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American Graffiti, the classic 1973 George Lucas (nominated for the Best Director Academy Award for this film) teen coming-of-age high school graduation romantic comedy ("Where were you in '62?"; "It was the time of makin' out and cruisin', going steady and playin' it cool it was the time of your life, the time of American Graffiti."; "Written by George Lucas and Gloria Katz & Willard Huyck"; nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award) starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard (billed as "Ronny Howard"), Paul Le Mat, Charlie Martin Smith, Candy Clark (nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for this film), Mackenzie Phillips, Cindy Williams, Wolfman Jack (real life radio disc jockey portraying himself), Harrison Ford (in an extremely early role), Kathleen Quinlan (in her first credited role!), Bo Hopkins (wonderful as the leader of the Pharaohs), Suzanne Somers (in her first movie, as the blonde in the T-Bird who haunts Richard Dreyfuss throughout the movie), Johnny Weissmuller Jr. (in a bit part as one of the tough guys who steal the car!), and Linda Christensen (as the girl who rides with Harrison Ford early on in the movie). Note that this classic movie was George Lucas' second movie. His first was "THX 1138" from 1971. That movie flopped at the box office, and he came up with the idea of this movie, and his friends Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck (with whom he had written the script for "Messiah of Evil", a movie that was started but not completed in 1971) wrote a 15-page story treatment. Lucas presented that treatment to United Artists, who gave him $10,000 to write a full script. He wanted Katz and Huyck to write that full script, but they were busy on Messiah of Evil, and he hired Richard Walters to write it, but Lucas rejected it. At this point, Lucas wrote a script himself, but United Artists turned it down, because it consisted of four separate stories that had no connection! Lucas rewrote the script again and submitted it to Universal, who agreed to finance it up to $750,000. Lucas then asked Huyck and Katz to rewrite part of the movie, especially the Steve and Laurie portions. At this point, the script was called "Rock Radio is American Graffiti (Saga of the Low Riders)". It is noted as the "second draft" from "10 May 1972", and the writing is credited to George Lucas, Gloria Katz, and Willard Huyck. There are scenes in that script that do not appear in the final version of the film as shown, and the relationship of the characters is not as intertwined as it was in the final version. Those changes were made over the year the movie was in production before it opened on August 1, 1973.
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Important Added Info: Note that this script is the second draft from May 10, 1972 and the screenplay was written by George Lucas, Gloria Katz, and Willard Huyck. It has the original title "Rock Radio is American Graffiti (Saga of the Low Riders)" on the title page, and it has "#41" written in ink in the top right corner of the title page. The cover of the script was originally blank, but it has a sticker glued to it that says "AMERICAN GRAFFITI a universal picture", which was surely added after the script was first written (surely in 1973, when the final title was decided on). The script is the personal property of Peter Rachtman, who had a very special connection to this movie! In the mid 1960s, he was the agent for many musical acts, and in 1967, he joined CMA (Creative Management Associates), and he brought several new artists to the agency, including then student filmmaker George Lucas, with whom he was personal friends. When Lucas was making American Graffiti, he asked Rachtman to find him a band to perform within the movie. Rachtman was the manager of "Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids", and Lucas agreed to pay them $1,000 to perform. Rachtman thought that price was way too low, but he agreed if Lucas would let them perform one of their original songs. Lucas did not want this, because he wanted the entire soundtrack to be "oldies", but he ended up agreeing, and Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids had their song in the movie and on the soundtrack, which meant that they and Rachtman received gold and platinum records! When this movie was in production early on, George Lucas gave Rachtman this copy of the script, and, as noted above, it was numbered 41, which shows that Lucas was protective of the script and only gave out a limited number of them! Mr. Rachtman had this script in his possession since 1972, until he now has consigned it to us, and the winner of this auction will own a wonderful script that has many differences from the filmed version, and which was owned by a man who participated in the making of the movie!

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