For politicos, the Democratic National Convention this week, in Philadelphia, is a time for presumed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to officially secure her party’s nomination, but the event marks the anniversary of an altogether different event in pop culture too. The 1988 DNC, held that year in Atlanta, was the place where the Rob Lowe sex tape — known as the forerunner of all others — was born.

Lowe was 24 and only three years out from being named one of the core members of Hollywood’s Brat Pack, a moniker he despised at the time, that was bestowed upon him and several other young actors by a New York magazine writer. The St. Elmo’s Fire alum wanted be taken seriously; his dream was to play the lead in a Martin Scorsese movie. So Lowe, who was a political junkie wanting to change his image, went to the Georgia capital to campaign for the party’s frontrunner, Michael Dukakis — see, serious! — and ended up publicly embarrassed.

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The dashing up-and-comer spent the night before the convention began partying, as he often did in those days, at a bash hosted by CNN founder Ted Turner, then dropped by a club with Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson. When Lowe decided to head back to his hotel, two young women went with him and agreed to be videotaped. Everything was going as planned until the ladies left with cash and the videotape while Lowe was in the bathroom.

Of course, the tape soon popped up again. By June of 1989, the Los Angeles Times reported that “copies of the tapes have slipped out of Atlanta and are in wide circulation around the country.”

Turned out, one of Lowe’s pickups was just 16. (The other was 22.) Lowe claimed that he hadn’t realized the girl was underage, because she was at a nightclub.

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No matter to the teen’s mom, who slapped Lowe with a civil lawsuit for allegedly using his celebrity status to entice her daughter into making a pornographic tape.

As the local district attorney for Atlanta reviewed the case, the Times pondered whether Lowe would fall out of Hollywood’s favor as a result of the scandal.

“What kind of a career does he really have (to harm)?” a Tinseltown executive mused. “He is not a major star … I would think the fact that he is getting this attention will probably just make him better known to people. If it had been a gay film, it would have been a (career) killer.”

It must have felt like a death to Lowe. He recalled that his phone practically stopped ringing — only former co-star Jodie Foster and producer Don Simpson called — while the paparazzi was camped out at his house and everywhere he went.

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