Aired on Treasure Island Oldies – Sep 01, 2024
March 5, 1982 saw the release of the comedy/drama film, Diner, written and directed by Barry Levinson. The film was Levinson’s screen-directing debut and was pivotal to the careers of its cast that included Steve Guttenberg, Daniel Stern, Mickey Rourke, Paul Reiser, Timothy Daly, and Ellen Barkin.
It also starred twenty-four year old Kevin Bacon who played Fenwick, a constantly drunk and lost kid, a character much darker than the rest of the film’s characters.
Bacon subsequently did a screen test for the lead role in a movie being directed by Herbert Ross. After watching his earlier performance in Diner, the director persuaded the producers to go with Bacon.
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In this new movie that was released in 1984, Bacon plays a teenage boy who moves from Chicago with his mom to live in a small town with his aunt and uncle.
He soon learns that the town council has banned dancing and rock music within the town boundary because of the death of a teenager in a car accident after a night of alcohol and dancing five years prior.
He makes it his mission to have dancing at the high school prom that is held just yards outside the town’s jurisdiction.
A fun, feel-good, musical drama for teenagers, it received mixed reviews from the critics but was a box office success grossing $80 million, ending up as the seventh highest-grossing film of 1984.
In addition to this, two songs from the movie went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and were both nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. One was the movie’s title track by Kenny Loggins and the other was “Let’s Hear It For The Boy” by Deniece Williams. Unfortunately, at the 1985 Oscars, they both lost out to Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You” from The Woman in Red.
To prepare for the role in the movie, Bacon enrolled at a high school as a transfer student named “Ren McCormack” (his character in the film), and studied the mannerisms of teenagers before leaving school in the middle of each day.
For his dance scene in the warehouse, Bacon said he had four stunt doubles: “I had a stunt double, a dance double and two gymnastics doubles.” Makes sense, as he had to show he was “Footloose.”
Epilogue: In addition to the Loggins, Williams, and Wonder songs highlighted above, Phil Collins’ “Against All Odds” and Ray Parker Jr.’s “Ghostbusters” were also nominated for Best Original song at the Academy Awards that year. All five songs went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984.
YouTube video of this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvropLxYb5c
This “Moments In Time” story is yet another example of a “golden oldie” or forgotten favorite that earned its place in the evolution of Rock & Roll.
