I grew up in Southern California ( Covina/San Gabriel Valley ) in the '60's and I can tell you that George nailed it with AG. We would cruise Arrow Hwy to Citrus Ave through town and back to either the "In N Out" or J & M Chicken Patio. On week-ends we would go to Pasadena and cruise "Bobs" or to West Covina, they had a "Bobs Big Boy" also. All types of cars cruising the streets, Street Rods, Low Riders and Station Wagons/Woodies with surf boards hanging out the back and , yes, even Vespa's and Cushman Scooters. The girls would be piled in thier Mom or Dads daily driver! Stop light to stop light racing was common and the serious stuff was done out in the "boonies" where the quarter mile was marked off and nothing but orange groves around. "Wolfman" or the "Beach Boys" would be blaring on the radio's! I really don't think that there was a better time or place to be a teen, nor will it ever be like that again.
Being born in 77 i think i really missed out on the "good times" i grew up in the san ferando valley. ca and heard all the kick ass storys for my dad and mom. i feel like what could my generation possibly have that in 20,30,or 40 years people will be talking about as the good ol' days? i cant think of shit. maybe just the loose women??!!!
Though not a well known fact, I was the inspiration for the character of John Milner. Or was it Toad? I love AG, too, but my favorite is Hollywood Knights. It has more skin in it.
When I was a kid in tucson we used to hang out at a friends house right behind Johnnies drive-in on speedway.told the fols we were campin out,truth was we would sit on the block wall of his yard and watch all the cruisers.(mid-60s)..and we saw it all.it was alot like AG the way I saw it......maybe thats why Im the way I am now
My high school Govt. teacher grew up with George Lucas in Modesto. He used to tell us that it was EXACTLY like the movie, and many of the characters were based on people they went to high school with.
I believe American Graffiti came out in or about 1974. I was 16 and was the first movie I ever saw twice, cause we had to go to the movie theaters to see them. 1974 was just between 8 tracks and cassettes and the only movies at home was on super 8. Anyhow in 1974 we cruised and cruised and cruised some more. From the root beer stand at one end of town to the root beer stand at the other. I was drivng a 1968 Mustang fastback. An original R code 428 drag pack car. Heater delete, radio delete. Was great cause it had the fold down rear seat and a picture window for a rear window when you backedinto the drive in backwards. Wish i had that one back. Best memory was cruising town one night iwht a date, yea cruised iwth a date, pretty blonde gal who was a cheerleader at a neighboring school. They had just put a new stom sigon up on our normal cruise route and since my mind wasnt in my driving, got pulled over twice in the same night for running the same stop sign!! Got a warning both times. Great night.
its still like that, in Longview Washington-----no just kidden it rain's 11 month's outa a year and are cars sit in the shop and grow's dust.
We used to head out to Houston to cruise Westheimer in the mid to late 80s as well, when I was a teenager. A big part of our activities involved scoring some booze, or unfortunately, something harder. Other than the famous "Old Harper" scene, getting loaded wasn't real prevelant in the movie. Were the kids getting drunk and high back then, or was that something that came later?
I grew up in Artesia and Paramount, California and graduated Artesia High School in 1963. The only thing missing in the movie American Graffiti is there were a lot more cars with white wall tires even though my Merc has black wall tires. That is me (passenger side) and ol Gary Mills sitting on my '56 Merc back in 1963. I cruised Bellflower Blvd., Firestone Blvd., Tweedy Blvd., and some times I headed over to Whittier Blve. What a great place and time to grow up.
I love reading these stories. I'm a young pup so most of my high school cruisin' involved seeing whose stereo was loudest My dad and uncle grew up in the AG era, though. They would cruise the drive-ins and the Jim Dandy's in my uncle's '57 Chevy. My uncle was more of a rebel with greasy hair, a pack of cigs rolled up his sleeve, and constantly flippin' channels on the AM radio! Rivalries between high schools were BIG. Later my uncle got a job at a bank and often had to go repo cars. Many-a times he got 'em a little loose on the way back to the impound. My dad talks fondly of his old '64 Impala SS 4-speed. I've gotten him back on a motorcycle, maybe an old car project is next. Later
The movie and the cars were pretty much right on in Modesto according to my Dad, only thing he said wasn't "real" is he never recalled anyone racing on Paridise Road as they did in the movie, plus the "cruise" was on 10th street up J street back then...but he did his cruising in the mid to late 50's, I don't think he cruised in the 60's at all, so it's possible there were some changes. Any local Modesto folks of tha era that can confirm?
I saw AG in the movie theater when it first came out in my senior year of high school. It was flat out the coolest thing I'd ever seen. It's pretty much affected the rest of my life. I continue to watch the movie about once every two months, and one thing I don't think people mention too much is the incredible acting in the movie. LeMat should have won an Oscar, and Candy Clark and Mckenzie Phillips and Toad should have been at least nominated for best supporting actors. They were that good, and that's one of the reasons the movie was so great.
