Twenty Things You Might Not Know About the Movie 'Vacation'-- Part 1

From the May  29, 2015, Today by Matt Murray.

Earlier this month, I wrote about the Family Truckster car from the movie 'Vacation' being at the Volo Auto Museum in Volo, Illinois. This is one of my favorite movies.

Here are 20 more things about the movie:

1.  Anthony Michael Hall, who played Rusty Griswold,  was going through puberty during the shooting and grew three inches during the shooting..

2.  The film was written by  John Hughes (who went on to write other 80s classics like  "The Breakfast Club" and  "Sixteen Candles" and was based on his story "Vacation '58."

3.  Shooting for the movie required a real-life road trip for the cast and crew and the film was shot in more than 15  locations across four states.

4.  "Vacation" is the only R-rated movie in the series.  There was some semi-nudity, plus the scene supposedly from East St. Louis, which director Harold Ramis called the most politically  incorrect sequence he ever shot.

5.  There were five Wagon Queen Family Trucksters made and used in the production of the film allowing each to be  altered in certain ways for the wear and tear of the drive.

--Cooter

"The Breakfast Club" Movie at 30-- Part 9: Critical Assessment and Understanding Cliques

CRITICAL ASSESSMENT

"The Breakfast Club" had a budget of just $1 million and grossed $51 million.  Not bad.  Critics gave it good reviews.  Personally, I didn't see it when it was first released because I figured how much entertainment can there be from five kids in a detention hall.  I have since come to really enjoy the movie.  I thought I had a DVD of it, but obviously do not as I couldn't find it.  If it's on TV, I'm watching.

UNDERSTANDING CLIQUES

And then there were the cliques they had back in the 80s.  They were the same as we had in the 60s and I imagine they are still around today.

Only, we had the Greasers, Surfers, Jocks, Cheerleaders, AV Club and then a big mass of just regular kids.

I guess Judd Nelson would have been the Greaser.  Emilio Estevez was definitely the jock.  Ally Sheedy would just have been the outsider.  Molly Ringwald the cheerleader and Anthony Michael Hall the regular kid.

Every group had their own tables at lunch.

However, students today still have cliques, but there seems to be more fluidity among them.

Well, I Am Going to Have to Go Out and Hit Those Wal-Mart $5 Bins.  --Cooter

"The Breakfast Club" Movie 30 Years On-- Part 8: Growing Up to Be Your Parents

One thing all the kids feared above all was to grow up to be like their parents.  But, social-economically, their generation will be the first one in sixty years to have smaller incomes, greater student-loan debt and higher unemployment than the previous generation.

--Cooter

"The Breakfast Club" Movie at 30-- Part 7: The Library and Growing Up to Be Judd Nelson

THE LIBRARY

Most of the movie took place in a two-story library.  This was built inside Maine North's gymnasium.

The Chicago Blitz later practiced here; Michael Jordan shot commercials here.  WHAT??  Michael Jordan during commercials, how could that be?

There is no trace of the library remaining, unfortunately, just some boxes of toner cartridge.


GROWING UP TO BE JUDD NELSON

It was a cast of unknowns at the time.

Judd Nelson "was a revelation, the kid who stood up to authority and seemed mercilessly direct in a way teens only dream of being."  nelson was also 25 when the movie was shot.  If the movie were remade now, he would probably be the villain of the group.

NOTE:  His "Eat my shorts!" came four years before Bart Simpson uttered those words.

Whose Shorts?  --Cooter

"The Breakfast Club" Movie at 30-- Part 6: Two Movies at Maine North High School

"The Breakfast Club" was shot inside Des Plaines' Maine North High School.  The school itself closed in 1981.  (I came close to student teaching here in 1973, but ended up in nearby Maine West High School.)  It opened in 1970 so was just used for 11 years.

Occupying the building now is an Illinois State Police district office, an Illinois Lottery prize center, a Cook County 911 Center and assorted other state offices.  The building is painted gray.

Ernie Scarpelli, building manager, gave a tour.  The hallways through which the cast sprinted are now an institutional yellow and the lockers are gone.  In the basement, in a glass case, is a "Breakfast Club" poster.  he says he gets about 30 people a year wanting to tour the building, but tells them to just take a picture of the exterior of the building.

The school was also used in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" movie of 1986.

--DaCoot

"The Breakfast Club" Movie at 30-- Part 5: Sexual Harassment and Bullying

Estevez was in detention for sexually assaulting (hazing) a fellow athlete in what would be considered hazing today.  Nelson's locker is scrawled with homophobic hate language.  Ringwald says a relationship is one man and one woman.

Well, we all know about hazing now, bad, really, really bad and unacceptable.   And everyone knows you'd best never say anything bad about gays and lesbians now are face unbelievable wrath.  The movie would probably not even be allowed to be released in today's society of p.c..

