photo #1567580

George Lucas' first film was 'THX 1138'. It was a total disappointment. Francis Ford Coppola had then told him to make something 'warm and funny', and not 'weird'. So.. he made American Graffiti. His 'love letter' to the Fifties and his hometown of Modesto.'American Graffiti' involves the audience. A nice piece of nostalgia. In fact, it was 'American Graffiti' that had paved the way for 'Star Wars'.Now, you remember the TV show, 'Happy Days' starring Ron Howard, who had also starred in 'American Graffiti'. Since 'Happy Days' had premiered only five months after the release of 'American Graffiti', it is assumed by many to have been a spin off. Not so.'Happy Days' had originated as a segment in the TV series 'Love American Style'. I've not seen it in years, but if memory serves, it was pretty much the same characters as in the 'Happy Days' TV program, minus Tom Bosley as Howard Cunningham.Lucas has originally wanted to shoot 'American Graffitti' in Modesto.. but the town had changed too much. He had then chose San Rafael, California to represent early 1960's Modesto.Unfortunately, after only one day of shooting, the city said no. One member of the film crew was arrested for growing Marijuana, and, because of street closures for filming, there were a lot of complaints by those businesses. And so the crew had moved twenty miles North to Petaluma.In the early 1960's, Wolfman Jack was all over Southern California radio, and was a big part of George Lucas' childhood.George Lucas himself had chosen what the soundtrack would be, using his sister's 45 RPM record collection from the late 50's and early 60's. Lucas has said that he had written specific scenes to go with specific songs. Now you've really got to love that.Oh, and at the end of the film, where Bob Falfa finally had opportunity to race John Milner, the local drag racing king, and during the race, Falfa blows a tire and crashes. That's actually based on a true story in Lucas' life.Growing up in Modesto, George was apparently heavily into the local drag racing scene. During a particular race, Lucas had flipped his car and nearly died. This had prompted him to go to film school instead.The soundtrack album had sold well over three million copies. It includes 41 or the 43 songs used in the film, arranged on the album in the order they appear in the movie. 'Gee' by the Crows and 'Louie Louie' by Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids are the only two excluded.Speaking of the soundtrack, noticeably absent.. is Elvis. The reason being, is that Universal had offered and flat rate to all the labels involved. RCA, Elvis' label, had refused. Therefore, no Elvis.A sequel to the film, 'More American Graffiti', was released in 1979. There were three, double set record albums released.. 'American Graffiti', 'More American Graffiti', and 'American Graffiti Vol. 3'.