Motion Pictures Hard To Believe - 50 Years !

'77! Jeez, Dan, you're just a young'un but you write like you're as old as I am. I graduated in '62. Who was your favorite character in the movie? The majority are going to say Milner, of course. My favorite was Toad, 'cause he got to cruise around in a bitchin' car, he hooked up with a liquor store robber who got him his booze, his car got stolen and recovered, he got the blonde bimbo with the great outlook on the world in the backseat, Milner was his friend and he got to start the race on Paradise Road. I'd say he had a hell of a lot better night than anyone else did. What do you think?

 

Thanks man, I’m an old soul. When I was a kid most of my friends were my dad’s car buddies. Kids my age were annoying as hell and just wanted to play sports and video games. So I hung out in the shop with adults.

I don’t know if I ever had a favorite, but you make a strong case for Toad. He found a girl and a hot rod way out of his league, saw a hold up, got his car stolen, got into a really bitchin’ fight, and we got to watch him get sick….

Not to mention when he crashes his Vespa into a trashcan… ok, you’re right, Toad rules.

 

You couldn`t believe anything Toad ever said. I hate liars as much as I do thieves.

 

Saw it at the drive in when it came out, was 5 or 6, and probably fell asleep before it was over.

Watched it more then any movie since.. had the double album and Milner coupe model kit as well.. .
Happy Birthday Milner

 

My garage hanger.

 

I liked Hollywood Knights much better. It was more the way I "grew up". It was if the writers had been following us around documenting all of our pranks and antics. Some are mentioned in the Mighty Mo threads.

 

saw Toad as some sort of scientist on X-Files the other night. he got ate up by some sort of disease and died.

 

WOW I was cruising in a yellow deuce highboy roadster I'd just finished and was just starting my first of many deuce tudor sedans. I was a farm boy living in the middle of corn country and clear back in 1962 I was bitten by the hot rod/custom car bug. It's still alive in me today at 78. The next 2 movies in my life at that time, American Graffiti and California Kid are 2 that I watch again and again.

 

You know Gil Gonzalez?
My cousin was 16 at the time and living in Turlock. He and his buddies would drive up to Modesto to cruise on weekends. He said the movie was exactly as he remembers the times cruising 16th street in Modesto.

 

I was 15 when it came out, saw it in the theatre. Had been buying hot rod magazines since I was single digit age, but AG brought it to life!

 

I'm a 66 model too my older brother rented a VCR and tape I got into the bad ass 55 over the 32 just the look and sound of that car made my hair stand up.

 

It sure changed mine, and not only according to cars - I mean literally everything.

 

Sadly I don't think I can watch it again, or at least for a while. I may have seen it a few(hundred) times. On my 3rd, round, wore out theVHS, and one Cd got ruined. Whenever I hear a song from the soundtrack, my mind goes to the dialogue for the scene. I have seen the Deuce and 55, and one of the cars from the car lot, been on paradise road at dawn, have the signed pic by Paul Lemat, as well as a poster of the Deuce on the wall in my office, and I don't even particularly like 32's more a 33 kind of guy, and I met Candy Clark away from the autograph table in a random moment at Paso. I guess it may have influenced my life a little.

 

Milner’s ride was cool , but ain’t nothin more bad azz than Da Kid , for me .

 

I guess I’m on the younger end here at 37. Elwood Blues was my car hero until my dad rented Graffiti for me one Friday. That was 26 years ago and I’ve been through a few VHS’s and countless DVD’s, mainly because I keep giving them out to friends never expecting them back. I connected with this movie early because I was always into the earliest rock-n-roll and grew up on hot rod magazines. Also, similar to you guys that lived it, alot of my friends also went to war after high school and we’ve had all sorts of wacked out things happening since then. In high school, my buddies and I cruised around for hours on end throughout the year. Maybe not to the same music or in badass hot rods, but the intentions were still the same.

Anyway, today as I got on Spotify (music streaming app on the phone) to cue up the AG soundtrack while I was working a podcast popped up in the list. From what I gathered, it’s a radio show produced by 3 film students and they do reviews or making of stories on lots of different movies. Wouldn’t you know it, the newest episode is about American Graffiti! They did a really great job talking about how Lucas got the film all the way from idea finished product. I’ve read tons of articles on AG i.e. Kip’s Graffiti Blog etc etc and this show gives alot of really cool facts I’d never heard before. Apparently the cast and crew were pretty rowdy and a handful for Lucas and the cities they filmed in. I highly recommend anybody search this out on any podcast platform, Spotify, Apple Music, so on and so forth. The show is called, “It Was A Sh*t Show” spelled just like that. And the episode is titled American Graffiti (1973). The language is a bit “young” even for me, but there’s still a solid hour of entertainment there.

Enough rambling. I love the movie AND the sequel and I always will. Definitely got me hooked for life.

