On this day in comedy on October 22, 1976 Car Wash was released by Universal Pictures!
It’s the day in the life of a Los Angeles, California carwash and its multi-ethnic staff. The star is Bill Duke as Abdullah, a revolutionary under suspicion for everything and Franklyn Ajaye as a man out to win a radio call-in contest and take his girl to a concert. Richard Pryor makes a cameo as a greedy media preacher. Professor Irwin Corey plays a bomber suspect and Antonio Fargas plays a proud cross-dresser. The owner’s son smokes weed in the restroom and George Carlin drives a cab, searching for the whore that stiffed him.
Michael Schultz directed a Joel Schumacher script and a cast that included DeWayne Jessie, Jack Kehoe, The Pointer Sisters, Ivan Dixon, Melanie Mayron, Pepe Serna, Darrow Igus, Arthur French, Clarence Muse, Garrett Morris, Tracy Reed, Sully Boyar, Renn Woods, Brooke Adams, Tim Thomerson, Jason Bernard, Leonard Jackson, Lorraine Gary, Richard Brestoff and Danny DeVito. With hit songs by Rose Royce and a soundtrack by Norman Whitfield, in 1977 Car Wash won the Technical Grand Prize and Best Music Award at the Cannes Film Festival as well as a Grammy for Best Album of Original Score.
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
Check out this clip:
