Motion Pictures How true to life is American graffiti?

I can personally verify that there was one bare butt shown in Muskogee , Oklahoma, upon occasion, back in the sixties!






Bones

 

I got my license in 74, and St. Paul MN had a big car screen, more muscle cars than hot rods. So basically a/g is true, but they probably condensed a weeks worth of action in one night.

 

Super hot chicks driving T-birds did not hit on dudes with 2CVs.

 

....That's hilarious......true, but hilarious.

 

When I grow up, I wanna be like the Wolfman.

 

And awkward dorks in a borrowed 58 chevy rarely picked up the prettiest girl in town for the night. LOL.

 

I apologize for reposting something I wrote awhile back, but it fits this question to a "T". I was 2 in 1962 so I can't answer the question. However, my cousin grew up in Turlock (the actual "turkey town" Opie referenced in the movie) and he is 14 years older than I so he was 16 in 1962. Interestingly, he is two years younger than Modesto native George Lucas. My cousin attended Turlock High and he and his buddies regularly drive the short distance to Modesto to cruise. He said the following:
----
The movie was made in 1973, depicting a single night in the summer of 1962 (Lucas was 18 in '62.) I remember thinking that that movie was SO perfect, SO right on. A true snapshot in time, with absolutely no elaboration... I know because I was there. Figuratively and literally.
I was way more than disappointed when I learned that the movie wasn't filmed in Modesto. It looked so like the Modesto of my memory.
The summer of 1962 was between my Freshman and Sophomore year. I had my drivers license. My buddies and I would hop into my dad's 1953 Studebaker and head to Modesto (13 miles away) to cruise the strip. I remember that we were wide-eyed and drop-jawed at the noise, the colors, the tension, and the MOOD of "the strip" at that age. Four large high schools contributed to the mix - Modesto High, Davis High, Downey High ("Dewey" in the movie), and Turlock High.
The rock and roll radio effect was something akin to early stereo in downtown Modesto. Every car's radio was loudly tuned to K-5 (KFIV), and The Wolfman" was king. Up and down the street "The Wolfman" blasted from building to building and back into the street.
To this day I can't accurately describe, and give justice, to the "experience" of those nights back in 1958-1966 in Modesto California. "American Graffiti" comes the closest.
Dennis
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So, yes, moviemakers condense things, but George Lucas lived it in '62 and the concept was in his head. He went through more than one screenwriter to get it how he wanted, but I'm thinking he nailed it.

 

Some nights were like the movie, most nights weren't ...

 

I lived American Graffiti, every Friday and Saturday night cruising East 14th street in San Leandro CA. for years. I was there until the end of it. I started going with my parents in 1969. The cops broke it up because of all the gang activity getting out of hand in the later years. In it's hey day it was bumper to bumper both ways. We cruised ElCamino Real, Pacific coast highway in San Francisco, Walnut Creek, as well as others. Lots of street racing on out of the way roads. I miss those days.

 

You never mooned anybody or got mooned ?Lol

 

From the first time I watched American Graffiti I loved it and thought it was a very realistic representation of what it was like when I was cruising in my home town in the 60's. Only exception was they seemed to have one main drag they cruised, where we had several places that all saw heavy cruising.
But just like in the movie, we raced stoplight to stoplight, but if two guys really wanted to wring their cars out we had a 1/4 mile marked out in an area outside of town where we'd head to see whose car was fastest.

 

Standing in line to see AG , appreciating the two young butts in front of me when one reads the bill board & says to her friend ," where were you in '62 ?", they giggle and her friend says , " I was 2 years old" ,I thought , shit , I was a sophomore in high school ! Man I felt old !!

 

Im in a Family one side 168 yrs in the mid to N Va Area that had it all like the Movies Mentioned by OP & gone in 60 sec , & more ,Pre war Thumpers hidden underground and anywhere they could, Post war added Race track ,planes, bikes H-Ring , drag , dirt ,Kustom ,cruising, boats , Hi po cars left on train cars parts where borrowed, knife & other all the way until mid 1990s It was
S Cal & more ( No surfing) @ least on water on the East ,40ish miles from 1600 Pennsylvania,

 

Another real life story from Phoenix, AZ. from 1963. My brother's best friend bought a brand new
1963 Plymouth Fury Golden Commando with a 383", 4 speed, radio and heater delete. Fast as heck.
So he's cruising Central Ave., a drop dead gorgeous girl with her friends come up in their car, and this
gal asks him if she can go for a ride. Heck, yes. So she climbs in and says that she would like to go get
lost, all the time handling his curved Hurst shifter which the Plymouth came with and saying, "This
reminds me of something....." So he's thanking God for making his dreams come true. They head out
into the desert, and then she calmly says, " O.K., I'm lost, let's go back now!" The good guys did not
win that night...but I still laugh about it 60yrs later....ahhh, youth!

 

You have led a sheltered life.

 

^^ & more than bare But in 80s

 

Milwaukee Wisconsin, Car Culture Was Big, 1964, I was 16, my avatar I built, cruised, street raced, hung out at various custard stands, Big Boys and A & W. I lived the movie 1964-70 Several different cars, what fun it was, though I never heard of or saw anybody chain a cop car rear axle. The negatives were broken parts, tickets, loss of driver licence, jail time opportunity, insurance problems for several years, all from my driving like a ass. I worked my butt off to support all this, great life experiences, Memories Priceless !

