John Hughes bought dinner for my high school theater department.
When I was a freshman at an all-boys Jesuit high school not exactly known for our theater program (we had to draft female actors from the all-girls school across town), we did this production called "The Worst High School Play In The World." Lame jokes, bad songs, simple choreography - exactly the kind of thing that wouldn't make us look too talentless and awful.
Our director was one of the Jesuit Novices (not yet a Brother), a young guy who insisted he was an extra in Flatliners while studying at Loyola Chicago and was therefore the most showbizy Jesuit ever. He wrote to a ton of celebrities and asked them for autographed 8x10's telling us to break a leg, which he posted on a huge glittery bulletin board outside the theater doors. (Now that I think about it, it was probably sarcastic but we took it as really cool and supportive at the time.) I remember head shots from Vanna White and Tony Danza with their words of encouragement.
John Hughes didn't send an autographed picture. Instead, he sent us $500. This was the coolest thing ever. We sent back an autograhed cast picture and program. We spent the money on a big party at the Italian banquet room up the road from our school after the last show of the run.
I can't watch any of his movies (National Lampoon's Vacation has been on the Travel Channel a lot lately) without thinking about how cool it was that this guy just sent us a considerable sum of money with no obvious benefit or return expected, particularly when so many people didn't send back a damn thing. I hope one day I'm in a position where random schools ask me for a donation just so I can pay it back. Thanks, John.
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Topic: John Hughes - How to Choose (Read 4464 times)