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).

Robert Weston Smith, known as Wolfman Jack
(January 21, 1938 – July 1, 1995)

Sandy’s camera shop at Lloyd Center with then Portland mayor
Mildred Schwab standing out front (second from right).

Time For Beany is a children’s television series, with puppets for characters,
which was broadcast locally in Los Angeles starting on February 28, 1949
and nationally (by kinescope) by the improvised Paramount Television
Network from 1950 to 1955. It was created by animator Bob Clampett,
who later reused its main characters for the animated series Beany and
Cecil. The show won three Primetime Emmy Awards for best children’s
show.

Voice artist Stan Freberg was one of the puppeteer’s on the show.

Pictured from left: Daws Butler and Stan Freburg behind the wall.

Stan Freberg (Stanley Friberg) (August 7, 1926 – April 7, 2015)

On this day in 1973, the nostalgic teenage coming-of-age movie
American Graffiti, directed and co-written by George Lucas,
opened in theaters across the U.S. 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).

Wolfman Jack (Robert Weston Smith) appears as the D.J. 

Harrison Ford

(History) – On this day in 1973, “American Graffiti,” a nostalgic coming-of-
age tale set  in 1962 on the streets and steeped in the car-centric culture of suburban California, was released in theaters across the U.S. The movie 
went  on to become a sleeper hit.   

“American Graffiti” was the second full-length feature film directed by George Lucas (below) who would later become best known for the blockbuster hit
“Star Wars” (1977) and its sequels.