Lando!?!?!

They say Hartford and blogging make strange bedfellows. Even with all the surprises we have come across in our Hartford adventures, we still were stunned to run into an advertisement featuring Billy Dee Williams, better known as Lando Calrissian, in a local package store.



For those that are very young, female, or have girlfriends, Lando Calrissian is a Star Wars (the good ones) charachter who gambled the Millenium Falcon away to Han Solo. In The Empire Strikes Back, Han seeking refuge, looked to his old friend Lando on Cloud City, but was unaware that Darth Vader was already there. Lando later redeems himself with daring rescue efforts in both Empire and Return of the Jedi. He was even able to find employment at Jabba's Palace by donning a disguise that was a little more than a metal hat and covering the lower half of his face.

The Lando charachter was also notable because he appeared to be the only black person in the Star Wars universe. A long standing rumor is that George Lucas had Billy Dee Williams play the role after he was criticized for the lack of any black characters in the first movie. We can only wish Mr. Lucas still listened to criticism today.

First we thought this must have been an old advertisement the owners acquired as a bit of a nostalgic joke. Closer examination revealed a web address in the left corner, torpedoing that theory. Since Billy Dee is now 74 (WTF?!?!) and appears to be much, much younger in this ad, Colt 45 is clearly going for the retro look. Through some crack research we learned that Billy Dee had in fact endorsed Colt 45 in the 1980's and 1990's. Who knew there was so much brand synergy between Colt 45 and Billy Dee Williams?

Ed. Note: Though this advertisement obviously garnered our attention, we did not purchase any Colt 45.