On August 11, 1973, the nostalgic teenage coming-of-age
movie American Graffiti, directed and co-written by George
Lucas, opened in theaters across the United States. Set in
California in the summer of 1962, American Graffiti was
nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Director
and Best Picture, and helped launch the big-screen careers
of Richard Dreyfuss and Harrison Ford, as well as the former
child actor and future Oscar-winning filmmaker Ron Howard.

The film’s success enabled Lucas to get his next movie made,
the mega-hit Star Wars (1977).