--Cooter

"The Breakfast Club" Movie at 30-- Part 4: Salaries and Fashion

SALARIES

Paul Gleason, as the exhausted assistant principal (actually a very poor one for leaving the kids, but if he hadn't, there wouldn't have been much of a movie) moaned to a janitor that he has to put up with the kids and after 22 years as an educator, he was making $31,000.

Today, an assistant principal with comparable seniority and an advanced college degree in Northbrook now gets about $140,000.

FASHION

"The Breakfast Club" used 80s fashion such as parka hoods, brown leather riding boots and grungy plaids.  But some of these are coming back according to today's students.  Even Ally Sheedy's grunge look is hot.

Of course, I loved it when Molly Ringwald gave Sheedy the makeover. The look on the boys faces was great.

--Cooter

"The Breakfast Club" Movie at 30-- Part 5: Teen Smoking and Alienation

TEEN SMOKING


Judd Nelson smoked cigarettes and marijuana.    "Only burners get high," as Molly Ringwald told him.  But later in the film, everyone of the students smoked grass.  In 2014, a study showed that about 37 percent of high schoolers did at least once a year.

As far as cigarettes in 1991, a study showed 25.5% did, by 2013, fewer than 16%.  However, like with Nelson, most likely students to smoke are loners, rebels and the ones from broken homes.


ALIENATION

None of the "Breakfast Club" students were happy with their parents who said they were pressured, smothered, abused and at best ignored..  Mothers were entering the work force and, of course, Dads were already in it.

Studies today show this is not as bad as in the past.  They show that 14% of millennials 25 to 34 still live at home.  And, 2/3 of the millennials report positive relationships with their parents.

Hey, Free Room and Board, Wouldn't You.  --Dacoot

"The Breakfast Club" Movie at 30-- Part 4: Detention

Though the movie is mostly about John Hughes' time at Glenbrrok North High School, this detention comes from New Trier Township High, where the weekday morning detentions have been called "The Breakfast Club" for decades.

And, New Trier still has them.  But Scott Williams, assistant principal in charge of discipline says, "But I made it a personal point a few years ago of not calling it 'Breakfast Club' anymore.  'Breakfast Club' sounded fun.  Detention is not supposed to be fun-- there is no dancing on the tables or climbing into ceilings."

As for Saturday morning detention: It still lives, from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. and staff does, on occasion, ask students yo write what they had learned.

In the movie, Bender gets another eight weeks of detention.  According to Williams, "If we had a student at that level, I doubt he would be going here now."

--Cooter

"The Breakfast Club" Movie at 30-- Part 3: The Fist-Pump Football Field

The iconic last shot of the movie with Judd Nelson walking across a football field and pumps his fist in triumph.  Where was this field?

Online speculation puts it at Maine South H.S. in Park Ridge to Maine West in Des Plaines to Glenbrook North.  Of course this last place is such a strong contender that its students occasionally strike a Nelson fist pump in the approximate spot on the field (with the press box just to his right arm).

But the truth of the matter is that the field was at the now closed Maine North High School in Des Plaines, where the rest of the film was shot.

Don't You Forget About Me.  --DaCoot

Don't You Forget About Them, "Breakfast Club" 30 Years Later-- Part 2

WHERE ARE THEY NOW:

John Hughes, the director, based the movie on his days as a student at Glenbrook High School in Northbrook, Illinois.  He died of a heart attack recently at age 59.

EMILIO ESREVEZ, the jock, peaked in the Brat Pack years of movies.

MOLLY RINGWALD is a part-time jazz singer stayed beloved.

ALLY SHEEDY and JUDD NELSON remained somewhat outsiders

ANTHONY MICHAEL HALL, the nerd, bulked up and is Steve Carrell's fixer in "Forecatcher."

--Cooter

Don't You Forget About Them-- Part 1: "The Breakfast Club" Turns 30

From the Feb. 18, 2015, Chicago Tribune by Christopher Borrelli.

His take on the 30th anniversary of the movie "Breakfast Club."  It premiered on Feb. 15, 1985.

When I found out it just had primarily five people in it who were serving detention, I thought it would be horrendously boring.  Being a teacher, I knew what detention hall was all about.  However, I never could have imagined a teacher walking out and leaving the students to their own devices.  I supervised detentions often and never would have considered walking out of the room, but I suppose it wouldn't have been much of a movie had he not.

And then, they were all such stereotypes of high school kids.

The movie starred Judd Nelson (tough guy), Emilio Estevez (jock), Ally Sheedy (basket case), Molly Ringwald (princess) and Michael Hall (brain).  There are pictures of the five back then and now (always interesting).  Borrelli says it will be re-released in theaters March 26 and 27).

I Just Might Have to See It On the Big Screen.  --DaCoot