Forty years since “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” was filmed at Glenbrook North High School, current students and alumni alike continue to celebrate the cult classic’s long-lasting legacy.
To commemorate the milestone movie about ditching school to spend one day living life to its fullest, high school students this summer recreated some iconic scenes for the cover of the district’s annual publication, The Glenbrooks, which is mailed to 40,000 homes in the community.
This included getting access to a replica of the infamous red Ferrari, according to Carol Smith, executive director of communications for Glenbrook High School District 225, which includes Glenbrook North, and an organizer of the photo shoot. Smith asked the Northbrook Historical Society if they had any Ferris memorabilia, and through their contacts, the replica car’s owner brought it to the photo shoot.
“It was in the afternoon when we did it. You know, everybody wanted a picture with (the) car,” said Smith. “We made a commotion with Maple middle school across the street. They were disrupted and were messaging us like, ‘What’s going on?’ They could see right across the street, the car and everything.”
Smith and Christina Salonikas, communications manager, who also helped put together the shoot, said they helped recruit students and organized costumes and hired a photographer to stage the photoshoot on the school’s front steps.
Though today’s Glenbrook North students were born long after the time the movie was filmed, they embraced the opportunity to recreate scenes from the movie and portray Ferris, Sloane and other characters.
“Even though it’s been 40 years, there’s still so many similarities and the kids still love it,” said Salonikas.
“Everybody when they hear Northbrook, they hear Ferris Bueller, they always think of those stairs. It’s just kind of one of those iconic staples,” Smith added.
Current Glenbrook North students are not the only ones taking a trip down memory lane following the movie’s anniversary.
Alum Laura Taxe said she remembers the cast and director John Hughes coming to film the movie at Glenbrook North as if it were yesterday.
Taxe, who was a Glenbrook North junior when the movie was filmed in 1985, was given the opportunity to apply to be an extra along with her sister, Michelle Rice. After being told they would get the day off school, she said it was a no-brainer for both of them to join in on the fun.
The film’s director, the late John Hughes, who went on to make other classics like “Home Alone,” “16 Candles” and “Pretty in Pink,” among many others people know and love, graduated from Glenbrook North High School in 1968.
Hughes attended the school after his family moved to Northbrook in the 1960s, later inspiring many of his films, including “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
“My sister was a senior at the time. She came home with this application and my mom said, ‘absolutely not!’ You’ve got to focus on your grades,’” said Taxe. “So, it was thrown out. Well, I took it out of the garbage and I filled it out and sent it in, and then my sister did the same thing.”
More Top Picks Best Electric Grills For Apartments
Before they were aware of who he was, Taxe said she and other extras knew John Hughes as the curious guy who was hanging out in the break room and asking a lot of questions.
“He was totally hanging out with us,” she said. “We’re like, who is this guy? Wait, he’s really funny, wait, he’s really cool. Oh my gosh, I think he knows some important people.”
After spending hours on set filming over a couple of days, Taxe and Rice never imagined the experience would be more than a fun break from school work. The sisters said they remember not knowing if any of their scenes would make the final cut of the movie.
Rice said she can be seen in a shot in a crowd scene, and, if one looks closely enough in the first 20 minutes of the movie before the bell rings, Taxe said she can be seen in the hallway of the school sporting permed hair and gray and white clothing.
Now, decades later, Taxe and Rice said they never expected the movie to carry the amount of significance it does today.
“We had no idea that we literally put our mark on history,” said Rice. “I mean, you think about movies today and some of the greatest movies really came from that era and were directed by John Hughes.”
Dan Goldsmith was a freshman at Glenbrook North when John Hughes introduced the project idea to students. He remembered that Hughes had called students into the gymnasium and explained the project, and Goldsmith was then able to sign up to be an extra.
Goldsmith said he’s in the very last scene in the movie when the character of Mr. Rooney, the principal, his foot bloodied, is limping down the sidewalk very dejected from all the epic fails he ran into. A school bus pulls up full of kids on their way home and the bus driver offers him a lift. He begrudgingly accepts the offer and enters the bus.
“The scene switches to his point of view as he walks down the aisle of the bus. The camera looks down at all the kids’ faces, all in shock. He walks the entire length of the bus to the only open seat next to a girl who is the classic “nerd.”
“As the camera looks down at her and the open seat for a few seconds, I am the student directly behind the open seat staring back up at the camera. I am in the white jacket, pink shirt, directly behind the open seat.”
He expressed that the memories he shares from the experience continue to bring smiles to the people around him.
“Everyone has a smile when they think of this movie,” said Goldsmith. “There’s a bit of all of us that kind of identify with that Ferris Bueller character.”
Jason Klamm, an author who recently published the book “Ferris Bueller…You’re My Hero,” detailing the movie’s legacy and the behind-the-scenes of filming, said he interviewed over 100 alumni and workers on the film who shared similar sentiments about the impact the movie has had.
“I think what really solidified it for these Glenbrook North students is that John Hughes did that special screening of the movie before it was ever in theaters and to me, that is the sweetest thing he did with that whole movie,” said Klamm.
“It’s like,’ I’m not going to come back to the school and just be the cool kid now.’ Instead, he put all these people who went to the school into his movie and gave them a special present, and I love that.”