There are two clubs NOT the same - Pharoahs and other is Pharaohs ( notice spelling difference) What is history of both ? Two similar sounding but spelled differently?
I know there are a few clubs with the Pharaoh's, Pharoah's name, but here is the history of the American Graffiti Pharaohs. It was actually spelt "Faros", they tried/started to form at Modesto High School in 1957 but the Dean of Boys got wind of it and warned that they would be expelled for any such nonsense. In 1960 at Modesto Junior College the original group of guy's fired back up as a Fraternity (wink, wink) and quickly evolved into a Car Club which expanded back to the local high schools. From 1960 until 1973 when the AG Movie came out there were roughly 160 members. The city of Modesto was really cracking down on cruising about that time and sometime in late 73 to early 74 the Faros disbanded. The last club president ...I'm going to say by dumb luck for lack of better words, took all the club records and what I call memorabilia today and stored it in his attic. Fast forward 40 years and with renewed interest, the old Faros started contacting each other for a reunion of such, which began a regeneration of the club. A lot of the members where still very active in the car culture and a few of them got their second wind, had empty nest and said why not and purchased a car. Today they meet once a month to discuss business, the Faros are very active in local events that support the preservation of the car culture including local charity events. This year the "Faros" became a trademarked name. The youngest Faro is about 63 years young and the oldest is approaching 80, at this time no new members have been taken in since 73. How/why did George Lucas write the Faros into AG? Attached is a picture of George Lucas and a Faro named Gary Second, (Gary sadly passed away in April of 2018) George and Gary were BFF's in high school. And now you know the rest of the story!
Nice bit of history -please continue with how the TWO ; Pharoahs and Pharaohs came into being and difference
Used to be a car club in Michigan with that name that I used to attend their car shows in the eighties.
For what it's worth, I'm Dennis O'Brien and own O'Brien Truckers LLC (www.obrientruckers.com) and have manufactured over 165,000 car club plaques for 3000+ clubs over the last 40 years. I also have 12,000 car club plaque patterns from two companies that made plaques in the 1950/60's. Out of those 15,000 total patterns I have made plaques for 14 Pharaohs, 2 Pharoahs, 1 Faros and 1 Fa-Rows clubs and the from the two companies that went out of business in the late 60's I have the original patterns for 36 Pharaohs, 1 Pharoahs, 1 Pharos and 1 Faros clubs' plaques. So that's a total of 57 different clubs. I have the patterns for all of the plaques shown above . I will not make and sell plaques from my 15,000 patterns for clubs that are still active like the Faros Modesto, Pharaohs Oxnard and Pharoahs Mt. Vernon. It's interesting how many guys call and want to order Pharoahs plaques "because that's the way it was spelled in the movie". I just send them to the HAMB to straighten them out
Just going to leave this here.. We have somewhere around 11k members worldwide and have been around LONG before the movie ever hit the screen. Hope this helps. General, Pharoahs Tennessee chapter.
This page on my website has over 50 Pharaohs plaques shown ... Pharaohs I can't vouch for the infomation that was provided about these clubs and always assumed that most young people just can't spell. This page on my site kind of confirms that ... Plaques With Errors?
IS THE ONLY WAY TO SPELL IT CORRECTLY. THE EMBLEM GIVES PEOPLE AN IDEA HOW TO SPELL IT AND SOME HISTORY. Hello, When we were little kids in the Westside of Long Beach, there were car clubs everywhere. People tended to have some creative names, but at least no one misspelled the name to be a copy cat club. From 1953 onward, the Pharaohs Club of Wilmington, CA were well established as the club called, Pharaohs. Anything else, misspelled or not was a take on the original. We used to walk to Wilmington from our Westside of Long Beach homes. Back then, only big freighter trucks were what we had to watch for as we were close to the Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor. Walking down PCH to Wilmington was actually enjoyable. Big trucks, tons of old cars, buses for the ride home if we got tired, and great Mexican Food in several restaurants along the way. Our usual destination was the Banning Museum and Park, located on PCH. Banning Residence and Museum/Park in the background. “Manual Gonzalez and the Californian.” If anyone drove from Long Beach to the South Bay and Santa Monica along PCH, or vice versa, you could not go through Wilmington unless you drove by the Banning Park and the Museum. (across the street was/is the famous Phineas Banning High School) We were always told by the older guys in our Westside of Long Beach neighborhood that to stay out of the Letter streets in Wilmington. That meant L, M & N Streets. They just said it is a rough neighborhood and then mentioned something about the Pharaohs Car Club. We took their advice and stayed on PCH to the park and restaurants. We did see our share of Pharaohs plaques in plenty of cool custom cars. That was enough to last a lifetime. Jnaki So, whatever form of Pharaohs Car Club plaque one has, this is the original, that is well known to all So Cal hot rod and custom car guys/girls. When we were 12, our friends all gathered at the local park called Silverado Park in the Westside of Long Beach. We were given the directive by some of our friends’ older brothers to be at the park after school. There must have been over 50 kids and older guys from the Westside sitting on the big grass area. Then in a few minutes, a long string of cars started the cruise around the whole park, as a show of force. It was an impressive site, as there were ordinary cruisers and cool custom cars, all lowered to the ground. They all parked and started walking toward the big gathering. Our local, older brother told everyone to stay sitting and that he would handle everything. Pharaohs in large numbers? Probably, but at the time, who was counting? There was some misunderstanding about some teenage stuff and the car club leader was going to get some things straight with our friend’s older brother. Why, the show of force with 50+ on the Westside group and about the same amount on the Wilmington group side? Who knows, we were just cannon fodder, but it looked impressive from both sides. Someone in the neighborhood must have called the police as soon as those two leaders stood face to face. The park was surrounded and the sirens blasted all over. Since we were not doing anything except just sitting around, there was no reason to run or hide. The police came up to the two leaders and straightened out the flare up. As little pre-teens, we were all scared, but our friend’s older brother came over and thanked us for showing up to support his side of the fiasco. A possible rumble in the Westside of the jungle, but cooler heads prevailed. CAR CLUBS DID NOT START WITH A.G.
Picked this up from a late friend, not sure if he was apart of the club or not. Came across this thread! Figured Id share.
The Jalopy Journal