 

I was 12/13 when it came out...I read about it in Street Rodder Magazine before I actually got to see the movie...

Best movie ever made IMHO...

 

who did the custom painted/lowered '39 Chevy coupe belong to? anyone know the history of it??

 

what a pleasant surprise to see old boy scout buddy tom beringer speak a line in the movie: "IS THAT YOU, TOAD? WHAT A WASTE OF A GOOD MACHINE!"

 

Check your local theater. HTTPs://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/american-graffiti-coming-back-to-theaters.1296453/

 

Drove my Model A pickup to the theater to see the movie.

and to this day my ring tone is Green Onions
HRP

 

Amazing how the years fly by!
I was born at Castle AFB in Atwater California in 53.
Graduated from Atwater HS in 71.
Back then, our little town's of Winton and Atwater, were not really the cultural center of the known universe, so the place to cruise ( or as we knew it, draggin the main ) was to go to Merced and cruise up and down 17th street.
The first picture you see here, was the corner of J street and 17th, which has been renamed " Main and Martin Luther King Jr. Way "

Many years later, 17th was narrowed as to make it less attractive for kids in cars, to cruise.
I left the SJV ( San Joaquin Valley ) back in 79, and relocated to Seattle Washington.

Being that Merced was just 30 miles from Modesto, where George Lucas grew up, all of us that lived in Merced and the San Joaquin Valley, can certainly relate to the film American Graffiti, it was our back yard, our turf, our place in the hot dusty realm, of trying to be cool, with cars, women, hot rods, and just general hooliganism!

We actually lived it!

In my opinion, George Lucas got it right as he captured some amazing
cine-graphic images of the teen age years as he lived it and remembered it.

It was so cool that Lucas chose a great sound track and the addition of
"Wolfman Jack", really made it authentic!

Thanks to @corncobcoupe for creating this thread, it really brings back great memories, of a time that will live forever in the minds of those, that experienced it for real !

 

My wife got us tickets to the re-screening of AG when it gets here.

Gary

 

IMO one of the best car movies ever. I lived it, what great memories I have from my youth, the street racing, cruising, then open wheel racing into my 40's, cars have been my passion/hobby my entire life. I worked hard, played hard all my life, now 75 and winding down, still a CarNut. I have stated many times, I'm a very lucky man, thankful and grateful to be here, still walking, talking and mostly making sense. Everyone, Have a Great day !

 

So in 62 the coupe most likely would have had a 283 but possibly a 327 and the 55 a 348 and maybe a 409. Most young hot rodders didn't have current year engines in their cars Even with over bores and stroker kits I don't see the 55 as a match with the weight difference. True the 55 was rat powered but those engines were impossible to find in 62.

 

When the movie came out I was driving a white '58 Chevy (Bel Air). A bunch of my buddys & I went to see the movie. Couldn't believe my eyes when that '58 Impala rolled onto the screen!

 

AG is the main reason I have this '26 coupe!! @78yo I am akid again when I drive it..............

 

I will give the movie all the respect that it deserves. Everyone that worked on that film in any way, took part in producing an American classic. They can all be proud of that. In '72 I was a junior in high school more into motorcycles than cars, and didn't see AG at the theater until '74. I have never been surrounded by the car culture but I was a car crazy kid since kindergarten.
There is really only one hot rod featured in the movie, and it's kind of presented as an anachronism, just as Milner was portrayed. Fifties and Sixties cars are the dominant vehicles. The music was great.
Recently I was at a car show in Rio Linda and as I was watching several 30's chopped coupes driving up the road to turn into the field, I got quite a thrill as these icons of the car enthusiasts culture came to life as living, breathing, cars. Not as something seen in a magazine, or parked in a show. I never had a hot rod when I was younger, and I'll probably never have one, because my interests with cars doesn't run in that direction, but I'm really into the cars that I have now.

 

I barely graduated in '63. We cruised Main Street in Walnut Creek CA. from Mel's to the Walnut Bowl. Hokie's Drive-in was across the street from Mel's. That movie could have been filmed in hundreds of small towns on California. There was a lot of truth in it along with a lot of what we thought we were. Not a clue of what we were about to become.
I didn't see it until '78. Our first class reunion was 15 years after we graduated. By then I'd gone through several bitchin' cars, finished college, got married, and moved to Nevada. I only had a little contact with a couple of guys from high school. One called me and asked if I was going to the reunion. I said no. I told him I didn't need to see any of them. Old fat girls & bald guys didn't interest me. We were 33. He asked if I had seen American Graffiti? I said no. He told me to watch it and if I still didn't want to see any of them I could go fuck myself and hung up. For some reason the movie was being shown at the Carson City drive-in. My wife & I went to see it. We also went to the reunion and are going to the 60th in September. There are a lot fewer of us but we share a lot of history. There were a lot of cool cars in that school parking lot. That movie is very special.