Almanac of Story Tellers: John Hughes

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of Aug. 6th

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    It is the 218th day of the year, leaving 147 days remaining in 2022.

   

    On this date in 1950, the director, producer, and screenwriter John Hughes was born.

    He told his stories, most often about teenagers, on the movie screen. He also wrote other comedies, and tried his hand at various other genres.

    But it was the troubled teens  -- mostly white, suburban and upper-middle-class -- he portrayed realistically and often sympathetically despite their flaws, which provided his best work. Indeed, he is credited with inventing the teen-comedy/drama genre, and helping to bring it to fruition.

    His first work, National Lampoon's Class Reunion, was a flop. But Hughes moved on, saying his script was "butchered" and he didn't recognize the movie on screen.

    But subsequent scripts did far better. Sixteen Candles, which he wrote and made his  directorial debut on in 1984, tells of a girl whose parents forgot her much anticipated 16th birthday. The next year, The Breakfast Club, about a divergent group of five teenagers serving a Saturday morning detention in school, opened with critical acclaim.

    Other movies in the same vein included Pretty in Pink and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, many whose stars came from the same group of your actors known as the Brat Pack. Several of those actors later said he inspired them to do their best work.

    He wrote additional hit screenplays for movies produced by National Lampoon. Financially, he hit his peak with the Home Alone series, four movies about a young boy who gets separated from his family either before or while they go on vacation. The often slapstick comedies were a hit with fans, although critics increasingly grew weary of them.

    He stopped directing in the 1990s, but continued to write screenplays and produce movies, including a 1994 remake of Miracle on 34th Street. 

    Hughes died in 2009 in New York of a heart attack.