WITH MY ETERNAL LOVE AND THANKS,
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO MY HUSBAND,
ZACHARY ABELLA, AND MY PARENTS,
ANN RAY MARTIN GORA AND JOEL GORA.
YOUR EXTRAORDINARY LOVE AND
ENCOURAGEMENT KEEP ST. ELMO’S FIRE
BURNING IN ME.
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
one NOTHING COMPARES TO HUGHES: Teen Cinema and the Man Who Would Change It Forever
two ETERNAL FLAME: Sixteen Candles Lights Up the Screen
three BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS: The Breakfast Club “Breaks the Rules, Bares Their Souls,” and Revolutionizes the Teen Film Genre
four NOT JUST FOR BREAKFAST ANYMORE: Inside the Heat of St. Elmo’s Fire
five BECOMING “THE BRAT PACK”: A Magazine Writer Coins the Term That Permanently Labels Young Hollywood
six SITTING PRETTY: Ringwald and Hughes Reteam for Pretty in Pink, a Rose-Tinted Look at Teenage Love
seven WE GOT THE BEAT: Behind the Music of the Brat Pack Films
eight I LOVE FERRIS IN THE SPRINGTIME: Ferris Bueller Crafts the Perfect Day Off Before Graduating from High School—and John Hughes Graduates from Directing Teen Films
nine TEENS IN WONDERLAND: The Drama Behind Some Kind of Wonderful
ten THE END OF THE INNOCENCE: The Brat Pack Makes the Tough Transition to Adulthood, While John Hughes’s Power in Hollywood Grows
eleven ANYTHING, AND EVERYTHING: In the Last of the Great Eighties Youth Films, Cameron Crowe and John Cusack Say Anything About the Passion of Young Love
twelve PACK TO THE FUTURE: The Eighties Become the Nineties, John Hughes Becomes the Creator of One of the Highest-Grossing Comedies of All Time, and the Brat Pack Actors Become the People They Are Today
thirteen LIFE MOVES PRETTY FAST: John Hughes’s Final Years
fourteen DON’T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME: How the Brat Pack and Their Films Changed a Generation
conclusion WHEN THE LIGHT GETS INTO YOUR HEART
NOTES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Although I’ve been working on this book for the past three years, the idea for it first came to me a decade earlier when I was a college student at Duke University. There, I’d gotten to know people from all over America who were as moved by the great 1980s youth films growing up as I had been. One night, while watching three or four of the movies back-to-back with my friends in our dorm (one of our favorite pastimes), the notion of writing a book examining the films’ history and impact swept across my mind. Once it did, I couldn’t get it out of my head—and I didn’t want to. Like the movies themselves, the idea helped inform the kind of life I wanted to live; it was one of the reasons I decided to become a film journalist. Like Sixteen Candles’s Samantha Baker dreamed of Jake Ryan, I dreamed of writing this book. Eventually, and with, I believe, a similar combination of excitement and gratitude, Samantha and I each saw our dreams come true. In my case, it’s something that wouldn’t have been possible without the help of many people, whom I’d like to thank here.
I extend my deep appreciation to Suzanne O’Neill, whose tremendous gifts as an editor have helped this book in every way; to my agent, Jud Laghi, who championed me and this project; to Albert Litewka, who has taught me much of what I know about how books and movies are made and how a life should be lived; and to Bob Balaban, whose kindness and guidance have helped make this book what it is.
