Not a single thread about American Graffiti ??
 

15 years of Pelican, and not one OT thread about American Graffiti !?!

I liked the theme of the pull of a dead end small town vs. leaving for greener pastures.

Interesting portrayal of 50s/60s car culture. Strangers talking across lanes at stoplights? Hopping into random people’s cars? I wonder how realistic it was.

Lucas himself sums it up nicely here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rEjX54IFjg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvmFpj2Bgyc

Green Onions was a decade ahead of its time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bpS-cOBK6Q

That film depicted pretty much what my youth was...late '50's, early '60's.

I've seen it a few times, but not in a very long time. I remember thinking it was cool. I wasn't born until '70 and then missed out on some of that type of stuff due to the old man being in the Navy and us traveling. I occasionally wonder what a more "normal" life would have been like and how it would have changed me, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I still managed a little of that sort of thing in the 80s. I'm also curious how accurate the portrayal is. I suspect some of the kids in the 50s/60s were like that and some were very much not.

The drive-ins, car hops, drag racing at night across the deserted 3/4 mile two lane road above the huge earth dam outside of town.
I never had a car in HS, I discovered motorcycles...so I was only a passenger in those drag races. Lots of bragging about who's car was tops, etc.
HS sports was a big event.
Canteen was big on Fri. and Sat. nights. Old brick school house converted for dancing (free jukebox). Girls would dance with girls. Only time we guys would dance w/the girls was the last dance - slow dance. ;)
Drinking keg beer was big also.
Only a couple of pregnant HS girls in those days. If so, they left school and usually left town.

That's interesting about high school dances. We had one with the black lights and strobes that were all the rage back then. I can't even imagine how dorky all of us must appeared to the school staff. We thought we were so cool.

If you've ever driven through Turlock, its hard to imagine anything coming out of that place.

I've been to Turlock, Madera, Modesto, Tulare & the rest. Know the whole place well as I went to HS in Fresno (Fresno Hi). Like Don says that movie gave me a real feeling of nostalgia. It was just like high school. Kind of a sweet feeling. Now the movie is even old.

I was stationed at Castle AFB for a while and we'd drive over to Modesto for fun.
It was a neat town in those days...clean, too, as I recall.
Even spent time in Fresno on wkends....Blackstone Ave. Is that correct?

The '58 from American Graffiti is for sale.

https://www.yahoo.com/autos/1958-impala-from-american-graffiti-could-sell-for-129731556392.html

[img]http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads24/b6fe017cf65013f014563914f32c74121cd3dff31443269848 .jpg[img]

Great movie. Saw it when I was in 9th grade. I was too young to be doing those things, but looked forward to it when I was.

I have a movie poster of it somewhere I snatched out of the box after watching it.

Same here... small town in N. TX.. midnight drags on the FM roads bordered by cotton fields, making the drag through town (no red lights however), parking on the Railroad right-of-way just killing time, occasional forays into someones field to steal black diamond watermelons... and the occasional keg party though most of N. TX was still "dry" in those days. Used to pay $1 a quart to bootleggers for a quart of Jax beer.

Combine "American Graffiti" and "The Last Picture Show" and you get small town N. TX in the late 50's through the 60's..

I was a teen in the 70's so much of what the movie portrayed was past tense for me.
A lot of hot rods cruised Hermosa Beach strand in my day... in a way it was similar... lots of cute girls on the sidewalks... lots of guys in cars revving, honking, waving... bur I don't think anyone actually hooked up. :D

I saw in a theater in downtown Chicago when it was released. Loved it so much sat through it twice! Great movie

Thanks for the reminder.
I found an old bootleg DVD I had & watched again last night.

Picture was a bit fuzzy but the sound was good. Liked so much I must buy a good copy.

Bought back memories of the first cars I was in that did 100mph. First was a Ford Customline (scary!) then followed by an Austin Healey 100/4.

Portland Oregon Teenager in 70's. Loved American Graffiti! Have the sound track around here some ware. But no record player....
Oh the Saturday nights on Broadway in my`65 Mustang, having fun, looking for a race.
Got a ticket for " Excessive Vehicle Noise, Tires" one time, yes Tires. HP 298 motor, 4-spd, 3:91rp w/Posi AND line lock! = Light up those rear tires with out moving. Ya baby!

Saw 3 movies in the summer of 74, American Graffiti, Jaws and The Three Musketeers. Musketeers was Richard Lester of A Hard Days Night fame. That is besides Deep Throat and Behind The Green Door which were shown on campus for $1 each.

In S .CA u had to add in surfing and that means Jan & Dean and The Beach Boys with Woody wagons. Most of the Graffiti stuff happened right before my time. 1960's Muscle cars were more the thing.

I lived it in Seattle (big city version) till I got drafted in 68. Got out in 70 and jumped back in.......till the wife & I had a baby in 74. Real life stepped in........oh well.

kids 66-68 cars in my neighborhood all daily drivers
GTO 389 tri-power 4 speed convert
57 chevy 327 4 speed
56 ford 406 tri-power 2 door wagon
65 mustang full NHRA ''stock'' 289 4 speed fastback
58 chevy 348 convert
56 A-H 100mc race car with a built 283
english ford with a 327 mostly in the front seat
e-jag that one didnot race but the chic's loved it

there were some neat dads cars like my dads facels
a 427 cobra
a 300 sl gullwing

there were 3 drive inn's to meet and set up races
but the races were way out in the farm fields

>but the races were way out in the farm fields<
__________________
You pick your spot..
Harbor Island.....an industrial area in the middle of Seattle
Deserted on weekends at 1 AM. About a mile of straight flat concrete. YEE HAAW

I wonder what the movie about my youth will be like...probably 90 minutes of loud clacks from old keyboards, terrible website graphics, stolen prescription medication and hondas.

I swear, TABS. We we to to different schools together.

Disregard the nostalgia for a moment. I've always looked at how odd just 10 years difference the era was portrayed from when the film was made.

Supposedly portrayed as 1962 and the film made 1972/73. Quite drastic change of American culture in only a decade.

I was a kid in the 60's growing up here; rural town. They had 1 fast food joint - Tastee-Freeze complete with 12 covered ( 6 opposing I think - parking spaces) curb-side food delivery / eating. Occasionally, my much older brother would let me ride along in his '68 Camaro and hang. That scene was very much like A/G.

My own coming-of-age experience is in the same small town is more like the movie 'Dazed and Confused'.........................actually almost exactly like it.

Don. Yeah, Blackstone Ave. is one of the main thoroughfares now and was back then too but less so. We didn't spend much time there except to get from one place to another. We spent a lot of time at night right down town Fresno "dragging the main." I actually don't remember the name of the street, but everybody in town would be there cruising up & down at maybe ten mph or less. The main activities were looking cool, showing off you car - if you had a cool one, giving other guys hard looks, getting into some fights, setting up drags out of town in the area of the fig orchards (my HS gf's family owned all of that) or out on the west side, and picking up girls. The girls mostly cruised to enjoy the attention of the guys.