In the predominantly Black Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles,
racial tension reached a breaking point after two white policemen
scuffle with a Black motorist suspected of drunken driving.
A crowd of spectators gathered near the corner of Avalon
Boulevard and 116th Street to watch the arrest and soon grew
angry by what they believed to be yet another incident of
racially motivated abuse by the police.
On August 11, 1973, the nostalgic teenage coming-of-age
movie American Graffiti, directed and co-written by George
Lucas (above), 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).
![American Graffiti [1973] by George Lucas](https://i0.wp.com/www.cinemaclock.com/images/580x326/56/american-graffiti-19738512.jpg?resize=530%2C225&ssl=1)
Wolfman Jack (Robert Weston Smith) (1938 – 1995)
