It began with a stop at Burger King. In 1980, Brad Rau was five years old and his mother decided to take him and his brother to see Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Brad had never seen Star Wars, but that didn’t seem to matter. Like most kids, he loved movies, and a trip to the Home of the Whopper made the outing even more of an event.
“I got some chicken tenders, the barbecue sauce, and the Empire Strikes Back glass. I had no idea who any of these characters were, but we each had our glass and we went to see the movie,” Rau tells StarWars.com. “I’m not overstating it when I say it just changed our lives. It changed our lives! Everything after that was Star Wars.”