Art & Inspiration It was 50 years ago today...

I would tend to bet that this movie had a profound affect on every hamber.

 

This week also marks the 50th anniversary of HipHop. Kerrynzl quoted Milner who most definitely got that right.

 

Currently streaming on Netflix but leaving soon.

 

I saw it shortly after it came out and recently watched it again just recently on Netflix with my wife. I thought it was just a great movie when I first saw it when I was 20-something, after all, it had hot rods in it. But, when I recently watched it again on Netflix it was as much of a let-down as watching Easy Rider was when we watched it too about a year ago. The acting and story line seemed very amateur. I'm probably only one of a few that won't hop up on the "praise American Graffiti" soapbox.

As another example, I loved the '55 Chevy in Two Lane Blacktop (even the clones of it built since then), but once again the acting and story line.....very weak.

Lynn

 

Watched it again just this week, always enjoy it. Saw it when it came out in '73, at the Hwy 51 Drive-In.

 

My dad's favorite car was always a '55 Chevy, so naturally it was in my DNA to love these cars as a kid. Watching A.G. in the early 80's as a kid was so rad I couldn't get enough. Much like other "car movies" back then, I didn't care for the story line or acting so much, I just wanted to see the cars and the chicks.

John Milner was cool, but Falfa was a bad ass...

 

Brenda & I went to the theater to see American Graffiti when it premiered here in Anderson and we really enjoyed the movie but the best part of the whole experience was when we left the theater and headed to our truck, the same one in my avatar, there were a bunch of people standing around it, we had the only hot rod in the parking lot, several of the people thought it was a prop for the movie.

A couple of those strangers have become friends and hot rodders. HRP

 

I was in the 7th grade and reading everything I could get my hands on written by Henry Gregor Felson and that year I got my hands on the October issue of Hot Rod magazine, Dean Lowes red roadster was on the cover, I was hooked! HRP



This photo could have easily been a snapshot of my sister & I on that faithful Saturday morning at Bryant's Corner Drug Store in 1962, I had sit down in the floor and picked up a Hot Rod Magazine, The red Hot rod on the cover caught my eye, I was 12 years old and knew nothing about hot rods and had just started reading and mom told me it's time to go, I pleaded with her to buy me that magazine.

She bought me the magazine and I was hooked on what I was reading about, later on my granddad bought me a subscription and I started learning, I told everyone that would listen that I was going to build a hot rod some day.

I always subscribed to Hot Rod Magazine and do to this day - but this is not the end of the story and I have told this several times in the past, That HOT ROD MAGAZINE my mom bought me back in 1962
featured Dean Lowe's Red Model A roadster pickup.

Who would have thought that I would eventually know Dean as a fellow hamber!

Believe it or not there is another twist of faith, recently our daughter got a divorce and moved back home, so we started cleaning out a spare bedroom that had become a catch all for almost 50 years, as you can guess we found a lot of lost treasures but in a old box of books & magazines I found THE VERY SAME HOT ROD MAGAZINE with Dean Lowe & his red roadster pickup on the cover.

After all these years I still have the very magazine that got me involved in the life long obsession with Hot Rods, now that I have found the magazine and Dean graciously offered to autographed it for me. HRP

 

Haha, I can tell almost the same story! We were at the neighborhood grocery store and I was captivated by the August 1963 issue of Car Craft magazine - special "Coupes and Sedans" issue with a bright yellow cover. Conned my mom into buying it for me. Digested it. Further conned her into sending in a check for a year's subscription (I think it was like $3.50 for a year!) and it was all downhill from there.
Yep, still have that first magazine!!

Thanks, that's a cool story! And some folks here may have heard or read another one (it was before my time as a member so don't know all the details.) When the movie came out, a bunch of Minnesota Street Rod Association members hatched a plan. A group met with their cars at a theatre in St. Paul MN where it was playing, gathering just before the movie let out. On a signal when folks started coming out of the theatre, everyone pulled out onto the street and began cruising the streets around the theatre bringing to life what the moviegoers had just seen on the big screen. By all accounts it was just surreal and the folks who saw it were pretty much blown away.
I've even heard unconfirmed reports of a "full moon" out on the boulevard that night....
I don't think American Graffiti will ever be equaled.

