The day Darth Vader came to Augustana

James Earl Jones, award-winning actor and eternally known as the voice of Darth Vader and Mufasa, died on Sept. 9. On Oct. 20, 2000, Jones spoke to an audience of some 280 students, faculty and staff in the recently opened Mortenson Theatre at Augustana. This is the story of that visit.

Early in 2000, the Library of Congress contacted the Sioux Falls Film Society (SFFS) to see if it would be interested in being the local sponsor for the Library’s national Film Preservation tour. 

The Library was bringing a selection of films chosen from its American Film Registry to a specific site in each of the 50 states to promote its mission of physically restoring films threatened by overuse, poor storage and age.

As any local film society worth its popcorn would do, we jumped at the opportunity to bring a treasure trove of classic films to a Sioux Falls audience. And the Library threw in a bonus: Someone associated with one of the films being shown would come here to speak on opening night.

We were given a list of potential guests – actors, directors, cinematographers – any of whom would have been a great choice for an audience in a major metropolis with a community of film buffs. But we were keenly aware that Sioux Falls, one of the last locations contacted by the Library for its tour, did not have that sort of audience.

One name on the list, however, seemed like a guarantee for people in any town you might hit with a dart on a map: James Earl Jones, whose first film role was in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, one of the films in the tour.

We felt like Oliver Twist asking for gruel: “Please, sir – could we get James Earl Jones to come to Sioux Falls?” But if you don’t ask, you don’t receive. And to our delight, we received. Jones would appear at the opening night of the week-long series to speak to the audience about Strangelove, his career and film preservation.

With that, in my dual role as then-president of the SFFS and assistant professor at Augustana, I asked for more: Would it be possible to have him and a representative of the Library speak to a group of students in Augustana’s new theatre prior to his evening engagement?

The SFFS board was enthusiastic about the possibility. As were the folks with the Library. As was Mr. Jones. 

Darth Vader was coming to campus at 10:30 a.m., Friday, Oct. 20. And I was to serve as moderator of the discussion. 

Jones arrived at Augustana that morning after a flight mostly occupied by hunters coming to Sioux Falls for the opening of pheasant season. We suggested that it might not have been entirely comfortable for a black man to fly into South Dakota with a lot of white guys carrying shotguns.

“No, no,” that voice rumbled. “I grew up hunting in Michigan – I belong to the NRA. Didn’t bother me at all.”

He walked around backstage a little, taking peeks to see what the theatre looked like. Being in that environment, he reverted to actor mode, asking about where he should go, when he should sit or stand, how the miking worked. My God, I thought, I’m giving stage directions to James Earl Jones. What universe is this?

The hour that followed was all we had envisioned and more. The first half was devoted primarily to film preservation, with Jones talking about Strangelove and representatives from the Library of Congress discussing the Film Registry and the need to restore movies that were literally fading away.

The second half was simply James Earl Jones responding to questions from the students who packed the theatre. Star Wars, of course, and The Lion King; his own favorite movies; his work with other black actors. The final question was from a paraplegic student who asked about his struggles overcoming stuttering as a child. He spent five minutes on that one. 

Throughout, he was open, respectful, gracious, funny – everything you could hope for and really more than you could expect. 

As we escorted him to the car taking him to his hotel afterward, I had one last question for him that I didn’t think was appropriate on stage – one I had pondered for years.

In the baseball classic Field of Dreams, Jones plays Terence Mann, a cynical writer who gets caught up in Ray Kinsella’s mystical vision of a baseball field in the middle of an Iowa cornfield, where people “will watch the game, and it’ll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters.”

Mann is himself (spoiler alert) taken by a ghostly crew of old baseball players to a past that “once was good and could be again.” But these were old white baseball players, and Mann was definitely post-Jackie Robinson.

“In Field of Dreams,” I said, “when you go off into the cornfield with those old players – these were largely men who would have called you names, spit on you, even beaten you, if they’d encountered you in real life. How did you work through that scene when you prepared for it?”

James Earl Jones paused for a moment and then said, “Well, I just assumed that in heaven, there is no racism.”

May we all find that heaven… and may we there have the blessing of meeting James Earl Jones.

Jeffrey S. Miller is professor of English and journalism at Augustana.