Michael J Fox and other stars of the classic film Back to the Future are appealing for help to find the red Gibson guitar that shone in a memorable scene.

The Gibson ES-345 Cherry Red guitar that Marty McFly, the time-travelling teen portrayed by Fox in the 1985 film, played to stunned students at a 1950s high school dance has been missing for decades.

“We need your help, we’re trying to find the guitar I played in Back to the Future,” Fox pleads in a video released by Gibson on Wednesday (Australian time).

“It’s somewhere lost in the space-time continuum, or it’s in some teamster’s garage.”

You might like

In Depth

Poultry industry not cracking over bird flu fears

In Depth

Deadly strain of bird flu confirmed in Australia – here’s what it means

You might like

In Depth

Poultry industry not cracking over bird flu fears

In Depth

Deadly strain of bird flu confirmed in Australia – here’s what it means

In the famous scene, McFly unintentionally inspires the creation of Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode by performing it on stage, to wild acclaim from the assembled students.

Artists such as John Mayer and Coldplay’s Chris Martin have said the scene was instrumental in inspiring them to pursue music. Last year, Fox joined Coldplay on stage to perform the song again, in front of a record-breaking 100,000 people at Britain’s Glastonbury festival.

Fox’s co-stars Lea Thompson, Christopher Lloyd and Harry Waters jr have also joined the callout for the search, as has singer Huey Lewis – his song The Power of Love was featured in the movie.

Gibson is filming a documentary called Lost to the Future about the search for the guitar. It also plans to re-issue the ES-345 Cherry Red in October.

“We’ve been looking into leads and rumours for a long time, and as you can imagine, we’re talking 40 years ago, so memories fade,” Lost to the Future director Doc Crotzer told The Hollywood Reporter.

“We weren’t in the era of digital trails, or of receipts and things like that. There are conflicting reports too. You can find about as many different rumours as you can people.”

The guitar was rented for the original Back to the Future movie from Los Angeles’ famous Normans’ Rare Guitars. It was returned after filming finished, and has been lost to time since.

Mark Agnesi, a former Gibson executive and one-time manager of the guitar shop, said he’d been searching for the piece for years.

“Every time I’d go to storage to Norm’s warehouse, I was checking ES-cases to see if he still had it,” he said.

“I’ve been looking since 2009, 15 years of looking for this thing. It’s cool we’re going to let the world know we’re looking for it, and everyone gets to join in.”

People can submit tips about the guitar’s whereabouts via losttothefuture.com or via a phone number provided on the site.