Abbotsford News Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Part of George’s recollection of this time in America’s past involved the ritual of cruising and racing, and he went to great lengths to see that the cast members were not the only stars of the movie. Several cars had to be transformed to fit the part. The ‘49 red Merc driven by the Pharaohs was originally a stock ‘51 Merc when bought for use in the movie. It was given a quick top chop, a front bumper borrowed from a ‘70 Camaro as a floating grill, and then splashed with a coat of red. For Falfa’s “Bad Ass” ‘55 Chevy, four cars were used in production. Two were bought from a wrecking yard to be used as cars in the final crash scene; one was flipped, the other set on fire. A third car was used for interior shots. The fourth car generates the most attention as it was originally used in the filming of “Two Lane Blacktop.” In “Graffiti,” Falfa’s ‘55 was supposedly equipped with a 409 Chevy engine but in reality it was said to have an L-88 427 Corvette engine under the hood. As for Milner’s yellow coupe, known as the “fastest thing in the valley,” it was a street rod that was converted to movie
car status. Originally, plans called for a sectioned body but soon after the grill was cut down, time restraints forced the cancelation of that modification; thus the reason for the shortened grill. Because of the mostly night filming, yellow paint was chosen so it would stand out in the dark. When this movie was released to the public in 1973, the car hobby and cruising in general was on life support. It was a period when hot rods were no longer hot, toned down due to gas rationing created by the oil embargo, and they were relabelled “street rods.” To make things worse, vans were the latest craze. Then along comes “American Graffiti.” It was so different from the typical car movies of the time that were often exploitative and filled with car chases. It has been 40 years since this movie was produced, and in recognition of this milestone, the BC Custom and Classic Car Show will feature a celebration of this special anniversary. Scheduled to appear on this weekend will be not only tribute cars but also stars from the movie. Bo Hopkins, who played the antagonistic Joe the Pharaoh, will be in attendance and may be heard to say, “It’s not the size of the scratch that
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matters, it’s the principle.” Candy Clark, whose character Debbie was out for a night of adventure, will make an appearance all three days of the show. “I bet you can find us some brew” is just one of her memorable quotes. But likely garnering the most interest will be Paul Le Mat, who had the starring roll as tough guy hot rodder John Milner. Having earned local legend status behind the wheel of his yellow ‘32 coupe, John cruised his way into the hearts and minds of many movie fans. “OK, Toad, we’ll take ‘em all” is a line from the movie that will forever be synonymous with John Milner. With Lucas’ history of creating sequels (and prequels) for his movies, perhaps we can expect to see him come out with an “American Graffiti lll” (“More American Graffiti” was released in 1979), but since Joe the Pharaoh and John Milner were written out of the script in the second movie, this might be the last opportunity to see them again. by Rolf Norberg
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