- Clock Tower Lady: "Save the clock tower! Save the clock tower. Mayor Wilson is sponsoring an initative to replace that clock. Thirty years ago, lightning struck that clock tower, and the clock hasn't run since. We at the Hill Valley Preservation Society think it should be preserved exactly the way it is, as a part of our history and heritage!"
- Marty (irritated): "Here you go, lady. There's a quarter."
- Clock Tower Lady: "Thank you! Don't forget to take a flyer. Save the clock tower!"
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The Clock Tower Lady urges Marty McFly and Jennifer Parker to donate.
The Clock Tower lady represented the Hill Valley Preservation Society and collected donations on October 25, 1985. As Marty McFly and Jennifer Parker prepared to kiss, the dowdy fundraiser interrupted them to ask for a contribution to keep the broken clock tower as is and impede Mayor Wilson in his plans to get the clock tower operational again. She was delighted when he contributed 25 cents. Marty was frustrated by her uninvited history lesson and appeal for donations, and likely donated the quarter to appease her and get her to leave him and Jennifer alone. However, the flyer that she handed to him would later prove to be invaluable. At first, it seemed to be no more than a handy piece of scrap paper upon which Jennifer had written her grandmother's phone number. When Marty found himself stranded in 1955, and Doc lamented that one never knows when or where a bolt of lightning would ever strike, the flyer turned out to have the critical information that Marty needed to get back to the future to 1985... because the flyer included the reprint of the newspaper story about how lightning struck (or would strike) the clock tower at exactly 10:04 p.m. on Saturday, November 12, 1955.
Behind the scenes
Character actress Elsa Raven is among the players identified in the opening credits, and is perhaps the most important minor character in the story. In addition to 1985's top film, Back to the Future, she played a memorable minor role in the 1997 film Titanic.