I also very much want to thank Emily Timberlake at Crown, Larry Kirshbaum and Jenny Arch of LJK Literary Management, Ann Ruby Bell McCoy and her children and grandchildren, Tony Carey, Mariah Balaban and Lynn Grossman, Mace Neufeld and Diane Conn, Erika Rothenberg and Clea Litewka, Heather Reisman and Gerry Schwartz, Jodie Magid Oriol, Mike and Irena Medavoy, Carol Colman, Charlotte “Carlotta” Kelly Veal, Eleni Gage, Sam Plotkin and Andrea Weiss Whitman, Joe Porter, James Applewhite, Andrew Glassman, Bettina Trager, and John Sullivan, Dylan Lauren, Daniel Goldfarb, Kathryn Fiore, Kinan Joudeh, Adam Saget, Carrie Thornton, Barbara Mandt, Ben Hanfling, Tommy Gargotta, Josiah Trager, Colin Wen-Jeng Chen, Jim Meigs, Glenn and Claire Kenny, Will Hellerstein and Michael Gage, Allan and Marion Ross, the Mitchell Family, Michael, Jon, and Susan Wolf, John Ziffren, the Shelley Family, Jerry and Marciarose Shestack, Marlene Kahan, Dyana Messina, Tina Constable, Robbie Tollin, Justin Kanew, Amanda and Gregory Robbins, Dana Bennison, Alexandra Laifer, Bayan Ali Barua, Kelly Farrell, Russell Koplin, Lizabeth Zindel, Barrett Foa and all the Foas, Charlie Prince, Kristin Magnuson Nord, Marny Hershorn, David Nir, Joshua Derman, James Sparks and Oliver Bowcock, Morgan Freeman, Judy Press Brenner, Geoffrey and Jennifer Wolinetz, and Devie Deland.
Thank you to my aunt Cheryl Gora, to Lyndon Parker and Rachel Parker, the Bordins family, the Porters and the Bassetts, Dixie Lois Logan, Horace Cox and Ruby Day, and the staffs of the New York Society Library, the Beverly Laurel Hotel, Le Parc Hotel, and the Hardenbrook House.
I also want to thank Bernie Brillstein and Ned Tanen, two legendary men who passed away while I was working on this book. I felt very lucky to have known them and to have considered them mentors, and I cherish the time I got to spend interviewing them and hearing them tell me the stories of their incredible lives.
Blanche and John D. Martin and Harry and Mary Gora—I remember, and I thank you. L. Gora, D. Gora, and L.T.P. Abella—you bring me joy.
Great thanks go also to my wonderful and endlessly encouraging in-laws: Rosie, Irving, and Jacob Abella.
To my beloved parents, Ann Ray Martin Gora and Joel Mark Gora—I thank you for everything you do, everything you are, and everything you’ve helped me become.
And to Zachary Abella, my husband, my beshert, I give my deepest thanks. I love you. Always have, always will.
Additionally, I am tremendously grateful to the many people who let me interview them for this book, and who were so generous with their time and their insights.
LIST OF INTERVIEWEES
ACTORS
Molly Ringwald (Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink)
Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off)
Anthony Michael Hall (Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club)
Judd Nelson (The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire)
Ally Sheedy (The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire)
Rob Lowe (St. Elmo’s Fire)
John Cusack (Sixteen Candles, Say Anything)
Andrew McCarthy (St. Elmo’s Fire, Pretty in Pink)
Jon Cryer (Pretty in Pink)
Eric Stoltz (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Some Kind of Wonderful, Say Anything)
Mary Stuart Masterson (Some Kind of Wonderful)
Lea Thompson (Some Kind of Wonderful)
Jennifer Grey (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off)
Andie MacDowell (St. Elmo’s Fire)
Alan Ruck (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off)
Mia Sara (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off)
John Mahoney (Say Anything)
Lili Taylor (Say Anything)
Carlin Glynn (Sixteen Candles)
Gedde Watanabe (Sixteen Candles)
John Kapelos (Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club)
Haviland Morris (Sixteen Candles)
Harry Dean Stanton (Pretty in Pink)
Maddie Corman (Some Kind of Wonderful)
Robert Romanus (Fast Times at Ridgemont High)
FILMMAKERS
Cameron Crowe, writer, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and writer/director, Say Anything
Joel Schumacher
, director and cowriter, St. Elmo’s Fire
Howard Deutch, director, Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful
Ned Tanen, former president of production, Universal Pictures, and former president of production, Paramount Pictures. Oversaw the making of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink; produced St. Elmo’s Fire through his Channel Productions
James L. Brooks, executive producer, Say Anything
Amy Heckerling, director, Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Carl Kurlander, cowriter, St. Elmo’s Fire
Lauren Shuler Donner, producer, St. Elmo’s Fire and Pretty in Pink
Michelle Manning, producer, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and St. Elmo’s Fire
Richard Marks, editor, St. Elmo’s Fire, Pretty in Pink, and Say Anything
David Anderle, music supervisor, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink
Tom Jacobson, producer, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Jackie Burch, casting director, Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club
Thomas Del Ruth, cinematographer, The Breakfast Club
R. P. Cohen, first assistant director, The Breakfast Club
Bruce Berman, executive at Universal during the making of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Sixteen Candles, and The Breakfast Club
Sean Daniel, executive at Universal during the making of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Sixteen Candles, and The Breakfast Club
OTHER COMMENTATORS
Leonard Maltin, film critic, author, and historian
Neal Gabler, author, cultural commentator, and film critic
Leo Braudy, film historian and professor at the University of Southern California
Dan Aykroyd, actor and John Hughes collaborator
John Parr, cowriter and singer, “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)”
Wolfgang Puck, chef and restaurateur
Loree Rodkin, former girlfriend and manager of Judd Nelson
David Blum, author of the New York magazine “Brat Pack” cover story that popularized that phrase
Ed Kosner, editor in chief of New York magazine when “Brat Pack” story ran
Jackson Peterson, childhood friend of John Hughes
Ann Lamas, high school friend of John Hughes
Matty Simmons, founder and former chairman of the board, National Lampoon
Bob Richter, former advertising colleague and friend of John Hughes
Bernie Brillstein, manager of actors, including Rob Lowe; television and film producer; cofounder of Brillstein-Grey Entertainment
Mercedes Hall, mother and former manager of Anthony Michael Hall and cameo actress in The Breakfast Club
Jeffrey and Carol Lampert, then-homeowners of the “Jake Ryan” house featured prominently in Sixteen Candles
Sloane Tanen, artist, daughter of Ned Tanen; was friends with John Hughes while a teen
Nina Blackwood, original MTV video jockey
Holly Robinson Peete, actress and former schoolmate of Emilio Estevez and Rob Lowe
Tony Carey, television executive
Robert Bulman, professor of sociology, St. Mary’s College of California
Joshua Gamson, professor of sociology, the University of San Francisco
Bryan Gilliam, professor of music, Duke University
Geoffrey Holtz, attorney and Generation X historian
Rich Lowry, editor in chief, National Review
Colin Larkin, creator of The Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Rob Sheffield, music journalist and author
Eric Hynes, film critic, Reverse Shot
Sasha Frere-Jones, music critic, The New Yorker
Dave Ziemer, creator and program director, Cinemagic movie music channel, Sirius XM
Martin Wong, founder and editor, Giant Robot magazine
Robert Wilonsky, film critic, Village Voice Media
Stephanie Savage, executive producer, Gossip Girl
Etan Frankel, staff writer, Gossip Girl
Nannette Burstein, writer/director, American Teen
Dylan Lauren, founder and CEO of Dylan’s Candy Bar
Mark Feuerstein, actor, Royal Pains
Irena Medavoy, writer and philanthropist
Becky Sloviter, vice president of production, MGM
Loren Schwartz, a senior marketing executive at Columbia Pictures
Caleb Deschanel, cinematographer
Paul Wendkos, director of Gidget
Dave MacDowell, artist
Jodie Magid, senior vice president of publicity at Lionsgate
Mike Galaxy, music supervisor, publisher, and promoter
Kelly Farrell, attorney
Ann Suttles, high school student
Danelle Schlegelmilch, public relations executive
India Leval, fashion executive
Matt Smith, film executive
Eric Singletary, musician, The John Benders
Holly Munoz, musician, Aviette
Adam Lindsey, musician, The John Hughes Fan Club
Phil Kominsky, musician, The Lloyd Dobler Effect
Anthony Gonzalez, musician, M83
Joel Gallen, director, Not Another Teen Movie
Ken Davenport, creator and director, The Awesome ’80s Prom
Josh Goldstine, a senior marketing executive at Columbia Pictures
Jay Faires, president of music at Lionsgate
You wanna know what happened? Buy the book.
—Anthony Michael Hall as “The Geek,”
Sixteen Candles
INTRODUCTION
The lavender-hued poster of The Breakfast Club has hung on the walls of countless childhood bedrooms and college dorm rooms over the past quarter of a century. To anybody who grew up staring at that poster, with the film’s young cast staring boldly back, the words written there have held the power of a magic spell, a call to arms in the social battle that is adolescence. “They were five total strangers,” the poster reads, “with nothing in common, meeting for the first time. A brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel and a recluse. Before the day was over, they broke the rules. Bared their souls. And touched each other in a way they never dreamed possible.” Those very words were mirrored in the kind of impact The Breakfast Club would have—it became one of a group of seminal 1980s youth films that broke the rules of teen movies, bared young people’s souls, and touched a generation in ways they’d never dreamed possible. “These movies,” says St. Elmo’s Fire and Pretty in Pink star Andrew McCarthy, “changed everything.” And in doing so, he adds, “they defined a generation.”
