In the movie, Kevin Coughlin, as Dewey, washes a windshield while working as a gas station attendant. On January 10, 1976, at 1:45 a.m., while cleaning his own car's windshield on Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles, Coughlin was hit by a speeding car., and died nine days later.
The first group at the dance club is The Gordian Knot. They formed at the University of Mississippi. In Los Angeles they were "discovered" at a party they were working by Nancy Sinatra, who took them on a USO tour of Vietnam. They released an album in 1968 titled "Tones". The group's lead vocalist Jim Weatherly would go onto greater fame by writing "Midnight Train to Georgia" for Gladys Knight & The Pips.
The car stolen by the Richard Dreyfus character was a 1962 Plymouth Sport Fury convertible.