 

Cruising, street racing, pranks and screwing with the cops. All that shit happened. I witnessed some of it and took part in some of it. This was small town Canada I grew up in, I guess it was the same all over North America, although we had to take a winter break from November to April.

The movie (A G) got everything right but they managed to compress a couple of months worth, or more, into one night.

I love the movie Thunder Road but even though there was (is) a moonshine industry in these parts I was never witness to, or part of, anything like that. I guess the closest I ever got to that life was I bought a '48 Merc that looked like it had had a tank with a dump valve thru the floor installed in it at one time. It may have been for something else but I don't know for sure.

 

Growing up in the suburbs of Detroit and graduating in 1967, it was really close to real life for me.
A few years ago a friend sent me a picture of some of the guys I hung around with. I thought it reminded me of American Graffiti and I modified the picture some before sending it to the guys in the picture. I am not in the picture but I drove a '63 Dodge in high school. Ron B. had a '66 427 Impala, Rick a '57 Nomad, John a '67 396 Biscayne, Ron P. a '62 Chevy, and Don a '63 Ford. Most of them were drafted into the service after high school.

 

I concurr with many of the previous posts.

In my case it was late 70s rather than early 60s, but pretty much a similar car scene. We primarily cruised on the west side of Minneapolis, MN in Hopkins but also Brooklyn Park. Our group had mid 60s-to-1970 American muscle cars, I guess like everyone else (remember when you could buy a 7-year old high-performance American car for $1,200?). I recall four or five of us lining up to race another guy on a new, but rarely-used freeway and all of us kicking his car’s ass one night after another. So much fun.

Most of us still have some type of performance car so many years later, and to date none of us have been killed by a drunk driver (like Milner).

John

 

Along the lines of AG, how quick do you all think the ‘32 and the ‘55 were then?

14’s? 15’s?

Always wondered about that.

 

Funny thing , tonight I spent time at an event , here in Muskogee, and was hanging with some cops, and then
the “ Okie from Muskogee “ came over the speakers…..cool….. then I smelled a skunk! Lol






Bones

 

I guess it would depend on where you were living at the time. You might relate to it or you might not.
Cruising was fun but could also be a dead night.
To me AG and Hollywood Knights are almost the same story line. Some mixing up a bit but close enough for me. AG was a typical cruise thru the 1970's. Unless you want to get into the newer cars, nothing really changed as far as the cars went. I also like the cruise scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Typical cruise night of the 1980's.
We need a new cruise themed movie. To bad that Dazed And Confused didn't have a cruise in it other than the burger joint drive in.

 

Well where I grew up and when my friends and I went cruising there was some butt hanging... One time we were on a relatively busy street coming up to an intersection when, I’ll call him Greg because his name is Greg, decided he wanted to “moon” somebody at the crosswalk. I said sure and I slowed down so he could “hang out”. He got his thrill but I noticed that there was an innocent old lady with an umbrella being forced to view his show which I thought was rather rude. He called for me to take off but I stopped the car. That old lady took her umbrella to his ass and gave him around ten good whacks and some foul language as he was screaming! Just writing this is making me laugh!!!

Greg should have known better because when we were on a school exchange trip he had the bright idea to “streak” down the hall. I said that we would open the door to our room when he ran back. Just as he got to the end of the hall the elevator door opened and a security guard stepped out. He chased Greg around the corner to our room but “apparently” we were all fast asleep and didn’t hear his desperate banging on the door! He then ran further down the hall to one of the teachers room for sanctuary. However the teacher was a nun who was one of the teachers on our trip!

I won’t go into what happened on his stag....!

 

HAHAHAHAA...You didn't moon the Doctor and Nurses when you were born? I did...
Mooning happened all of the time. It was stupid unless a girl did it...

 

probably, - still seemed really fast to a teenager back then, just like a fast japa street car today may do 12’s and seem really fast to today’s teenagers…….

 

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/so-i-watched-american-graffiti-last-night-and.296568/
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/american-graffiti.309648/

 

That's about the best one can put it. Even though it was made in 1973 those of who were in high school in the early/mid 60's related to the characters pretty well.

Those of us who went to the theaters in late 1973 could relate a lot of the characters to local people. The guy with the fastest car in town that headhunters came from other towns to call out. The guys and gals who were heading off to school and at times having a tough time dealing with heading out away from their romantic other, A few guys with cool cars, some with rather dorky cars, Cruising the Ave hunting for girls or guys and maybe causing a little harmless mayhem. The local hoods who hung out at the pool hall, Most of those guys went to work at "the plant" got married and had kids if they survived Vietnam. They were also the guys who came to your rescue if you were out cruising by your self in another town and someone decided to give you a hard time.

That's why we liked it then and still do, because we could relate.

 

Mooning was just some hilarious comic relief back then. Now it's a sex crime!

 

Man did I live a sheltered life!! I guess the large L on my forehead did not help!! Pete