While most people know about Boba Fett's first appearances in the animated segment of the Holiday Special, and, of course, in
The Empire Strikes Back, as well as his
screen test (wearing the all white prototype version of the armor); not that many people were witnesses to the first public appearance of the character, in the 1978 San Anselmo Country Fair parade.
StarWars.com talks to Duwayne Dunham, who wore the costume in both the screentest and the parade, basically, because he was "the right size". With Darth Vader and Dunham, as Fett, leadng the parade, the two signed autographs, and sweated their way through the parade route. Duwayne Dunham would go on to be an assistant film editor on
Empire and
Jedi.