In the summer of 1962, George Lucas was 18, an American boy, enjoying what he calls a Midwestern adolescence in rural Modesto, California. Ten years later, these experiences inspired American Graffiti, a hallmark film often regarded as the most faithful cinematic tale of teenage life during that period.
By 1972, Modesto no longer represented small-time America, so filming began in San Rafael, just north of San Francisco. After only one night of shooting, complaints about the hubbub forced the production to migrate north to Petaluma.
The film follows several different and unrelated stores simultaneously, a technique that has since become typical, especially among television dramas. George writes to music, and in his script, besides the usual items such as location and time of day, he included the names of the songs to which he wrote each scene. The music is authentic, and the royalties for the mammoth 41-song soundtrack were the most expensive aspect of the film’s laughably small $750,000 budget.
The money was even too tight to afford a real camera car. Instead, they hauled one movie car behind another on a rented trailer. They removed the trunk lid of the lead car, and George and the cameraman would crouch there for hours, like luggage, and film the actors as they “Drove” the car in tow. One exhausting summer night, while employing this procedure, George accidentally fell asleep there, in the trunk.
The exceptional casting launched successful careers for actors like Richard Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford and Cindy Williams. And the balanced variety of characters makes it an easy film to relate to. But the real stars of the film are the cars. Producer Gary Kurtz obtained most of the vehicles, including the black ‘55 Chevy. It was actually a ballsy composite of two leftover stunt cars from his 1971 film, Two-Lane Blacktop, starring Dennis Wilson, Warren Oates, and singer James Taylor.
Speaking to the Modesto Rotary Club at his father’s request, Lucas explained that he had spent four years cruising Modesto, time his father considered worthless, and joked, “I made American Graffiti to prove him wrong,” which he did. The profits from his film financed Star Wars, which lead to Raiders of the Lost Ark (two other films you may have heard of). And now, Lucas is directing three new Star Wars films. But there would be no Han Solo or Indiana Jones without Bob Falfa.
Epilogue: After filming, the Impala sold for just $200. The coupe, and the Pharoahs’ 1951 Mercury rotted on a Universal backlot until More American Graffiti resurrected the ‘32, and former Stray Cat, Brian Setzer rescued and restored the Merc.
So, where were you in ‘62?