Darth Vader visited the shoe department at Thalhimers on a promotional tour for Star Wars in the late 1970s. My mom took 2-year-old me to the Regency Mall Thalhimers to see Mr. Vader, and I cried.
In 1977, Julia Child visited Thalhimers to do a cooking demonstration and sign books. We have a (well-loved and worn) cookbook with her autograph.
I’m sitting here with my parents recalling other celebrities who visited Thalhimers, and here are the ones they can recall, in no particular order:
Tasha Tudor
James Beard
Oleg Cassini
Zsa Zsa Gabor (who had a line of hats)
Liz Claiborne
Evelyn Lauder (Estee Lauder’s daughter-in-law)
Chevy Chase (Grand Marshall for Thalhimers’ Christmas Parade)
Oscar de la Renta
Pat Benatar
Mary Martin
Can you add to the list?
Finding Thalhimers 
Rudy Vallee http://archives.blogs.timesdispatch.com/2014/12/15/october-1962/
These are FANTASTIC, Tim! Thanks for sharing! I hadn’t seen the Rudy Vallee photo before.
And here’s a photo of Julia Child during her 1976 Richmond visithttp://archives.blogs.timesdispatch.com/2014/10/09/october-1976/
SO Cool! Can’t believe you “saw” Darth Vadar!
It’s Regency SQUARE Mall.