Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. (Ross May / Los Angeles Times; photos via Getty Images) In 1973, fresh off the flop of his first feature, “THX 1138,” Universal ...

I was 13 years old when “American Graffiti” hit movie theaters in the summer of 1973. A nerdy, awkward kid more in the mold of the movie’s Terry “The Toad” Fields than its more confident drag racing ...