Car Wash (film)

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Car Wash
Directed by	Michael Schultz
Produced by	Art Linson Gary Stromberg
Written by	Joel Schumacher
Starring	Franklyn Ajaye Ivan Dixon Darrow Igus James Spinks Bill Duke Antonio Fargas
Music by	Norman Whitfield
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	October 22, 1976
Running time	97 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

For other uses, see Car wash (disambiguation).

Car Wash is a 1976 comedy film produced by Universal Pictures. It was directed by Michael Schultz from a screenplay by Joel Schumacher. The film starred Franklyn Ajaye, Ivan Dixon, Darrow Igus, James Spinks, Bill Duke, Melanie Mayron, and Antonio Fargas, and is a comedy about a "day-in-the-life" of a Los Angeles, California car wash and its employees, owned by Mr. B (Sully Boyar).

The film also featured several unusual customers arriving throughout the course of the film, including Richard Pryor as Rich Daddy Rich, the Pointer Sisters as "The Wilson Sisters" supporting Daddy Rich's character, George Carlin as a taxi cab driver looking for Marleen (Lauren Jones), a "tall black blonde" hooker who skipped on her fare, and Irwin Corey who may be the 'mysterious pop bottle bomber'.

Other supporting actors included: Richard Brestoff, Michael Fennell, Arthur French, Lorraine Gary, Leonard Jackson, DeWayne Jessie, Lauren Jones, Jack Kehoe, Henry Kingi, Clarence Muse, Garrett Morris, Leon Pinkney, Pepe Serna, James Spinks, Ray Vitte, Ren Woods, Antonie Becker, Erin Blunt, Otis Sistrunk, Tim Thomerson and Jason Bernard. (The film also featured the vocals of local L.A. disk jockeys Jay Butler, J. J. Jackson, Rod McGrew, Sarina C. Grant, and Cleveland's Billy Bass, all heard in the background of the film on the fictional "KGYS" radio station.)

When the film was originally released, it received mediocre reviews and was not considered a major success, but since its initial release has had a small but constant following. Promoters over-emphasized Richard Pryor's relatively minor role in the film, which has resulted in many miscreditings of Richard Pryor as a star of the movie.

The soundtrack album, recorded by Rose Royce, was a major success, yielding three Billboard R&B Top Ten singles, "Car Wash", "I Wanna Get Next to You", and "I'm Going Down". The "Car Wash" title track, written and produced by Norman Whitfield, was a #1 hit and was one of the biggest hit singles of the disco era.

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The car wash was located in downtown Los Angeles at 6th and Rampart. It was demolished in the early 1980s. Until the business closed, a large sign saying that Car Wash had been filmed there, was displayed in front of the business.

On December 10, 2005, the day of Richard Pryor's death, the movie was scheduled to appear on BBC TV in the United Kingdom. It was still aired and a tribute to Pryor was announced at the beginning.

Some early DVD and VHS versions of this movie have an alternate ending from the original theatrical release. The original version has Marsha the cashier being picked up by her "hot date," but when she walks out, her "date" is sitting with his girlfriend in the front seat while Marsha's actual date is seated in the back of the white 1975 Buick LeSabre convertible. She realizes she was chosen as a blind date.