I had a heartbreaking experience when I was 9. I always wanted to be a guard. The most wonderful girl in the world was a guard. When I got polio and then went back to school, they made me a guard. A teacher took away my guard button.

This was his UCLA thesis project that also received a theatrical release via Warner Bros. Coppola graduated from Hofstra university in 1959 with a bachelor's degree in Theatre Arts. Amongst Coppola's classmates at Hofstra were James Caan and Lainie Kazan.

Brooks to be honored three times for the same film. In 1970 Coppola won the Oscar for best original screenplay as co-writer with Edmund H.