Exhibit inspires museum to show outdoor movie

In honor of its current exhibit featuring 1960s garage bands, the Hancock Historical Museum is offering visitors a nostalgic night under the stars with an outdoor showing of the 1973 film, "American Graffiti." The movie starts at 8:45 p.m. Saturday in the museum's parking lot, at 422 W. Sandusky St. The lot will be closed to vehicles, and visitors are encouraged to park on Sandusky Street or in nearby public lots. Joy Bennett, curator/archivist for the museum, said the idea in part came from the current exhibit, "Findlay Rocks! 1960s Garage Bands," which features photographs, history and even musical samples of 11 rock 'n' roll bands that got their start in Findlay basements and garages during the 1960s. "Then during COVID, we had a drive-in movie and we've had a lot of people asking us, 'When are you going to do that again?'" she said. At that time, the museum collaborated with the Marathon Center for the Performing Art to bring a drive-in movie — "Singing in the Rain" — to MCPA's parking lot. "Now MCPA has their own schedule; they've got their own stuff going on. And our parking lot isn't really big enough to do a drive-in," Bennett said. But after some brainstorming, she decided that the museum could host an outdoor movie without cars. When it came time to pick a movie, Bennett remembered the museum exhibit. "I was thinking, we've got this great '60s bands exhibit and there's a lot of great iconic movies we could show," she said. "Then I thought of 'American Graffiti,' and I was like, oh my gosh, that's perfect. It's all about the music and the time." Directed by George Lucas, "American Graffiti" is a coming-of-age film set in 1962. Starring Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss and Harrison Ford, the film follows a group of graduating high school seniors in Modesto, California, for one last night of cruising the strip. The movie was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Bennett said she watched the film again over the weekend in preparation to give a short introduction at the start of the movie. "I know I've seen it, but I was forgetting characters' names and who was who," she said, laughing. "Wait a minute, which one's Harrison Ford?" The movie will be shown on an inflatable screen in the parking lot. People are encouraged to bring their own lawn chair, and popcorn will be available for a donation. Several vintage cars from the era will also be on-site. "We're hoping to be able to make this a regular thing, like once a year in the summer do an outdoor movie," said Bennett. The rain date is Aug. 27. The exhibit on garage bands will remain up through the end of the year. Wolf: 419-427-8419