| (c.) 2004-2006, Kip Pullman. |
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| Sure, American Graffiti was the film that launched the careers of a lot of famous actors, blah, blah, blah. Who cares! Most of them are just a bunch of prissy prima-donnas, now anyway. The really cool un-spoiled stars are the cars! In this 7 page article we check out the 32 Coupe, '58 Impala, '51 Merc., '56 T-bird convertable, and the '55 Chevy. See ya at the finish line! |
| In order to create the cruising atmosphere for the film it was necessary to find as many pre-1962 cars as possible. Production Assistant, Jim Bloom was in charge of finding many cars and drivers who would be featured in the background of the film. Co-producer, Gary Kurtz recalls, "In American Graffiti, we had no money-but we had to have all these cars, so we spent 3 weeks advertising on rock & roll radio for cars to be in the movie...cars and drivers who looked vaguely late 50s." Kurtz's Assistant (and sister in-law), Dorthy Alsup took polorids of the cars and drivers, and wrote down their names and details. When they were done they had a large notebook of 500 vehicles so that Lucas could choose the ones he liked. |
| "Each night when we needed cars we'd put out this call and call about 40-50 people, and maybe 20 would show up," Kurtz recalls. Getting all those cars to create the auto-street ballet didn't cost the producers much money. All they had to do was feed the car owners each night they appeared and slip 'em $20.00. It was an excellent way to make the production value work for the money they had. However, finding and preparing the "lead" cars took more effort, time, and money. |
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