PRETTY IN PINK ReTHINK / PART 10

I've been perusing Andrew McCarthy's tome, Brat: an 80's Story; as really, his documentary Brats is what led to all of this in the first place.  Is Andrew McCarthy my muse?  Well he is now!  One of them anyways. And we both went to inner-city Catholic schools, sort of.

And there he is again, leaning against a brick wall.  Wassup with the brick walls Andy?  I think there's a metaphor in there somewhere; if not an allegory!!!
I must say, I admire Mr. McCarthy's candor. But then, he is a Sagittarius.  In the book he writes about the Pretty In Pink premiere and after-party and that the whole thing was filmed for MTV, one of the hosts being the odd choice of Fee Waybill from the Tubes.  Remember Fee?  Remember the Tubes?  Fee, I think we can all agree, has had perhaps one of the more unusual show-biz careers one can think of, off the top of one's head.  I mean, he was in Xanadu.  I think that says it all.  Let's take a look!

You know what's funny?  That is the first time I've seen that scene.  I mean, I have the soundtrack album; but I've never seen the movie.  Like, why didn't I see it in 1980, first run, at the Saugus Cinema?  It was right up my alley.  There's really no good reason why I've never seen it.  I mean, I've seen scenes; but never the whole movie from start to finish.  And it's become like a Queer/Cult type thing.  It got transposed to Broadway.  What's the deal Chris?  Why do you refer to yourself in the third person, Chris?  Chris, are you okay?  What's the frequency, Chris?
But back to Fee Waybill...
He's like, 74 now, God love him.  And he looks fabulous.  I always thought there was something cute about him, in that sort of non-traditional way.  You know, like Harry Dean Stanton or Peter Stormare.

I remember one time, at some MTV event, Mr. Waybill was hosting (like, how long was he an MTV employee?) and the members of A-ha arrived on some red carpet and Mr. Waybill could simply not contain his exuberance over the Norwegian good looks of the lead singer, Morten Harket.  Remember how nuts people were over that "Take On Me" song and it's video?  I wasn't.  I actually preferred (and still do), there other song that was a sort of hit, "The Sun Always Shines On TV."  Let's take a look!

Well, I guess they were all kind of stunning.  So who could blame Mr. Waybill for wanting to bask?  But it sure made my eyebrows go up!
So, in regards to Mr. McCarthy's honesty...he writes about leaving the premiere of the movie to go across the street to the Hamburger Hamlet to get crocked on straight vodka before the after party.  I found a recording of this event and it's promotional MTV program, complete with the original TV commercials.  What I find truly odd is that the star of the movie is nowhere to be seen.  Apparently Molly Ringwald had recently had her wisdom teeth removed and wasn't quite camera ready?  Which begs a lot of questions regarding scheduling; but I digress.  So, let's all watch this historical video document and meet back here in an hour or so!  Andrew appears at around the 37 minute mark.

And again, I must ask myself...why did I not see this at the time?
So, you want tangents?  You got 'em!  I was wondering about the night of the Pretty In Pink premiere.  Like, I wasn't there.  Duh.  But where was I?  Like, where was Chris Reidy in the space time continuum while all of Hollywood was toasting the night with PINK champagne?  So, as is my wont, I did a bit of research.  The Pretty In Pink premiere was held at Grauman's Chinese theater in Hollywood, California on the evening of Wednesday, January 29th, 1986.  And the after-party was at The Hollywood Palace (now Avalon nightclub), which is on Vine Street, basically across the street from the famous Capitol Building. 1735 North Vine Street.  Here are some further locational stats:

Meanwhile, I was definitely in the state of Massachusetts.  More than likely in the City of Boston.  I was a Sophomore in college, at BU.  I had an evening job at "Telefund," which was BU's fundraising division.  Basically, it was a room full of students, calling alumni and hitting them up for moolah.  Or "donations," as the term went.  Telefund was located at 19 Deerfield Street, just off of Kenmore Square, in the shadow of the world famous Citgo sign:

The sign may have actually been on the roof of the building.  But if not, then certainly the one next door.

Taking the three hours difference into account; if the PIP screening started at 6pm, I more than likely would've been at work and then on my way home, on a bus or something, while all Hollywood was spilling bottles of PINK CHAMPAGNE and rocking out to the P-Furs, who seemed to have zero problem lending their song and themselves to the efforts of the movie, at the time.
It was raining in Los Angeles that night:

The Hollywood Palace, so named at the time, was built in the late 20's as a theater, called the Hollywood Playhouse.

And as it looks today, as "Avalon."

And how it looked on Wednesday night, 1/29/86:

I was wondering about that large bay window above the canopy.  I tried to find interior pictures of the building to see the window from the inside.  My thought was: Did Molly gaze out that window that night, as she was nursing a swollen face and couldn't do publicity; and gaze out into the rainy night and wonder about...what?  What would she be wondering about?  Or did Andy McCarthy more than likely stand there and wonder about something?  Like, should he drive, as he was admittedly three sheets to the wind.  Or did he walk there?  But nobody walks in L.A.  Did he ask James Spader for a ride?  I mean, James had a car...
That building is almost 100 years old.  Isn't it weird to think that someone, a freakin' century ago, sat down at a drawing board and designed everything from the front door to the bay window to the mens room urinals?

And who knew that one day I'd be working in the Taft building which is just a few blocks south of The Palace?  You may recall the Taft building getting destroyed in 1974's Earthquake (in Sensurround).

The Taft bites the dust around the 40 second mark.  Good times!  And here's a view of Vine street looking south.  The Capitol building would be on your immediate left.  The Palace is the white building to the right; and the Taft would be where the building with the sign on top is.  The intersection of Hollywood and Vine, which is famous for some reason, as there is really not much there to see or do.  The Pantages theater.  The Broadway Department store which hasn't been a department store for quite some time...

The most interesting picture from the premiere, is, I think, this one of George Michael, who arrived apparently solo and most decidedly nipples to the wind:

Seems like Mr. M liked to travel light...
​Now, you may ask yourself, why am I so concerned with an event that I wasn't even at?  I guess because I feel, in a way, I can project myself back into it somehow.  If not to see the big picture, then retroactively feel it?
Just call me Chris "Marcel Proust" Reidy.  And I have tried to read Proust, but merde, I really just cannot get into it...
Please see Pretty In Pink part 11 and really, I am gonna try and wrap this up!

CFR   1/16/25

ADDENDUMS:
Here's me in March of '86, a couple of months after the PIP premiere.  No parakeets were harmed in the making of this photo!

​Also, me in 1991, documenting my own facial swelling after my own wisdom teeth extraction, which begs the question as to why Molly had hers removed so early.  Or did I have mine removed late?

FIN