Anybody have/know any info on Hal Wamsley? (Jawa Imposter?) - As he claims to be the Jawa (Dathcha) responsible for zapping R2

Some interesting news on this - http://echostation.com/features/con2.htm

A follow-up - http://echostation.com/features/con2000b.htm


A recent article updating the situation - craveonline.com: hal wamsley jawa impersonator.html

Ben from OfficialPix (while unearthing some new LucasArchive images) came across some interesting pics, this caused some confusion elsewhere between one of Peter Diamond's sons (Frazer) and the boy in Ben's image but they really don't look to be one and the same

- An image of AD w/ both of Peter Diamond's kids: (from left to right) Warwick & Frazer - (highlighted) to the one in Ben's image (inset)



Questions of missing/incomplete Call-Sheets (from '76), Age/Height factors Etc.
Could this boy be Hal -



Some more info recently passed along -

First, From Scott Weller (Editor n' Cheif) of the 'Star Wars' Aficionado Fan site/zine -

http://www.starwarsaficionado.com/page/page/5016481.htm

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Well, this is a tricky one. He definitely didn't go to Tunisia, and he wasn't at ELSTREE (though I have notes saying that the Diamond children played Jawas at both ELSTREE and in Tunisia also, alongside some other local Tunisian children and the Kurtz kids who accompanied their mum and dad during filming).

Walmsley may have been at DEATH VALLEY but we can't prove anything unless there are call sheets (which there may not have been if this was a very small second unit) or unless someone asks Gary Kurtz, who was there for the DEATH VALLEY shooting with Lucas.

Of the VALLEY shooting, it was only a long shot of the Jawas carrying Artoo (replacing the earlier filmed footage at Tunisia which had been damaged) and a couple of shots of Artoo moving along before the Jawas get him, as far as I'm aware.

The July 1978 BANTHA TRACKS, (Issue # 3), says the following:

"The Jawas seen getting into the Sandcrawler (referring to the Tunisian scenes) included an English midget (Jack Purvis, I presume), a French-Tunisian midget (unknown), five Tunisian children, the son of one of the production company's English truck drivers; and producer Gary Kurtz's two daughters, Melissa and Tiffany.

One scene showing the Jawas carrying R2-D2 towards the sandcrawler had to be re-shot, due to problems with the film. That was done in Death Valley, California, using children of the local Park Rangers as the Jawas"

Being so soon after the film's release, BANTHA TRACKS had all the main info available, so I think we can go with that. Unless Walmsley was one of those local children, we can assume he's an imposter.

I included Walmsleys comments about the Jawa village in THE MAKING OF A NEW HOPE STAR WARS AFICIONADO issue previously but stressed that there was no proof of this filming, escecially as the Jawa village scene that was to have been shot at the same place as Anakin's slave quarters in Tunisia for EPISODE ONE had previously been aborted and cut by the STAR WARS crew in 1976 because they ran out of filming time.

They had a very small budget for the DEATH VALLEY re-shoots in January 1977-the main money allocated by FOX had to be saved for the extra cantina masks that Rick Baker was working on-I doubt that there was a village or that they could even have afforded to have set it up.

I think the (OP) picture is either Fraser Diamond or the son of the English truck driver (my money's on the latter-it doesn't look like Fraser) with the Kurtz daughter-it looks like Tunisia filming to me, with the angle of the rock.

It really will be a shame if Walmsley's an imposter-all of those STAR WARS fans with poster signatures now have a dud autograph on them.
Cheers, SCOTT


Secondly - In the April/May Issue (1999) of FilmFax (# 72), an article ('Visualizing Other Worlds with 'SW' artist Ralph McQuarrie - Pgs. 52, 53) holds a couple of relatable items to this Jawa caper

The article is taken from an Interview w/ Ralph McQuarrie as he spends an afternoon (in Dec of '98) reviewing the collaborative effort between he and Kevin J. Anderson - 'The Illustrated Star Wars Universe' book from 1995

- Q: In 1977 George Lucas told Rolling Stone that he wanted a Jawa village in Star Wars but that the shooting schedule would not accomodate it. When you depicted the Jawa community for this book, were you influenced by that concept?

RM: No. I was completely unaware of it. This was done just for the book I was looking for things to do about Tatooine and thought, "Where do Jawas live? What do they do? I decided, "Well, they could have these villages in the hills that they build out of stucco or adobe-type material.

They have to deal with Tusken Raiders at night, and so they have these little look-outs where they keep an armed guard all night. This painting (link below) depicts the changing of the guard. Kevin came up with the name 'fortress' because I had a guard out, but I thought of it as a village

....

