'The Breakfast Club' Detention Was 30 Years Ago Today

By Lisa White in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 24, 2014 6:40PM



(They had detention 30 years ago today./Source: Meredith Frost's Twitter)

On March 24, 1984 five (fictional) teenagers walked through the doors of Shermer High and walked out enlightened individuals. Yes, the John Hughes ode to teenage angst would have happened 30 years ago today. The Breakfast Club made many a girl fall for the bad boy over the jock thanks to Judd Nelson, had the best of students crave weekend detention and made us realize that we’ll always prefer to be an Allison pre-makeover type of gal.

Shot in suburban Des Plaines at the former Maine North High School, the iconic library was actually a set created in the old gymnasium of Maine North, which was shut down in 1981 after dwindling enrollment. Hughes also used Maine North for some of the shots in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The building is now used as a district headquarters for the Illinois State Police (some folks visiting there on weekends are probably dealing with harder time than Saturday detention), as well as office location for various state organizations like the EPA, Illinois Department of Agriculture and an Illinois Lottery payment office. We’re hoping at least one lottery winner has done a celebratory run down the halls pretending to evade assistant principal Vernon.

Hughes films, usually set in the fake suburban town of Shermer, Ill., still captured the typical North Shore life of many a bored suburban child and were shot on location in numerous northern Chicago suburbs. There are a few Hughes fans that have visited many of these locations, which you can check out here and here for good dose of nostalgia. In the mean time, we’re going to wear one diamond stud earring today and tell our boss to go “eat our shorts.” Now don't you, forget about me.