We have to say goodbye to the very nice and bright Charles Lippincott — "Charley" to his friends and he had an awful lot of friends. Charley did many things in the worlds of motion pictures and publishing but the one that most impresses people was that he is credited with supervising the advertising and promotion that made Star Wars the box office/merchandising juggernaut that it was. He did that for a lot of movies including Alien, Westworld and many more, including Judge Dredd, on which he served as producer.
Charley was loved and respected by many and I wish I'd known him better than I did. My pal Craig Miller knew him very well and in his new book about Star Wars and its marketing, Craig wrote this…
Charles M. Lippincott, usually known as Charley, went to USC Film School at the same time as George Lucas. Charley became a Publicist, first at MGM, and worked on a lot of projects. He worked with Alfred Hitchcock on Family Plot. 20th Century Fox hired him to work with George Lucas on Star Wars.
Charley's title was Senior Vice President, Advertising, Publicity, Promotion, and Merchandising of Star Wars Corporation. Quite a mouthful. He oversaw every aspect of Star Wars related to those areas. And more.
Not to take away anything from George, whose creative mind conceived, wrote, and directed Star Wars. Or the film's producer, Gary Kurtz, whose knowledge of production got the film made. Or creative geniuses like John Dykstra, Richard Edlund, and countless others at Industrial Light & Magic who reinvented special effects to make miracles happen. They all made a great movie that wouldn't have happened without them.
But without Charley, I don't think Star Wars would have come close to the success it became.
Charley was responsible for a lot. He made sure every character, every name, every image was properly copyrighted and trademarked. He made the licensing deals (along with Marc Pevers, an attorney who was Vice President of Licensing at 20th Century Fox) for the merchandise that, despite the enormous box office gross, was the real profit center for Lucasfilm. He was even part of the pitches to the 20th Century-Fox Board, to help convince them to make the movie.
And he masterminded the campaign that truly changed the way movies were publicized. I'm quite proud to have worked with him.
Such a shame we can't all converge for a big memorial to the guy. It would be packed.