It’s been decades since the movies flickered in theaters across America, and yet, for those who grew up watching them, the films’ stories run on a nonstop loop in their hearts, against the aching beat of a synth-pop New Wave song. As adults, many of them let the movies’ lessons inform the way they live, often in very significant ways. Kelly Farrell, a thirty-one-year-old lawyer in the Washington, D.C., area, named her son Jake after Jake Ryan, the noble heartthrob played by Michael Schoeffling in Sixteen Candles. “I feel like I will have succeeded as a mother if my Jake grows up to be like Jake Ryan,” says Farrell. “That will be my pride and joy, if I raise the boy who can see past the cheerleader to find the right girl, and who’ll do all those great things we always imagined Jake Ryan doing.” (She also named her daughter Samantha, after Molly Ringwald’s character in that movie.)
The effects of these films are indeed wide-reaching. Ben Stein, the actor-writer-economist who called attendance in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off with a nasal ennui, has heard everyone from the first President Bush to Kurt Cobain ape the “Bueller…Bueller…” line back to him. The New York Times wrote that, to a certain generation, “Judd Nelson’s portrayal of the flannel-wearing misfit John Bender in The Breakfast Club remains the coolest rebel in the history of film.” The American Film Institute described the eighties youth movies as “the cultural phenomena that helped make us what we are today.”
This book focuses on the history behind the making
of Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Some Kind of Wonderful, and Say Anything, movies that were different from any youth films that came before or, unfortunately, since. “Before these,” says Molly Ringwald, the star of Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink, “there weren’t a lot of movies from the kids’ point of view. And if they were, they weren’t terribly realistic, and it didn’t really sound like they were kids talking.” In these eighties teen movies, however, audiences found beautifully written, powerfully acted films about young people—something almost new to the art form. “These weren’t beach blanket movies,” says Andrew McCarthy, “they weren’t slasher movies. They were melodramas, and these melodramas gave dignity and a voice to that age of people, who hadn’t had a voice before.”
In the post-Vietnam America of the 1980s, teenagers didn’t have to worry about getting drafted. Though some feared nuclear war, for the most part they were fortunate enough to focus on things like proms, pimples, and popularity. These teenagers were passionate, misunderstood, restless, and looking for something that could be their own. And rather than making fun of the trials of teenhood, the films served to treat these issues with gravitas. “There’s something about youth that inspires heightened emotions,” says film critic Leonard Maltin. “Everything is life or death, and these films recognize that, and don’t disparage it.”
The movies, says Breakfast Club and St. Elmo’s Fire star Ally Sheedy, ushered in a time of “young people feeling like they mattered—these were movies about them, and their issues. There was nothing that was looking down, there was nothing that was saying ‘how cute.’ They focused on a generation, as if to say, you matter—to us.” They distilled the teenage experience in new and unforgettable ways. Say Anything, says that film’s star John Cusack, provides “a snapshot of aware humans who happen to be in high school—who are scared, and alive, and who desire, and who are as uninterested in conforming as anyone in a J. D. Salinger book.”
In an oft-quoted scene from The Breakfast Club, Molly Ringwald’s popular princess tells the other kids in detention that they should just ignore Judd Nelson’s sexy rebel. “Sweets,” he tells her knowingly, “you couldn’t ignore me if you tried.” Time has shown that even if we tried, we couldn’t ignore the movies of the Brat Pack. Their films changed the way many young people looked at everything from class distinction to friendship, from love and sex to fashion and music. Though not universally loved by critics, these movies were among the most influential pop cultural contributions of their time. Their storylines also had a way of instilling a sense of optimism in audiences. At an age when young people were struggling to find their way, in these movies they learned that the nerd could get the babe, the jock could have a heart, that an awesome pink prom dress could be crafted from hand-me-downs, that anything was possible.
You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, and Their Impact on a Generation Page 1