STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL
Used by: Luke Skywalker

The Star Wars Holiday Special aired on CBS during the 1978 holiday season. Although they reunited the cast of Star Wars heroes, for unknown reasons they could not reunite Luke Skywalker with his father's lightsaber. A new lightsaber prop had to be made and apparently the correct Graflex flash unit was not available. This time they had to settle for a Graflex 3-Cell Synchronizer Battery Case, Catalog No. 2773. This model flash is also known as a Graflite.

A section of the top was cut away (approximately 1 1/4" long) and a metal piece was attached in it's place. Above the 'extension' plug is an added button and below the 'shutter' plug are two extra black rectangles. The two mounting clamps and black plastic endcap were not used.

Some sort of control box was added to the side, it's parts are unknown. Grips were added to the bottom half of the prop. These are possibly the same grip material used on the other Skywalker lightsabers cut to the same 3 5/8" length. The exact identity of the grip material has yet to be determined, but recent revelations suggest hard black plastic T-track from old cupboards with sliding doors. The Star Wars Holiday Special lightsaber prop appears to have 6 grips rather than 7 like the Skywalker lightsaber in A New Hope. It was constructed in California as opposed to the prop house in England so they may not have had extra original grip material to use. Considering this the grip material on this particular saber could be anything.

It's unknown if the bottom was capped, but it probably was since there's a belt ring attached. The ring is a full circle instead of a D-ring like other lightsabers, it's probably a standard key ring.

So little is known about this prop because of the limited reference available. The lightsaber can be seen hanging on Luke's belt during the end of the Holiday Special as he celebrates 'Life Day' with his friends.