Speaking of Claire, THE teenager of the 1980’s, Molly Ringwald, turns 45 years old today, and the person who made her that, John Hughes, was born today in 1950. Ringwald starred in three straight smash hits about high school in 1984, ’85 and ’86. “Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club,” and “Pretty in Pink” made her the Michael Cera of her time. Her career fizzled after that because, quite frankly, she wasn’t pretty enough to continue as a Hollywood lead. She got to have birthday cake on a table with Jake Ryan though, and that’s all any girl I went to high school with ever wanted.
In another harmonic convergence, also born today, both in 1954, were The Church of Scientology and John Travolta. L. Ron Hubbard’s church of the bizarre is headquartered in Los Angeles and, if nothing else, you have to give them credit for keeping their secrets. Will Travolta and/or Cruise ever come clean about anything? If this is the last thing I ever write, someone please investigate it.
Dale Earnhardt died today in 2001 after a crash in the Daytona 500.
Bob Stinson, the lead guitarist of The Replacements, died today in 1995 at his Uptown apartment. He was 35.
Today in 1978 in Oahu, Hawaii, Gordon Haller won the first ever Ironman competition. Haller, a US Navy communications specialist, defeated US Navy Seal John Dunbar. Dunbar led after two legs, but he ran out of water during the marathon portion of the race. His crew began giving him beer instead of water to hydrate with.
Along with Rinwald, Hughes and Travolta, happy birthdays go out to Matt Dillon (49), Dennis DeYoung (66) and Regina Spektor (33). Their top fives:
Dillon
- Beautiful Girls
- The Outsiders
- Drugstore Cowboy
- Singles
- The Flamingo Kid
DeYoung
- Come Sail Away
- Babe
- Renegade
- Mr. Roboto
- The Best of Times
Spektor
- Us
- Fidelity
- Better
- On the Radio
- Samson
— Bill Hubbell