A Review of the Star Wars Exhibit at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History

This summer the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History is hosting the only appearance in the Southwest of Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination. The special exhibit opened June 9th and will run through September 3^rd; in October it will move on to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. I toured the exhibit on July 5^th, and judging from the turnout on an early Thursday morning, it is a resounding success.

The first thing I noticed had nothing to do with the exhibit itself, and everything to do with the enduring appeal of George Lucas' Star Wars saga. I have visited the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History more times than I can count, first as a third-grader a few years before the first Star Wars film was released, up through a trip with my children to see the Spring 2007 exhibit, and I have never seen so many adults. Of course there were a large number of children, including mine, but the percentage was at least 60% adults, which is extremely unusual for what is still, in many ways, a children's museum.

A closer look at the grownups told a story that goes beyond chronological age. There were men in their forties, many wearing their original Star Wars shirt (with iron-on decal) from 1977. Some of these people may have even stood in line next to the pre-teen version of me in May of 1977 waiting to see the film that changed moviemaking as we knew it. For the kids the exhibit is a fun experience; for the adults, it's a chance to be a kid again, if only for a little while.