When Ferris Bueller and friends Sloan and Cameron tried to erase mileage from Cameron’s father’s classic Ferrari during “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” it crashed out the back of this Highland Park building and into a Ravine off Beech Street.
“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” turns 30 in May with a weekend of events around the North Shore and in Chicago.
Ferris Fest will offer a two-day bus tour that stops at many of the scenes portrayed in the 1986 John Hughes movie, special screenings of the film at the John & Nancy Hughes Theater at the Gorton Community Center in Lake Forest and more May 20-22.
“This is for a group of fans and enthusiasts who want to enjoy the opportunity to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the film,” said David Blanchard, the head event organizer and creator of Ferris Fest.
The movie’s plot involves a young Matthew Broderick playing student Ferris Bueller, who ditches high school with two other friends and visits sites in Chicago such as the Art Institute and Wrigley Field.
The school he goes truant from is Glenbrook North High School, Hughes’ alma mater, which is called Shermer High School in the film. When Cameron, one of Ferris’s friends, causes his father’s classic Ferrari to crash into a ravine, it was on Beech Street in Highland Park. Both spots are on the bus tour.
Blanchard said many of the events are sold out but additional opportunities will be divulged on the Ferris Fest website as they become available.
Initially Ferris Fest was planned with an opening ceremony on May 20 followed by the two-day bus tour May 21 and 22 with stops in Northbrook, Highland Park and Chicago sandwiched around a showing of the movie in Lake Forest the evening of May 21. When it appeared not everyone on the bus tour, which was offered as a package or a single-day outing, was going to get a chance to see the movie, Blanchard said he made arrangements with the Gorton staff to add a second screening May 22.
After the movie May 21, Chicago Sun Times film critique and former Roger Ebert colleague Richard Roeper will lead a discussion. Blanchard said participating cast members include Cindy Pickett and Lyman Ward, who played Bueller’s parents, and Jonathan Schmock, who took the part of the maitre d’ at a French restaurant where Bueller and his friends dined on their “day off.” Cast members and the discussion leader will be different on the two nights.
“We didn’t want it to be the same,” Blanchard said indicating he is working on the details for the May 22 screening.
The event will start with an opening ceremony May 20 at a North Shore venue with a musical guest. Blanchard said he is still working on the details but expects the music to be tied to Hughes’ writing.
Stops on the tour along with the Art Institute, Wrigley Field, Glenbrook North and Cameron’s home include the Willis Tower Skydeck (called by its original name Sears Tower in the film), a Lake Michigan overlook featured in the film and Northbrook’s water tower, which displayed a “Save Ferris” sign during the movie.