| Later, Fitch sold the car to current owner, Wayne Newsome. According to an article by Walt Bailey, on the Unofficial American Graffiti Home Page, shortly after he purchased the '55, Newsome had the car modified into someone's idea of a show car and little of the it's original components remain. If your wondering what happened to car # 2 check out Bailey's Two Lane Balcktop webpage, (see my LINKS page). |
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| Falfa's '55 Chevy (cont.) |
| -"American Graffiti." Universal Studios.Com. 1998. Retrieved, Oct. 5, 2004. <http://homevideo.universalstudios.com/americangraffiti/index.html> -"Archived Interviews." Brian Setzer.Com. Ed. Ribcage Rockers, Inc. May 7, 2001. Retrieved Sept. 27, 2004. <http://www.briansetzer.com/archive02_main.html> -Bailey, Walt. "Two Lan Blacktop Home Page" Ed. Walt Bailey. retrieved: April 22, 2005. <http://groups.msn.com/twolaneblacktophomepage/> -Famalette, Mike. Phone interview, October 30, 2006 -Ganhal, Pat. "The American Graffiti Cars." Street Rodder. May 1976: 36-43. -Pollock, Dale. Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas. Updated Ed. New York: Da Capo Press, 1999. -Schrock, Kathy. The Unofficial American Graffiti Web Page. Ed. Kathy Schrock. Oct. 6, 2004 <http;//Kathyschrock.net/graffiti.html> |
| In 1976 Steve Fitch of Wichita, Kansas bought the Graffiti '55 from Crawford. Later, Fitch also bought the yellow '32 Ford Coupe after More American Graffiti was completed. He owned both cars when he and the two most famous cars from Graffiti were profiled in an October 1983 article in Car Craft magazine. |
| After filming was finished, the '55 (car #1) sat in Henry Travers' yard for more than a year. The car was eventually sold by the studio to Sam Crawford of Dixon, CA, who owned it when it was featured in a May 1976 issue of Street Rodder magazine with other notable Graffiti cars. |
| NOTES: |
| The crew came back with four cameras to the same location (Frates Rd., Petaluma, CA) a few days later to try and again, they could not roll the car. This time the tie rod and the "A" arm broke. The scene always had to be shot at dawn and they only had one take each time they tried. Finally, Monday morning, August 7th, on the 4th day of attempting the trick, the stunt person was able to get the car to roll over, and Lucas got the shot he wanted. |
| Although the 55 Chevy that "Falfa" drove and the roll car were 150 series 2-door sedans, the car that was set on fire was a junkyard 55 Chevy "Bel Air" 2-door sport coupe hardtop. It was painted black and a piece of wood was placed between the front and back of the side windows to resemble the door post on the sedans. If you freeze frame the DVD you'll notice the black piece of wood didn't line up where a door post would. It is several inches further back into the rear window. Also, it had a deluxe rear bumper, which the sedans didn't have and the rear wheelwells on the burn car were not radiused. After it was burnt, it was hauled back to the junkyard and then crushed. |
| Tranportation supervisor, Henry Travers sold the '55 stunt car (car #3) sans front sheet metal to a stock car racer in northern California, who stored it in a salvage yard for a few years before it was eventually crushed. Rumor has it that the 454 engine was taken out and put into a stock car before the 55 was destroyed. |
| The junker '55 burns while Cindy Williams & Harrison Ford look on. |
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