Yep, it really was like AG in my small town south of Fresno, and all the other places I knew. I can cite real names of people that match up pretty well with characters in the film. In Fresno, Blackstone and later Belmont were stomping grounds. It was a time before air conditioning, all windows were down, and we listened to the same soundtrack, every radio tuned to KYNO 1300, or Wolfman on XERB after KYNO signed. On weekends the section of Belmont between the Big Boy and Mars was packed with cars and kids from dark until the wee hours. Later when big blocks started to show up the serious races happened behind Roeding Park north of the Belmont Loop. My girlfriend (now wife) was from Santa Cruz, and she arranged a race for me against "the fastest car at her school" one midnight on a private air strip in the Santa Cruz mountains (my Ford won, it wasn't that fast, but the other car was a slug). When I first saw the AG Paradise Road scene, that airport run was on my mind. I went to the AG premiere, and I've never been to another opening where an audience interacted so animatedly with a film. Things are so different now I can't imagine how we got from there to here. When I go out on a Friday or Saturday night, I marvel how few kids are out. Of course, there were just a whole bunch more of us kids around back then when us boomers hit high school.
It played a pivotal role in my hot rod development and inspiration over the years and I have finally put together a very close better than original clone of the coupe... Needless to say, the movie is an icon in my book!
"That is me (passenger side) and ol Gary Mills sitting on my '56 Merc back in 1963." we had a '55 merc that could fly ! we had a set of rxr tracks out in the country . very steep ! one nite we flew the tracks @ 100 mph . knocked out most of the windows & all the exhaust system on landing ! but it was a ball !!!! .. thx .. steve
It was like that in small Ontario towns too. Especially summer Friday nights. I remember best Arnprior and Napanee. Cops were reasonable for the most part. You could squawk the tires the odd time but if you got stupid they would lean on you. I got a copy of Amer Graff in German a few years ago from a guy in Germany who bought one of my books. . Tis intersting to watch in another language
It was in Atlanta. But you have to remember, the cars weren't that old back then either. You could drive thru The Varsity or The Yellow Jacket on a Fri/Sat night and see 30-40 cars from the 30s/40s. Street racing was king. I lived less than four miles from The Varsity and was there nearly every night.
I'm 67 and the movie was "Right-On". I grew up in the "Cruisin' Capital East of the Mississippi (as featured by Car-Craft Magazine)...Dayton, Ohio and down to Hamilton & Cincinnati. All the guys from Ky came up to work for high pay at NCR, Frigidare, Delco, Chrysler and Machine shops. They then bought Fast cars with all that money. Friday night was Football game,cruise, parking(making-out), back to cruise and Street drag-race on Woodman or Rt.35. Saturday night was date night, cruise and Street Drag-race. Sunday was drags at Kilkare or Cleves or Dayhio and leave the time written on the back window and lay any trophy on the package shelf. "Ohio George" still has a speed shop along with Holt and Dicks Crank, the Exgeption and home of my friend..Darrel Mayhabb. You ALWAYS broke something on Sundays and had to get the car home somehow (drove to & from the drags). So then you had to work on the car to have ready for the next Friday(if you had the money from your after school "bag-boy" job at the supermarket). One Saturday morning I had 2 flats on my car so I hand pumped them up (all we had)and drove to the local GULF station. The owner said he hoped I wasn't driving over 20MPH on those bald tires! (I had won racing on unopened Rt. 35 at about 120mph!) I borrowed $20 to get 2 "new" Retreads. Of course the follow-up movie "Hollywood Knights" is not as accurate as "Graffiti" but has some real neat scenes as funny as HELL! I've had that taste in my mouth before...and It DOES have a WANG to it!!!
YEP AG nailed it. It is still dejavous for me. My first 32 5W coupe in 57 was chopped with a very built flathead done for me by Earnie Hashim. Cruising the burger joints to meet the babes and choose off for street drags was every friday and saturday night. Fights also happened along the way. My first shackup was a carhop. Like Bowzer I never grew past those times.
Just when I start feelin' old. I wonder how I'll feel in another 25 years? Probably still love old cars.
When my dad saw that and I asked him the same question, he said they should have called the movie "Any Given Night." Although all that shit that happened would likely not happen on any given night, it easily could have from what he said. Hell, I graduated in 1981 and even then we had nights like that...just not as cool of cars
It was like that in small town Minnesota in the 70's when I was in HS. I had a 60 Impala and cruised the main drag. Moved to Mississippi my Sr year and got a 58 Impala. Same cruising and street racing was going on here up to the mid 80's.
Paradise Road runs out toward the airport, and it is long, straight and flat as hell! Now if you cruise in Modesto, you run the chance of getting a ticket!
when I first saw American Graffitti, I thought it hit the nail on the head. In fact the downtown cruising scenes looked and sounded just like cruising E street in San Bernardino ca.which being from Riverside was in my cruising territory. In AG you can hear train sounds in the background, and the buildings etc were all similar, we did interact some like yelling "Taquila" at the stop lites, while listening to 'Wolfman Jack" and his howl echoing around as most all the cars had him tuned in. And when we went to LA it was about the same thing, little did we know then that basically the same things were happening around the whole country.
The movies depiction of the street crusing scene in the late 60's and early 50's not only was a fairly accurate depiction of what was taking plae in california, but also what was happening in other cities on the west coast. Living in The Seattle area during that time, I can attest that is was much the same. Keno's drive in on rainer avenue, racing in the tubes off the Lake Washington floating bridge, crusing the Renton Loop, Honest Charlies Speed Shop & Competition Specalities in Renton, Golden Gardens parking lot. It was a cool and exciting time. Not like that any more.
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