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!
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.
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.
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:
It was raining in Los Angeles that night:
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?
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!