From In Tribute to Marcia Lucas, by Michael Kaminski, from a greater work called The Secret History of Star Wars - the book’s website is here.

It took me several days, but I quite enjoyed this long, not-new, but fascinating look into Marcia Lucas, George’s first wife whose legacy as one of Hollywood’s first female editors has faded largely into obscurity because of the power of the Lucasfilm PR machine that has all but removed Marcia from the grand story of the pre-and-post-Star-Wars years. Film fans may think of Marcia as little more than “the woman who left George, leading to the darker Indiana Jones tone of Temple of Doom”, but this article includes a lot of research and interview material in which Marcia’s role as George’s editor and storytelling muse shines through. To hear her and others tell it, George was always great with technical and visual details, but Marcia’s editing skills went far to give heart to American Graffiti, Star Wars, Empire, Jedi and (to a lesser extent, the quote above notwithstanding) Raiders.

George Lucas is weak on storytelling and character? I know, hard to believe.

Of note: George Lucas has never won an Oscar for any Star Wars movie. But Marcia did, for editing A New Hope.

If you don’t know much about Marcia Lucas, block out some time and read that article. It’s pretty fascinating stuff.

(via burbanked)