 

Haha! I often use that quote when I see somebody leaning against a car. A good share of them don't get it tho...

 

I read about AG in a car magazine, Hotrod or Car Craft about a year or more before the release, man that was a long wait! Theater was packed and sold out so I got tickets for the next showing and hung around out in the parking lot, good thing my car had a good heater! One of the best scense was when they were calling each other out and street raced some like in the same time frame at McDonalds and the Berlin Turnpike in CT.

 

Movie depicted some of the best times in America to me. I’m thankful that I got to experience some of them.

 

Time sure fly , Life is like a roll of toilet paper the closer you get to the end the faster it goes.

 

Our library had a copy of the screenplay as a book which I checked out several times and probably had memorized before I got to see the actual film on TV in high school, around 1980. I own the Blu-ray and will be going to the theater to watch it. Can't wait to see it on the big screen!

 

We've got our tickets to see it on the big screen again.

Gary

 

I was 14 when it came out and my best mate gave me some big American Graffiti stickers, his father was a radio DJ and the station was promoting the film. I asked my mate what the film was about and he just said ''its about driving around in cars listening to music''....i thought that sounds dumb! i did get the sound track in 76 as i was into (still am) Rockn Roll and finally saw the film in 82. It is still my #1 car film. JW

 

I was in the process of building a 29 Highboy when AG came out in 73, I was 24 and had a bunch of hot rod cars before that. It was not only the cars but the car culture of the time. Dating, street racing, and avoiding John Law. What fun!

 

I was at the Miracle Theater in Coral Gables for the first showing on opening night. Went back the next night to see it again. Still a great movie.

 

I was 5. My folks took me to see it in my Jammies. I still remember the theater and major parts of the movie. They both Graduated in 64 so this was real for them. Probably watched it a hundred times since then?

 

I watched it today on cable, from my prospective and it's still a good movie, the cars & the music was spot on for the 1962 time period, and most of the actors at that time were unknown with the exception of Ron Howard & radio personality Wolfman Jack, most of the cast went on to have lucrative careers , I agree with Cob, you can go back. HRP

 

can anyone give me an update on the health of Paul LeMat "Milner" as some time ago I heard
he was struggling with ill health ?

 

I love AG,
I'm not the oldest on here ,on my 81'st trip around the sun,, I was actively building hotrods in the 1950s helping an then doing my own. Got my own running 1959. Drove my hotrod to highschool.
AG, is a great movie,with a lot of stuff,very much like what I had been doing in late 1950s into 60s.
I loved the fun of seeing some of my youth type stuff on the big screen.
I've added notes to HAMB over the years,,, I label " Way back storys" most of the time,did some with out the label too. All would be good as part of "AG PREQUEL"
Some of those,and other things we really did,could make another feel good movie too.
I thought AG was a feel good movie !!!! an big fun to see; ;;;;

Advise= Turn off the last of ,ending movie credits,too hold onto the best of the movie!!!
Do too; Except if you make the mistake of, reading the tacked on , very ending added BS***** ,of "What happened to them"< What a super hollywood screw up=Take a great feel good movie,add the crap, to turn it into sad BS> As if that was not already big mistake,then use that BS to write a very bad,feel bad "More AG" ,but with good actors an enough $,if done it right as another feel good movie*= Failed Sequel,when it could of been great too.

 

That's a good bet.
I was already car crazy at 3 years old in 1960 cuz we had greasers with hot rods for neighbors.
But American Graffiti certainly supercharged the dream.

 

I was 11 and rode my bike to the theater to see it. Went back the next night to see it again.

 

Thanks for reminding me how old I am! I watched it when I was in the U.S. Navy at, of all places, a missile test facility near Las Cruces, NM. Unlike today, I had no idea in advance what the movie was about.

 

Thanks for bringing up "The World's Fastest Indian". It's been years since I've seen it, so maybe I can find it on Netflix or some other streaming service. Can't go rent it at Blockbuster anymore!

 

Except they be asking why no one's texting while driving.

 

Man, right after this movie came 'California Kid' ! We loved it...another trip to the drive-in!