American Graffiti (1973): The Movie That Paid for Star Wars

Universal hated it so much it talked about selling it to television as a movie of the week. George Lucas's film about one night of cruising in 1962 had already been turned down by almost every studio in town, got made only because Francis Coppola put his name on it, and was shot in twenty-eight nights after the first town threw the crew out. Then Coppola offered to buy it back, and it became one of the most profitable films ever made. This is how it got made, told by the people who made it and by the film's own big moments. So which one would you have taken out to Paradise Road: Milner's yellow deuce coupe, Falfa's black '55 Chevy, or the white Thunderbird? 0:00 American Graffiti 0:50 Tenth Street: Lucas, cruising and the crash 2:23 Nobody wanted it 3:11 A musical where nobody sings: the cast 4:50 Twenty-eight nights 7:03 More than forty songs, and Wolfman Jack 8:06 The preview, and Coppola's checkbook 9:49 Not even in the chair: the release 11:23 What it paid for 12:49 The blonde in the Thunderbird Heard in this video: George Lucas (Chicago Ideas Week, 2014; American Film Institute, 2005 and 2009; at a tribute to Haskell Wexler, 2009), Francis Coppola, George Lucas, Walter Murch, Charles Martin Smith, Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz (The Making of American Graffiti, 1998), Ron Howard (In Depth with Graham Bensinger, 2023; AFI tribute to Francis Ford Coppola, 2025), Cindy Williams and Suzanne Somers (Television Academy Foundation, The Interviews), Harrison Ford (circa 1992; American Film Institute, 2011), Candy Clark (2006, 2019), Richard Dreyfuss (AFI Life Achievement Award for George Lucas, 2005), Gary Kurtz (Fan Expo, 2011), Wolfman Jack (with Bobbie Wygant, 1973), and a 1982 Sacramento TV report from Modesto. Sources include the AFI Catalog, The Hollywood Reporter (1973), the Los Angeles Times (1973), Rolling Stone (1977), Entertainment Weekly (1999), American Cinematographer, Lucasfilm, the Academy of Achievement, the Chicago Sun-Times (Roger Ebert, 1973), The Numbers, Box Office Mojo and oscars.org. Clips used for commentary and criticism. #AmericanGraffiti #GeorgeLucas #RonHoward #HarrisonFord #WolfmanJack #MovieHistory #BehindTheScenes