Back in 1979, with The Empire Strikes Back production in full swing at studios in England and at Industrial Light & Magic in California, most young fans would have traded half their summer break for a chance to visit the Dagobah set in London, witness the model AT-AT shoot on the ILM stages, or just bask in the glow of the Star Wars vibe at LFL headquarters in North Hollywood (their pre-Skywalker Ranch address). Heck, just being on the receiving end of a Lucasfilm holiday greeting card would have offered a small measure of bragging rights among the schoolyard crowd. But, unless you knew a friend of a friend of a Lucasfilm insider, you probably had to wait in anticipation like the rest of us to find out what happened to Luke, Leia, Han and Vader following the events of A New Hope.
Perhaps that's why objects coming from within the production itself, generally called "cast and crew" items by collectors, are so highly coveted -- they represent a direct link to the actual making of a Star Wars movie, be it the gifts given to crew members, the jacket patches worn on set, or just the simple pages of stationery passed between production departments.
The crew "Intergalactic Passport" is a somewhat unique item to emerge from the Empire production, and was allegedly used as a guest pass to move between the various Empire soundstages in England. Resembling an actual passport, the pages are packed with some cool visa stamps, including examples from Corellia (Han Solo's homeworld), Tatooine, and even Utapau, which would not be visited in the Star Wars saga until 2005's Revenge of the Sith.
There are stamped and unstamped versions, and of the latter, only 450 were ever produced. They are extremely rare to find, as the vast majority are within the ILM archives. This is #272. [MB] (parts are excerpts from text by Pete Vilmur and Gus Lopez @ StarWars.com)
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