This planet is lit by a couple of moons so it's about twice as bright as earth's moonlight.
Kevin came up with the idea for the swap meet. Jawas would come from all four points of the compass with all their junk, and trade. I guess there is a big company like Ford that makes these sandcrawlers! [Laughter]

The Changing of the Guard concept painting -



RM's concept painting of a Jawa scrap meet, also the cover for 'The Illustrated Star Wars Universe' book



The 1st paragraph of a Side Bar (within the FilmFax article) entitled 'Jawa Community' (link below) from that article reads -

When McQuarrie depicted a Jawa village for 'The Illustrated Star Wars Universe', he was unaware that (GL) had already conceived of one for Star Wars. Initially, a Hobbit-like village in Tunisia was going to be used but the plan was cancelled. A more simplified Jawa settlement, consisting of tents and fires, was eventually filmed in Artist's Palette, Death Valley, but never used

Is this Paragraph (specifically the last sentence) based off of fact aquired outside of Hal Wamsley's claims or created from his statements?

The rest of the Side-Bar text expands on what was stated in the craveonline article. It has Wamsley go on (in much further detail) to describe what he (alledgedly) was part of

(Either he has quite the imagination or is this descriptive enough to be a possible setting point for one of the future 'SW' TV Episodes)

'JAWA Community' side-bar



Another example of a statement that is being refuted by S. Sansweet - “there was no jawa village scene shot in Death Valley.”

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That was a huge waste of time.

Sorry, It's not meant as something packed full w/ a great amount of entertaining quality-for-the-ages, you really need go no further than the first line (which is a Q) - If you don't have any info Yay or Nay

But I guess you are fully-entitled to your opinion (pssst .... It's simply a research thing)

Just move on to the next thread (as of this post 104 others have) Thx

Capn thank you for the all posts and threads you make (even though some are eventually merged into pre-existing threads ) during these dark times in-between the end of the movies and before the two television series ( ).

You have to understand that this investigative report comes off as somewhat "over-the-top". A report we haven't seen since the Kennedy Assassination Investigations. When the next President appoints an independant prosecutor to investigate Bush and Iraq, we now know where to look.

Also, da OP was somewhat re-formatted for easier digestion.

We will find you Hal Wamsley

Sorry once again, don't always have the time to check all of the pre-existing threads before posting (but I know you guys will catch it when it happens)


... and as I posted, he is entitled to his opinion (and you, yours as well) but I'm not looking for posts that express the range of how ppl feel towards an investigation about the discovery of a fradulent background jawa

Just presenting all of the facts as they are available, and looking for posts that contain substance in relation to the Q (many before simply had no info so moved on)
I felt ET&Elliot's post uneeded really, so I simply addressed it - Disclaimer: No feelings were harmed in the progress of this thread so far

It's research - If only one of those points/details displayed triggers something in someone, and new info is brought forth - Great!
then it benefits the (outside of this site's forum) reason why the Q was originally posted

Well I had no idea of jawa impersonation and I'm starting to warm up to the thread, thanks for the heads up. From what I gather most of the text is from starwarsaficionado.com.

The only person here that may know something is Harry Fielder, who actually worked on 1977's Star War as a Death Star Trooper.

- The webmasters from the Echo Station site originally did a report into this in 1999 (1st link) after other web-sters (yakface) had also realized something may be up at a Con they all attended
- Kenny Baker had also given some of his On-Set memory detail
- This info was then spread to as many ppl online as possible (in seeking the fact/fiction of it all)
- Many Fans/Con-Goer's & Autograph Collectors were meanwhile shelling out money for Hal's scribble (and possibly damaging treasured pieces that contained proven cast members sigs.)
- A buzz amongst various Online Forum members kept the debate alive
- craveonline recently (October '07) did an update on the situation as newly unearthed details have seen the light in recent years, thanks to LucasFilm Fan Relations: Steve Sansweet and various magazine articles incl. J.W Rinzler's recent book - 'The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film'
- This Issue still hasn't been solidly proven (one way or the other) as various official/unofficial sources (OfficialPix, TFN) have chimed in w/ reports Etc.
- I found it (IMO) to be interesting enough to go digging for some of my own answers (tapping a friend at the U.K based Star Wars Aficionado for what he could provide and doing some book/magazine research for relatable articles)

I then felt compelled enough to bring it to MF.com to see if any of the community here had any details to bring forth

... and if nothing more - It's information for anybody (within this community) that may have an interest (on any level) in aquiring the odd auto. (especially online) - be mindful of all of the situations that do exist

AD addresses the whole 'Dark Side' issue of this hobby on his site - http://www.anthonydaniels.com/

There are tonnes of fraudulent examples online that involve other 'SW' celebs and those who have been swindled alike


By the way, Thx very much for the reformatted OP DP (Good Job!)

I'm not annoyed at this thread, allthough I can see how it might have garnered a pot-shot response. It does read kind of like a hot news flash report, while the topic itself is a bit obscure. I was about to post a big "WTF, who cares Jawa-Juice" but I suddenly realized that it was somewhat relevant, certainly obscure, but still relevant. It took me a minute to think it through though. I wouldn't hold it against ET&E4E that he thought it was a waste of time, at least not for too long. I think the whole situation described might have thrown a lot of folks off, thinking it might be a joke/scam/troll/ism thing.

I have to admit, though. I'm impressed at the sheer amount of research that went into this so far. Remind me to never go around to conventions pretending to be someone I'm not. I don't need people hunting me down and mounting my head on a gafi stick.