Happy Birthday Boba!

True to his enigmatic character, facts about Boba Fett remain as shifty as the sands of the Dune Sea. Before Attack of the Clones, the origin of Fett had long been a subject of controversy -- was he a vestige of the Clone Armies, a Mandalorian mercenary, or a super-stormtrooper? Was he once called Jaster Mereel? Did he in fact survive the treacherous Pit of Carkoon? While some of these questions have been answered by the prequels and framers of the Expanded Universe, the character's cinematic debut is still open for debate -- is Episode II to be considered the film that launched the Fett character, or Empire? And let's not forget about his cameo in the retro-fitted Star Wars Special Edition....

As for Fett's first public unveiling, tradition holds that Boba was first revealed to audiences as an animated character in 1978's televised "Star Wars Holiday Special". However, digging through the records at Skywalker Ranch, a different story emerges -- Fett had in fact made a public appearance nearly two months before the Holiday Special on a scorching hot day in the streets of San Anselmo, a small town just north of San Francisco.

Marching alongside Darth Vader before droves of spectators at San Anselmo's Country Fair parade on September 24, 1978, an unsuspecting press photographer snapped what is likely the very first public image of the intergalactic bounty hunter, plastered the following day across the front page of San Rafael's Independent Journal newspaper. Though the scene-stealing Vader (manned by Kermit Eller) had grand-marshaled the parade and consequently grabbed most of the press (Boba wasn't even mentioned in the story), the Fett costume must have struck many as exotic, battle-worn, and downright intimidating, which, of course, was the whole point.

Check out this article on Starwars.com, for more about the characters "birth" and some awesome pictures of Concept drawings of him!