George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an Academy Award-winning American screenwriter, a film and theatre director, a film producer and an actor in film, theatre and radio. Welles first gained wide notoriety for his October 30, 1938 radio broadcast of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. Adapted to sound like a contemporary news broadcast, it panicked a large number of listeners. Welles and his biographers subsequently claimed he was exposing the gullibility of American audiences in the tense preamble to the Second World War. In the mid-1930s his New York theatre adaptations of a voodoo Macbeth and a contemporary Julius Caesar became legendary. Welles was also a practiced magician, starring in troop variety spectacles in the war years. During this period he became a serious political activist and commentator through journalism, radio and public appearances closely associated with Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1941, he co-wrote, directed, produced and starred in Citizen Kane, most often chosen in polls of film critics as the greatest film ever made.

Los Banos is a city in Merced County, California, near the junction of State Route 152 and Interstate 5. The population was 25,869 at the 2000 census. As of 2006 the World Gazetteer calculates the population as 35,054. The name los banos has its origins with Spanish and was named after the nearby creek and the seasonal spring baths that feed natural wetlands in the western San Joaquín Valley. The original Spanish spelling was Los Baños, meaning "the baths". Its official spelling is without the eñe. However most official signs even on the Interstate 5 do insert the tilde above the n. It can be pronounced as if the eñe were present as in "los banyos" or as it is spelled, as an anglicized "loss bannis". The city is served by Los Banos Municipal Airport for air transport access.

A drive-in theater is a form of cinema structure consisting of a large screen, a projection booth, a concession stand and a large parking area for automobiles. The screen can be as simple as a wall that is painted white, or it can be a complex steel truss structure with a complex finish. Within this enclosed area, customers can view movies from the privacy and comfort of their cars. Some drive-in theater managers added children's playgrounds between the screen and the first row of cars. Others even went as far as adding miniature railroads, merry-go-rounds, and mini-golf. Concrete patios for lawn chairs were available at some drive-in theaters, as well as indoor seating in the snack bar.

After the Second World War, Preston Tucker tried to start a car company to challenge the big Detroit auto makers. His prototypes were impressive. Sleek cars with engineering innovations such as seat belts long before they were mandated by the government, Tucker's cars generated a wave of excitement. However, the political muscle of the Big Four Automakers (General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, and American Motors) doomed his project. This film is the story of Tucker's efforts and ultimate failure.

The Beach Boys are an American rock and roll band. Formed in 1961, they gained popularity for their close vocal harmonies and lyrics reflecting a California youth culture of surfing, girls and cars. Brian Wilson's growing creative ambitions later transformed them into a more artistically innovative group that earned critical praise and influenced many later musicians.