Something I recall from my hgh school and college years in the 1980s … it seems like most teen angst and coming-of-age films of the era took place in Chicago. Specifically, the North Shore area.
Why did so many movies of that genre take place in Chicago?
Because John Hughes grew up near Chicago:
To be more specific, they almost all took place in the fictional town of Shermer, IL. The high school is John Hughes’ alma mater in Northbrook, IL - also known as the same school that was so well publicized in that hazing incident earlier this year.
Risky Business writer-director Paul Brickman is also from Chicago.
The irony is that Chicagoans often complain that the New York-based media is self-important and self-centered.
…because clearly, if two (2) 80s teen movies directors made their flicks in Chicago, this proves Chicagoans are self-important and self-centered?
Chicago is a great town for the arts; let’s not forget that lots of good theater hapens quite far from Broadway, and lots of film thousands of miles from L.A. There’s Second City, of course, and Steppenwolf Theater, and Goodman Theater, and zillions of small theaters. John Cusack is an alum of the Piven Theater Workshop in Evanston, IL (my hometown; he was a couple of years older than me, and I knew him in middle school and high school, but let’s just say we weren’t exactly friends). Piven was run by Byrne and Joyce Piven, parents of Jeremy Piven, who was in my HS graduating class and had a short-lived TV series a couple of years back. Theater programs at the N. suburban high schools like Evanston, New Trier, etc. were extremely competitive, and you practically needed classical training of some sort even to get a bit part or be in the chorus of a musical.
The drama/film world does not end once you leave NYC or L.A. Chicago is a big city; I don’t know why anyone is so surprised about the whole idea of us having a brief fling with a particular type of film that happened to grab some attention.
Chicago mayor-for-life Richard J. Daley, 1955-1976, was apparently quite displeased with the way the Chicago police were portrayed in Medium Cool (1969), and from that point on discouraged movie production there. So beyond documentaries or establishing shots, feature film production was pretty much absent from the Second City until Daley’s death in 1976. The Blues Brothers, filmed there in 1979, gave the city a big turnaround as a movie location.
I second Walloon’s version. Blues Brothers director John Landis says as much in an interview on the Special Edition DVD, alluding to (and here he bends his nose to one side with his finger) certain deals that had to be made in order to film there, and the displeasure of former Mayor Daley with prior films in Chicago.
In fact, doesn’t Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) tell the restaurant that he’s Mayor Daley when he appropriates a table?
FISH
No one said that.
Ferris Bueller foists himself off as the “Sausage King of Chicago” to get the table.
Oh, that’s right. Sorry, my bad. I seem to remember something about Mayor Daley in that scene, though. It’s been a while.
FISH
Abe Froman.
FISH-
Maybe you’re thinking of The Blues Brothers. When they go into the upscale restaurant, Jake asks if Mayor Daley dines there; the restaurant employee replies, “He’s dead, sir.”
-Andrew L
Could it be that it’s also got an ‘Anytown’ style to it, so that it could represent other cities easily? It therefore gains popularity, then has experienced crews, and the choice of location is easy. Not to mention it’s nicely placed in the middle of the country so that its easy to get to from anywhere else.
All guesses from an outsider looking in.
GuanoLad, lots of places have “Anytown” style. And given that 90% of feature-filmmaking personnel live in California, Chicago’s being half a continent away is no advantage. The answer has already been given: Chicagoans John Hughes and Paul Brickman were alive and working, and Richard J. Daley was not.