wars Episode 1, which he'd been so eager to see in May 1999. "Boba Fett and I had our hearts broken by the Phantom Menace after three days of camping out at the Continental theater in Denver," writes Putnam, "and I've got the photos to prove it." And here they are:
Unlike so many of the massive theaters where early Star Wars movies premiered (we lined up outside the Cooper for the original movie — now known as A New Hope — in the spring of 1977, just months before we published Westword's first edition), the Continental still exists (albeit in a different format). Yes, The Force Awakens is showing there.

And Putnam, who now lives in Portland, Oregon, reports that once he saw the good reviews come rolling in for The Force Awakens, "I bought tickets and saw it on Friday night" — and he loved it.

Video: This Fan Camped for Three Days for The Phantom Menace Premiere at the Continental

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