📍Modesto, California, USA
1944 – 1962“George Lucas was born in Modesto, California, in May 1944, a farming town in the hot, flat Central Valley. His father, George Sr., ran a stationery and office-supply shop in town and owned a walnut orchard, and when George was a boy the family moved to a ranch house in the walnut grove north of Modesto. He grew up with his three sisters in a conservative, hard-working household, and he was a small, dreamy boy who loved comics, adventure serials on television and Flash Gordon. As a teenager he discovered cars. At Thomas Downey High School he was a poor student but a passionate car enthusiast, working on his Autobianchi Bianchina and spending his evenings cruising up and down Modesto's main streets with friends, listening to rock and roll on the radio, and dreaming of becoming a racing driver. In June 1962, just before his high school graduation, he was nearly killed when his car was hit and flipped over; he survived because his seatbelt snapped and he was thrown clear. The crash changed his outlook, and he began to take his studies seriously. He went to Modesto Junior College, where he studied anthropology and sociology, and then to the film school at the University of Southern California. In 1973 he made American Graffiti, a love letter to the cruising nights of his Modesto youth, and in 1977 Star Wars changed cinema for ever. Modesto honours him with statues of cruising teenagers on its streets, and the town's annual Graffiti Summer celebrates the culture he grew up in.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today