The Walk of Fame
By Chris Murphy
When I approached George Lucas a few years ago about getting involved in the Modesto Historic Cruise Route, I explained that our mission was to tell the stories behind the story that he told. Our efforts here in ModestoUSA are to share the people and the places that were the inspiration for Lucas’ milestone film that has made Modesto USA a popular part of pop culture. You can walk the Cruise Route and watch videos from the Legends of the Cruise and see our Walk of Fame markers in 10th Street Plaza. Let’s meet the 2016 inductees into the Modesto Historic Cruise Route, Legends of the Cruise Walk of Fame. Www.modestocruiseroute.com www.graffitisummer.com
Faros
FAROS
“Everyone wants to be a FARO”. Yes, this line was immortalized by Joe, played by Bo Hopkins, in the film American Graffiti, as he convinced Curt (Richard Dreyfus) to become a member of the Pharaohs. Modesto’s own Faros inspired this “car club fraternity.” The FAROS were born in the same house in 1957 as the Ecurie AWOLS, Lucas’ race import car club as AWOL founder Chuck was the brother of Dennis Billington, founding FARO along with Harry James and Maurice Clark. They first tried to start a club called the FAROS Fraternity at Modesto High School. The Dean of Boys, Paul Whitmore, squashed that initial effort. He threatened to expel all of them if they started the club. Therefore, that first group only lasted about 2 months, but they came up with the name FAROS and the FRS Crest. In 1960, when they got to MJC, the FAROS were restarted, sort of. Five or six of the guys met at Joe Wyle’s house and talked about starting the club at Modesto Junior College in hopes that the strict rules in high school would not exist. Dennis Billington said he could get the stamp to engrave the cards with FRS FAROS. This would save the club a whopping $20.00 (remember that $20.00 back in 1960 was a huge chunk of money). And so The FAROS arrived on the scene in Modesto!
Much to their dismay, MJC, just like Modesto High School, threatened to kick the guys out of school if the FAROS tried to affiliate with MJC. So the club came into being with no (official) ties to any school. The positive side of this allowed the members to be composed of Modesto and Downey high school graduates, this time uniting without rivalry. They weren’t college kids, they were just guys who got together and worked on cars (with a few parties thrown in here and there). And the rest is history.
